[sdiy] ODP: Buying directly from Texas Instruments

[Neil Johnson]

Hi,

Ben Bradley wrote:
> How do distributors feel about manufacturers offering direct sales? It would seem distributors would see this as unfair competition unless the manufacturer charges higher prices than distributors.

Why do you think this is unfair competition?  Distro's buy from
manufacturers in much larger quantities so get better price breaks.
And if you're an equipment manufacturer buying in large quantities you
would be foolish going through a distro and paying their markup.
"Unfair competition" has a specific meaning, something like

"Unfair competition is conduct by a market participant which gains or
seeks to gain an advantage over its rivals through misleading,
deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, coercive or unconscionable conduct
in trade or commerce."
(https://www.concurrences.com/en/dictionary/unfair-competition)

Right now getting anything is pretty tough, especially for high volume
(100,000+ parts/month) manufacturing.  In some ways the smaller
manufacturers have it easier as they can buy from distros in the small
quantities they need to keep turning over.

Neil