5 ms·

Usually it doesn't work to buy products at full retail price and resell them at a higher retail price. I guess the "in Canada" part is how it worked out for hi

Usually it doesn't work to buy products at full retail price and resell them at a higher retail price. I guess the "in Canada" part is how it worked out for him? Trader Joe's probably wants to protect their brand in hopes of a future Canadian expansion.

kefka 9y ago
Lets be serious here. This is a standard "I'm wrong, but I have more money so Ill exhaust your resources to get what I want." There's no trademark devaluation. There's no copyright infringement. There's no patent infringement. This is straight up First Sale Doctrine stuff. And even if there was the above 3, SCOUTS ruled those rights are exhausted on sale recently. This is directly an issue of "More Money = Better Legal Justice". And that should be very worrying.
- ianai 9y ago
  There ought to be a law against that. Better, an amendment. No idea on the verbiage though.
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    IANAL but my impression is the provision in legal due process for expediency is relevant only to the criminal justice system. This example makes for a very good argument that it ought to also apply to the civil justice system. The main mechanism that is used for this kind of legal action is the cost of retaining a law firm for extended periods of time. If the time was reduced the costs would be reduced also. That would partially equalize access to legal representation in civil disputes.
    - ianai 9y ago
      Or make it unlawful to extend a case artificially or until the other party goes bankrupt.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  ^This. This kind of shit along with the archaic copyright system we have (though thats slowly improving) I think is one of the biggest reasons the American economy is so sluggish right now. Easiest way to fix this I think is to make it so that the plaintiff in these kinds of suits has to show real, actual damage: not to branding, not to "theoretical sales", not to "possible expansion", but actual and documented ill effects on their business resulting from the activity of the defendant, and more importantly make the award for such a case relative to that damage. That would shut down 90% of these cases overnight.
  - battlebot 9y ago
    Copyright enforcement has made the Internet a lot less usable because of all the "muh movies" by the big, monied interests. In their defense, they saw what happened to the music industry and freaked out. But still, Mickey Mouse and tons of other old things should be in the public domain by now but aren't thanks to lobbying and big money.
jandrese 9y ago
It worked because Trader Joe's hasn't bothered to open up stores in Canada for some reason. They created a market vacuum and this guy came in to fill it.
thaumasiotes 9y ago
> Usually it doesn't work to buy products at full retail price and resell them at a higher retail price. I guess the "in Canada" part is how it worked out for him? This is the most tried-and-true, reliable method of becoming rich in history. You buy something at full retail price, move it, and resell it at a higher full retail price.
- battlebot 9y ago
  I agree except for the full retail price part. How well can that work when margins are so thin? It's one thing if you bought goods in 1885 and moved them west yourself, but it's quite another these days when it's hard to find any place that isn't saturated with the same competition. All you get are the suckers who don't know the prices.

kefka 9y ago

Lets be serious here. This is a standard "I'm wrong, but I have more money so Ill exhaust your resources to get what I want." There's no trademark devaluation. There's no copyright infringement. There's no patent infringement. This is straight up First Sale Doctrine stuff. And even if there was the above 3, SCOUTS ruled those rights are exhausted on sale recently. This is directly an issue of "More Money = Better Legal Justice". And that should be very worrying.

ianai 9y ago
There ought to be a law against that. Better, an amendment. No idea on the verbiage though.
- metaphorm 9y ago
  IANAL but my impression is the provision in legal due process for expediency is relevant only to the criminal justice system. This example makes for a very good argument that it ought to also apply to the civil justice system. The main mechanism that is used for this kind of legal action is the cost of retaining a law firm for extended periods of time. If the time was reduced the costs would be reduced also. That would partially equalize access to legal representation in civil disputes.
  - ianai 9y ago
    Or make it unlawful to extend a case artificially or until the other party goes bankrupt.
FussyZeus 9y ago
^This. This kind of shit along with the archaic copyright system we have (though thats slowly improving) I think is one of the biggest reasons the American economy is so sluggish right now. Easiest way to fix this I think is to make it so that the plaintiff in these kinds of suits has to show real, actual damage: not to branding, not to "theoretical sales", not to "possible expansion", but actual and documented ill effects on their business resulting from the activity of the defendant, and more importantly make the award for such a case relative to that damage. That would shut down 90% of these cases overnight.
- battlebot 9y ago
  Copyright enforcement has made the Internet a lot less usable because of all the "muh movies" by the big, monied interests. In their defense, they saw what happened to the music industry and freaked out. But still, Mickey Mouse and tons of other old things should be in the public domain by now but aren't thanks to lobbying and big money.

jandrese 9y ago

It worked because Trader Joe's hasn't bothered to open up stores in Canada for some reason. They created a market vacuum and this guy came in to fill it.

thaumasiotes 9y ago

> Usually it doesn't work to buy products at full retail price and resell them at a higher retail price. I guess the "in Canada" part is how it worked out for him? This is the most tried-and-true, reliable method of becoming rich in history. You buy something at full retail price, move it, and resell it at a higher full retail price.

battlebot 9y ago
I agree except for the full retail price part. How well can that work when margins are so thin? It's one thing if you bought goods in 1885 and moved them west yourself, but it's quite another these days when it's hard to find any place that isn't saturated with the same competition. All you get are the suckers who don't know the prices.