Once you pull the pants down - it is impossible to bring them back up.

In order to ensure price control a unique product must enforce a MAP (minimum advertised pricing) pricing policy.

For those with little experience in the retail world, MAP pricing forces wholesalers and retailers to keep to the proposed manufacturers' list price. Should a retailer sell the item too cheaply, he will be blacklisted. In today's market of aggressive internet sales, under cutters, and bargain aware shoppers, the only way to ensure your suggested price points is to force sellers to sign a MAP pricing agreement.

There is a commonly known slogan that floats around in the retail marketplace. "Once you pull the pants down - it is impossible to bring them back up." Meaning, once one fool decides to heavily discount an item, no other retailer will ever be able to make full margins on that specific product again. (My grandfather uses the same slogan in Yiddish - I think it has a totally different meaning).

Ever wonder why for the first few years of circulation Crocs were not attainable in Israel for under 200NIS? Wouldn't it make sense for one of the many backwards shops on Ben Yehudah Street to lower their price points in an effort to shift the equilibrium and create more sales? When a store buys inventory they need to feel confident that they are not going to have their margins cut by a discount store located down the street from them. Hence the creation of the MAP pricing strategy.

Before I got into the call center business I was employed to do sales for a midlevel international manufacturer and distributor. The company's name is not important as I am confident they are not doing anything irregular amongst their industry. In an effort to increase sales and customer awareness of the products that my company manufactured, the sales team was explicitly instructed to contact those retailers who were blacklisted for breaking MAP pricing agreements. We were told to do this in order to create a "push for the product". Items we distributed were also sold to those same blacklisted stores, with hope that they would never cut off the hands that fed them.

Like all sales strategies, MAP pricing is only as strong as you enforce it. Unfortunately for the company I was working for, a few blacklisters bought hundreds of units of the items we manufactured and sold them for minimal profit. They afforded to do this based on the fact that they were able to sell huge volume since every other shop was following the MAP pricing agreement and was therefore selling the item for nearly double the price. After months of selling the item, it became nearly impossible to get anyone to touch anything that we manufactured for fear of being undercut.

Similar to real life, the rules only apply to the good guys. Promptly after realizing this company's sales strategy I decided I had had enough. Obviously I was not paid for my last few weeks of work. Someone who takes advantage of the system will do just that in every case possible. Whenever someone asks me, "Where can I find a good job?" I always tell them, "Wherever you do decide to work, keep your eyes open." Regretfully, there are a lot of dishonest people out there. If they are dishonest with others, you can be sure that when the time comes they will cheat you out of your paycheck.