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[MrSurly]

I may be the last to know this, but Dunlop has made a change or two in their marketing policies since the last time I bought them.
This could be useful stuff to know when shopping for tires:

This time around the tire-shopping chore, I've discovered that Dunlop has implemented a new pricing control system; the result is that it does no good to shop around. EVERYbody has the same (206.79) price on the rear and 148.87 for the front for my particular sizes.
They call it the MAP or minimum advertised price policy.

EDITED to repair link OK the original link was wrong company. I haven't found the link to Dunlop's MAP policy, but in an interview, their new leader mentioned it briefly: Montasser said. “Quite a few had 20 or so and had to buy the extra 10 to become a Pro Dealer.”
Separately, Dunlop also recently became the first major motorcycle tire manufacturer to implement a MAP program on select tire models.
“In order for the industry to succeed, we need to help the brick-and-mortar stores,” Montasser said."

The link to that interview/article: http://powersportsbusiness.com/top-stories/2016/06/24/dunlop-pro-dealer-program-starts-strong/


It's no different than Playstations or iPhones or other products that are marketed with a similar policy.[/s]

<I'm not complaining, I may actually applaud this move>

So, anyway, I recently bought the rear tire from 'Zilla... but now sort of wish I'd bought it locally. (Had I known then, etc, I would have.)

I need the front tire, now, and I can get it from my local indy (who is a 'Dunlop Pro dealer') for precisely the same money as anywhere online, except for local sales tax. So, Thursday, I gets new front tire.
The point is, if you're in the market for Dunlop products, consider buying local, as the online shopping incentive has disappeared.

And, there's more:
If the dealer you buy from is a "Dunlop Pro Dealer", then you can get a Pro dealer exclusive "24/7 Road Hazard tire assistance plan". I'm not sure of the details but apparently its a towing AND repair plan. I don't know if or how this affects or applies to the HD dealers.

[ultrafxr]

Isn't this like what used to be called Fair Trade years ago?  Not exactly sure of the details but I didn't think a manufacturer could dictate selling prices.  Restraint of trade and price fixing seem like applicable descriptive words to me.  But it is what it is.  Dunlop is pretty darn big and I assume they know what they can and cannot do.   

[grc]

Sadly Jerry our government has seen fit to spend more time protecting big business than it does consumers, so those regulations and laws you remember about price fixing have gone the way of the dinosaurs.  More and more companies are choosing the MAP marketing plan, in what I think is a misguided effort to "protect the brand".  Harley likes to use that phrase a lot as well, thus their anticompetitive stance with dealers on many things.  BUT, as far as I know MAP doesn't mean they can't sell something at a lower price, it means they can't advertise or publicize selling at a lower price.  Supposedly you have to pay the same exact price for an Apple product no matter where you buy it, right?  Well I've bought new iPods at discounted prices from legitimate retailers, and last I checked Apple hadn't cut them off.  The same goes for Harley products.  I can still find 20% off dealers on the internet, and Harley hasn't shut any of them down or punished them.

Once the threats from Dunflop to the various retailers have lost their immediate impact, I assume you will find dealers willing to discount.  The only difference is they won't advertise the discounted prices up front.

Jerry

[Cat Eye]

Every now and then Dunlop runs a special and gives you a $50 gift card if you buy both front and back tires.

This is through their web site.

Cat

[North Star]

Yeah they just had a $40 rebate sale. I bought a set of American Elites from Revzilla. Used $20 in Revzilla bucks, plus the $40 rebate= $300 for both tires shipped.

[FlaHeatWave]

The illegal price-fixing would be between two different companies such as Dunlop and Michelin...

 in this case Dunlop is not so much trying to "protect the brand" as their independent dealers, the small guys, so that they can compete with mail order on a local level.

It's fairly common to see items on the internet that you have to go to the checkout to see the actual sale price.

[MrSurly]

I got the front installed at the Indy. Same price as online for the tire itself. I bought the road hazard, uncertain about any details on the towing that is implied in the website. I thirty days to bail on it. If I can't get more info, I might just get out of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grc]

........
 in this case Dunlop is not so much trying to "protect the brand" as their independent dealers, the small guys, so that they can compete with mail order on a local level.

It's fairly common to see items on the internet that you have to go to the checkout to see the actual sale price.

That's included in the "protect the brand" comment I made earlier.  Harley did the same thing when it started restricting dealer discount advertising, restricted selling certain things like ESP's out of their market area, etc.  The only thing left I can think of to protect those poor uncompetitive dealers is to restrict each dealer's bike sales to people who reside in their marketing area.  I guess that would shut down those big national ads for the mega dealers though, and those guys have a lot of influence with the brass at Harley.  I can think of one in Texas in particular that sells a lot of bikes to people who don't reside in their official marketing area. 

Just like what happened with the Harley discount dealers, who are back on the web selling parts at a discount, I expect Dunlop retailers will figure out the system and be back selling at lower than suggested retail prices in the near future.  It's the nature of a competitive "free market" system for sellers to seek an advantage and thus a larger share of the market, and of course for buyers to seek out a better deal.  If everyone really cared about protecting those little guys, we wouldn't have local brick and mortar stores of all kinds closing shop thanks to things like Amazon.

Jerry