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Comment by TedDoesntTalk | Hacker News Reader

I try to buy from the manufacturer these days. Always more expensive but guaranteed (I think?) not to be counterfeit.

It's kind of crazy to me that the manuf is consistently the most expensive place to buy things. Went to the benchmade factory store a few weeks back, there's only one. Their prices were 20% over what sportsmans warehouse a few blocks away had for the same knife.

Like someone comes all the way to your one store location and you're gouging them on price. Crazy. I didn't buy anything at the store, got the knife at the SW.

They charge even more online which is also fun. This is on $425 knives so you know there's hella headroom.

Probably they are less efficient at retail operations than a retailer, so have higher overhead. Also wouldn't want to undercut the retailers, who are providing valuable shelf space and marketing.

More the latter. Why would any retailer carry your product if you're going to undercut their price with your own direct consumer sales?

the retailer can be competitive by providing convenience/location, faster shipping speed, etc

Which cost a lot, so they need to get the product for a lower price before reselling. Also, because they are buying wholesale, they usually have the upper hand in the negotiations. It's quite common for their contracts to be contingent to the manufacturer not selling the product at the same price point

What’s “SW”?

Sportsmans Warehouse

It's not cheap to pay for inventory storage, warehouse workers, logistics, etc. When something like Amazon/Walmart/other can take on those liabilities for you, the costs come down.

How many manufacturers offer direct-to-consumer sales?

A lot, I've discovered, and not just giants like Apple.

as long as it's not 'fulfilled by amazon' or whatever and thus commingled with their garbage

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