I guess everyone knows that prices in countries are different and china has the perception for westerners to be very cheap. Actually, this is not true for computers, watches, women bags and other luxury goods from known brands. Of cause, food, hotels in general and many other things are cheap.
How does these different prices happen. Ok, most comes down in the end to work labor costs. I understand this! But so many things are produced in china today. This should make the price more similar. Shipping today is neither a problem nor very expensive and marketing is only something one needs to worry for new or competitive products. Last not least are the costs for the store selling products.
So, why all this?
Well, I just was in a carrefour in Beijing and saw the price for a standard energy saving light bulb from philips.
Guess the price…
17¥ , which is to be divided by 9 to get eur (~1,90). If I compare this with the price in Germany, where the same costs between 7-12 eur. Btw. I also saw even more expensive ones in Germany.
Can anyone tell me why the big difference for a product probably produced in the same country? Capitalism my ass, where are the low prices of mass products?
I feel ripped-off!!!
manufacturer making different prices in different countries based on wealth, taxes (vat, etc.), shipping to Europe, shipping within Europe, importer adding his margin, distributor adding his margin, store adding its margin, certification (CE, energy standards, allowed materials, etc.), handling in Germany (logistics, stock, rent, etc.)
in your article you assume that it is easy to get the product you see in China into Germany. In fact it is often damn difficult to import products, and few importers means high margins for them.
If the stores are doing proper pricing they will not do “cost plus” pricing (adding some percent points onto their costs), but instead will do “value pricing” which is oriented at what the consumer is willing to pay for a product. If the market is not very transparent, the shop may well get away with this.
You are of cause right. I know that the topic is more complicated and that specially what you mentioned about the ‘fictional’ vs. real value is probably most important to the price at the counter.
I was just amazed by my encounter to see a simple all-over-the-world distributed product to have such an huge price difference without so obvious reasons.