Price Fixing

[ezdays]

There was a time that a company could declare their product as being "fair traded", thereby making it mandatory that every dealer sell that item at the same price. Sometimes dealers could skirt around it by including an accessory or free shipping. Like, back in the 60's, my wife bought me a watch that was fair traded, but the store included a free Spidel band to make a difference. It is now illegal to fair trade anything, or to force a dealer to sell at a given price and if a dealer complies, they are both guilty of a federal crime. Other than that, a dealer can do as they please, if they change their policy, they pay the consequences of losing business. It is a shame when a company is so narrow-minded that they can't see the big picture. To lose a large order with probably a 30% profit margin for a $4 shipping fee is short-sighted at best. Perhaps there are other reasons they're not willing to talk about, because it's hard to imagine anyone deliberately skirting the law like this. :?