I just bought an iron for £6. Brand new.

how is it possible to manufacture, package, ship and sell to retailers for under £6? and still make a profit....

Got an Asda smart price iron for £3.97 a few weeks ago.

wife does the ironing; i do the steeling

I'm guessing......25th wedding ann. and her birthday

Iron, like a Lion, in Zion.

Was it a 6 iron or a 9 iron ?

how is it possible to manufacture, package, ship and sell to retailers for under £6? and still make a profit....

they probally don't..or make 2p or something profit

the point is that if you are in the shop and buy an iron you might pick up some other things while you are there that they make bigger profit on...it all adds up

China has 470 million people with an income of less than $2/day.
Of those, over 200 million earn less than £1.25/day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty

You were ripped off at six quid imo.

indeed. I got one from Aldi's the other day for £2.99

$2 is £1.25

I'd have expected to pay a larger Fe.

Sorry. Fat finger.

200 million Chinese earn less than $1.25/day.

£3.47p from tesco a few weks ago.. steam iron as well!.
Bought it to take on holiday, left it at the hotel so
I could get more presents in the case :)..
cheap as chips, and it really did the job.

and they let the likes of you into Aldeburgh?

You carry on, kill the little shop, then see how much these cheap goods go for.

.

http://miburl.com/YrOwAz

DONEMYLOT     29 Jul 11 20:35 
and they let the likes of you into Aldeburgh?
You carry on, kill the little shop, then see how much these cheap goods go for.

With all the other biggies and the net the prices will stay as they are.
The question should be how much these items cost in the bad old days considering the bulk they are made in.

A kettle is a few pieces of plastic and metal, that's it.

The point is, you are buying ****, made by factories with no standards.

Hey ho though

Factories with no standards?

Great, cheap goods and five million of us unemployed.
How much does that cost us?

Yes clunge - the standards this shyt has to pass is easy.

You are buying absolute crapp.

Now, fair enough, an iron that irons, if it goes wrong, for 6quid buy another.

It will all change soon, goods are flying up, China is ruling the costs of everything including transport. In our industry we are expecting a 30-50% rise in wholesale costs of goods over the next few months; I have been told by a clothes impoirter that the real big boys are struggling to get their orders filled in the Far East die to shortga eof material (I am only passing this on, i dont know about this sort of thing)

It will all come back and hurt. Not because prices will be wrong, but they will feel like a rip-off as they return to their correct price.

As for supermarkets seeling cheap unbranded goods, are they bothered if they lose a fiver an iron? a kettle? you are hardly likely to just buy it - you lob it in with 100 quid of food that they make 1000's% mark-up.

Just contributing to your/our own downfall really

My iron's OK though, had it 6 years :-).

Doubt you'd have got the same longevity from a much more expensive iron 20 years back.

I don't know about that.  My mum, along with every other mum of her generation, has still got her sixties Kenwood Chef (the iconic one).

And did that come with an instruction manual written in 14 different languages?

yep support the local shop that sells the same thing for 20 quid instead

How ye mock, but wait and see, it'll happen quicker than Tony Broke's prediction (although somehow they are linked)

yep support the local shop that sells the same thing for 20 quid instead

..and is never open when you finish work.

sounds ideal to me

a household shop that sells things for three times the price of tesco and ironically is next to tesco is doing very well, because the guy who owns it chats to the the old dears

surely in his own way though he is ripping people off and those most vunerable

Sib, my mum does to. Sitting snugly in the back of the cupboard like it has for the last thirty years! It's true that products built in the 50s and 60s certainly had a lengthy life span...we had a solid state radio from the 50s that I'm pretty sure would have survived a nuclear attack.

jb , what is the correct mark-up on goods then, please? Is it a loss similar to the electrical goods in the supermarket?

How much % profit do you think Tesco make on everyday food please?

For sure, some small independents are far too expensive on very simiar quality food, but there's may not (MAY admittedly) have been bought by the warehouse load, frozen till ready to put on the shelves and past their very best date.

Now you may not care about this, many don't, but it then makes the food not of the same quality that many independents offer.

If we look at this the same way, we should all shop at Aldi, where better quality food is offered at cheaper than Tesco but ignored becuae it has stupid names on the front

The food isn't of the same quality many of the independents offer, that's for sure!

There are two excellent small shops near me, which illustrate well how dreadful the other ones were and are. One is open from 5am-10pm, the other 7am-11pm. Both are spotless, and sell products at maybe 20% higher than supermarkets. Both are clearly thriving.

There is another, dingy, with empty shelves, crisps and pop at 70p a packet/can, and an attitude of sullen resentment to customers wishing to buy something. If you read Bill Bryson's book on the UK culture he encountered on arriving, he frequently derides this attitude to customer care (whilst celebrating many other British characteristics).

I do think Supermarkets need calling to account on many things, but in terms of quality and accountability they're way ahead of the old local store. Did you know that Sainsbury's no longer sells ANY battery farmed eggs?

A Radiogram could be used as an air raid shelter........put that in your pipe Fritz!!

I'd like to go in a supermarket and draw a on all the eggs from caged birds.

I'm selling my Morrison's iron for £3.50 ono, send me a pm if you're interested.

Any  Irons in tonight ?

Buying an iron is an egregious mistake imo.

Iron and ironing boards are a waste of money and ironing is a complete waste of time.

Richie my mother in law would horrified by that statement

but I totally agree

I bought some irons in a charity shop some while ago. Came with their own bag and a few balls.

Never heard of that brand. Maybe that's why so cheap?

"Brand". If I may bore you for a second HGS, I love that you said that. given the topic is irons.
Brand is a germanic word meaning "to burn" (ok it it has other uses but .. )
BRANDING an animal was really burning your name into it. An Iron would do for creating a
Brand mark industrially. That's the origin of the word Brand.
Think about it, even people who've never 1000 miles from a farm have heard of "Branding irons" etc.

Far from boring JC.

:)
In human terms (when I'm not rejected by my lizard friends in the illuminati), I'm full of facts like that :P
But I'm not a postman, even if I AM basically the tedious **** from cheers :)

Whereas, I am!

CLIFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!

Capt__F
29 Jul 11 16:58
Joined: 10 Jun 08 | Topic/replies: 17,025 | Blogger: Capt__F's blog
wife does the ironing; i do the steeling

I agree with that Capt F...I really do

Unfortunately I do not have a wife, and my belief they should do the ironing and all the other household chores  may well be the cause, oh well


Well done for succeeding Capt F where I have failed

I don't know how you managed

it

I have a Black & Decker iron, I never use it except to iron my trousers reluctantly, they tend to need it after a wash

£14 it was...I seem to have been robbed