I've had this on my mind lately and this thread (Adafruit has the RPi Pico W in stock, for now...) pushed the discussion out of my head and onto this forum.

They are limiting it to one per customer.

Why? I keep seeing this everywhere. "Limit: X per customer"
For essential needs (EX: Diabetic meds, baby formula, drinking water) I get it. But for Raspberry Pis, chocolate cookies, and rifle primers? Why?
And before you say "because scalpers will buy them all up and sell them at 1000% markup,"... That is obvious, and does not answer "why."
I would rather have the option to pay some slimy stranger $60 for a $6 widget than to have no option at all. But I would rather not have to deal with slimy strangers.

If I were the retailer who just received in a shipment, I think I would fill all my backorder commitments and then price the remaining units at like 80% of what the scalpers charge. Or more specifically, just cheap enough to make it not worth the scalpers' time to buy me out, but expensive enough to make my stock last until the next shipment. Set the price so the units move at the same speed and in similar order quantities as they did before the shortage.

Do retailers have some duty (legal or imagined) to offer goods at fixed cost regardless of fluctuations in supply and demand? In my book their job is to have what I need when I need it, and that includes in the quantity I need. I mean, isn't that their whole purpose as a retail operation? Otherwise wouldn't we all just buy FOB from the factory and wait 6 months for 5k units when we only needed 12? This is the only reason I ever buy anything from Grainger. I can count on them to have what I need when nobody else does, even if at a butt-puckering markup.

The only reason I can see is that the retailers don't want to be seen as being the actual scalpers. I get that. But that's how the world works. The stock market and our whole economy works because of "buy low, sell high." I don't know what makes Raspberry Pi special that it doesn't have to play in the same arena.

 

A large part of any long term commodity (there are lots of controllers on the market) business is loyalty. "Limit: X per customer" is what you do when you want to be a place customers can rely on during scarcity. I would think companies must make 'more' money in the long term or they wouldn't do it.

 

It is all about freedom, both individual and corporate; assuming you buy the notion that corporations are people. Attempts by "an authority" to act in a coercive way often result in violent confrontations. I think recent history is rife with examples. This was the way it worked in the days of laissez-faire capitalism, where getting sick or injured was cause for termination. Seems like regression is the order of the day.

 

Agree with @nsaspook, it’s good business. I would rather sell 1 each to 100 customers who might come back when supplies ease up than sell 100 to someone who might be hoarding and never come back.

 

Agree with @nsaspook, it’s good business. I would rather sell 1 each to 100 customers who might come back when supplies ease up than sell 100 to someone who might be hoarding and never come back.

I'm not arguing in favor of simply deleting the restriction; rather, replacing it with a different policy. A policy of raising the price to the point where hoarding is discouraged but people who actually need 100 of them can still get 100 of them. Think about if you're a small business who builds and sells a product that has these embedded inside. Being able to buy only one, is not going to put food on the table and the fact that the $6 price tag is preserved, is of little consolation. But if you can buy as many as you need at higher cost you can still fill orders. Hard times, but at least the doors stay open.

 

I'm not arguing in favor of simply deleting the restriction; rather, replacing it with a different policy. A policy of raising the price to the point where hoarding is discouraged but people who actually need 100 of them can still get 100 of them. Think about if you're a small business who builds and sells a product that has these embedded inside. Being able to buy only one, is not going to put food on the table and the fact that the $6 price tag is preserved, is of little consolation. But if you can buy as many as you need at higher cost you can still fill orders. Hard times, but at least the doors stay open.

It's still a commodity. Commodity pricing has increased across the board for controllers but I don't see using excess pricing (scalping) as being very good for OEM direct buy consumers in a bidding war with no extra supply for the losers at any price..

 

Clone yourself and have each clone order the obligatory 1. Problem solved.

 

In this case it’s because people will buy as many as possible and then resell them for exorbitant prices.

Adafruit are cooperating with the Pi pricing scheme making it very accessible.

For an extreme example of this sort of thing see the luxury watch business. .