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How do they make Xmas tree lights so cheaply

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normanstrong

Jan 1, 1970
0
Have you ever bought one of those strings of 100 lights that sells for
$1? I just purchased 8 strings of them for 50 cents a string, on
sale--normal price: $1. I have a difficult time understanding how
they can be sold at that price, even if the entire manufacturing
process is automated. The raw materials alone would seem to cost more
than $1.

Norm Strong
 
C

Charles Schuler

Jan 1, 1970
0
normanstrong said:
Have you ever bought one of those strings of 100 lights that sells for
$1? I just purchased 8 strings of them for 50 cents a string, on
sale--normal price: $1. I have a difficult time understanding how
they can be sold at that price, even if the entire manufacturing
process is automated. The raw materials alone would seem to cost more
than $1.

I don't even see how the shipping/warehousing/packaging costs are met. On a
related issue, I bought a new 21" color TV with remote for $90 last year at
a supermarket. They had an enormous stack of them near the checkout lines.
It works fine. Color TVs cost $500 in the 1950s ... adjust that for
inflation! I have seen DVD players for $49. The Asians are amazing.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Norm,

In many Asian countries people are happy when they earn 50 cents and
hour. Pretty sad. Engineers make a little more but not a whole lot
(that's where outsourcing comes in...). Problem with many of these cheap
products is quality. I remember that the old lighting strings worked
forever. This year alone we had four of them croak after just a few
hours. They are so flimsy that fixing them is hardly worth it. But here
you are, high up there on a ladder, trying to untie everything and
realizing that the new string is just a couple inches shorter so all the
others connected to the output side need to be untied and re-attached again.

I was more happy with the older expensive versions. Once up there they
weathered all the storms through Christmas. If a little light bulb blew
you could change it without the whole plastic enchilada crumbling into
your hands.

Regards, Joerg
 
F

Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
normanstrong said:
I have a difficult time understanding how
they can be sold at that price,

Had me puzzled for a while also - until I studied the econnomics of China a
bit:
The bad debt in Chinese banks was at Sep. 2004 running at 40% of BNP!!!

So The answer is:

It was made at at Loss; the Chineese manufacturer Lost Money on it, but he
did not really care: His "game" is to get turnover, which he will use to
borrow more money to fund his "business" ... China is one huge dot.com
bubble running on credit, the only "business plan" is to go for market
share; however the US "Land Grab" in the Middle East pushing up energy
prices and the falling US Dollar will ensure a grim end for the Chineese
economy within this decade.

Them "Strategic Interests" again.
 
W

Winfield Hill

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote...
... China is one huge dot.com bubble running on credit, the only
"business plan" is to go for market share; however the US "Land Grab"
in the Middle East pushing up energy prices and the falling US Dollar
will ensure a grim end for the Chineese economy within this decade.

I seriously doubt this. While they may have some fun sorting things
out, in their managed way I'm sure they will, perhaps using the cash
they've built up with years of a massively-positive balance of trade.
 
L

Leon Heller

Jan 1, 1970
0
normanstrong said:
Have you ever bought one of those strings of 100 lights that sells for
$1? I just purchased 8 strings of them for 50 cents a string, on
sale--normal price: $1. I have a difficult time understanding how
they can be sold at that price, even if the entire manufacturing
process is automated. The raw materials alone would seem to cost more
than $1.

They tend not to automate that sort of production, they have lots of very
cheap labour and an artificial exchange rate.

Leon
 
F

Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
I seriously doubt this.

Of course China will be there as a nation in 30 years, but the pension money
people put into China funds will not be there. China's "economic miracle"
will not go pretty much the same way as it did in f.ex. Mexico, Argentina,
Turkey, Brazil and the "new economy".

(Japan is somewhat similar and yet different - here the problem is vast
losses on property investments buried in banks that cannot write off those
losses witout going bancrupt - yet "everybody" knows that is the way things
are, so nobody dare invest in Japan just in case the lid blows off that
particular economic septic-tank).

