The recent topic of do you pay over x amount has gotten me to thinking.
09-08-2010, 01:19 PM
#83
Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 82
Originally Posted by loopywren
Originally Posted by Janebird
Oh, health care isn't an issue I should get started on. Suffice to say that I can't imagine adding the concern of payment to all the stress an illness causes. My sister in Virginia has just been through breast cancer and has extemely good coverage but is still out of pocket for a lot of money. Forget what I said about envy!
09-08-2010, 03:48 PM
#84
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 1,495
When I started quilting I bought from local quilt shops and thought that was just the price you had to pay for fabric. then a few years ago, I ebay and couldn't believe the deals I was getting. Since that time I have found a few shops in the US that I buy from and I would say that I buy 99% of my fabric online. That is the only way I can afford to do as much quilting as I do. I will buy locally if I need something in a hurry to finish a project or want to start something right away but that is not very often. Just the other day I went to Fabricland (Like Joanns) and purchased some cottons that were $13 metre but they had them at 30% off. For me that is still way too expensive but at least we don't have a sales tax in Alberta. Our Walmarts no longer sell fabric so that isn't an option and I never liked the quality of their fabrics and cottons were selling for $8 metre when they still sold fabric.
09-08-2010, 04:27 PM
#85
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: in the heart of the awl
Posts: 1,015
In a perfect world all of us quilters and sewers would live on a deserted island with tons of quilt shops and very reasonably priced fabric. Then we could share fabric and patterns. In a perfect world, of course!
09-08-2010, 05:39 PM
#88
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695
Originally Posted by deltadawn
I have paid over £13-00 per metre which according to todays exchange rate equals about $20.00. So when I read of you picking up bargains at less than $5.00 - I'm a little green with envy.............can you forgive me?!!!
09-08-2010, 06:04 PM
#89
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SE Qld. Australia
Posts: 271
I'd love to buy locally made, but most of our manufacturing firms have been sold to the US or UK - including our Vegemite and UGG Boots!. The other day I looked at biscuits, and they were manufactured in Indonesia and Fiji. Trying to buy locally made here is like looking for a needle in a haystack. 95% are owned by overseas conglomerates. And don't even mention the call centres which all seem to be operated from India, and staffed by Indians and who can't speak English.
09-08-2010, 06:13 PM
#90
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 327
Originally Posted by 2ursula
It seems a natural assumptions that prices are based on various rational considerations.
Rational considerations are the costs of making the product and all the costs of doing business, from advertising to delivering the product to the doors of people as well as taxes, fees and other ways the government extracts money from unsuspecting people.
This is however only the basis for the MINIMUM (break-even) price.
The by far more relevant factor in pricing products has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of thought that could appear rational to consumers:
Merchants in general charge what the market will bear. No research institute, no university, no think tank has better or more updated demographics than the big merchandizers.
Here is what merchants actually do: They use their demographics to determine 'what the market will bear' and then have their cost calculators determine whether this is enough over cost. Enough is a relative term. "The business of business is business."(Adam Smith, Founding Father of the Free Enterprise System, sort of) People are in the business to make as much money as they possibly can. It's the nature of business as we practice it.
This system will eat us all, unless we start to be savvy consumers. When I heard what Chinese companies were doing to manipulate their Indian counterparts out of business I startet hording fabrics. I had much fun and now have enough fabric for at least 10 years.
There is only one lever to get this system back into balance. Stop buying for a while.
Most of the merchants NEED to maintain their cashflow to pay the bankers. That's how we get to see lower prices again - wherever we are. (The price at the product originators is below the relevance threshold. Remember, it is demographics that determines the price. People are more interested in quilting and crafting. So naturally, the craft and quilting store prices are (quite predictably) over the moon.)
Rational considerations are the costs of making the product and all the costs of doing business, from advertising to delivering the product to the doors of people as well as taxes, fees and other ways the government extracts money from unsuspecting people.
This is however only the basis for the MINIMUM (break-even) price.
The by far more relevant factor in pricing products has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of thought that could appear rational to consumers:
Merchants in general charge what the market will bear. No research institute, no university, no think tank has better or more updated demographics than the big merchandizers.
Here is what merchants actually do: They use their demographics to determine 'what the market will bear' and then have their cost calculators determine whether this is enough over cost. Enough is a relative term. "The business of business is business."(Adam Smith, Founding Father of the Free Enterprise System, sort of) People are in the business to make as much money as they possibly can. It's the nature of business as we practice it.
This system will eat us all, unless we start to be savvy consumers. When I heard what Chinese companies were doing to manipulate their Indian counterparts out of business I startet hording fabrics. I had much fun and now have enough fabric for at least 10 years.
There is only one lever to get this system back into balance. Stop buying for a while.
Most of the merchants NEED to maintain their cashflow to pay the bankers. That's how we get to see lower prices again - wherever we are. (The price at the product originators is below the relevance threshold. Remember, it is demographics that determines the price. People are more interested in quilting and crafting. So naturally, the craft and quilting store prices are (quite predictably) over the moon.)
I learned this via Eve Online. Economics and how to be a sovereign politician and keep you area secure are both hard learned lessons in this game.
A online game that mirrors and even goes beyond what the real world does.
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