Every time a company has tried this (that I'm aware of), the FTC has been all over them like hair on a gorilla.  Price fixing is legal in Japan, so as you might imagine, several Japanese corporations have tried the same in the US, but as soon as a retailer complains, the feds come down hard.  As far as I know, Japanese companies have pretty much abandoned this approach and now use spiffs (kickbacks) and shelf-space subsidies to try and improve volume.  These seem to fly under the FTC's radar.

Then again, I don't work in that space, so my knowledge is second-hand and could be wrong.

@crumas2, actually that was true until last year there was supreme court case of manufacturer price fixing, involving some high end clothing, the court ruled against president and said manufacturers could fix prices.

though what fishyjoe said is more often the result cutting off the seller generaly only hurts the manufacturer.
and litigation is expensive.

I plan to go out to my local targets latter today o see if i can verify any of this ill take a pic if i can otherwise ill report back negatory, might be up to 16 hours before im back though

Wow... I wasn't aware of that Supreme Court case (and I work in the legal market). I'll have to take a look. Thanks for the info!

EDIT: Here is the link: http://www.fashionapparellawblog.com/2007/07/articles/supreme-court-discounts-centuryold-antipricefixing-rule

Ouch!

No product in the US can be price fixed by the manufacturer... this is illegal. However, consoles are likely similar to printers... very little margin for the retailer, so a $50 discount by any retailer would probably mean selling at or below cost.


yup this is true, im a retailer myself in europe and we only get 5 percent on consoles. if u wanna buy consoles from microsoft for 280 bucks and sell em for 1 buck be their guest.

our area targets, 6 that i went to, do not have the 60 gig in stock so i can not confirm or deny the new price.

@dikster http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-28-2007/0004617822&EDATE=

I was at Target on Thursday in Cincinnati and they had the 60GB Pro for $300.

I saw on G4TV that effective Sept 1st that the core system (no harddrive) will be 250.00 the 60gb will be 300.00 and the elite will be 400.00.

When did you see this air?

I believe it was this last Wednesday or Thursday.