Asia times online are quite good on China:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China.html
 
R

Richard Henry

Jan 1, 1970
0
Winfield Hill said:
Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote...

I seriously doubt this. While they may have some fun sorting things
out, in their managed way I'm sure they will, perhaps using the cash
they've built up with years of a massively-positive balance of trade.

Do you have access to Chinese bank accounts to see what they are doing with
that cash?
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
Do you have access to Chinese bank accounts to see what they are doing with
that cash?

They're buying some interesting foreign assets- IBM's PC division,
Canada's Falconbridge Nickel, Singer, and others. That makes a lot
more sense than following the Japanese lead and buying US Treasuries
that have net negative return when you consider the plummeting USD.

They're currently running an overall trade deficit, so presumably the
value of the yuan is a touch on the high side.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
W

Winfield Hill

Jan 1, 1970
0
Spehro Pefhany wrote...
They're currently running an overall trade deficit, so
presumably the value of the yuan is a touch on the high side.

Is that right? I thought it was the other way around.
 
G

Guy Macon

Jan 1, 1970
0
Winfield Hill wrote...
...perhaps using the cash they've built up with years
of a massively-positive balance of trade.

Leaving aside the question of whether this one particular country
has a positive trade balance, a trade imbalance means that the
other country is sending us TVs, VCRs, steel, wood, etc. and in
return we are sending them little slips of paper. We seem to be
getting the better end of the deal.
 
F

Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
normanstrong said:
Have you ever bought one of those strings of 100 lights that sells for
$1?

I just bough a DVD-player for one of the children - DKK 339 - or about USD
60 at today's price. That includes 25% VAT, Profit for the shop, profit for
the Importer and Shipping from China.

Did the Chinese manufacturer make a profit - naah, don't think so.!
 
M

martin griffith

Jan 1, 1970
0
I just bough a DVD-player for one of the children - DKK 339 - or about USD
60 at today's price. That includes 25% VAT, Profit for the shop, profit for
the Importer and Shipping from China.

Did the Chinese manufacturer make a profit - naah, don't think so.!
A shipping company probably had a ship container that had some unused
space, and the lights where used as packaging, sort of hitech
bubblewrap


martin

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
 
Don't be so quick to laugh - this DOES happen. Oftentimes when there is
empty space in a container, the shipping company or an employee of that
company will invest a couple of hundred dollars in random junk to fill
the space and maybe turn a little profit.
 
M

martin griffith

Jan 1, 1970
0
On 22 Dec 2004 08:29:28 -0800, in sci.electronics.design
Don't be so quick to laugh - this DOES happen. Oftentimes when there is
empty space in a container, the shipping company or an employee of that
company will invest a couple of hundred dollars in random junk to fill
the space and maybe turn a little profit.
I wonder what they send bck to china in the containers? I cant imagine
the chinese need much from the EU or US


martin

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frithiof Andreas Jensen said:
I just bough a DVD-player for one of the children - DKK 339 - or about USD
60 at today's price.

Here in the US, cheap DVD players are typically found in stores for $30-$40.
$35 is easily obtainable during holiday sales without the need for rebates
or other gimmicks.
Did the Chinese manufacturer make a profit - naah, don't think so.!

Sure they did, it was just miniscule but they sold ten million of the
things...
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
A shipping company probably had a ship container that had some unused
space, and the lights where used as packaging, sort of hitech
bubblewrap


martin

Calculate how many of those tiny Xmas light boxes will fit into a FULL
forty-foot sea-shipment container and you'll have your answer.

Either 2385 or 2690 cubic feet internally.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
A

Active8

Jan 1, 1970
0
On 22 Dec 2004 08:29:28 -0800, in sci.electronics.design

I wonder what they send bck to china in the containers? I cant imagine
the chinese need much from the EU or US

We send them all the junk the EPA won't let us burn.
 
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