Bort
February 4, 2015, 8:47am
33
Bort:
Old-Lumens:
hank:
> “make an offer” option …if you believe the price is a bit steep. I’m seeing more of this from various new sellers as they show up here. Maybe we need a forum for “help with price scanning” sellers, who want people here to do the research? There are enough of us looking that we could come up with a fairly fast fairly thorough survey of prices on a given day, at a bunch of different sellers. It’s inefficient when each person looking for a light has to check each seller, then ask each seller for a better price, one at a time as individuals. The better price ought to be offered to the BLF members, for their help. Just sayin’ — dont try to split us up. As a group, we ought to have some serious leverage here and get honestly excellent prices.
Not a fan of ‘price matching’ stores, as in they offer to match or beat a price by X%. What you have is a store whose natural pricing policy is higher, but they will lower it long enough to beat the better priced store. The inevitable end of that is the naturally lower priced store goes out of business and you just have that higher priced store now, without any ability to price match.
+1 with that and also, many times, the lowest price seller will not guarantee their stuff, even if they say they will, because they sold it so low that they effectively made no money, or so little that they are not willing to stand by the product. Low price does have it’s disadvantages. I know many will only buy from the lowest price, no matter what, but you also hear them complain about that lowest price item they got, or they won’t say a word after, because they got shafted and don’t want to make it public. The “lowest price wars” here have caused more trouble than they are worth sometimes, but, that’s just how it is and dealers are only after one thing, sales at the moment, not long term.
But on the flip side monopolies, oligopolies and protected markets are very good at gouging customers, i agree with what your saying that a race to the bottom is destructive, but a race to the top has equal if not worse consequences.
The question for me isnt a discount, discounts are great. Profit margin is unknown in both cases, whether set prices and we’ll beat any price by 10%.
But the idea of beat any price is a discount being offered that is beyond their competitor without stating a price in the first place. ie: X offers it at $10. Y says Ill beat any price by 10%. X has a price they are offering it at, X has said in that price that this is how we do business. Y however, is saying I want as much profit as I can get away with, but my price will vary according to my competitor so I dont price myself out of the market. One could argue thats good, lowest price and all. But in reality X will go out of business, and Y is all you have left in business (alternative is Y will disappear quickly due to lack of profits , and that means no after sales service). And we already know Y does not know how to price. Its fair to assume, youre going to pay more long term with future transaction. Moreover, chances are with that kind of ethic, your after sales service level will not be great either.
Personally, Id prefer to support X. His prices are competitive to start with, and they stand by that pricing policy by stating the price they expect. Of course they can lower prices etc, thats all good, but its the outright stating of a price from the start. Not X price - 10%. What price will they set, when they have no competitor? You can bet its not going to a marginal profit because if they could, they already would be pricing that way.
The alternative is they are willing to sell at below cost, but to what end? Thats not how you stay in business unless you plan to off the competition. ie: its a deep pockets strategy (he with the most cash to play with, can outlast competitors until they are gone, then sooner or later they must return to profitability). This cant end with lowest possible prices.
On top, as OL said, they cant provide back up and service with minimal profit margins. Its just not economically viable to do so. Theres just no way this strategy is good for consumers long term. Its good for the seller short term, and we get a few bvargains along the way. Long term, we will pay for it either in future prices, or service.
I can’t argue with you, but one hopes that the products in question have low barriers to entry, if one company goes out of business then another can come along and offer a comparable product or service. People often chastise customers for being picky about price, but especially today middle class and lower customers have less buying power then they had 50 years ago, the more they spend on products and services the less economic activity there will be because they will exhaust their currency much more quickly. Also on what metric do you gauge company X’s price to be competitive?
Bort:
I can’t argue with you, but one hopes that the products in question have low barriers to entry, if one company goes out of business then another can come along and offer a comparable product or service. People often chastise customers for being picky about price, but especially today middle class and lower customers have less buying power then they had 50 years ago, the more they spend on products and services the less economic activity there will be because they will exhaust their currency much more quickly. Also on what metric do you gauge company X’s price to be competitive?
