March 13, 2010
When a pet peeve comes to me, I air it here, if for no
other reason than to fill this space. If I were a
columnist, I would have to resort to what most
columnists do, and that is ply you with a load of B.S.
every so often, just to get through the working day. I
don't have to do that, I can just leave this space blank. I
provide the B.S. in my description of pipes.
What I was trying to arrive at, through all that B.S., is
that I remember another of my pet peeves, and this is
one of my favorites, or least favorites (I like it much
better now that I can use it to fill otherwise empty space).
It is "MSRP." Think about it, "Manufacturer's Suggested
Retail Price." What a load of crap that is, which I only
first realized when I became a retailer. So, if you hadn't
given it any thought (other than to accept it was what the
true, full retail price of an item should be) you are
forgiven. But allow me to parse it a bit for you.
First of all, at the very least, it is a conflict of interests.
What is the manufacturer doing suggesting a retail price?
Their primary goal is to make money by selling the item
that they make. And, in the interest of having a slew of
them sell, they want the retailer to price it low to the
consumer. If it costs the retailer $2, they hope the
retailer will price it at $2.01. What does the manufacturer
care if the retailer makes money selling the product, as
long as the retailer has to re-order. The manufacturer,
after all, has already made his profit, which is built into
the price the manufacturer charges the retailer.
The manufacturer has no idea of the retailer's
expenses, such as rent, city, county and state taxes,
wages, etc. With what hubris do they think that they can
determine what the retail price should be? That kind of
thinking might even be communistic....telling somebody
else how to run their business and what to charge for an
item. What the retailer decides to charge is none of the
manufacturer's business.
Unfortunately, the public generally knows nothing
about business, and when a large corp. advertises an
MSRP the public takes that number as gospel, not giving
any thought as to where it came from.
In my store, when a cigar manufacturer came in and
saw that I paid little heed to their MSRPs, I told them that
I will care about the MSRP when they pay attention to my
RSMP, the Retailer's Suggested Manufacturer's Price. Of
course, the sales reps could not quite digest that
recommendation or comprehend what I was getting at.
What they did understand was my then insisting they get
out of my store. (Often phrased less delicately.)
As I type this, I am doing a fast burn about the cheap
Bryco pipe cleaners that are made in China. They can
not go through this straight stemmed little Prince I just
smoked without bending horribly. Cheap, rotten pipe
cleaners could be another peeve, but that is for another
time.
Marty
P.S. We will be photographing more pipes Sunday, so if
you have not yet seen that Rainer Barbi you love for $50,
come on back. You never know. (I know, but you
don't...at least not yet.)
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