Reply #2: It's an evil offshoot of a concept called "Target Costing" [View All]

[Not Me]

Target Costing (TC) was a process whereby large companies with well developed processes and technologies would review their (usually smaller) vendors' manufacturing and business processes to help them eliminate waste, align their production with inventory needs etc.
The intent was to get to a fair, efficient price.

When the easy opportunities got met, the process turned ugly, and large procurement arms of the big boxes simply set the price they wanted to pay forced the suppliers to meet it or go out of business.

That is pretty much how walmart and other major retailers work today.