For example, I heard someone say that they might get 60" smart tvs for about $300-$400 a piece and sell them for around $1,000-$1,200 each. And on the company's website (lets say Samsung), it be the same $1,000-$1,200 amount. Not the price they gave the business (Walmart, Sears, etc...).
How is this achieved?
Retailers and manufacturers negotiate with each very hard for the "wholesale" price, which is the price that the retailer pays the manufacturer (or distributor if the retailer is too small to deal directly with the manufacturer). Some retailers get better deals than others.
There is also a thing called the "Minimum Advertised Price" (MAP) in the United States, which the manufacturer tells retailers they shouldn't sell the item below that price. Price fixing is illegal in the US, but MAP is legal because retailers CAN set the price below MAP, but the manufacturers typically retaliate by cutting back co-marketing funds or volume rebates or some such thing. MAPs are used to prevent retailers from acting like wholesalers so one retailer doesn't use its advantageous wholesale price to undercut every other retailer. And it also supports an item's retail price in the marketplace.
The factorys almost always stick to the high suggested retail price, so they are not undercutting their wholesale customers and eroding the overall market value of their products, so yea the factory makes more profit from direct sales but it's typically only a small portion of their overall sales. Manufacturers have lower costs when selling wholesale, shipping in large lots and shifting the buyer support costs to the retail businesses. They can also make more precise production volume plans with large contracts in hand in advance.
I highly doubt the discount stores are making anything near a 300% profit on electronics. Remember that during some advertising promotions they might even have loss-leader products that they make no profit on just to get buyers into the stores to get other items.
Large retail outlets buy in bulk and get trade discounts. You could do some research by talking to the manufacturers or talking to some small independent retailers. It is very difficult to make a living in shop retail when people can compare many online suppliers and pick the lowest price.
The best way of buying cheap and selling at a profit is to by a container load of product from China.
Big businesses buy in large numbers and get a bulk discount.
