In part to defray initialization costs and mitigate risk (to the retailer), an increasing number of retailers have instituted slotting fees, payments made to the retailer whenever new products are adopted.
Many retailers set their slotting fees based on very liberal cost accounting that may overstate their incurred costs, and some even include an explicit profit mark-up that is over and above their set-up costs. The net effect of the escalating slotting fees is to raise the ante for securing distribution, sometimes to a level that erects de facto economic barriers, excluding all but the biggest, most deep-pocketed suppliers.