Actually most LARGE retailers use those distribution wholesalers. I've seen "Ingram Micro" listed in the price card of a Creative Labs Voodoo Blaster at Best Buy before! (They f'd up.) CompUSA uses one of these as well, I think TechData, or that's what my customer rep said.
Three of the larger wholesalers are TechData, Ingram, Merisel. The successful small retailers do not use these. When I was trying to start my computer business, I discovered that the prices from the "wholesalers" were about the same as what I could get buying it from a local OEM shop. BestBuy and CompUSA etc make $$$ since the wholesalers give discounts like 10% after you've purchased $10,000 in 1 year. I can't imagine what kind of discounts they give the large retailers!
BTW, if anyone wants the name of a good wholesale distributor, let me know privately. I had to resort to corporate espionage in order to find these guys. (No black bag stuff, just crawling in the trash cans.)
Cheers,
Timbur |
