Today I had a random shower thought and realised that most brands position themselves as premium or cheap/affordable but good enough quality (Aldi comes to mind)….
What are some brands you can think of that know they're cheap and confidently provide crap services or products?
I think one brand that really fits "cheap and not afraid to be crap" is Jetstar!
I flew with them once.
Once.
Amazing, most people can't seem to even get that far.
Ryan Air in the UK practically crows about their crap service. At one point they were thinking about charging fir using the toilets until they thought about what cleaning people’s seats would cost instead.
No they weren't. It was a publicity stunt that is apparently somehow still working!
I would slightly change that claim though. They have a proud "taken no prisoners" attitude towards those who don't follow the rules (check in online, arrive on time, carry baggage within limits etc.), but the customer service towards those who do follow the rules is fine. I've flown them dozens of times without issue.
Jetstar does suck albeit I use them because they are much cheaper than Qantas. You can get worse - Ryanair is mentioned. Easyjet and Vietjet are others who come to mind.
Ryanair might have awful service (that's the product) but their reliability and safety are actually quite good.
Refer July 2023 on time arrival stats:
Ryanair 84%
Rex 74.5%
Qantas 68.8%
Jetstar 68.1%
Virgin 59.2%
Qantas and Jetstar pretty close. Qantas actually have worse cancellation rate in July, 3.6% vs 3.3%
@nigel deborah: That probably has more to do with the EU fines for being late etc rather than just how much better they are.
having lived in the UK for many years I refused to fly Ryanair unless there was no other choice.
Easyjet comfortably better than Jetstar imo
What about VietJet? Genuinely curious.
Truly a crap product but hey it does get you from a to b >99% of the time (not always on time) and thats good enough for alot of people.
People gor negged for exactly expressing their opinion answering OP question.
Kogan marketing thanks you for their new slogan.
Is Kogan cheap though?
Apparently, according to Ruslan.
Kogan cheap and crap 🎶 has a nice ring to it though.
I love Hungry Jacks' adverts, they're just so simpleton - probably does the job with their target though.
Bumpkins love to go to Hungry Jacks for their "expresso" branded coffee.
What kind of people go to Maccas?
@smartazz104: Hungry jacks call theirs “expresso”, an intentional play on espresso and fast. Maccas just call it espresso.
IKEA has cheap items but also some very expensive types
Since when Bunnings stuff are called cheap?
Go to different shops that sell quality architectural hardware, timber, tile, bbqs etc. Bunnings is far cheaper in comparison. That’s why it’s so popular.
I’m not tradie but my experience with supplies at bunnings were the most expensive of them all. Here were few past occasions.
- soil from garden supplier was lot more cheaper (bunnings only had bagged ones that would have costed about 10 times more for same quantity)
- sleepers and structural pine (bunning was expensive)
- plants for garden (bunnings too expensive for similar range)
- outdoor tiles from tile supplier (bunnings was again, too expensive)
🤷♂️
@kaleidoscope: i agree …it’s the lazy tax again ..it’s like a one stop shop so ppl just walk past it n grab it cos it’s there instead of shopping around ..i must admit i do it too but only on one off things
@kaleidoscope: But…What about the propaganda. "Lowest prices are just the beginning!" Are you accusing greedy capitalists of lying to us?
You tell a lie long, enough, loud enough, and people will come to believe it (I think that is a paraphrase of Goebbels).
@RefusdClassification: If all you want to buy from bunnings is some craftright tools perhaps that statement is true. But you know they sell lots of other stuff and often times they are the only ones selling them, so they have monopoly of price control.
@kaleidoscope: You always pay more for small quantity so some of those things are not a fair comparison.
Factoring time and petrol for going around you may not end up saving anything at all.
While Bunnings does have some crappy products, they are certainly not cheap. You can often buy similar or better products from speciality stores for much less. Bunnings also have a lot of known brand tools, paints and hardware which aren't cheap.
@opt: For example the Dirt Devil cordless vacuum it's an expensive toy for grown up. For a bit more money at Kmart you can get a much better appliance.
it's amazing how much more people will pay for marketing, branding and different packaging on the same product
Depends what your buying. They are usually more expensive for actual building supplies required for a renovation timber, plaster etc. If im buying several thousand lots of timber etc i can allways get it cheaper elsewhere. Get a quote from several suppliers and you will see a huge difference.
Go to different shops that sell quality architectural hardware
Wait there are other stores?!
Disagree. Bunnings you pay for convenience in a one-stop shop. Go to wholesalers and find hardware much cheaper
I needed 2x M8x100mm and 2x M10x100mm high tensile nuts and bolts yesterday.
Cost me $10, I could've spent $30 on ebay and got an absolute shitload of them.
Some stuff is quite cheap though, but consumables you usually get stiffed on in my experience.
Weird to put Bunnings in the list… Perhaps you dont quite understand what cheap and crap actually means. But then you put Dominos there and while I would argue it isnt cheap, compared to its competition, its certainly crap..
Bunnings sells heaps of sub par quality stuff. Their wood is often bowed or skewed, their outdoor furniture doesn't last long at all, their pool salts are difficult to dissolve, I bought a wall mounted can crusher, lasted a month before it started falling apart. I often hear painters say to never buy paint from bunnings and go to a paint store instead, same as plumbers - most say to go to Reece plumbing to get your stuff.
oh no i’ve just brought paint ..
