What part of "NONE SOLD TO DEALERS" does this family not understand?

[Auto]

I think dealers who clean out specials at markets are scum and when I can't get the item on special during the first day, then I'm "hurt" by their actions.

^-.-^

But are you any less hurt if the stock out is caused by dealers buying lots or lots of civilians buying one each?

Why do you care about the kind of customer causing the stock-out? Either way, you lose.

The only reason to limit quantities is if you can't replenish inventory on the sale item. If the point of rock bottom pricing on hot items is to drive traffic into the store, you don't want the first customer to clean you out. The second customer sees the stock-out and leaves without filling his cart with lots of non-sale merchandise.

[Broomjockey]

But are you any less hurt if the stock out is caused by dealers buying lots or lots of civilians buying one each?

Why do you care about the kind of customer causing the stock-out? Either way, you lose.

The point is the number of customers it takes to cause the outage. If it is one per person, and they've 500, then I have 499 shots at the prize, which can take hours, or days. If a dealer comes and takes all 500, then it's gone in 10 minutes. Which is not enough time to get other people in there and have a shot.

If a store caters to retailer/resellers, fine, that's the business, but my grocery store isn't running that special on soup so the guy from the corner convenience store can make an extra buck that week. Different situations.

[Andara Bledin]

But are you any less hurt if the stock out is caused by dealers buying lots or lots of civilians buying one each?

Why do you care about the kind of customer causing the stock-out? Either way, you lose.

The point is the number of customers it takes to cause the outage. If it is one per person, and they've 500, then I have 499 shots at the prize, which can take hours, or days. If a dealer comes and takes all 500, then it's gone in 10 minutes. Which is not enough time to get other people in there and have a shot.

It's also a matter of scale. If actual users buy the items, then there are possibly hundreds of people who make related purchashes and are happy and one unhappy dealer who shouldn't even have been there in the first place.

If the dealer gets to have his scummy way and buy out all the items that are meant for users, then you have one happy dealer, potentially hundreds of unhappy users, and likely thousands of dollars in lost sales when those people go to another store to get the item.

If the item sells out due to legitimate purchases, then I should have gotten there sooner. However, dealers who clean out the stock of non-supplier stores are like people who cut in line. I'd have to wait the same amount of time behind someone who cut as I would behind someone who was just there first, but I'm not going to be upset over the person who was legitimate, but you can bet I'll have some choice words for someone who cuts.

^-.-^

[0oAmericanGirl]

We had a guy doing that too, but he bought store brand milk and eggs too. I went into his store one day and saw that he was selling our store's brand milk and told my manager. He immediately left and confronted him, telling him if he sells our stuff like that again he'll be dealing with a lawsuit. Not to mention he was also turned into our soda and snack vendors, who I would imagine, also got involved. He was selling candy bars and snacks that clearly said "NOT LABLED FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE".

[SuperB]

We had a guy doing that too, but he bought store brand milk and eggs too. I went into his store one day and saw that he was selling our store's brand milk and told my manager. He immediately left and confronted him, telling him if he sells our stuff like that again he'll be dealing with a lawsuit.

I doubt a lawsuit would hold up under those conditions. We sell Safeway brand bread when we run low and just need 5 or 6 loaves to finish the weekend with. It's easier to run 40 miles down the highway than the 95 miles to the distributor warehouse on short notice. (there is no distributor for certain items in our area)
Now selling anything not labeled for individual sale can get him in trouble depending. In a vending machine, most likely. But we allow the campers to buy the individual butter sticks as long as the box is there for them to see the dates. (I don't allow them to use the box to hold two while leaving just the last two sitcks in other words)

If he's abusing limits your boss should restrict him. If his amounts aren't causing suspicion at the register then it's likely small in quantity. I get the feeling most of you are in the cities though. In non-rural areas there's little excuse for not having distributors for just about everything. Extremely rural areas are quite different.

[tollbaby]

Yep, I get that all the time at the large chain drugstore I work at in Canada. Especially with the pop.

Alex is that you? *squeeee*

[Bella_Vixen]

They were buying Jean Masson (sp?) in the nice carafes, then refilling them (also illegal.)

Slightly OT, it breaks my heart to go to the bar, because I like to collect liquor bottles and they are required to destroy the empty bottles, so they can't refill the premium bottles with the cheap stuff.

[wolfie]

A couple items in my personal experience:

Back when a 486/33 was a hot system, I bought a 386/40 motherboard about a day after a big jump in RAM prices. The vendor (operating out of his basement at the time, now has a storefront) had 8 sticks of 1M RAM at the old price, and was reluctant to sell any, but I needed 4 sticks (one "bank" of memory in a 386DX system used 4x 30 pin SIMMS of the same capacity). He asked why I didn't want to buy them all and sell the other 4 at a profit, but I told him that my reason for buying the RAM was to be able to use the motherboard I was buying from him at the same time.

I was looking for an electric fridge defroster (great for freezers, but no longer manufactured). One guy at a flea market (had lots of electrical goodies) recognized what I was talking about, and said he'd seen one at one of his suppliers but hadn't bought it because he didn't think it would sell, but he took down my name and number. On my way home I stopped at a Goodwill a couple blocks from the flea market, and guess what I saw - for $3, instead of the $10 (which would have been a reasonable price for "unobtainium") the dealer had quoted. Never heard back from him - but he had been prepared to take advantage of a charitable organization not knowing what their merchandise was worth. Sure Goodwill would have got their $3 either way, but there's a big difference between an end-user getting a bargain (and Goodwill getting 100% of the end-user's purchase price) and someone "flipping" the item at over triple the price.

[HYHYBT]

I've cleared out store shelves for work before. For example, when the bun delivery was supposed to come during breakfast hadn't come by 11:30, the SM handed me $40 and sent me to the store. It did clear out all but a few that the store had, filling one buggy to overflowing, but it wasn't to save money (certainly not! The regular supplier is much cheaper *and* the buns are better-made) but simply to keep the doors open. Of course, the *other* locations could have just transferred some, but that one is too far out to have gotten back in time.

[Andara Bledin]

That situation is a little different. And I suspect that what you bought wasn't a sale item, either, which is the real meat of this issue.

^-.-^

[protege]

I sometimes clear out the entire stock of certain electronic bits (heavy-duty DPDT switches and 12V LED lamps) at Radio Shack from time to time. The only reason for that, is that the company simply doesn't stock very many of those parts, usually 2-3 of each type. (If you're wondering, those parts go into my model railroad--the switches are used to power electric switch machines, and the LEDs are used as panel lights.) What bites though, is if I clear them out...and need more. Usually, I have to find another store!