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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Kirby Warden writes:
>
> > My point is that I am often plagued by scalpers in my neck of the woods. It
> > could be a sale item, or just a popular item. I walk into a store and see
> > empty shelf space where the item is supposed to be only to find it bare,
> > almost bare, or filled with something else just to eliminate wasted shelf
> > space. But if I browse E-Bay... there it is; marked up, marked down, it
> > doesn't matter... it's there instead of the store that it should have been.
>
> What do you mean "should have been"? The goal of a store is to sell things.
>
> Stores are within their rights to put quantity limits in place, if they so
> choose. They are also within their rights to sell as many as they like to
> the first person that appears with cash in hand. Unless the scalper is
> working in collusion with a store employee in contravention to store policy
> (that is, he and the employee are defrauding the corporate entity) you have
> no beef.
Note also that in many sales, stores offer rain checks. I have also seen
plenty of stores advertise limits on how many of an item they will sell
to one customer. The existence and frequent use of both of these tactics
suggest that the stores are happy with how things work. The idea of a
clearance sale is to balance the speed at which they clear out unwanted
merchandise against the income earned from it.
I wonder if Kirby has a beef with KB Toys which is "scalping" in a just
slightly more formal way. It is clear to me that the reduced price items
they sell have been purchased in bulk from TLC or some other mechanism
and then being sold for more than they paid for them. There's a whole
chain of stores in New England which started on the basis of buying
insurance salvage and re-selling it in a retail environment. Not only
has this chain made product available for a reduced price to many folks,
but it also provides an important environmental service since prior to
this chain's becoming big, most of that salvage was trashed. Of course
that chain has grown beyond the supply of insurance salvage, and now
deals in clearance salvage, manufacturing salvage (selling imperfect
goods), and just in general looking for a good deal. And if you think
the business of insurance salvage is a gimmie. You're wrong. It's a
pain. I took a temp job once with an insurance salvage outfit once.
Three of us spent a day renting a U-Haul, driving several hours to a
wall paper plant, loading heavy rolls of wall paper into the truck,
driving back (painfully slowly) to the warehouse, and unloading it. Who
knows how much they made from the wall paper. We took everything, even
the very waterlogged rolls (the plant had a fire which didn't reach the
storage area).
We should even yell at Target themselves, after all, they have been
selling those Star Wars value packs for more than they paid for them.
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: scalpers
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| (...) What do you mean "should have been"? The goal of a store is to sell things. Stores are within their rights to put quantity limits in place, if they so choose. They are also within their rights to sell as many as they like to the first person (...) (23 years ago, 19-Jan-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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