Cheap stuff (1 Viewer)

[ajetrumpet]

this got me going: http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=884021&postcount=9

at any rate, I'd like some opinions of the people here on this subject. my opinion on CHEAP STUFF is totally AGAINST IT. that's a ridiculous idea, it's not smart, and it cheapens countries and ditches prosperity. makes me wonder if the ignorant leaders of our countries actually REALIZE that you can have incredibly fierce competition in virtually every industry WITHOUT participating in the downward spiral of pricing and simple price wars. i so wish it was this way, but we all know it will never be.

i think of this problem, and the ultimate doom of the human race like the movie THE MATRIX. the problem with those people in the movie is that they accepted what they saw as real and simply followed directions without question. so...what's OUR problem on earth?

I suppose it's the fact that we're naturally greedy. What a pity. Take two insurance companies...they both offer the exact same products, but one company has more inside information and a little more ability to provide stable products that do not have the risk of becomming incredibly volitile (I know, not happenin' in today's world). the 'good' company is knowledgable about the business, the other is not. Now...give a typical consumer a choice between buying insurance from company a or b.

Assume that economic conditions are guaranteed to remain 100% stable for the remaining life of the consumer here. who do they buy from? I guarantee, if he/she is TYPICAL, which is most people nowadays, they buy from the CHEAP company. who cares about the other one, the buyer gets MORE, MORE, MORE out of the deal. I'd bet on this happening, even if the buyer is guaranteed a steady stream of yearly income for remainder of their life.

I'm not sure what to call this....GREED? FEAR? CONSUMERISM? IGNORANCE? PANIC? JUST PLAIN SELFISH? all of the above?


if I had the money, which I almost do, I would start a company that prided itself on selling world-class products made from very elite materials, as i think that is a very special thing to have, take a lot of time and effort to produce, and I could enjoy the stuff. unfortunately though, I know better not to do it, because a company like that would most likely fail today. People want cheap crap and they want a lot of it too. If there is any meaning in most of the junk you see on shelves today I'd be extremely surprised. I guess a company like that could make it today, but the market for people that could truly appreciate products of value like that is so sparse, that it would be way too much of a risk to take unless you had every penny to throw away without care.

 

[oumahexi]

Assume that economic conditions are guaranteed to remain 100% stable for the remaining life of the consumer here. who do they buy from?

Most likely who they can afford to purchase from. If you're guarnateed income is going to remain stable, you're never going upward nor downward, so what's going to change? You'd want to save money where you can, especially if you are on a lower income. There are people out there with money who would never dream of buying "cheap", there are also people without money who feel the same, regardless of value for money.

Personally, if the pound shop is selling Heinz beans at 4 for £1 and Asda (Othe supermarket) is selling the same beans at 2 for £1, first, I checkt he sell by date at the pound shop then, if that is ok, I'll buy from them. Same product, better price, I wouldn't go for the pound land own brand ones though just to save some money. People aren't that stupid, but some really are that poor.

The services I offer (outwith the IT industry) are very low priced because they are aimed at those who cannot afford them otherwise. My products are not cheap, there is no way you can cheapen then, but you can offer them at a sensible price to help those who can't afford, say, a £50 massage. Low price does not necessarily mean cheap Adam. However, as the saying goes "a fool and his money are easily parted"

 

[Fifty2One]

Cheap crap is just because of people being greedy.
The main reason people want cheap crap is that they believe that the more items you physically own the richer a life you will lead. If the collapse has not woken people up to start putting more value where it counts then unfortunately it will collapse again and go worst next time.
Like Oumahexi pointed out - you have to buy SMART - not cheap and not hoard - beans at 4 for £1 at a discount shop rather then the same brand at a expensive chain only makes sense - same beans in a cheapie discount flea market with no expirry date and labelled as Hiens at 5 for £1 is not a good idea.
We also buy local - not drive all over the countryside to look for things - because I need to have neighbours who are gainfully employed on what ever level - when we buy meat we do not go to a store to buy it - we make arrangements with a neighbour to buy a portion of their stock for a price. When the animals are butchered we get our meat - without having to pay handling companies and have the meat fondled by 27 different people while enroute from slaughter to convenient plastic wrapped styrofoam tray in the meat section of IGA. The price difference is unbelievable and the person who makes the least profit in the supply chain (the farmer) can actually get fair pay for their efforts.
We also separate out the needs from the wants - buy needs first and get the wants if it only makes sense and we can afford it. We also drive small vehicles - mopeds in the summer and a small 4 door sedan the rest of the time - people have called us cheap when everyone was riding the wave of buy now and dont pay for 36 months - we did not get anything on credit. I am 48, working my retirement job and owe $0 except for the next utility bill or tax bill.

