I would like to respond to both Daniel McAbee and Jim Shifeling (see 'Daniel McAbee of The Tangled Web on Anime Competition' and 'Jim Schifeling of Acme Comics on Anime at Mass Merchants').  My comments were not meant to be incendiary, but it appears that this is a more sensitive subject than I thought.

Daniel has an unfortunate circumstance in that his location puts him in very close proximity to several major competitors who are competing against each other.  They end up getting into price wars and no one wins.  The consumer realizes a temporary benefit in lower prices, but as competition fades, so will the lower prices.  Unfortunately some consumers' decisions will be dictated strictly by price, and even a level playing field will not help if a competitor is willing to use an item as a loss leader either to gain market share or to get the consumer into the store in the hopes that they will buy other high margin items.

My suggestion here would be to see if by shopping around, perhaps a better cost could be obtained.  Contact other distributors as well as the manufacturers and see what you can work out with them.  Many mass merchants do not buy directly from the manufacturers, but from distributors.  For the most part, all distributors are receiving the same cost prices.