For Christmas I received some generous gift certificates to
fabric stores that I frequent, so recently, I hit up the January sales and
purchased fabric and notions.
I have a few pair of embroidery scissors (and a multitude of
snips); but all of my embroidery scissors were hand-me-downs and were quite
dull. I have been using snips for the
last several months, but have thought from time to time that I would like a
purpose-made pair of embroidery scissors.
About a year ago I saw this pair and thought they were
really lovely, but the price was more than I could (or would) justify.
But guess what was up for grabs in the January sales? You
guessed it – and marked down from $89.99 to $69.99, to… $8.99!!!
I was thrilled to scoop them up, and they have such a lovely
weight to them that you feel as if they are good quality. And more importantly,
they're quite sharp, too!
In thinking it over later though, my nose was a bit out of
joint. I imagined that if I had splurged and spent $90 (plus 13% tax) on these scissors
and then saw them for $8.99, I'd be quite upset. So I had various uncharitable
thoughts about "capitalism!" and "One percenters!" etc.
Butttttttt…
Well, the truth is of course, that these stores have to pay
staff, and rental or mortgage payments for their properties, utilities,
insurance, pest control… stock of course, and all manner of things that I probably
can't even think of.
So then I began to feel quite badly for the store owner.
What if they were selling them at a loss? What if it was an error and they
should have been more?
Well, I wasn't going to return it and find out! Lol
There are some cases where manufacturers and purveyors of
goods are clearly out to squeeze as much money as possible out of us. There is
clothing store here that I used to buy a lot of my clothes at, but the quality
of the fabrics they used had deteriorated so much that I couldn’t do it
anymore. And it has gotten even worse since then.
And so many products at the grocery stores from orange juice
to soda to soup to cereal have gotten smaller, or significantly smaller in
packaging, so you end up with much less volume of product, for the same price
that you were paying before. That one in particular ticks me off, because how
stupid do they think we are? We NOTICE. I'd much rather that they charge us
more than that they think we're so stupid that they're getting away with
something!
Similarly, we went to a fast food restaurant the other day
(which we almost NEVER do); and I was having a "Where's the beef?"
moment. (Seriously dating myself with that one. Lol) I literally couldn't see it, and when I
flipped up the bun, the patty was paper thin and half an inch smaller in
circumference than the bun.
JUST CHARGE ME MORE AND GIVE ME A DECENT SIZED BURGER. Lol
In the same vein, I read an article a year just after
Christmas, about the extremely popular headphones of that year. I was trying to
get a pair for a gift, and it was like finding a unicorn. They were sold out
everywhere!!!
The article was on one of those tech-y sites and they were
comparing this particular pair to others in the same price range, comparing not
only the quality of sound, but also how they were manufactured. And they said
that this particular brand was producing headphones that were made completely
out of plastic – 100% except for the little copper wires inside their plastic
sheaths; and that they then put metal weights in them to make them feel heavier
so that that we sheeple would think they were worth the price!
They said that yes, they were an excellent headphone, but
that in terms of components and quality of sound, they were exactly the same as
another brand, priced $100 less.
Is that their (evil?) cunning or our stupidity? I'm not
sure.
I think that there are times when was can be justifiably upset
with manufacturers and purveyors of services who are setting out to deliberately
rip us off, either through maleficent cost cutting, production/distribution or by
assuming they can hoodwink us, and there are times when perhaps the
person/entity selling to us is nearly as much a victim as we are.
This might play out for instance in the anecdote that arleebarr shared yesterday of an observer who sniffed at her prices. We all know how
exorbitantly expensive most of our materials and tools are, and most of us pay
ourselves minimum wage (or sometimes less) and that's how we end up with our
prices – which people than sniff at and think is "overpriced".
I myself charge a certain dollar amount per square inch,
which doesn't account for the fact that some 'inches" take 4 or 5 of 10
times as long to produce as others because of the technique involved; but that
I don't feel comfortable asking my collectors to bear.
I sometimes think "Why not?"
However, I'm a long way away from buying scissors at a discount,
aren't I?
Blah blah. Lol
I'm posting every day, but it's more a free association, and
I think I'm missing the point of my posting. Shouldn't I be posting about
something more on point? Hahhahahaha.
TLDR: behold the scissors I got on sale!
J
Kit
I really like your post. I do try to buy good quality tools - I think of them as an investment. I totally agree about the quantity or size of items getting smaller. Even fabric - it used to be 45 inches wide. Now you are lucky if it is 40. Free association is okay - we all need to do it sometimes. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope you're doing well too. :)
DeleteHey, I think this all relates. Free association can often lead to really important aha moments. Envious of those scissors, which may have sat so long at that store that it was better to discount them like that than pay inventory taxes on them. But I know what you mean. I often feel guilty about buying in local stores on special promotions meant to get people downtown to shop. I sometimes wait until its over to do my shopping so they will get full price, because I know how hard it is to keep a brick and mortar store open these days and how much I value being able to hold items in my hand or try things on before buying. Chain stores though? They seldom see me if they are not having a sale or providing coupons!
ReplyDeleteThat makes sens, although I think that some chain stores are still franchise owned, so are still small business's,you know?
Delete