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> The agreement often has a stipulation that the same product can never be cheaper elsewhere which is sometimes easy as WalMart gets specific SKUs

Yep, this is anti-consumer and anti-competitive -- it should be illegal. Here's where it gets interesting though...

In wal-mart's case they're trying to win on price competition alone. They're hoping with their volume, operations and efficiency, nobody else can sell with a lower margin. But Amazon is doing the opposite.

I looked into selling on Amazon recently and the fees were over 30%! Amazon requiring that sellers can't offer a lower price elsewhere drives the prices up on Amazon and off Amazon. Primarily, they're trying to prevent sellers from directing buyers to their own website where they can offer the product at a lower price because there are no 30%+ fees.