Pricematching idea, its dishonest but is it against the law?

[SnoopCat]

say that you own a store and your competitor allows pricematching. can you lower your own prices intentionally for a brief period of time and take advantage of their pricematching? is there actually any laws that will prevent this from happening?

 

[stebesplace]

I don't see why you would want to do that if you already sell at a lower price? Only if you sold at a higher price could i see you doing this. I do not belive its illegal either since its all competition.

-Steve

 

[virusag11]

That is call predatory pricing and it is illegal, but most people ignore it. Just look at Wal-mart when they move into a small town. Have a massive sale on everything until the competition has rolled over then jack up the price.

 

[nitsuj3580]

yah, if you have a lower price, you can't pricematch

However, I think I see what you mean but I'd think you'd have to purchase some products and have a store front to sell them that is somehow considered reputable. Then have a friend or something go to a Staples, CC, etc and pricematch your selling price there. Then you could "go out of business" and return the products you were trying to sell from the place you bought them from.

Probably not legal though.

 

[SnoopCat]

someone would want to do such a thing to buy out the competition or to make their competitors lose money per product they sell

 

[Ornery]

Doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't they just buy from you? After you've sold out, your competitor doesn't have to price match, because yours isn't in stock. They could also tell customers, they're out of stock, so you'd be selling at a loss... probably to your competition in many cases!

 

[MiniGolfIsFun]

I'm not sure what SnoopCat is trying to say, but I have a different idea that I had thought of sometime ago that I never tried.

Say you work at a small store that also sells stuff that a pricematching store (for example, we'll say staples) sells. You know that at your store you sell an item that you want for $80 and even if you got an employee discount, it doesn't seem like it'd be worth buying. However, if you were to tell your friend who also works at the store that you wanted to buy that item and Staples also has it, that you'd want Staples to pricematch it. You go over to Staples, ask them to pricematch the same product (now that I remember, you don't even have to name a product that's even in stock or maybe even something that is sold at the small store as long as it sounds like the store would carry something like it). Staples calls up the place, your friend answers and says it's on sale for $40. Wouldn't that actually work??


Edited for clarification.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Ornery
Doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't they just buy from you? After you've sold out, your competitor doesn't have to price match, because yours isn't in stock. They could also tell customers, they're out of stock, so you'd be selling at a loss... probably to your competition in many cases!

You sell a harddisk at $0.01, then go to their shop, order 5 million of those drives and demand price matching. That's the idea. As you go to their store the moment you drop the prices, they don't have time to buy the ones you have, and have to figure a way out of the deal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The fine print likely gives them the right to limit quantities and not sell to dealers. And if your "store" did this enough to matter they'd take your "store" off their allowed competitors list / put it on a blacklist. Then probably sue you for fraud. Say hello to Mr. Bankruptcy!

 

[Mrfrog840]

Id do it if i had my own store!
HDTV for .99cents!

 

[Ornery]

• My Store: Hello, I'm calling to confirm you're selling HDDs for $0.01, and that you have it in stock.
  
  Your Store: Why yes we do, and it is in stock.
  
  My Store: OK, I'd like to order 5 million of them please.
  
  Your Store: :Q