Well sort of drifted off topic there but anyhow I just wanted to plug in the thought that we are headed for the same shit all over again if we continue to try to rebuild a global economy to match the farce which just collapsed - time to look next door and help your neighbours before getting greedy again.

 

[statsman]

You pretty much get what you pay for.

As pointed out earlier cans of beans at the discount store at 5 for whatever are a bargain compared to the supermarket where they are 3 for the same price. ALWAYS CHECK THE BEST BEFORE LABEL.

I operate a number of leagues. I generally buy the league website from the local CheapGuy Web Hosting. Why? He's cheap. But he also doesn't offer in-depth service. I can't post a full database using his service for example. He just doesn't offer that. For the league however, the service he offers is adequate as I can post the statistics using snapshot or adobe.

 

[ajetrumpet]

all,

it's interesting the reactions i got from this thread. I was simply pointing out one thing, GREED. it's sad, but true. obviously the ones that have already reponded here are those that have the ability to still think and reason. awesome! glad to know that are still someone of you out there.

 

[GaryPanic]

All humans are greedy -
We all want a bargin, we all want more for less ...

it is going to take something quite drastic to change this -

I would love to support farmers markets - but the price of the local meat is 50% more than the supermarket - which is mad ...
the local butcher does produce a better product than the supermarket - but it woull involve me drivng 2-3 miles to get there -

 

[Brianwarnock]

All humans are greedy -
We all want a bargin, we all want more for less ...

-

Surely that's sensible not greed, greed is wanting more than you need.

Brian

 

[oumahexi]

the local butcher does produce a better product than the supermarket - but it woull involve me drivng 2-3 miles to get there -

And that's such a shame because it indicates that small businesses are being put out of business because of supermarkets.

We're lucky our local butcher is only a 2 mile walk away

 

[GaryPanic]

And that's such a shame because it indicates that small businesses are being put out of business because of supermarkets.

We're lucky our local butcher is only a 2 mile walk away

agree- if i am going that way then I will use them - but as the rest of the shopping is 180 degrees the otherway - it does not make sense to do a 2 -3 mile journey out of the way and then two-three miles back ..

and they are a touch more expensive.. but the quality is better -

i would love to use local all of the time - but most of the time shopping is done after 5oclcok - so the small shops are shut

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

This is a situation where, as a result of everybody's small-scale choices, everybody ends up with a general result that perhaps nobody would individually have desired.

Small businesses don't have the economy of scale and buying power of large supermarkets - they cannot price competitively with the supermarkets.

Individuals may prefer the idea of shopping locally at small shops, but it isn't always convenient to do so, especially if some parts of the shopping list (toilet rolls, washing powder, etc) are not available in a small local shop - and once a person has decided to go to the supermarket for those items, it heightens any inconvenience of shopping for the other items at the local shops.

Also, the individual notices that any single action he/she makes is swamped in the vast flood of everybody else's choices - and everybody else makes a similar perception.

Furthermore, we shop in a list-oriented mode, so we end up getting what we are prepared to accept, not what we would like. We decide in advance that we must have tomatoes - and the supermarket knows we will choose some kind of tomatoes based on a balance of cost versus quality.
So we come home saying "I had to spend more than I wanted on these tomatoes, but at least they're nice ones" - what we almost certainly will not do is to declare "these tomatoes are all either rubbish, or costly - I refuse to buy any".

It's all wrong, but there's no easy way to fix it. What we will almost inevitably end up with is supermarkets that sell mediocre product at whatever price they can get away with charging, plus a smattering of small artisan shops selling premium product to people who can afford or justify the extra expense.

