Especially on items where the pricing is predatory, which is most of them, but some more-so than others.
Recently we were setting up reticulation for our veggies. It’s just a network of pipes, but you need clips and connectors and bubblers and things. Of course you have to buy them in packs of however many, but sometimes it’s just a nylon clip which I’m certain cost less than $0.01 to manufacture, but a pack of 12 of them costs $5.
I get that the $5 is the cost for the infrastructure to produce, transport, stock, and then sell an item, but that also means that me not paying that $5 hasn’t actually cost the vendor anything.
Someone still bears the costs to produce, transport, and stock it. You only save them the credit card processing fee (or the cost of handling cash, or similar) by stealing it instead of buying it. Even if they have insurance, insurance very efficiently charges the statistical average risk (plus overhead and profit…) to the purchasers of their insurance. Higher theft results in higher insurance costs.
If you want lower cost nylon clips, consider 3D printing, especially if you know someone that already has a printer. Because the filament can be transported quite efficiently, the environmental impact may also be substantially lower, especially for small items.
Not really. What is the marginal cost of producing transporting and stocking a small plastic bag that weighs a few grams ?
I’m not genuinely advocating theft as a method for acquiring parts for one’s retic set up.
I’m saying that it feels extortionate at the checkout and I’m not going to feel guilty if a couple or parts end up coming home with me without being scanned.
Especially on items where the pricing is predatory, which is most of them, but some more-so than others.
Recently we were setting up reticulation for our veggies. It’s just a network of pipes, but you need clips and connectors and bubblers and things. Of course you have to buy them in packs of however many, but sometimes it’s just a nylon clip which I’m certain cost less than $0.01 to manufacture, but a pack of 12 of them costs $5.
I get that the $5 is the cost for the infrastructure to produce, transport, stock, and then sell an item, but that also means that me not paying that $5 hasn’t actually cost the vendor anything.
Someone still bears the costs to produce, transport, and stock it. You only save them the credit card processing fee (or the cost of handling cash, or similar) by stealing it instead of buying it. Even if they have insurance, insurance very efficiently charges the statistical average risk (plus overhead and profit…) to the purchasers of their insurance. Higher theft results in higher insurance costs.
If you want lower cost nylon clips, consider 3D printing, especially if you know someone that already has a printer. Because the filament can be transported quite efficiently, the environmental impact may also be substantially lower, especially for small items.
Not really. What is the marginal cost of producing transporting and stocking a small plastic bag that weighs a few grams ?
I’m not genuinely advocating theft as a method for acquiring parts for one’s retic set up.
I’m saying that it feels extortionate at the checkout and I’m not going to feel guilty if a couple or parts end up coming home with me without being scanned.