Have you noticed that many of those "hot" new items are all priced the same? Where's the competition?
How do you get a deal or cut on that price?
MAP or Minimum Advertised Price are pricing policies adopted by manufacturers or distributors of items that protect the pricing structure. While manufacturers may tell you they are protecting their brands, they are actually protecting their item's pricing by controlling the pricing at which retailers may sell the item. It is illegal to price fix, so they cannot actually tell their retailers to sell it at that price, but they will use certain tactics to ensure that the prices are honored.
How do they do they fix the prices without actually price-fixing?
Simple - by communicating with their vendors that they will stop selling to them if they don't honor that price. Easy, huh? Yes, it is that easy.
So, next time you see an item that you really want and everyone is selling at the same price - send them an email and ask for their best non-advertised price.