Price Fixing

esvani76 on 04/01/2019 - 12:56

Hi everyone
I bought a product from JBHIFI and asked them to match with Harvey Norman. JB 's price was $689 and HN was selling $568.
JB matched the price and all good for me but next day I noticed that HN raised the price to $628 (JB's special price was $627).
Immediately after this, one question came to my mind….

Are these big companies has affiliation/ Collusion / Price Fixing contract?

JB's special price has been finished one day before my purchase (price went up from 627 to 689) but HN's special prices is still going on…

I wonder if it has happened to you and if you know how these things are working?!

Thanks for sharing ideas in advance.

General Discussion

Comments

  • try2bhelpful on 04/01/2019 - 13:03
    +1

    Given the price matching they tend to watch each others prices carefully. OW oftens drops their prices to $1 below the opposition prices, or just mark the product as out of stock, to avoid the 10% off thingy. I think it is not so much price collusion as follow the leader.

    • [Deactivated] on 04/01/2019 - 13:09

      Bunnings and Dan Murphys do the same. They monitor their competitors like hawks.

      • esvani76 on 04/01/2019 - 13:21

        Monitoring is good if they both bring down the price…
        example… the product that I bought was something in almost end of life cycle (used to be doubled in price when it launched first). So, I bought a clearance item and monitoring to bring down the prices will be awesome for consumers. But monitoring and adjusting prices to higher that what it really worth is not a good thing.

        • pais on 04/01/2019 - 13:57

          But monitoring and adjusting prices to higher that what it really worth is not a good thing.

          But it's not collusion or price fixing. It's just good business.

          Think about it objectively. You're a business owner. You sell imported widgets for $15 and have done so for 6 months. Every other competitor sells them for $30. Do you a. continue selling at $15, or b. move your price to align it with the market and increase your margin on this item?

          I used to work in operations for a large retailer, and the above was standard practice, as it afforded us the flexibility to remain competitive on the other widgets that were more cut throat / lower margin.

    • Melb69 on 04/01/2019 - 13:25

      I love it when I use a Bunnings cost to price match at OW. The staff at OW always get annoyed as they are part of the same group.

      • jelko on 04/01/2019 - 14:55

        What sort of products are sold at both Bunnings and Officeworks?

        • Melb69 on 04/01/2019 - 14:59

          I think there were these trolleys or folding tables. Three are items just can't exactly recall.

        • SydStrand on 04/01/2019 - 15:19

          Philips Hue globes for one

  • Alwaysprofit on 04/01/2019 - 13:08

    It is possible. I can understand if major player discuss market share and pricing with their competitors to squeeze minor player out of the market for example. It is hard to prove though and they always expose themselves to certain risk if it goes published.

    • esvani76 on 04/01/2019 - 13:17

      True. I can not prove anything but obviously these sort of hings will impact us as consumers.

  • Melb69 on 04/01/2019 - 13:25

    Price monitoring.

  • myusername on 04/01/2019 - 14:19

    from a previous thread:

    Associatedweareaudreyvixen on 26/12/2018 - 11:20
    We aren't that bad!

    Price matching is at the discretion of the staff member and management depending how low the price is.

    Generally, we won't match under cost and certainly not with online retailers like Amazon or Ebay etc.. generally it isn't a problem to match with a company like Microsoft AU though, bit again- at the discretion of the staff member you get.

    Sorry you had a bad experience! Most of us JB crew are more then happy to help!

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/427848

    • esvani76 on 04/01/2019 - 14:49

      Thanks. My experience with JB was great….
      the only thing that I wonder is, if there is any price fixings between JB and HN and or any other bg brands?!

  • serpserpserp on 04/01/2019 - 14:34
    +1

    Quick everyone don the tin foil hats! Prices on products move up and down in an open market!!!!11!!1!

    • esvani76 on 04/01/2019 - 14:51

      So true!! but there are lots of buts in between and can become big issue for big brands if they do a littble bit of illegal things ;)

  • rbr85 on 04/01/2019 - 15:43
    +1

    Price fixing happens when two or more competitors agree on a price. If they are reacting independently (ie. they are not agreeing with one another) it is simply reacting to your competitor and pricing accordingly.

  • Perplexed on 04/01/2019 - 16:27
    +1

    http://www.comedycentral.com.au/nathan-for-you/videos/nathan…
    Explains how in america best buy lie about how low their price matching goes. Its an interesting video because it shows the unsuccessful length you can try but of-course its futile because in the end its all up to how much you are willing to lose to prove a point.

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