It was just a matter of time...

[bisontuba]

What I read (IF I'm reading it correctly)...

Guitar Center is in desperate straits.

Big +1!

[Heavy_Metal]

So much for "Always the Low Price"... Wal-Mart's price is the same as everyone else's, except the place in Japan.....

[deholder]

Waiting for what Brook Mays has to say about this....

I lived in Dallas when that whole deal went down. My first 186 was from Brook Mays and I was surprised a few years later when the store suddenly closed.

[Tubaru]

Walmart has been working with Music123 for quite some time. Last September I was looking to purchase a Meinl Weston 2141 and it showed up on a search as being available from Walmart. Being a Walmart associate I tried to order one through them just to see if I could use my 10% discount on it. They wouldn't let me because of Music123 being a martketplace vendor. Walmart lost that sale. I could have really used the discount.

I do not see it being any different than what Amazon does.

[windshieldbug]

Guitar Center is in desperate straits.

GuitarWind!?

[TWTuba]

Funny that the horn is listed in the "Toy" section!

[eupher61]

Every manufacturer has the ability to limit where their products can be sold by a retailer. It just has to be in a contract. I'd be surprised if Miraphone doesn't have such a restriction which limits where WWBW can advertise, and the prices they can advertise.

[tofu]

Huh? Why would Miraphone care about this? .

I have learned in my professional life that you can be "above" the idea of "guilt by association" all you want; your customers probably aren't. They believe in it as firmly as they believe in gravity. Having your stuff marketed on walmart.com places you in the mental world of a price-only buyer and those who market to them.

Maybe you are right and that is or ought to be fine with Miraphone. But I think they're going to have a mighty hard time competing for the business of a price-only or a price-mainly shopper, and it does not help their market position to be shown in that context. And if anyone thinks Walmart is not a price-only world, I don't know what to say in response to that.

+1 You are absolutely correct. People who haven't studied behavioral science or marketing sometimes have a hard time grasping this.

Is your point that appearing on the Walmart website "cheapens" the Miraphone image? If it were being sold *by* Walmart, I could kind of understand that a little bit. But being sold *through* a marketplace at Walmart, I don't see all the fuss. I don't know the exact arrangement, but it's more that you're buying from Music123 through Walmart (same as you buy from Music123 through Amazon). This is more of Walmart trying to capitalize from the Amazon marketplace concept. I'm sure that Walmart signed a deal with Music123 to be able to sell everything through their marketplace, whether it's a $1 item or an $18,000 item.

Most people will associate the sale with Wal-Mart and most do the same with Amazon as well. Heck I've sometimes have missed that I bought something on Amazon and it was actually sold by someone else. Miraphone can't compete on a price basis with a knock off from China. Most instruments get bought I would think by parents and many of these parents are uninformed buyers and if it looks just like a 186 then it must play like a 186. I know that way back when I was in school - my folks would shopped that way. It would be really hard for Miraphone to be able to price a 186 like a clone and even dream of making a profit. And Wally World will also list a clone and if a uninformed buyer just looks at the pictures and the specs online the comparison will look the same and price will be the deciding factor. So Miraphone either prices to match the clone and loses money or it prices to make a profit and loses the sale - online.

[pgym]

Every manufacturer has the ability to limit where their products can be sold by a retailer. It just has to be in a contract.

Not if the retailer purchases the product from the mfg, as opposed to the mfg placing the product with the retailer on spec. Once a mfg accepts payment in full for a product, its rights over the product, including its right to control distribution, are exhausted.