3 ms·

>> What the hell am I supposed to do for the next six or twelve months, sit at my desk and whistle? Think about how you can produce the stuff you sell, not jus

>> What the hell am I supposed to do for the next six or twelve months, sit at my desk and whistle? Think about how you can produce the stuff you sell, not just pass it from hand to hand. Being an intermediary is the first job to disappear, the schools can order directly from China and maybe they should. That will take out some inefficiencies from the chain.

luckylion 5y ago
Will it? Hundreds of schools individually negotiating with Chinese companies to buy small amounts, dealing with logistics, handling customs etc should be more efficient than one company importing stuff and doing domestic distribution?
- subpixel 5y ago
  Disintermediation defies all odds. Who would have thought Chinese entrepreneurs would be able to successfully market and sell to fickle individual US consumers through Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. Surely someone needed to curate the offerings and account for cultural gaps? Turns out that’s what platforms do.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    What? They desperately need somebody to do that. The seller that figures out that the hundred 'different' products from brands called things like 'MIOUYIKI' with a 'product name' like '100% sharpest knife best for you [five star icons]' are absolutely not appealing to me, will do a lot of business indeed. (Or perhaps it's happened (to other listings), and they do a good enough job I haven't realised. But there's just so much tat to wade through on Amazon these days, that would all sell better if it were just listed/branded/marketed etc. by an English person. I'm not saying I'd do a better job of selling in China - just that as local and culturally familiar people as possible should do that. Spend a fiver on Upwork or whatever and a have a native look it over.)
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    >Who would have thought Chinese entrepreneurs would be able to successfully market and sell to fickle individual US consumers through Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. Surely someone needed to curate the offerings and account for cultural gaps? Turns out that’s what platforms do. For cheap trinkets that I do not care about, maybe. For anything else, I am going to Costco/Nordstroms/Apple/Target/Home Depot etc for reputable brands and reliable supply chains. And that is just for small value home goods. For even higher value goods like construction materials, business equipment, labor, and other capex, no platform today is good enough to offset personal relationships and trust built over many years.
    - nebula8804 5y ago
      I have been hearing stories of cheap chinese knockoffs being co-mingled into the supply chain of home building materials. Have you heard of any of this? I hate having to deal with Chinese supply chain crap from Amazon and my hope is that the local American stores are the last bastion of not having to worry about this sort of stuff.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        I have not heard of it from Home Depot/Lowes (which do sell cheap quality stuff, but it is priced as such and labeled separately from high quality stuff as far as I know). I assume the at the consumer level retail level, it is only a problem at Amazon because they literally mix up inventory from various sources, whereas I assume Home Depot/Lowes/Target/Walmart do not (since they have not publicly stated it like Amazon). Of course, the brands the items are sold under themselves might be swapping out their previously higher quality components for lesser components, and who would know until you have sufficient data from experience.
jrockway 5y ago
I'm not sure there is a business in that after the short-term supply chain crisis is resolved. If you make robot kits, the product you're selling is an educational project and the work you do is integrating the system, documenting everything, provide proof to teachers that this is a good use of students' time, etc. You're writing a textbook that happens to need microcontrollers and ceramic capacitors and printed circuit boards. You could say "I'll do anything to survive" and license an ARM core and start up a semiconductor fab... but it will be a decade before that is online, and by then ST will be back selling STM32s for 3 cents per thousand. The economy needs building blocks and raw materials and that's why there are companies that provide those things. It isn't practical for every company to vertically integrate everything, there just aren't enough resources to do that.

luckylion 5y ago

Will it? Hundreds of schools individually negotiating with Chinese companies to buy small amounts, dealing with logistics, handling customs etc should be more efficient than one company importing stuff and doing domestic distribution?

subpixel 5y ago
Disintermediation defies all odds. Who would have thought Chinese entrepreneurs would be able to successfully market and sell to fickle individual US consumers through Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. Surely someone needed to curate the offerings and account for cultural gaps? Turns out that’s what platforms do.
- OJFord 5y ago
  What? They desperately need somebody to do that. The seller that figures out that the hundred 'different' products from brands called things like 'MIOUYIKI' with a 'product name' like '100% sharpest knife best for you [five star icons]' are absolutely not appealing to me, will do a lot of business indeed. (Or perhaps it's happened (to other listings), and they do a good enough job I haven't realised. But there's just so much tat to wade through on Amazon these days, that would all sell better if it were just listed/branded/marketed etc. by an English person. I'm not saying I'd do a better job of selling in China - just that as local and culturally familiar people as possible should do that. Spend a fiver on Upwork or whatever and a have a native look it over.)
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  >Who would have thought Chinese entrepreneurs would be able to successfully market and sell to fickle individual US consumers through Etsy, Amazon, and eBay. Surely someone needed to curate the offerings and account for cultural gaps? Turns out that’s what platforms do. For cheap trinkets that I do not care about, maybe. For anything else, I am going to Costco/Nordstroms/Apple/Target/Home Depot etc for reputable brands and reliable supply chains. And that is just for small value home goods. For even higher value goods like construction materials, business equipment, labor, and other capex, no platform today is good enough to offset personal relationships and trust built over many years.
  - nebula8804 5y ago
    I have been hearing stories of cheap chinese knockoffs being co-mingled into the supply chain of home building materials. Have you heard of any of this? I hate having to deal with Chinese supply chain crap from Amazon and my hope is that the local American stores are the last bastion of not having to worry about this sort of stuff.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      I have not heard of it from Home Depot/Lowes (which do sell cheap quality stuff, but it is priced as such and labeled separately from high quality stuff as far as I know). I assume the at the consumer level retail level, it is only a problem at Amazon because they literally mix up inventory from various sources, whereas I assume Home Depot/Lowes/Target/Walmart do not (since they have not publicly stated it like Amazon). Of course, the brands the items are sold under themselves might be swapping out their previously higher quality components for lesser components, and who would know until you have sufficient data from experience.

jrockway 5y ago

I'm not sure there is a business in that after the short-term supply chain crisis is resolved. If you make robot kits, the product you're selling is an educational project and the work you do is integrating the system, documenting everything, provide proof to teachers that this is a good use of students' time, etc. You're writing a textbook that happens to need microcontrollers and ceramic capacitors and printed circuit boards. You could say "I'll do anything to survive" and license an ARM core and start up a semiconductor fab... but it will be a decade before that is online, and by then ST will be back selling STM32s for 3 cents per thousand. The economy needs building blocks and raw materials and that's why there are companies that provide those things. It isn't practical for every company to vertically integrate everything, there just aren't enough resources to do that.