Hey Everyone,
Some of you know I'm still kind of a newbie at all of this, and I keep hearing the term "gray market" when it comes to missing barcodes on boxes, and I don't fully understand the reasoning behind it.
From what I can gather Habanos SA has different distributors for different countries/areas.
Those distributors are not supposed to sell outside their area?
So I'm told and I've read that that vendors will remove barcodes to protect those distributors.
I understand Habanos SA knowing which barcodes were sent to which distributor, and I assume a distributor may or may not keep records of which boxes were sold to vendors. (websites, cigar shops, etc)
But why pull the barcodes? Once a consumer has a box... how could that possibly be linked back and hurt a distributor regardless of continent the box ends up on?
am I missing the whole point/reasoning?
Please educate me. I look forward to the responses.
CC "Gray Market" Cigars
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JohnE1000
- Posts: 143
- Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 5:07 pm
Re: CC "Gray Market" Cigars
[quote author=CigarsAreAwesome17 link=topic=43084.msg174736#msg174736 date=1508173257]
So I'm told and I've read that that vendors will remove barcodes to protect those distributors.
[/quote]
The barcode is removed, in most cases, by the regional distributors, so it can't be traced back to them.
Habano SA turned a blind eye, because they are making money. That is the reason more and more boxes are coming with intact barcodes. It was not the case years ago.
So I'm told and I've read that that vendors will remove barcodes to protect those distributors.
[/quote]
The barcode is removed, in most cases, by the regional distributors, so it can't be traced back to them.
Habano SA turned a blind eye, because they are making money. That is the reason more and more boxes are coming with intact barcodes. It was not the case years ago.