We have an opinion poll for you to help us prioritize future posts. Are You Interested in Imported (Gray Market) Camera Gear? The poll has three options. If you have a longer opinion or different answer, please feel free to leave a comment or use the online contact form.
I never considered grey market products until Nikon (and to some extent Canon) started the MAP pricing programs. MAP is nothing but price fixing by another name. I am a staunch supporter if the free market and believe in supporting local stores who offer superior service at a reasonable price.
Thanks for the feedback! Indeed, MAP programs are thinly veiled attempts at price fixing. And the MAP programs are probably not helping camera sales, since price changes are unnatural instead of developing organically in the market.
If the manufacturers loved local camera stores so much to create MAP programs to protect them (as they claim), they could have easily sold the camera gear to the local stores at a bigger discount, and let the local stores decide where to set the prices. This would give the local camera stores more flexibility, they could optimize volume of sales vs profit margins.