T
Tomcat
New member
Some really interesting posts from some "younger" members (not including Harvey and myself; I'm a couple years older than even Harvey).
Some history: back in the days when "that picture" was actually taken, the US had what were known as "fair trade" laws, which allowed the manufacturers to set the retail price of their merchandise, and NO ONE could sell it for less; if you tried, the manufacturer yanked your franchise and would no longer sell to you. Bolex, the best 8 and 16 mm movie film camera maker (also german) was really strong about doing that. They even sent people around to stores to check on you to see if you were under selling. The idea was to "protect the merchants" so that no one sold for less and thus put someone else out of business. After WWII some companies in the US decided they wanted to become big marketing people but couldn't because of the fair trade laws that PREVENTED them from selling at discounts. SO, they got the congress (and courts) to declare the "fair trade" laws illegal and overturned them, on the grounds that this was better for the consumer, and it certainly has been. However, this HAS resulted in a lot of "mon and pop" stores going out of business. This brought on the beginning of big discounters and the current inexpensiveness of products in the US compared to the rest of the world (just ask some of the overseas people on this board who gets the best prices in the world). The practice of the old fair trade laws became known as "price fixing" and was declared to be illegal, as such. However, a company can get around that by simply not selling to anyone they don't want to but without saying that's the reason because, if the retailer wants to, they can sue the manufacturer (or rep) for price fixing and make a little money (the lawyers would get most anyway).
Anyway folks, what Fletcher is doing (and his attitude) is what got you the right to buy things cheaper here in this country. If you really want to pay higher prices then buy from Neumann.
There also used to be, in this country, something known as "blue laws". The law required any business that wasn't a restuarant or needed emergency service to close on sunday. NOBODY was open on sunday and if you tried, you were put in jail for it. Yep, right here in the good 'ol USA. Also, back in those days women stayed home and did most of the shopping (men couldn't because they were working during store hours except on saturdays and a lot of men had to work half days on saturdays). No grocery stores, no convenience stores, no apparell stores, nothing was open on sundays.
Tom
Some history: back in the days when "that picture" was actually taken, the US had what were known as "fair trade" laws, which allowed the manufacturers to set the retail price of their merchandise, and NO ONE could sell it for less; if you tried, the manufacturer yanked your franchise and would no longer sell to you. Bolex, the best 8 and 16 mm movie film camera maker (also german) was really strong about doing that. They even sent people around to stores to check on you to see if you were under selling. The idea was to "protect the merchants" so that no one sold for less and thus put someone else out of business. After WWII some companies in the US decided they wanted to become big marketing people but couldn't because of the fair trade laws that PREVENTED them from selling at discounts. SO, they got the congress (and courts) to declare the "fair trade" laws illegal and overturned them, on the grounds that this was better for the consumer, and it certainly has been. However, this HAS resulted in a lot of "mon and pop" stores going out of business. This brought on the beginning of big discounters and the current inexpensiveness of products in the US compared to the rest of the world (just ask some of the overseas people on this board who gets the best prices in the world). The practice of the old fair trade laws became known as "price fixing" and was declared to be illegal, as such. However, a company can get around that by simply not selling to anyone they don't want to but without saying that's the reason because, if the retailer wants to, they can sue the manufacturer (or rep) for price fixing and make a little money (the lawyers would get most anyway).
Anyway folks, what Fletcher is doing (and his attitude) is what got you the right to buy things cheaper here in this country. If you really want to pay higher prices then buy from Neumann.
There also used to be, in this country, something known as "blue laws". The law required any business that wasn't a restuarant or needed emergency service to close on sunday. NOBODY was open on sunday and if you tried, you were put in jail for it. Yep, right here in the good 'ol USA. Also, back in those days women stayed home and did most of the shopping (men couldn't because they were working during store hours except on saturdays and a lot of men had to work half days on saturdays). No grocery stores, no convenience stores, no apparell stores, nothing was open on sundays.
Tom
