I work for a manufacturer in the industrial industry. And one thing I can say about pricing is that when we have to raise our prices due to a price increase in materials, such as copper, and even oil, than our customers have to raise their prices too.

But generally, prices are always going to be marked up a certain number of points. I am under the impression that there are many different things that go into pricing. Overhead, accounting, inventory, supply/demand. Each company is going to be different.

If you were to look at two different manufacturers that put out the exact same products - competitors in the industry, it's not uncommon for one company to have extremely higher prices than another. This is because they do their accounting differently, they probably use different software, there are different kinds of overhead, and also, most importantly, each company goes through a different process. Another contributing factor could be how much they pay their employees. It's possible that a company w/ cheaper prices, could pay their employees less, it could be they get paid more! Who knows!

Just my 2 cents.