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capri0mniThis TimeLight Atomic Projection Clock with Color LCD from Oregon Scientific showed up in an email from Allegro Medical as a "daily living aid," presumably on the grounds that it's helpful for people who can't roll over in bed on their own, to check the time (even though it doesn't seem to have designed or marketed primarily as "assistive tech" by the manufacturer).
Meanwhile, Allegro Medical won't show the price of this item on their website until you place it in your cart. This is the reason they give:
Allegro's "Below Manufacturer's sugested retail" sale price? $97.99 (they claim the original list price is $145.99). The sale price offered on the manufacturer's own website? $59.95 (the actual original list price is $99.99).
It's this kind of thing that makes me suspicious of the argument that because the Disabled are such a small, isolated, "niche" market, we have to expect and meekly accept the high costs of everything we need.
The criminal thing (ethically, if not legally) is that this same group has, on average, a 66% unemployment rate (largely due to the bigotry of many employers), and increased daily living expenses for things like medicines and medical procedures, and they just don't have that much money to pay.
...
Okay, so maybe that was more than a smidge of anger.
Let me go back to the geek!squee: "ooooh! Atomic clock! With a changing color light display! And predicts the weather 12-24 hours in advance!"
My friends, we are living in the Future!
Meanwhile, Allegro Medical won't show the price of this item on their website until you place it in your cart. This is the reason they give:
(Begin quote)
Because our price on this item is lower than the manufacturer's suggested retail price, the manufacturer does not allow us to show you our price until you place the item in your shopping cart. Retailers like Allegro Medical have the legal right to sell products at prices we set. However, adding the item to your cart allows us to show you our lower price consistent with our promise of always offering you the lowest possible prices on the widest selection of medical supplies, medical equipment and life enhancing products.
(end quote)
Allegro's "Below Manufacturer's sugested retail" sale price? $97.99 (they claim the original list price is $145.99). The sale price offered on the manufacturer's own website? $59.95 (the actual original list price is $99.99).
It's this kind of thing that makes me suspicious of the argument that because the Disabled are such a small, isolated, "niche" market, we have to expect and meekly accept the high costs of everything we need.
The criminal thing (ethically, if not legally) is that this same group has, on average, a 66% unemployment rate (largely due to the bigotry of many employers), and increased daily living expenses for things like medicines and medical procedures, and they just don't have that much money to pay.
...
Okay, so maybe that was more than a smidge of anger.
Let me go back to the geek!squee: "ooooh! Atomic clock! With a changing color light display! And predicts the weather 12-24 hours in advance!"
My friends, we are living in the Future!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-22 02:42 am (UTC)Pricing in the A.T. market is fundamentally, floridly, fishy, fowl, and fucked. In the U.S. there's this illusion that the "free market" will work its magic hand of magic: we'll have better devices thanks to competition; lower prices thanks to multiple outlets selling the same ten things.
I think the saddest thing is every year there's at least one genuinely inspired engineer who thinks up something useful, and then crashes on the shoals of the non-functional financing/distribution system. The good news is that now, at least, people have finally stopped giving colleges and foundations $100,000 grants to create databases of one-off products. The final iteration of that was Able Data.