Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Cruising through my 100’s of news e-mails I receive every morning I came across some news on a court case that expands on the legality of manufacturers setting the retail price.

I have vented about a practice called Unilateral Pricing on numerous occasions and now the Supreme Court is forced to evaluate it. The case is “Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc. v. PSKS Inc., d/b/a Kay’s Kloset”.

Basically the case goes like this: The Brighton line of women’s leather belts are made by Leegin Creative Leather Products who sells them through specialty retailers who agree to sell them at Leegin’s suggested retail prices. In 2002, Leegin learned that Kay’s Kloset in Lewisville, Texas, was selling their belts at below the suggested retail. Leegin cut off their supply and Kay’s Kloset took Leegin to court.

They successfully argued that setting minimum prices violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Kay’s Kloset won the case and received more than $1 million in damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans upheld the judgment.

But it doesn’t end there.

Leegin appealed to the Supreme Court. Leegin wants the Supreme Court to overturn the “Dr. Miles precedent” — a 1911 case that established that “resale price maintenance,” letting manufacturers set minimum prices, was illegal under the Sherman Act.

Leegin contends that minimum prices aren’t necessarily anticompetitive and, if allowed to set them, manufacturers would still be able to compete in non-price areas such as customer service.

Bull shit!

All of us have been affected by this practice. The practice is prevalent in Home Theater, video games and home appliances… ever tried getting a Sub Zero fridge at a discount? It’s not possible because of Unilateral Pricing. How about Xbox or a PS2. Price fixing limits who can buy. Plus the manufacturer doesn’t take the hit. It’s the retailer who absorbs the loss.

With more companies and brands merging, this practice, if allowed to grow it will affect everything we buy and ultimately damage our economy. If manufacturers are allowed to set retail prices all of us will pay more and have less choice. I’d pay attention to this one.

You can read more here:

http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739_20942-44650–,00.html

http://www.antitrustlawblog.com/article-antitrust-issues-take-center-stage-
during-supreme-courts-20062007-term.html

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2007/02/are_bargain_hunters_
about_to_l.html?nav=rss_blog

Flying sucks! I use to do it a lot in my dancer days. But I have grown to really hate it.
This last week I had to spend sometime in Tampa, Florida. The airport experience coming back was a classic example of why I hate it.

I arrived early (11:30am), checked my luggage and noticed my flight to Dallas Fort Worth was already delayed an hour. Since I was catching a connecting flight in Dallas to Burbank, I didn’t want miss it, so I ran to catch an earlier flight which had also been delayed. As we taxied out onto the tarmac the engines stopped and we waited two hours for clearance only to find that the Dallas Fort Worth Airport was completely shut down do to bad weather and all flights in were canceled.

At 3:30pm, we went back to the gate to de-plane.

The line at the American Airlines ticketing counter was over 700 deep. I had to wonder if I would make it home at all when they called out the people who wanted to get to LAX. 20 of us jumped out of line. Some of us had been headed to Burbank others to Ontario. We all knew that if we got into Southern California it was a lot better than spending extra days in Tampa. I thought we got routed onto a different plane…

After running downstairs, getting my luggage from baggage claim, rechecking it, running back upstairs to take the tram out to the gates, going through security, for the second time… shoes off, belt off, complete check of my purse, and brief case, I finally was back at the gate.

Oops, because of the Dallas Fort Worth airport closure, the crew for our plane was stuck in Dallas. Again my flight was cancelled. Back downstairs to wait in line and get re-ticketed. We were finally sent over to the Delta counter to get ticketed for a direct flight into LAX. They said they had our luggage transferred and at that point I didn’t care if they did or not.

Back up the stairs, onto the tram to the gate. The third time through security, they paid extra attention to our entire group and pulled all 20 of us aside. I guess there’s a code for last minute tickets and that flags security. Full body searches along with a run through these “walk-in” machines that blow air… It took a long while.

Every time I went through I had to dump the $2 bottle of water I bought for the flight after I passed security. No liquids over 3 oz were allowed through security. It was a running joke.

Minutes ticked by and it was our last chance to get out and not get stranded in Tampa. A family of 5 got held back in security and ended up not making the flight.

I was lucky. I was one out of hundreds who got out. As I write this, I am sure hundreds of people have still not been able to catch a flight out of Tampa. Plus now with the nasty weather hitting the East Coast, many more will be stranded.

The Delta flight was great. My luggage had made it through…. Quite a miracle in itself. The Super Shuttle to get from LAX to Montrose took forever. I didn’t care…I had made it back and would sleep in my own bed that night.

As a LA native, (born and raised on the Westside) I have seen neighborhoods change. Some of these changes are great… some are really awful. But there are a few places where the changes are both.

A trip to the LF store sale on Friday gave me an education into both.

The Bad….
Robertson Blvd. near Cedars has always had cute shops and eateries. The Ivy used to be a cozy neighborhood haunt where celebs and deal makers met without fanfare. Now the paparazzi set up camp with telephoto lens aimed at celebs while they munch down lunch.
It’s a real freaky business. Heck, last week in Westwood some major political dignitary was having lunch on Broxton and even with all the secret service, police and security it wasn’t half as nuts as Robertson Blvd. has become.

Parking has always been difficult with limited street parking. But now with the presence of dozens of camera clad celebrity chasers, condo building madness, tourist and fashion boutiques galore, parking is at best… a nightmare.

The Good….
Robertson Blvd. has a slew of great fashion boutiques… Lisa Kline, Kitson, Madison, Agnes B and of course the LF store. No amount of parking mayhem would keep me away from a great sale.

After finally finding a parking spot, I waded through the ocean of celeb photo chasing dick heads, tourists and fashion mavens to shop the LF Stores 60% off sale. I was on the hunt. I wanted, some Jeffery Campbell pumps.

These were my first choice…

I loved these

and these caught my eye

But because my feet are sooo tiny and he only makes down to a size 6, I couldn’t make any of these work for me.

Resigned that I wouldn’t get what I wanted, I shopped all around the store. Great deals were everywhere on stylish duds. Jeans, coats, jackets, tees, sweaters and some rather neat handbags….Everything is 60% off!

I also spotted some cute empire waist T- shirt baby doll dress by Emma and Sam in purple, red and green.

I picked up two of these and just as I was about to leave without my shoes, when I found these

Because of the way the strap hugs the arch of the instep, my smaller than a size 6 foot, fit.
YIPPEE! So since I got what I wanted all at 60% off, I was stupid happy.

It’s a bit shallow of me to get soo excited about a pair of shoes. But I am a closet shoe addict and keep my shoe yearnings in check most the time. At 60% off I could let go a little.

BTW… The LF store sale is also on line. But if you want the shoes ya gotta go in.

www.lfstores.com