Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 14:58:41 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> Cc: steve@visint.co.uk, jbryant@tfs.net, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: On Holy Wars, and a Plea for Peace [sorry Danny, wherever you are, but the title fits]... Message-ID: <3131.861400721@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 18 Apr 1997 14:39:50 PDT." <199704182139.OAA02940@phaeton.artisoft.com>
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[Redirected to -chat; I don't think this is quite -hackers material now]
> Doesn't Walnut Creek CDROM have a GIS?!? I don't know how a modern
> sales organization could prosper without one...
I don't own a sales hat, so you'll first have to tell me what a "GIS"
is before I can answer that. :-)
> > We're not quite big enough to support that kind of graft. :(
>
> Is this a "stocking fee" (illegal) or is it a consignment agreement
> (legal, but not the way you want to sell, if you sell by stuffing
> the channel and praying for rain...)? I could see Egghead wanting
Well, this info is being relayed 2nd-hand here (through me) so I may
not remember all the details correctly, but essentially they want
credits in that amount (e.g. 50K worth of stock) plus up-front money
to market it. In other words, WC would need to pay the costs of
printing any store advertisements (and there could be quite a number
of stores involved) plus newspaper adverts and such. On top of this,
they generally want a liberal return policy which allows them to
return stock in practically any condition (including downright
destroyed) for *full* credit, any outstanding invoices simply not
being paid until said credit is given. In other words, they make it
damn rough for anyone not willing to risk close-to-6-figure amounts.
I really don't know what the legalities are, but clearly there's some
fairly broad loophole which allows this.
The situation is a little more clear-cut if you're talking about
someone like Macy's. As our sales mgr said (who used to deal with
Macy's regularly), they've bankrupted many a small business by
demanding significant portions of stock up-front, only to return much
of the merchandise in soiled and unsaleable condition, demanding a
full-refund before paying out any of their outstanding invoices.
They'll also pull a number whereby they'll agree to sell your product
in some corner of the store but ONLY if you pay for all furniture,
track lighting, counters AND the salaries of the folks who work behind
them. I was frankly astounded at this - I had no idea that the "big
boys" had the clout to ram "deals" like this down vendor throats.
> FreeBSD is (essentially) a UNIX-clone product... have you contacted
> the UNIX products division of Ingram Micro-D?
Heh, we've been trying to get in bed with Ingram for 4 years now. :-{
Jordan
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