That's standard practice for all the big box stores...WalMart, Home Depot, Lowe's etc. However, it's not what was suggested earlier in the thread. The poster claimed that Spyderco was producing a high-quality Para2 for some retailers and a low-quality Para2 for WalMart.
Adding a lower cost product to the lineup is one issue. Producing two versions of the same product with different quality controls for different retailers is a completely different (and highly unethical) beast. Anyone who believes a company like Spyderco (or Becker, etc) would agree to the latter is woefully uninformed.
right then...
You guys might not believe this........... A guy from the gun club bought a Spyderco Para II from walmart and it is not even close to smooth as the one I git from Knife works. I believe that companys make a lesser line of goods to meet what walmart wants to pay .They cut a few corners and sell it to walmart .
i'm going to have to argue that the poster said and meant "standard quality" and "lower-quality", not "high-quality" and "low-quality; not exactly the same thing to my mind.
now, do companies like Spyderco and what not sell tiered items for stuff that amounts to mass produced blister pack stuff? i don't believe they do.
now the stuff that comes in boxes? that have higher price points that the likes of Walmart can't support? sometimes i wonder... i don't think Walmart is going to be selling the nicer Spydercos, which ARE high quality knives. they DO sell the "value priced" lines though - different models. cheap stuff. easy to make. Spyderoco perhaps is even encouraged to expand those lines. plastic handled simple locking folders with steel that is perhaps not "as nice". good knife? to be sure, but not "the good stuff". teirs? nah. that's silly.
now, another related issue: some companies do sell their blems. where do those blems go? mmm... many items are refurbs, or seconds. they go somewhere... they get sold.
there have been a lot of complaints that Becker knives from Amazon have been unusually defective compared to other companies (like Tomars). with Amazon, i'm guessing that sometimes customers return items, and as long as it LOOKS good enough, Amazon flips them. i know some big box stores have their own shrink wrapping machine, and resell returns as new. friends of mine have opened video cameras to find pre-shot birthday parties on the memory, not 3 weeks old :> hah.
i'm also amused by "generics". it's everywhere. you can goto a drug store, and find your favorite item as a generic, most likely made by the same factory, and line, as the name brand item. this has extended these days to everything. like powdered drinks. since i gave up soda for the most part, but still want some flavor now and then when i'm not drinking more natural things like tea or coffee, i've been trying those "powders in a tube". sparingly at least. some of them even have no artificial sweeteners (koolaid!) - takes getting used to :> however, right next to that stuff, is... something in packaging that's 99% the same, store brand, for what amounts to 50% the price. i've tried them. seem to be the same. it's unlikely their are two companies producing the same koolaid formula :>
it would not surprise me if a knife company operated a line of "officialy sanctioned" off-brand/generic items.
Becker? not so much :>
