A Note To The Yarn Manufacturers
Welcome to the Consumer Friendly Yarns site -- we are so glad you're here!
This site was created for the knitting and crochet communities (at their request) so that knitters and crocheters can be informed consumers regarding which yarn manufacturers require retail keystone pricing and which don't. Due to the recent exposure in the media and on the internet regarding the issue of keystone pricing within the yarn industry (specifically with the Tilli Tomas/Sarah's Yarns issue), knitters and crocheters have expressed their opinions regarding the practice of keystone pricing and many have chosen to buy only consumer-friendly yarns (those yarn manufacturers who do NOT require a specific mark-up of their yarns, whether it be 100%, 90% or any percentage of keystone) and have requested a list of "friendly" and "unfriendly" yarn manufacturers.
Our mission on this site is to accurately report the keystone pricing policies of all yarn manufacturers (large and small) and to be a reliable resource for the knitting and crochet communities to refer to before they make yarn purchases. If you (as a yarn manufacturer) notice that we have inaccurately reported your keystone policies, or if you have changed your policies recently, PLEASE contact us immediately and we will update our site accordingly.
For information regarding the Tilli Tomas/Sarah's Yarns issue, please visit Sarah's blog and navigate your way to the September archives (on the right navigation bar), specifically September 5th, 2006 and upwards. Other links to sites, podcasts, and threads discussing keystone pricing are listed below:
- Lime & Violet Podcast (be sure to read the listener comments)
- Cast-On Podcast
- Sexy Knitters Club website
- Live Journal Knitting Community
Whether price-fixing is illegal is still up for debate (although we have been informed that class action suits are being initiated). What we do know is that whether it's legal or not, most knitters and crocheters do not like the idea of yarn manufacturers requiring retail keystone pricing, consider it unethical, and are apparently willing to stop purchasing the yarns made by these manufacturers. Links to just a few of the sites with information regarding price fixing are listed below:
posted by luv2knit46 @ 9:51 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
If keystoning were illegal like you and Sarah's Yarns keep implicating...then Furniture stores, major retail stores such as Macy's, Bergners, and such would all be illegal. Get your facts straight...I am 100% sure if there really is a class action lawsuit against yarn companies, the yarn companies will come out of the lawsuit with their heads held up high. They are doing noting illegal.
Having been in the retail industry during my working life, I feel that this web site is not healthy. It is up to yarn manufacturers to decide what type of reputation they choose to have.
In the skin care industry, there are MANY products that are only available through Estheticians. You don't hear Walmart having a fit about it.
Please spend your time and energy feeding the poor, getting children off the street and stopping crime.
Alchemy Yarns weighing in. We would love to provide documentation that we are and have always beeen "friendly," in many ways! Including the fact that we do not require keystone pricing, not do we give "suggested retail pricing."
Unfortunately, we have not been successful in contacting the "contact us" link on this site. Could someone from Consumer Friendly Yarns kindly write us back and give us an address where we may provide documentation.
Thanks for your work to keep all things fair and equal!
www.alchemyyarns.com
Anonymous, there is much information regarding vertical price fixing, and we urge all who are interested to do further research and draw their own conclusions as to the legality of vertical price fixing as it pertains to the yarn industry. Our conclusion is that mandatory keystone pricing (vertical price fixing) is clearly a violation of Anti-Trust laws. Essentially, any time competition is restricted, prices are likely to increase and quality is likely to suffer. If a business does not have competition, it has little incentive to improve its quality, lower its prices, or become more efficient -- therefore antitrust laws were established to protect the consumer from low quality, falsely inflated, and over-priced products.
Here are just a few links on this subject, but there are many more.
http://library.findlaw.com/1999/Jan/1/241454.html
http://law.freeadvice.com/resources/gov_material/ftc_guide_to_antitrust_laws_illegal_business_practices.htm
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/business/antitrust.html
Anonymous, just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's never done. See our jails.
Also, some things are NOT illegal. They are still not good practices. If a product is good, people will buy it. No need to have pricing set to make it "seem" good.
Why not let the product stand on it's own?
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