Not surprisingly that WD are going down to this route. "Shareholders is a priority over customers" is a common business mantra.
Let's take one manufacturer, I'll call them Sorta.
One store will sell the Sorta Beautysleep, another sells the Sorta Quietrest, and a third has the Sorta Hamptonshire. All three are identical design, materials, construction, and appearance. The only difference is the label Sorta attaches before shipping to each store's distribution center.
So when you ask for a price match on that first store's Sorta Beautysleep, no price match for you! It's an exclusive product available at our store only.
I once did this at Lowe's by finding the item at home Depot for just a few cents cheaper and after buying 100 bundles saved a bunch of money.
They recently stopped doing the extra 10% off.
In a different vein, when I was younger my mom price-matched a TV at Best Buy against a lower price at the Future Shop across the street, it was about $50 on a $1100 unit. We went to Best Buy first, found the TV we liked, then went across the road to see if there were any better/cheaper options. We ended up going back to Best Buy because the sales people actually seemed to give a damn about their job and the customer, and the fact they were not paid commission (unlike Future Shop), all combined with the price matching made it the more appealing decision. IIRC the BB extended warranty was a better deal.
Simple:
* You might trust one place to provide better ongoing service after sale - for instance in the UK John Lewis used to offer a price match ('never knowingly undersold') which would include a 2 year store warranty, while most other retailers only offered a 1 year warranty. On top of that, over time you find out which retailers will just sort your problem out when you bring it to them, while others will require you to deal with some helpline and will fob you off.
* Price-match often also applies after the sale (i.e. we will match to 14 days after the sale) which provides the promotional message of 'you don't have to worry about shopping around now - you can complete the sale and if you would have got it cheaper you can get the difference back anyway'. This is also an additional customer price guarantee if an item goes on sale or is discounted immediately after purchase.
* If you see a store online nearby that has better pricing, you can avoid the trip to the other store, or alternatively you may be able to visit your local store. If price-matching and buying multiple items, this may also mean that you can get all your items from one shop without having to visit multiple.
* You might be able to get a better sales experience from a certain store - for instance I used price-match the other day on a monitor I was looking to purchase, because my local electronics store was more expensive but I knew that they would have a working sample out on display (while the other cheaper shop would just have it in the stock room, and it would be a faff to actually see the item).
For the stores, it is also about 'loyalty'. If a customer always buys their electronics from your store, you don't want them going and shopping with your competitors.
What WD is doing hits differently and would be like LG using LED panels in the OLED*A line of TVs or if the Ford F-Series PowerStroke suddenly came with an EcoBoost engine. It betrays the trust people have in the line/model that WD has created.
So then the customer can just order from his phone right in front of the cashier the item he doesn't want to price-match?
I don't get how that's helping anyone.
This is news to me. Can you elaborate?
It hurts you with rigorous buyers, but most are not that.
How inferior?
>These derivative models are toned down versions of standard ones, perhaps offering a reduced number of HDMI ports or lower quality components. However, it's hard to say -- it can even be hard to tell which specific TVs are derivatives, requiring a careful scan of a model number which could total eight or nine digits.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why...
Making different SKUs (with same generic marketing name) can happen (which WD did NOT do here) for good reasons, but most of the time you get better performance out of it.
What WD did is really shameful and very much not the norm in this industry.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-insider-secrets...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why...