Woodcraft $10 Off a $25 Purchase!

[johnk]

Woodcraft $10 Off a $25 Purchase! Use code 62011 During Checkout
Offer good May 28 to June 25, 2011. One time use off of your total purchase of in stock, regularly priced merchandise. Minimum $25 purchase required before tax. One per customer. No cash value. Can't be combined with any other coupon or promotional offers. Excludes all Festool, SawStop, Leigh Jigs and Dowelmax products as well as gift cards.

[dbhost]

No excludes Festool and SawStop... I bet they have pricing contracts with those suppliers. Kind of like what HP used to (probably still does) with their printers. It seemed everybody had the same printer models on sale for exactly the same price for a reason...

[sweensdv]

That product disclaimer and many others like it have been around forever at many businesses.

[LinuxRandal]

Anybody know of anything that is a penny on that site? OF COURSE what I want is $24.99

[woodturner]

I bet they have pricing contracts with those suppliers. Kind of like what HP used to (probably still does) with their printers.

Price contracts would be illegal price fixing.
edit: a recent supreme court ruling seems to allow manufacturers to set a minimum price, but legislation to close this loophole is in process.

The reason you don't see tools like Festool discounted very much is that the retailer markup is tiny, so the seller has no margin to discount the tool (Festool is keeping most of the profits).

[LarryG]

Anybody know of anything that is a penny on that site? OF COURSE what I want is $24.99

Something for a penny? At Woodcraft? Uh-huh.

Probably the cheapest thing you'll find will be something like a DC hose clamp, or a pack of T-nuts, maybe a pen blank in some non-exotic species ... stuff like that shouldn't cost more than a couple-three bucks.

[fgarvin]

60 cent non sale item Freud 3 mm washer.

Anybody know of anything that is a penny on that site? OF COURSE what I want is $24.99

[pelligrini]

Anybody know of anything that is a penny on that site? OF COURSE what I want is $24.99

You must have much better willpower than I do. I have a hard time just mail ordering one item, especially at a woodworking store. Just thinking of that extra space filled with packing material and not with toys is disconcerting.

[LinuxRandal]

Price contracts would be illegal price fixing.

Manufacturers can only "suggest" pricing. The reason you don't see tools like Festool discounte very much is that the markup is tiny, so the seller has no margin to discount the tool.

Actually no. Price fixing involved collusion between competitor's. A manufacturer can force retailers not to sell below a certain point or lose their right to sell the products.

I don't like it, but it is legal and not termed the same.

[sweensdv]

While the consumer may not be crazy about the idea of mandated retail pricing, it's very smart on the part of the mfg. If they allow their retailers to get into a pricing war with each other it will eventually work its way back to them by forcing them to pass along even steeper discounts to the retailers. All it takes is a couple of big retailers to start selling their products as lost leaders for this to happen. They want to have as many retailers as the market will support and they also want all of those retailers to make a profit when they sell their product.

Of course, this type of manufacturers mandated retail pricing will only fly if the product being offered is made to a high quality level and fairly reasonably priced. In the end, both the retailer and the mfg make an acceptable profit margin and the consumer pays a fair price.

[woodturner]

A manufacturer can force retailers not to sell below a certain point or lose their right to sell the products.

That is still price fixing. However, a recent supreme court ruling opened a loophole that seems to allow manufacturers to set a minimum price.

Legislation to strengthen antitrust laws and close this loophole is in progress, so it's likely that laws prohibiting price fixing by manufacturers will be enforceable soon.

[woodturner]

While the consumer may not be crazy about the idea of mandated retail pricing, it's very smart on the part of the mfg.

Maybe - but they lose many customers with this practice. I know a lot of people who won't buy Festool for this reason. If they tolerated free enterprise, their prices would be more in line with the market and their production costs, and their sales volume would increase. However, their profit per unit would decline - they wouldn't make a 60% profit on their tools anymore.

[sweensdv]

......... they wouldn't make a 60% profit on their tools anymore.

Where did you get that number and is it gross or net?

[woodturner]

Where did you get that number and is it gross or net?

That number was cited in "Tools of the Trade" (a tool trade magazine) and is apparently net profit.

The number seems reasonable - it's relatively easy to estimate manufacturing cost of a product, and to make reasonable guesses at their other costs.

FWIW, a gross profit of 40% is more typical in most retail business.