What is MAP?

There are throughout our website a number of items that either have "Too low to show" in place of a selling price, or a caption indicating they are displayed at MAP price, and either add to cart for "Transaction Price", or a reminder with our phone number to call and get the price. The reason for this is what is known as "MAP", or Minimum Advertisable Price.

MAP is a voluntarily agreement that all legitimate manufacturer authorized retailers enter into with their authorized USA supplier, usually the manufacturer, and in some cases, the official USA distribution arm designated by the manufacturer. According to such agreements, retailers can usually sell MAP restricted items for any price they choose, but may not display in any print or online advertising, a price below the Minimum Advertisable Price.

We adhere to MAP restrictions because our relationship with our authorized suppliers demands it. We are an honorable, honest company - we keep agreements with vendors AS WELL as our customers, because it is the right way to do business. Such adherence also guarantees our customers...YOU...get proper and prompt service from these manufacturers should you need it.

We respect our MAP contracts, and wherever the scope of that agreement permits us an avenue to supply product for a transactional selling price below MAP, we make those prices available to you in the easiest, quickest manner allowed us. Depending on the severity of the MAP restrictions, we generally handle such case in two fashions:

  • The hidden price: These are the items that display "Too low to show" or a similar caption. Such items instruct you to add the item to your shopping cart. At that time, you will see your discounted transaction price...the price you pay us. These manufacturers are generally satisfied by such prices not being immediately visible.

    Other manufacturers hold to a stricter standard.
  • MAP price displayed - Facility supplied for you to let us email you selling price: Above the displayed price will be a message indicating that the price displayed is the Minimum Advertised price. There will be an input box for entering your email address, upon submission of which your transaction sale price will be sent to that email address, along with a link back to a copy of the item page, within a private, restricted area of our website, where you will be able to order the item directly for the emailed selling price. For those who have access to their email while shopping online, the entire transaction, from submission of the email address, to submission of order, would not take more than a couple of minutes longer, than would ordering without requesting an emailed price. The small effort it might take to enter your email address in order to obtain such transaction prices is well worth the effort in just about every case, as your savings can be tremendous.

Because some of our prices are lower than  MAP prices, we are not allowed to publish them on the website.  We regret if this causes you any inconveniences, but we must adhere to the rules in order to continue bringing you the lowest prices.

You can always call us for the price and availability of items, as well as for any other questions you may have.  If you need a price right away, please call us.

Thank you for your understanding.


Close