Just noticed in the new Sears cataloge that was delivered today, the IJ4 pinball machine $6999.99 and the mspac/galaga/pacman 3 in 1 for $ 2799.99. A bit over priced i would say.

Ahhh... but wait for the sales when they don't sell them.... 50% off for sure!  

I have witnessed this sort of marketing with the Nascar Jr. It must frustrate the hell out of distributors, but at least they are priced high enough that they can compete.

What I witnessed in my industry was home depot appeared to sell products for almost what I bought them for, but here was the catch. Home Depot sold so much volume that they had the manufacturer change and greatly cheapen the product soley for them. The SOB's called it the same thing with the exception of one letter in the part no. Other than cosmetics the product was entirely different internally and was a POS. Cast white metal vice machined bronze etc. etc. I doubt Stern will go this route but it is just another sign of the big guys running the market and witness to Sterns want to sell to the home user.

well i can see people's sears credit cards bills now....  
   glad, i set my limit on my over a decade ago to only $500.  not that i would buy one at that price.  but who knows what erin might do for me this christmas.  canadian tire i have set at $250.  thats the only cards i have anymore.  we both cut up all the cards over a decade ago.  just before we got married.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Home Depot sold so much volume that they had the manufacturer change and greatly cheapen the product soley for them. The SOB's called it the same thing with the exception of one letter in the part no. Other than cosmetics the product was entirely different internally and was a POS.

This is particularly true of plumbing fixtures.

When we did major renos to our house,
the plumber we had said he wouldn't install Home Depot stuff.

He said the fixtures "look" the same but are built like crap.

He said he had so many trouble calls because of HD fixtures that he won't install them
unless you sign a waiver absolving him of any future repairs.

So we went a "reputable" plumbing store, and paid more for the "good stuff"...

Steph

Quoted from necro_nemesis

I doubt Stern will go this route

they've been driving it from the start

Quoted from Mrhide

they've been driving it from the start

No the route of offering an inferior machine that looks the same to the large retailers.

For me it was door hardware. In particular the brand name Schlage was a big offender. It may have sounded like a line from the professional guy to sell you the same stuff at his price, but trust me it isn't. The HD stuff is mess. We would warranty the entire job parts and labor which meant if it failed we lost our time and would have to recover the part warranty from the supplier. For Home Depot they will gladly swap the part but cover none of your labor, but for us because we warrantied the entire job we made sure the job was done right with the right stuff the first time. They make agreements with the suppliers that even if the package is broken they have to take it back. Not only that the supplier has to stock and face their shelves. It's a gamble for the suppliers that people will either make it past warranty or lose their bill or just not have the nuts to take it back when it fails, so they do it. It's a far cry from trying to provide quality parts and service.

Same deal if they bought the inferior product we would not touch the job. In fact we would only touch stuff that was purchased elsewhere with the caveat they had zero warranty and it was something that we could not get for them. If the part failed we weren't going to chase a replacement and fix it for them. This didn't happen often but sometimes they had strange stuff from Italy or whatever they really wanted put in. In those cases because they were f'd we would do it and charge a premium.

it means buying the more expensive stuff the first time really saves in the long time.

as or as my dad says " I'm too poor to buy crap "

What's this all about, in simple language?[/quote]

I think it's called talking to see urself talk - lol...

Seen this before, Sharper Image used to sell TSPP's, Costco was recently selling Aracade Legends machines (w/ different game line-ups than usual if I'm not mistaken).

-Rod

Quoted from Steph

This is particularly true of plumbing fixtures.
Steph

This is true.  As A plumber, I run into this quite a bit.  I have stopped refusing to install this crap, now I just bill extra for messing around with inferior product and make it clear that any subsequent repair or warranty is solely the customer's concern.

In the end, it almost always costs more by the time it gets picked up or delivered, installed and tweaked than it would have if I supplied brand name or builder grade fixtures.

Sometimes the china is so warped that basins don't sit flat on the counter top, pedestals are crooked and toilets rock all over the place unless you shim the crap outta them.

Do yourself a favour and pay the 10% extra for proper fixtures/materiel

Quoted from MarkToo

Do yourself a favour and pay the 10% extra for proper fixtures/materiel

I hear everyone bitching about Home Depot, but I've never had a problem. I've bought several bathroom and kitchen fixtures, installed them myself. Bought a few toilets. Again installed myself. No issues. No problems whatsoever. Very happy with the products they carry.

Even bought and installed laminate. Serious end of stock sale that was incredibly cheap. The product itself was fantastic and looked great. Bought and installed tiles. The list goes on. Sinks, yep done that, too.

My experience and I'm only adding it to counter the negative posts. You guys have me wondering if my stuff is crap, but it's been in my place for years (at my old place) and never, ever had an issue.

Duane

Forget plumbing, let's talk about something I know a little of - hardwood...

We've got some of the best manufacturers here in Canada (mostly Quebec) that's decently priced w/ great warranties & support. Yet for .05 or .10 per sq.ft. less people will buy some Chinese garbage that sat in a container for weeks / months in uncontrolled humidity, meanwhile you lose the sale but then get a calll wondering if we will do repairs...lol

Best 1 was a contractor that we'd done work for for years, dissapears for a while then comes in 1 day to buy cleaner. Also wondering if we'd do an inspection. This is greeat - it's his place he's built on Kennedy in Aurora (upper end) he bought cheaper unknown Brazilian Cherry & got some fly-by-night outfit to install. They spent days trying to put the crap together it was so bad. The funny thing is we actually made $ off the job - the installers came to us to buy filler by the boatload.

So he's got a 2M+ home w/ this crap throughout. Paid the installers cash (of course) who now won't return his call. Won't rip it all out 'cause it's under everything - cupboards etc.

All 'cause he saved 3k on a 60k job.

Stupid? Wait until the economy really tanks. Then the real genius' come out to play.