Race to the bottom - Part 2

[Porky]

We were discussing this a few weeks back and I have to say I find the lack of business acumen from some In retail business I find simply staggering.

Take this example: i noticed via a chinese shopping hub you could import 1,000 Ceramic Dr Who badges at a unit price of 25p ie £250 so low entry. Not interested but watching the activity.

A jewelry retail business was selling these same badges for £3.65 per badge, fair enough. Then on Amazon/ eBay up pop three more sellers of same badges all reducing to sub £1.50 levels. Today I look up these same badges and three more have entered the party so market saturated and one of them is selling now at 55p - I mean what is the point?

The Jewelry business must be well miffed this profitable line has gone to dust but the seller at 65p what are they thinking? After returns, shipping, running costs surely they are just busy fools, i just find it incredible.

No answer to this, i just wanted to share my frustration, lol

 

[FreddyG]

The Jewelry business must be well miffed this profitable line has gone to dust but the seller at 65p what are they thinking? After returns, shipping, running costs surely they are just busy fools, i just find it incredible.

No answer to this, i just wanted to share my frustration, lol

The sad truth is that many people enter the cruel world of business without any training. Not only that, but they are often, how shall I put this politely? - not good at maths, particularly when it comes to costing things. If each business operation takes five minutes and we have to add another five minutes for admin, down-time, going to the loo, coffee breaks etc., etc. and that person is costing us £24 per hour including holidays and sick-leave, then each sale or return or whatever costs us £4.

OK, let's rationalise the workflow and reduce the time by half, it's still £2. But then there are all the other costs involved and the list is long!

 

[japancool]

1,000 Ceramic Dr Who badges at a unit price of 25p ie £250

Fully licensed, of course.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Nothing new - except that barriers to entry are now extremely low

At the start of my career (mid '80s) i worked in Salisbury- very much army town.

The established hauliers and coach operators (paradoxically, barriers to entry were lower then) consistently complained about ex-army spending their pay-off on a used rig and carving up the competition. Each one lasted about 2 years, but there was always another one behind