I would be interested in if the buyers have fixed terms for 12 month periods or shoot for a longer term deal such as over 3 years. I can assure you that when the dollar dipped so badly retailers in general crapped their pants & would have pushed for extended fixed pricing terms. This would be why we have the current situation & Hasbro would have gone in with a worst case scenario to ensure X% profitability.
As I previously said Hasbro are under no obligation (if this is the case) to pass on ANY price reductions if the contract stipulates fixed pricing & periods. Think of it like this guys. The stores gambled with their expectations & lost heavily the last 18 months for their gamble. If I was in their situation I would have done the exact same thing & anyone who didn't should have lost their job.
If the dollar nosedived back to $0.60 again we as consumers would be buffered from the majority of that impact through the retailers FPA's.
I understand that the major retailers are doing it incredibly tough in the marketplace right now & online sales are hurting them worse than you can imagine. I am working on a very large packaging contract with one major retailer currently as they are looking to attack the online sector head on.
I did advise them as a consumer that their pricing had better offer an incentive for me to not buy either in person at a physical store or online O/S. The point of this is that retailers are sitting up & taking notice of market trends.
The thing is that we need to remember is that smaller nice traders like RK or BBTS are akin to a small speedboat who can turn on a dime & adapt much faster to a lumbering titanic retailer who take time & more importantly have stakeholders they need to justify the expense of opening online portals for clients to utilise.
Exactly mate. I am no rocket scientist but due to my job I feel that I can add a reasonable explanation without resorting to hysteria & unfounded accusations (not saying that anyone is doing so here mind you). the simple fact is I believe that rather than a conspiracy between retailers & Hasbro this is just the way it has worked out due to contracts. I am not privy to their contract stipulations but I have worked on plenty of large contracts in my time to know how it works & reatailers especially must minimise risk & financial exposure.