Slowly American Apparel has restricted the flow of it's products to the wholesale market to create a monopoly in the retail market for their basic t-shirts. The end result is that the consumer is being ripped off by higher prices than are reasonable for their basic t-shirts. As a reseller of blank t-shirts for screenprinting to the public I find this alarming in many ways.
Number one, these restrictions eliminate a major product from my offerings which restricts who I can and cannot print for because of the availability of American Apparel t-shirts. Two, it has affected my ability to increase my market share by being forced out of the market for basic American Apparel t-shirts. Three, it has limited my companies ability to create a profit from buying and selling t-shirts.
Is this legal? Is this right? My personal opinion is that is not legal and there is definite harm being done to the consumer so that American Apparel can increase it's profits in an unfair way. I am not sure how far I can go to fight this, but it is alarming that they have gotten this far by implementing such a non-American strategy in the manipulation of the pricing of their products to the retail customer.
Here is a link to an American Apparel retail page for the basic 2001 t-shirts: American Apparel retail pricing for the basic 2001
Many companies were selling these shirts at competitive prices from $5-8, which is the normal price for a basic wholesale t-shirt. These companies have been threatened with litigation and forced to agree to ridiculous terms in order to keep selling these items. I was reselling the basic American Apparel t-shirt here on a sliding scale based on the number of shirts a customer buys: American Apparel t-shirts online at yque.com. The basic shirt cost about $7/ea on white. How can American Apparel restrict the sale of it's products to the retail market so that it can enjoy a monopoly for the same product at an enormous retail markup. If it was a different product that it offers to the wholesale market at a lower price then I could understand, but to create a reason, "they only sell to companies that print on the shirts", then they violate this rationale by selling the product unprinted themselves. I can delve into the details later, but essentially by limiting the distribution and manipulating the distributors American Apparel is ripping off the retail customer for this basic t-shirt.
5 comments:
I agree totally. Our brand is solely American Apparel and is based on the fact that Amer. App. is made in America and sweatshop free.
In addition I bought stock in Amer. App. to support a product that I stand behind. Maybe I can present this issue at the stockholders meeting, if I attend.
You are a L.A. based company that is helping propel their brand. I think they may have a blanket policy that is focused on the short term rather than the long. I understand that others may have been undercutting them with their own product, but there has to be another way to address the issue.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Be well,
Duan
Thanks for responding. I will try to list more details as they occur, but it is ridiculous that I have to tell customers that I can't provide them shirts. More silly is the idea that somehow the admin at American Apparel thinks they can control the market to this extent. Such folly leads to doom.
Just saw this. They are in real trouble. You might have to cut and paste to see.
American Apparel Sinks to New Low
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10761124/1/american-apparel-sinks-to-new-low.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
That really sucks, too bad. Maybe now American Apparel will get back to doing business instead of trying to control the market for blank t-shirts.
Are you still carrying American Apparel shirts? And if so for how long?
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