Bike shops don't buy stuff directly from the manufacturer, as far as I know. They buy from distributers, who may not work for the manufacturers, instead being one-stop-shopping for dealers. Let me know if this is wrong. But if so, who knows where the distributer gets their parts? I would imagine perhaps that REI, due to their size, can buy direct from the manufacturers(?) I think computerized authentication will solve this, for everyone.

Now ya got me looking at my KMC packaging, gonna scroll up to compare... checks out good on multiple fronts.