Back a couple of blog posts, I talked about the inkjet cartridges folks using the razor blade vendor’s marketing strategy. Give away the razor and sock it to them with the blades. Visiting Staples today, I checked to see if there was a Staples brand compatible cartridge for my Canon Pixma ip2600. The Staples guy told me they were being forced to discontinue their store brand inkjet cartridges by the printer manufacturers. He stated that Staples was told to remove the compatible cartridges or “they” the manufactures would discontinue stocking their printers at Staples. Hmm, that sounds like it could be true. It also sounds like coercion. Federal Trade Commission take note, this sounds like a restriction of competition through coercion. Sure sounds like racketeering to me or at least price fixing. Restricting a reseller from offering a competitive product that provides a substantial cost benefit to the end user hardly seems to be offering a stimulus to the American public.
Staples has caved to the pressure from the manufacturers who generate enormous profits on ink and toner. Who is stuck paying the difference between a quality compatible ink cartridge and the pricey OEM cartridge? Right! ME and YOU!
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