Your argument is purely price based, and youre entitled to make that choice. But if a business goes out of business, all its point of sale back up and service goes with it, often so does a consumers point of complaint and redress. This isnt about lights or batteries etc, its about car repairs or 2nd hand sales, TVs, houses, plumbing and everything in between. Its not good for an economy, or consumers if businesses come and go.
It must be competitive. Are you familiar with the concept of ceteris parabis ? Company X is guaranteed competitive because it is a hypothetical, a representative of the lowest priced option prior to the offering of Y. Its like supply and demand, a concept that necessarily must assume all other things in the economy are held equal. Otherwise you end up trying to prove a concept such as supply or equilibrium price, in a market with so many things effecting it, its far too complex to use as a teaching tool, or analytical measure.
Also this cannot end by way of Socialism or Communism which says “To each according to his contribution” or some other such rot. See, the thing to remember is that although very valid points are made above there remains NO uncorrupted “higher power” by government or otherwise that will ensure equality or fairness in the marketplace.
It does seem like a good idea to develop some kind of rule here in the forum regarding posting prices offered by commercial sellers and their “discounts”.
Last point - A number of very small mom and pop businesses started small and slow and after some time, effort and good business sense they grew a little and became bigger and bigger.
This reminds me of a story (this is connected to the above paragraph) when I asked someone who did not like “big box stores” where society, government or by self-motivation should the line be drawn between a mom and pop sized operation and a big box store. Some mom and pop stores grow into very modest operations and just stay that way for various reasons and some grow into what Samuel Walton later found on his hands. Both started off small and one grew and the other did not.
Should the government or society dictate how a business operates as long as it is honest and up front with claims and advertising?
Businesses should do their own work and not attempt to entice others into doing their own work and research. Anyone attempting to conduct business like that will be out of business before long.
Thank you for reading this. This is very connected to the ideas set forth in this thread. Sorry for any perceived hijack.
Nothing I said revolved around any government interference. It relied on the fundamental concept of capitalism known as informed choice. I as a consumer, can choose not to reward that kind of behaviour from sellers as its in my long term best interests to do so.
Even with lasseiz fair capitalism, there are government rules, either by statute or that of common law.
Its all good for andrew-amanda, free bumps.
ChibiM
February 4, 2015, 10:41am
35
What do you mean going off topic!
Thanks Andrew and Amanda for providing good prices for great products!
Thanks guys! Here’s next weeks deals.
Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com
saypat
February 28, 2015, 12:33am
40
southland:
Want that TM36 Lite.
looks like you’ll need a flatbed truck to transport it!
Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com
Good Day Andrew-Amanda,
Re Daily Deals on 08/March/2015
Are the Armytek Wizard Pro headlamps the new Version 2 ?
And how do I find out the shipping cost to Australia?
Thank you Very Much,
George
ChibiM
March 6, 2015, 10:38pm
43
Some awesome deals! As usual.. can't believe the prices.
Sending overseas will cost an arm and a leg..
saypat
March 7, 2015, 3:02am
44
keengeorge:
Good Day Andrew-Amanda,
Re Daily Deals on 08/March/2015
Are the Armytek Wizard Pro headlamps the new Version 2 ?
And how do I find out the shipping cost to Australia?
Thank you Very Much,
George
Version 2 says it is 1050 lumens? Is this offering an older version since it lists 1200 lumens?
Yes, both of the Armytek Wizard Pro headlamps are Version 2. As far as the shipping it should notify you at check out on the site what the shipping total will be. Thanks!
Daily Deals for the next week. Only at www.andrew-amanda.com
djburkes
March 20, 2015, 6:57pm
47
I ordered a M2X-UT Javelot with an extension tube, and 2 Olight 3400 Mah protected 18650 batteries for $119 from this site and their shipping was excellent. It was an overall great experience.
DARCANGEL
March 20, 2015, 8:04pm
48
Really good price on the TM26, might have to get that tomorrow
Just shipped it out this morning. Thanks for your business!
I hope to see some more Sunwayman in the future. I doubt we’ll see any Zebralight or titanium lights, but I’m hoping. I’ve been checking your site every day for awhile now.
We do have one Titanium Sunwayman on special this week. Otherwise, I’ll inquire and see if we can’t get a few more of those up for sale.
Here are this up coming week’s specials at www.andrew-amanda.com
