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Discount Stores Are Awash in Merchandise Thanks to Shipping Delays
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y agoWhat a difference a few months makes. Back in November, discount stores such as Ross were worried that they would have a lot of supply chain issues. https://www.thestreet.com/investing/ross-stores-drops-supply-chain-issues-damp-guidance https://www.thestreet.com/investing/ross-stores-drops-supply...
- whatever1 5y agoBullwhip effect in action!
- post_break 5y agoI have picked up some amazing stuff at Marshalls lately. Name brand expensive stuff for very good prices. I'm slowly exclusively shopping there for shirts, kitchen supplies, and soaps. I still spend a little more on shoes and pants at other stores however.
- latchkey 5y agoIt is amazing how much we pay for clothing in the US, even at these discount stores. A huge amount of the clothes we wear are made in Vietnam. When I lived there, you can basically buy any name brand you want for almost nothing. For example, I'd get shirts with tags on them that say $90... for $5.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 3pt14159 5y agoI also hung out in Vietnam, but only for a month. I found the custom clothing that was not brand name to be an absolute steal. Just great custom tailoring and fabrics for basically nothing and ready the next day. That said, the real brand name stuff that westerners would recognize and prize was not cheaper. There were very well done knockoffs, to be sure, but if you knew what you were looking for the watch or shoe wasn't quite right. If you Google "how to spot counterfeit [brandname] [product name]" and double check you'll see that 95% of the time it's a knock off. I've learned to just learn what makes a given type of hide or fabric high quality and shop based on that. Most brands are merely shortcuts for the busy to make sure they get reasonable quality and a possible status symbol if it's especially luxurious and expensive. But if you know what quality looks like you can usually find something way better at half or a quarter or even a tenth of the price. Or even if it's more expensive to purchase (e.g., a fullgrain leather belt with properly protected metal[0]) it will last much, much longer. [0] https://saddlebackleather.com https://saddlebackleather.com is one of the few places I will shill for whenever I can. They make the very best stuff and it lasts forever. I wish more online retailers were like them. I've saved so much money over the years because their stuff truly lasts.
- rob74 5y agoThese sturdy leather bags look really good, but aren't they heavy? I had a regular Samsonite backpack (made out of plastic, not leather) that lasted for over 10 years of almost-daily use - actually it's still in Ok shape, but I don't use it anymore.
- thaeli 5y agoYeah, they're very heavy. Great quality though.
- ______-_-______ 5y agoThis could be a crazy thing to say, but they might just be textile experts over there. When you're in Italy, even the "bad" food is great. In Switzerland, even the "bad" mountains are still great places to ski. And in Vietnam, even the cheap shirts are great?
- latchkey 5y agoWell, given that the clothes that most of us buy are made there (check your labels!)... yes. VN imports the textiles.
- latchkey 5y ago> That said, the real brand name stuff that westerners would recognize and prize was not cheaper. I'll just say that unless you speak Vietnamese or have locals who show you where to shop, a month isn't long enough to develop the inside scoops. =) > nicely shilled site Reminds me of Hamilton Shirts in Houston.
- alecst 5y agoI worked at an NGO in Cambodia. One thing I remember clearly was having lunch with this French guy who was in the fashion industry. He told me: “if you’re buying a T-shirt for $10 or less, there’s no way around it: someone, somewhere is getting exploited.”
- latchkey 5y agoWeird comment. I don't understand why the price you pay makes a difference. Someone could be exploited even if the price was $100. Location doesn't matter either, people are exploited all over the world.
- alecst 5y agoYou don't understand why the price you pay makes a difference in whether someone is exploited or not? Do you think a shirt could be profitably sold for $1, and have everyone along the supply chain be paid a fair wage? Also it's true, people are exploited for more expensive things all the time. But my point was about cheap stuff.
- latchkey 5y agoSorry, but the final price of an item cannot be used to determine whether someone along the chain was exploited. I was in the t-shirt industry for a number of years. Sold millions of them. The base price of a raw blank t-shirt at scale is around $1-4, so there isn't much room to go lower there. In essence, from your definition, ALL t-shirts are exploitation of some form or another.
- jterrys 5y agoIf you are an American and shop at Costco, the toiletpaper section has been practically overfilled for the past six months. People simultaneously overestimate and underestimate just how much time it takes to ramp up and ramp down production.
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoAm I greatly underestimating how much it costs to just store excess inventory in a damn warehouse?
- ouid 5y agoProbably, yes. A warehouse is basically just a costco that you aren't willing to sell things out of. Why wouldn't you just make a new location?
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoBecause you could put the warehouse in the middle of nowhere, hire a fraction as many employees, and leave everything in shipping containers.
- jterrys 5y agoBut there's cost of shipping and maintenance of the warehouse, alongside with the product loss/tampering. None of these are revenue generating.
- netizen-936824 5y agoMy assumption is that there are people out there who do the calculations of storing and shipping (with internal or external logistics) vs lean/JIT But those calculations may have some assumptions about service and manufacturing availability However I'm not one of those people, I'm guessing someone else knows better than me
- NoOneNew 5y ago
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- joedavison 5y agoThis article reads like an advertisement to go shopping.
- simne 5y agoI used to think, that big businesses are much better in making decisions, than small or medium. Now I see, big retailers themselves created noose around their neck, freeze colossal finances in stockpiles, making situation much-much worse. What should do sapiens, make agreement between organizations and regulators, to create some shared supply chain which will supply small batches, so shops will have reliable supply, even limited in capacity, but without need of those costly stockpiles.