 

[Pauldohert]

I do like cheap - I will buy the cheapest DB9 or tin of beans that fits my requirements.

Cheap does not equal crap, nor expensive mean good.

If you buy anything only on price, or ignoring price - you're an idiot.

 

[statsman]

Remember:
No matter what you bought, no matter where you bought it and no matter how much you paid...
Someone will always know a place where you could have bought it cheaper.

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

Another thing that can happen is for a supermarket to have the resources to aggressively and deliberately drive a small competitor out of business - so a big store with a small independent bakery next door could run a series of loss-making promotions on baked goods (the loss may be made up on other product categories, or maybe just by the increased business attracted by the promotions).

The small bakery's profit margin is likely to be less flexible and their cashflow tighter - they can't compete with the loss-making promotions and they temporarily lose some business to the big store. A few hits like that could eventually drive a small business over the edge - at which point, the supermarket captures a virtual local monopoly on baked goods and is able to charge whatever it likes.

In some cases, the cost of aggressive promotions like this may not even be shouldered by the supermarket, but may instead be passed back to the supplier - because the big store has the buying power to be able to say to the supplier "either you fund this promotion out of your slice of the pie, or we find another supplier for all of the products we source from you".

 

[dan-cat]

A few hits like that could eventually drive a small business over the edge - at which point, the supermarket captures a virtual local monopoly on baked goods and is able to charge whatever it likes.

...and sell whatever it likes as the paying public now has no way of gauging quality of product against an alternative.

 

[ajetrumpet]

I do like cheap - I will buy the cheapest DB9 or tin of beans that fits my requirements.

Cheap does not equal crap, nor expensive mean good.

If you buy anything only on price, or ignoring price - you're an idiot.

well....i think we just put 99% of the population in the "idiot" category

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

...and sell whatever it likes as the paying public now has no way of gauging quality of product against an alternative.

Indeed - and as previously mentioned, the consumer will still buy something, with the adjusted perspective that it is either cheap and cheerful, or quality worth paying extra for.

 

[Rabbie]

I always try to balance quality against price when buying things. The cheapest mostly isn't the best quality but and you also need to take other factors into consideration such as convenience into account. After-sales service can also be an important factor to consider.

 

[oumahexi]

I always try to balance quality against price when buying things. The cheapest mostly isn't the best quality but and you also need to take other factors into consideration such as convenience into account. After-sales service can also be an important factor to consider.

Another thing to consider is usage. I refuse to buy designer wear for babies or animals, that's just stupid, babies grow too quickly and animals just chew their clothes For older children it is important to buy quality because their clothes need to be more robust, but, again, as they are still growing it doesn't make sense to pay, for instance, £100 for a pair of trainers.

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

I really despise clothing with desgner or brand logos on it. You pay more, then walk around advertising the brand - makes no sense at all to me.

 

[namliam]

All humans are greedy -
We all want a bargin, we all want more for less ...

Problem is there are humans on two sides.

The sales man wants $10 for a $5 product while the consumer only wants to pay $1. Or we make the consumer thing it actually costs $10 and is a bargain at $7, today only special price $6. Then if you go, "oh but its $5 right?" they will sell it for $5 instead.

If only people would be fair... I dont mind a butcher making some money. I do mind the butcher making $500.000 per year.
I.e. companies like Shell "only made" $1.1 billion dollar profit this year vs 10 billion last year... (dont worry about the exact numbers) Come on what are we talking about?

Everyone wants more for less, the sales man more $ for less product,
Consumer more Product for less $.

We have a whole riot going on in the NL about the lottery...
They sell 2 kinds of tickets, 100% and 20% tickets. For one you pay 100% for the other 20%.
For years this system excisted, when your ticket wins 10 euro, but you payed 20% then you only get 2 euro. Makes sense right??
Now the Jackpot of 25 million euro was drawn on a 20% ticket. So what happens the winner gets 5 million and the 20 moves forward to next month. Seems logical no? Not so logical cause the lottery actually changed their commercials to say "if you have a 20% ticket you can only win 20%"

People want the moon for a nickle, and want it two ways, three ways,four ways. Have the cake and eat it too.