Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 22:39:43 -0700
Reply-To: Old Volks Home <jim@OLDVOLKSHOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Old Volks Home <jim@OLDVOLKSHOME.COM>
Subject: Business Product Costs(was Re: Curtain Kits)
In-Reply-To: <199805132213.PAA09273@germany.it.earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 06:12 PM 5/13/98 -0400, thetrans wrote:
>Dude:
>
>As a "happily" married man for oh so many years, I offer the following
advice:
>
>Maybe you should ask your girlfriend how she feels about making custom
>curtains before offering the product to the (albeit small) world. Between
>materials, her time, and shipping you'll be surprised how the costs rack
>up. But maybe she's cool with all that and something good can indeed be done.
>
>I just cringe at the thought of you telling her that she's got 20 orders
>(80 hours of labor right there by your numbers) over dinner some night.
***************************************************
I totally agree and speaking from experience in manufacturing products for
over two decades therein lies only part of the rub, labor costs.
Sure, the raw curtain materials are decently priced at your local fabric
supplier, even real cheap if bought in bulk. Sit down with a RV or Van
Conversion catalog sometime and price out curtains - you'll find that to
cover warranties, liabilities, labor costs, payroll costs, taxes, health &
dental benefits, administrative costs, purchasing costs, inbound freight
costs, advertising costs and Lord knows whatever else is involved in mass
production, you'll find that they are priced within the ballpark of what Z
Products offers. And most aren't even made here in North America.
In my research I'm finding that many of the curtain sets other outfits make
for the RV and Van Conversion Market are made outside the USA where a lot
of these factors are a heckuva lot cheaper than it being done here. Z
Products makes their curtain kits completely in their facility in Oregon,
not some sweatshop in Malaysia or Central America and I just happen to know
they don't make a whole lotta money on them as it is.
Basically, what we're comparing here is apples and oranges when it comes to
manufacturing and/or distributing a product, be it for a small group or a
sizable market, by a big outfit (like WCM or even Z Products) or a small
outfit (like Kyle, Ron or myself). The lower the overhead, the less
expensive in cost and selling price for the product. In otherwords, don't
sell a company short for offering a quality product for a fair market price
based on production or purchase costs.
In a similar vein, you'll find differences in prices of items between the
Bus Depot and myself, based on cost at the time - could be I got a great
deal or Ron got a great deal on the same merchandise and we normally do
pass on the savings if at all possible. In some areas I do have higher
overhead costs (even though I work by myself out of the house) in areas
such as catalog printing, advertising, additional rent for off-site
storage, charge card terminal fees (which aren't as bad as some would be
led to believe) and I do spend a few $$ to go to a lot of shows to display,
advertise and sell product, things that Ron at the current time does not
have to shell out money for (yet). However, in both Ron's and my case,
practically every cent in profit we make goes into keeping us fed, clothed,
etc., and what's left over is spent on bringing newer products on-line if
at all possible. But again, it's apples and oranges.
So the bottom line is if you wanna be cheap, quit complaining and do it
yourself or get the wife/girlfriend/mother to sew 'em up. Then go down to
the hardware store, buy up some narrow aluminum flat stock, pickup some
screws, pickup some shock cord and make like Tim Taylor, The Tool Man,
start cutting, drilling, shaping and screwing in the darn things.
Jim Thompson
84 Westy 2.1 * 62 Beetle * 90 Fox Wagon
Check out our latest cool stuff at:
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
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PO Box 176 * Palo Cedro, CA 96073-0176
(530) 221-5342 (Voice or Fax)
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jim96003@c-zone.net
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