4 ms·
For a lot of things, I'm not sure it saves people enough money to notice. Production isn't the entire price of a product - you also have things like transportat
by Chathamization 10y ago
For a lot of things, I'm not sure it saves people enough money to notice. Production isn't the entire price of a product - you also have things like transportation, retail markup, R&D, advertising, etc.
Let's say that there's a $3.50 product that costs $1.50 to produce, and a company can save 10% of production costs by producing it in China (even with lower wages you don't tend to have huge savings when things like transportation, lower quality, distance from quality inspectors, etc. are added in). So that's a 15 cents saving - now some of that the company is going to keep (let's say 5 cents), some will go to the businesses buying wholesale (let's say another 5 cents), and some will go to the consumer (let's say the remaining 5 cents). So in the end it might be the difference between paying $3.45 and $3.50 for the consumer - something most people wouldn't notice.
Of course, for a company it's a much bigger difference - if everything costs them $2.25, and they're selling it for $2.75, then an extra 5 cents per unit means their profit margins go up 10%.
Of course this is going to vary a great deal depending on a number of factors (what kind of product, if you're buying generic, etc.). But I think for a lot of products the average American wouldn't notice much of a price difference if they were being made in the U.S.
- memracom 10y agoA notable example of electronics that is not made in China is the Raspberry PI which is made in the UK, in Pencoed, Wales, formerly the heart of the coal mining industry. http://www.sonypencoed.co.uk/news/2016/03/01/latest-raspberry-pi-to-be-manufactured-in-sony-pencoed/ http://www.sonypencoed.co.uk/news/2016/03/01/latest-raspberr... They haven't always been able to make it in the UK, but as the computer became more popular, the economics have worked out. But the driver for this has been the fact that the organization behind Raspberry PI wants to develop hi-tech engineering education and manufacturing in the UK. There is an embedded computer called PICaxe that was launched in the UK for similar reasons, boosting engineering education in the country. It roughly competes with Arduino as a platform.
- rahimnathwani 10y agoMost/all of the components are manufactured in China, so I'd guess that much less than half of the total retail price represents value added at the assembly stage in the UK.
- kalleboo 10y agoThere's a wide range of electronics/white goods still made in Japan as well, for the Japan domestic and Asian market as there's a quality reputation that people will pay a premium for. For instance just walking through an electronics store, there are fridges, air conditioners, washing machines, room heaters etc with large "Made In Japan" logos.
- witty_username 10y agoIt saves money for me; all my PC stuff is made in China or other Asian countries.
- witty_username 10y agoIt saves money for me; all my PC stuff is made in China or other Asian countries.