We at Herbert's have always prided ourselves on fair and consistently low prices. During the past couple of years, we have noticed several companies institute Minimum Advertised Price policies (also known as MAP or IMAP).
Very simply, this means there is minimum price that we are allowed to sell or advertise some products for online. Often these minimum prices are higher than our regular prices. If we do not comply with the various manufacturers' policies, we have been told they will no longer sell us product.
For us, these policies primarily affect our work boots, as we have always maintained aggressively competitive pricing on them. While some retailers choose to take a full margin and offer discounts to unions and large corporate customers, we feel that everyone deserves a fair and competitive price, not just those who belong to certain groups.
These policies have caused us quite a bit of frustration as they basically force us to raise our online prices. Our in-store prices remain under our control. This means that some products will be cheaper in-store than online.
Many of these companies explain these policies as a way to protect smaller retailers from a few large online retailers. While we appreciate their desire to protect small independents like ourselves, we feel this is not the best way to go about it.
For more information on in-store pricing or for current promotions, please call us at 877-2HERBERTS, or via our Contact Us page.
The following companies currently maintain MAPs: Blundstone, Bogs (CSA), Terra, Timberland, Vismo, Royer, KEEN, Dovetail Workwear
**Due to COVID, some companies have allowed us to remove the MAP price and use in store prices.