New 2012 Sony Projectors - mid-June? - Page 2

I have to admit, I find this somewhat interesting because it makes me realize that I have no idea how retail works. I'd always assumed that Sony sells it to store A for a set price, then whatever Store A sold it for was the profit.

Blame this on the Big Box stores and the Supreme Court. The Big Box stores pushed for this and the Supreme Court made it possible a few years ago when it ruled that companies could tell retailers what price they must charge. A 5-4 decision.

Hope most of you stay away from Sony and others that force their retail price policy on the dealers. I always though that competition was the American Way.


I hope sales drop to zero. This will quickly force a change in this misguided policy. It is up to the consumer to not support this.

Interesting, but doesn't surprise me as bad as the SC often rules on these types of things. Long gone are the days where everyone is pointing fingers yelling Monopoly, now it seems like people are talking more acquisitions. The fact Walmart owns VUDU is also bad, that should have never been allowed IMHO because it creates a monopolistic entry point. When you have any company in the top of a particular industry, they should have to follow some stricter regulation than smaller companies especially when they attempt to control or enter markets outside their primary, because it is too easy for them to create anti-competitive environments. Sony certainly doesn't have this type of hold in the projector market, but I'm just saying that this ruling could be applied in much worse scenarios.

As an example, if Microsoft hadn't been toned down and pushed back a bit by anti-trust rulings, there would be many companies that wouldn't even exist today or that would be doing poorly. The non-interference argument would say that Microsoft would be doing better if it hadn't been interfered with, but if you have one company with all the power it ruins the innovation and eventually produces stagnate results in an industry. Eventually the company will stop innovating (because when controlling a market R&D is less necessary and cheaper not to). I don't think political affiliation even matters that much in this issue, it is something that is pretty objective most of the time, but someone's pockets are lined and as such is how the law will often be written.

Guess a dealer could take the Sony unit out of the box, run it for a few hours, then sell it as "Used" at a discounted price.

That would a breech in the contract the same way as if selling it new, those kind of tricky tactics are covered by agreements. Besides any vendor/wholesaler agreement is going to give the wholesaler the ability to terminate a contract for any reason, so Sony could just terminate their contract.

Yeah exactly. Personally it won't help most likely. Sony gets the same amount no matter what. I think their thought process is that too many questionable dealers have their product and sell for whatever they want. Then the local brick and mortar type places don't want to quote them due to competition, and Sony loses sales.

Though my thought is that in today's day and age that will turn away more sales as there is too much competition. If every company did it then maybe that would hold ground, but to date Sony is the only one doing it in such a strict fashion.

We will see what happens.

There was an article about this in the Wall Street Journal recently.

WSJ article

The other Issue you have as well is bulk buy, So example Best buy buys the tv in bulk were other company did not and best buy is cheaper.

Also there is behind the scene deals that happens.

Yah, there are lots of examples of related matters, such as what happened between Intel and AMD and Dell. For many years Dell refused to sell any AMD server processors, so AMD sued based on anti-competitive emails exchanged between Dell and Intel that alleged "price fixing" to keep Intel as the only distributor.

This stuff is all so case-by-case basis for each company that walks such fine lines, because since these are International companies, sometimes (or often) the first anti-trust or price fixing rulings often happen in the foreign countries before the US, as the US has less strict laws than some countries do.

The WSJ article states that Sony & Samsung are taking a big gamble. Consumers can make sure that they loose if products are not bought at these new high prices. Best Buy and Target pushed this in the hope of gaining sales from internet sources. It should be an interesting few months.

With the vast majority of us losing 25% or more of our personal wealth due to falling home prices..........why would Sony attempt to essentially price fix certain products?

In my mind, Sony' little economic experiment is not conducive to a free market system. When Sony' sales fall.............the "grassroots" message will will become loud and clear.

The Supreme Court decision that allowed this:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._retail29.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/wa...9bizcourt.html

This goes up there with Citizens United.

Very true and both were 5 to 4 decisions and the same 5 justices.

Sony has to remove the sure price policy before I would consider buying their products again.

I have a friend that is a Sony dealer. He says they are one of the worst companies to deal with when ordering equipment. I've always been a fan of the projectors, but the retail prices are a little steep for what they offer in comparison to the competition. Unless they change this new policy, they will lose more business and money. Bad move IMO.

Oh they'll remove the SURE price policy once they see that their sales will decline. I really like the Sony projectors too, but this strict pricing policy is ridiculous.

Yeah, i won't touch any sony products until they get rid of SHURE just out of principle. It's a shame, I was considering getting one of their projectors.

Well blame some of the retailers also. I think this policy was in affect previously but it was loosely enforced. I am sure some of the retailers were complaining that not all dealers were enforcing it. Some of these boutique dealers didn't like that DIYers just wanted to get the unit for the cheapest price possible from an authorized dealer. The prices I was quoted locally made me angry... nobody wants to pay full MSRP. If any of them would have been competitive with AVS they would have won my business.

I think a lot of us feel the same way. When they see sales decline they will change this policy. This is not the first time that they have done this. The big box stores love this but their days seem numbered. Some may go the way of Blockbuster.
If Sony does not watch out it could also be in the same sinking boat.

Talk about sure pricing. Best buy got the 30es on sale for $3k. Let's see if Sony drop best buy from the list. I think all the dealers should agreed not to enforced the sure pricing. Sony can't drop all dealers, how would they sell projector?

Hah. See. The SURE pricing is already not working. Sony might as well ditch it ASAP. There will always be dealers who ignore restrictions.

Sony is supporting an antiquated business model.........................

The internet is here to stay with commerce growing exponentially! Business models such as Best Buy or small B&M's will be tossed to the wind with in five years..................one can already feel the tremors happening.

BTW, I refuse to purchase Sony products with current pricing policies......................I was actually contemplating purchasing a Sony VPL-VW1000ES!

Well, Sony stock has never recovered from the millenium - guess they have not much for the last 12 years. They could charge anything they want but the market prevails as US and European consumers are struggling, unless it's Apple.

I do owned Sony projectors, as well as JVC since Sony has drop their prices recently and so did JVC.

Years ago the SURE pricing policy may have worked better but quite honestly Sony doesn't have the same name that they used to. Sony used to be a top brand, not quite so much any more. Hopefully news will start rolling in about the 30AES replacement. It came out mid-late August last year I believe.

Here it is for $3k on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VPLHW30AES-300-Inch-1080p-Projector/dp/B005GUAIJW

How is this possible????

Exactly. Not nearly enough police to monitor everyone. I actually saw it at our local BB last night for $2999. Go figure. I suppose BB is a fairly sizable account for Sony, so maybe they are going to call Sony's bluff on it being enforced. I doubt Sony could afford to lose them as a client...