An End to an Invention

http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4418292

From one great idea to another.... what comes next after iPoD?

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 10/25/2010

Sony presses 'stop' on Walkman in Japan

After three decades and more than 220 million units, Sony has stopped selling its Walkman cassette player in Japan, the company said Monday, admitting the gadget could not keep up in the digital age.

Sony presses 'stop' on Walkman in Japan

Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka came up with the idea for the gadget on one of his overseas trips, during which he used to listen to music on existing tape recorders that were too heavy to be considered truly portable.

The initial reaction to the Walkman was poor. Many retailers thought that a cassette player without a recording mechanism had little chance of success.

That changed, and today, including newer digital models that use flash memory, total sales of the Walkman have reached 385 million around the world.

Fair Price Shop Awards and Not So Helpful Economy

With the influx of tourists, in 2003, the Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs ( now known as the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operative and Consumerism.) took to finds ways to safeguard consumer market. Critically two main practices were of greater importance: fair pricing and ethical trading.

Participating retailers are judged not only on fair priced but also quality of services, goods, customer friendliness and sufficient after-sales & returned-good policies.

The evaluation and judging committees consider 20 catergories for the awards.

CODE	CATEGORY
01	Leather products / Shoes / Bags
02	Electrical & Electronic Products
03	Handicrafts / Antiques (termasuk pewter, alat muzik antik dll)
04	Jewelleries / Accesories
05	Textile / Clothings (including kain ela, garment / apparels , neck ties etc)
06	Batik / Songket
07	Cameras
08	Wrist Watches
09	Cosmetics& Fragrances
10	Cassette & Optic Disks
11	Telecommunication Devices
12	Books / Magazines
13	Optical Glasses
14	Computer & Accessories
15	Retail Shops
16	Mini Market
17	Supermarket
18	Hypermarket
19	Restaurants
20	Food stalls

http://www.kpdnkk.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15675&Itemid=681

In times of rising inflation and bad economy, it is difficult to mark-to-market price of goods with sufficient profits to be made and at the same time meeting customers . Rental, utilities and service taxes are some of the padded costs to consider.

With customers shrinking wallets, un-checked marketing behaviour could see price-wars or undercutting in exchange of better market share. Thus it won't be fair price but driving the retailers out of business.

Two strategies that could be applied here are 1) grouping together with an improved chain-supply system. This strategy requires the participation of same industry players and a truly independent group of administrators/consultants to ensure rules are followed. 2) to attached two different values of products and creating a totally brand new product pricing that are largely acceptable by the consumers.

Grouping together has been done in companies like groups of independent pharmacies when buying lots of medicines to break bulk for better discounts. It is one of the ways to match chain pharmacies like Guardians and Watsons to offer comparatively low price.

Attaching two different values are more for product pricing and tagging purposes. It attracts buyers to consider better value, budget-spending and easier choice-making.

So, have fun shopping in a Fair Price Shop!

dd