Wednesday, March 14, 2012

What is a fair price for a fair product?


Currently the textile industry is facing challenges at the coalface; shops are having to pare back on the amount of stock that they carry; consumers have far more choice with the advent of discount stores and websites; In general the worldwide shift away from abundant consumerism is no longer a choice for most in the west. That said I have great belief that smaller businesses and brands will fare well in the future. Mass production will catch up with the bigger cheaper brands; there is a glut of at-a-glance-bargain-priced last season's styles filling up the discount stores' rails - great for the typical shopper who doesn't care for this season's shade of canary yellow, seemingly good for our household budgets but our grandchildren will not thank us for the long term knock on effects that today's consumer society will leave as a legacy. This selling model is a testament to the fact that there is still overproduction of goods in the world - a quandary for any manufacturer as we(the consumer) all want to buy cheaper goods, or do we? Cheap production equals massive minimum production runs which is why big brands can firstly afford to sell to discount companies and secondly have so much surplus stock. It's a daunting scenario as retail has bred consumers who are addicted to shopping in sale or discount outlets. Middle and lower priced brands have fallen for the trap of short term discounting at the expense of long term viability, ie; if you cross this threshold of discounting you can never go back. Once you become a discounting brand, that price tag becomes the only relevant price that the consumer cares about - the RRP price(above the discount price) becomes only a selling gimmick in tricking the customer into assuming a big saving has just been made by making that purchase. What we want for our brand is 'a fair price for a fair product' and to spend our energy communicating this to our customers; A transparent understanding of our design and manufacturing ethos is part of what we want to share with our customer. Your feedback is important.

On a visit to a Tibetan refugee camp in India we met with fair trade weavers. Gorgeous hand made rugs can be commissioned - by no means a cheap product but priced in accordance with giving a fair living wage to workers.


Deflationary Spirals 

Nothing like the instant rush of scoring a bargain.. Recession puts choice and options into perspective; need to get somewhere- we look for the cheapest option, not the most comfortable or scenic one. I am guilty of the parody of thrift. Groupon is a buzz word -tempting! But I know that basing my life around Groupon offers is undermining the viability of those businesses. By saving money we are deflating the world; Good on the one hand - cheaper essential items and so on and so forth but eventually we will all deflate ourselves out of a job. As we say, deflation is great until it happens to us and our pay or jobs have been cut. 
So remember when you're buying something, you are buying it from a person and that someone, somewhere in the world has made it. The price that you pay needs to reflect a true cost and needs to give that person a living wage - One day you might be that person.
Workers live and educate their families at the Tibetan centre. A communal feeling of good work ethics and sensible husbandry of the land is felt throughout. I bought into what I believe to be 'a fair price for a fair product'.





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