Retailers Disappointed By Marketplace Bans

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/26/2012

NEW YORK - New strictures by LG Electronics and Panasonic against selling their products through online marketplaces has left independent dealers in a quandary.

CE retailers largely laud recent changes in vendor distribution and pricing policy designed to restore stability and profitability to the TV category.

But they argued that the marketplace bans, which LG and Panasonic have adopted in lieu of unilateral pricing policies, are punishing established, authorized dealers along with disruptive or disreputable sellers that vie on eBay and third-party marketplaces run by Amazon.com, Buy.com, BestBuy.com, Sears.com and others.

"I applaud the vendors for trying to restore profitability but they're penalizing the best-of-breed retailers," said George Manlove, president/CEO of Montana-based Vann's, the award-winning, five-store CE and appliance chain. "And what are the consequences of that? That you can only buy on Amazon and Costco? Is that the kind of distribution strategy vendors want?"

(now skipping down a bit to this ebay-centric statement by Dave Workman, executive director/COO of the Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO Group... )

Workman is also hoping to get LG and Panasonic to look at eBay in a separate light.

Golly gee, I wonder what that means?