When I was in retail, there was a fairly easy divide between the "full service" stores that really tried to sell at MAP and the warehouse type establishments that had their floor prices considerably below the MAP. So, let's say, a hot big screen was advertised for $3,000 MAP everywhere but a discounter had it on the floor for $2,700 (with the wholesale cost being around $2,100). The idea here for a discounter is a greater volume at lower prices. If that establishment was large and known enough, it'd do tremendous business per square foot compared to the major chains. Their problem was having the same brand names as the major chains (such as Circuit City, Best Buy and alike) because the nationwide chains moved more overall merchandise and thus would refuse to carry a brand sold at the discounters. At the very lest, they'd demand a separate SKU created for a model that the discounters might sell. Often that model might have some form of crippling, such as mono instead of stereo sound, a different body style, etc.
