British high street lacks competition?

Teak

Is it just me or does there seem to be a major lack of competition between high-street chains, especially for electrical goods? To the point where price is hardly an issue and it's more just about stock, location and personal preference?

Like over new years I noticed some sales in big chain electrical store. for a DVD-Recorder for £149.99. Fair enough, but another retail chain just 'by coincidence' were also selling a DVD-Recorder for £149.99 in the sale. Or when looking for an IPod Mini, all stores had it for £179, the RRP.

Shouldn't there be a bit more variation between stores and prices, in an open market?

Another example...a good few years ago I went to buy a 32" widescreen TV. Found one I liked in a big high street retail chain. Shopped around and all the main retailers had the same model for a similar normal price. However, I found out in a magazine a newer and much better model had come out some months ago to replace it. But I couldn't find the new model on the high street and the old model wasn't on sale or anything. Strange I thought. Did a little digging and found a mail-order company who offered the newer model for just slightly less than the high street retailers wanted for the old model. Infact they offered me the old model for around 40% less than the high street price. I went for the new model in the end.

Why the similar prices? Why all of them holding off selling the new model and keeping the old model price up? Call me cynical, but it felt a bit like market fixing, keeping the high street products and prices similar, so not to risk stiring up competition between retailers and causing lower prices.

juno

It's called an oligopoly, or perhaps monopolistic competition

shrek101

It isn't just shops though that don't have enough competition for years high streets look almost the same in terms of shops, but there are few manufacturers of many products too, they may be plenty of names but most are owned by big companies.

Some manufacturers have too tighter control on prices too.

WHA

The High Street clothing retailers do it as well. You can go from shop to shop for a particular style/colour of skirt/top etc., but can't find anything. The you look around a few months later, and they all have similar things to offer. It is not just seasonal or fashion - I am sure they simply copy eachother or are all buying similar products from the same sweatshop in the third world. I'm not thinking about high fashion here, just normal day to day work and casual wear.

I've noticed the same with home furnishings. You spend weeks/months looking for something specific then you find everwhere has them stocked to the ceilings, then a few months later, no-one has them anymore. There must be a constant low level of demand for things, not just peaks when they are heavily advertised/marketted. Or is it just a ploy to keep demand high?

This will always be a problem with the high incidence of cloned chain stores. We could do with a lot more independent small scale retailers that actually cater for what people want, when they want it.