Retailers who inflate the price of items that are out of stock elsewhere

jaymenon

I came across an interesting phenomenon whilst looking for a particular tremolo. It’s a basic chrome model with a zinc block, available for £85 at certain major retailers, but however, out of stock at the present time.

I found it priced at a UK website at £160. (Interestingly, £25 more than the price of the gold version with same retailer).

...and £5 more than the version with the steel block (which is the higher quality and more expensive version).

It would appear that certain retailers inflate their prices for products that are out of stock elsewhere. Some unfortunate soul in a desperate hurry will then be in a position where they have to pay the excess premium. 

It’s probably within the law, but it left a bad taste...

guitarjack66

Pardon my naivety but I thought this was what businesses generally do?

TTony

Supply.  Demand.  Capitalism.  It’s how (a large part of) the world has operated for centuries.

LionAquaLooper

guitarjack66 said:

Pardon my naivety but I thought this was what businesses generally do?

Yes was just gonna say the same.  If anyone of us were in that same position, would we not do the same?  I think majority would.

Musicman20

My take on this - I'd not buy it until the price drops. If it doesn't....id get something else. 

jaymenon

Exactly what I did

OilCityPickups

One wonders how long it had been out of stock with the other retailer ... and whether the wholesale price of the item had gone up in the meantime - if folks don't update their websites regularly that can happen. 

bgmartinsbridge

It's not really great business sense if you're looking for long term customers.

You might not discount at times of shortage but to scalp your long term customs by inflating prices through shortages does piss them off in the long term and they go elsewhere. 

Inflation is different, as in theory it's driven by global supply and demand. 

However it's working for our supermarkets at the moment :-)

It's also worked for the used guitar market, small dealers buy up all the stock and then inflate the prices.

 Imagine walking in to a bar and someone saying all the premium beer has been bought by that bloke over there and he's selling it for 50% more. Eventually when stock was finally available you'd never go near that guy again.
Same as price scalping. 

bacchanalian

You won't know for sure until the shop that had them at £85 gets some new stock. £160 might be the new normal 
Even then you can't compare small retailers to somewhere like Thomann with massive purchasing power

Sporky

Do we know that £160 wasn't either that shop's normal price for it, or a pricing error?

Nearly doubling the price seems an odd tactic - surely no-one will pay that much? 

SlopeSoarer

Reminds me of the gaffe...

Customer: Can you price match with the shop down the road?

Shop owner: No I suggest you buy from the other store.

Customer: But they are out of stock.

Shop owner: Ah yes sir, we also sell them at that price when we are out of stock!

BigPaulie

Wait til you find out about how petrol companies set their prices!

prowla

Meanwhile the retailers who don’t have the stock lower their price as clickbait. 

guitarjack66

bgmartinsbridge said:

It's not really great business sense if you're looking for long term customers.

You might not discount at times of shortage but to scalp your long term customs by inflating prices through shortages does piss them off in the long term and they go elsewhere. 

Inflation is different, as in theory it's driven by global supply and demand. 

However it's working for our supermarkets at the moment :-)

It's also worked for the used guitar market, small dealers buy up all the stock and then inflate the prices.

 Imagine walking in to a bar and someone saying all the premium beer has been bought by that bloke over there and he's selling it for 50% more. Eventually when stock was finally available you'd never go near that guy again.
Same as price scalping. 

Works for supermarkets because they are 'All in it together' while the customer is not.

maltingsaudio

I don’t expect replacement trems to be a fast moving product, so I expect it’s old stock at the old price replaced by new stock at the new price.

Devil#20

You cannot be ripped off unless you buy. I've been trying to get hold of a dual Hudson Broadcast for ages but been out of stock everywhere and the second hand prices on ebay were £200+. Now they have just come back in stock so I'll look again on ebay. If they haven't come down I'll pay the £180 for a new one with its statutory guarantee. I wouldn't buy anything on ebay anywhere near the rrp because you've no guarantee. 66% or less is what I normally work on. 

scrumhalf

You wait, we'll get dynamic pricing in guitar shops.

A guitar priced at, say, £1,000, will have its price increased the more people play it.

AK99

Surely if the number of people who play it and don't buy it keeps growing, then that's an argument nobody really wants it, and it's time to drop the price of the d@mn thing?  

joeW

Don’t bother me - not forced to buy it.  Plus I also don’t mind when shop discount stock when they have a load of something. Rarely see complaints about sales. 

Vintage65

It's the same with most things. When it comes to Amazon I set a price alert on CamelCamel and wait.

Sporky

joeW said:

Don’t bother me - not forced to buy it.  Plus I also don’t mind when shop discount stock when they have a load of something. Rarely see complaints about sales. 

Except that it's never enough discount on the specific colour someone wanted, and they use the wrong courier.