@TrustNoBody: Some of their paint is fine. They do have cheaper stuff but also have quality paint too - if you need paint on a Sunday, you're buying it at Bunnings.
Your local paint store is often cheaper than Bunnings though, if you can get it during their opening hours.
I often hear painters say to never buy paint from bunnings and go to a paint store instead
So are you claiming that buying the exact same product (eg Dulux paint) from Bunnings is somehow of a different quality from the one bought in a paint store?
How does that happen? Do Bunnings purchase a totally different quality of paint from the the supplier who just labels it the same?
@Grunntt: If you paint for a living, you'd be mixing your own paints and generally get them from paint stores in larger quantities (cheaper).
If you don't paint for a living, you probably don't want the advice of someone who also doesn't paint for a living, so you'd go to a paint store. Especially so if they're mixing the colour for you, and provided you're doing it for personal purposes your transaction will be covered more extensively by legislation (cheaper and smarter).
This is the case with Bunnings too but you'd be pushing shit up hill.
@Assburg: I agree with you about the trade prices that trade painters receive but..
If you paint for a living, you'd be mixing your own paints …
In my experience I have yet to see a painter mix their own paints.
Colours are mixed to a formula/recipe that is then followed. Check the lid of any paint that you've had tinted or matched - you'll find the 'recipe' there.
I've employed colour matchers and it is a highly skilled role that general painters just cannot do or even need to do.
We used to supply the formulas to paint stores as well as businesses like Bunnings and we would purchase the same paint from them to check if it was reproducible consistently. Never found a significant difference between them.
@Grunntt: Apologies - didn't realise it was a specialist skill! My father was a painter/decorator his whole life who would always go on about matching colours and using the right brushes for the job etc. He just asked them what colour they needed matched on the phone, got the corresponding paints out of the shed and went over and matched it.
He made it look very easy when I went along as his unpaid weekend labourer so I just assumed it was.
So are you claiming
I'm not claiming anything. I'm just saying what professional painters have told me. I have no clue about paint. What Assburg says sounds like they'd know more than me tho and sounds reasonable.
@Name: Your post starts with
Bunnings sells heaps of sub par quality stuff….
Then you throw in
I often hear painters say to never buy paint from bunnings and go to a paint store instead, same as plumbers - most say to go to Reece plumbing to get your stuff.
So the assumption made from your post was that you think Bunnings product is crap as you support your point by quoting tradesmen saying don't buy there.
Sounds like you making a claim to me.
Sounds like you making a claim to me.
I'm making a claim about the stuff I was claiming. The latter half where I started with "I hear" is no longer a claim…. I don't know how you could intrpet "I hear painters and plumbers say" as a claim to the products by myself.
So interpret it how you want. But the products I've used were crap where I actually gave the four examples.
@Grunntt: No it's obviously the same.
But you'll get better advice, better prices (at least at my local paint shop) and access to products designed for trades that bunnings may not stock.
No it's obviously the same.
But you'll get better advice, better prices (at least at my local paint shop) and access to products designed for trades that bunnings may not stock.
I agree with all of that but the point of the post I responded to appeared to be claiming the products were crap and that's what I was reply about.
Reece is eye-wateringly expensive seemingly across the board, so I've generally avoided them.
@johnno07: Yep they're insanely expensive! My inwall toilet wouldn't flush. I took it apart and could see a tube had degraded. Turns out it's a very specific internal and external diameter tube that no where sold except for Reece plumbing.. I only needed 20cm of tube but Reece only sold 3m lengths for $110.
Felt like they had me bent over a barrel.
Many years ago when I was renovating a house, plumbing products were about 30% cheaper at the independent plumbing suppliers than Bunnings..
Yeah, lots of crap at Bunnings. Their electrical brands, their flimsy outdoor furniture. It's one step above Aliexpress for some items.
I don't buy much takeaway but last Friday evening my wife was out and I was home alone, so I ordered a Domino's pizza - just a basic double pepperoni only. I really enjoyed it and it was cheap as chips.
I'll buy Dominos again that's for sure.
Plenty of stuff in bunnings is absolute garbage. It also aint cheap.
jetstar
wish
catch
ebay
Friend of mine, recently retired after 40 years as an Industrial Chemist. The last 20 years working freelance for various companies with shampoo, conditioners, soaps both solid and liquid, washing powder, vanish type stain removers along with other household cleaning products. He tells me the Aldi knock offs were 'reasonable' when they first hit OZ, but have become less so as Aldi has been squeezing their suppliers on price resulting in less performing products as the manufactures had to reduce the formula to stay profitable.
He also said the reason Aldi use packaging as close as possible to the original is to make customers think it's identical to the original.
As an aside. I use shampoo and conditioner he developed for a company he gives me. Ingredients cost less than $2 bottle and label about 40c. Retails in hairdressers $49.95 each.
The knock offs come from the same factory though
The knock offs come from the same factory though
Some, not all. That doesn't mean they are an exact copy.
This doesnt mean it's the same product. I used to work for a honey factory where 5+ different brands were produced.
We had some expensive, high quality honey and some nice standard honey. But the cheapest honey we made was CRAP.
Same factory, different output.
How does a factory make crap honey? Do they cut it with syrup?
@[Deactivated]: Different inputs basically.
We had local, state, national, and international (mostly Chinese) sources for honey. Even locally, the taste, quality, and water content can be quite differrent.
Chinese "honey" was the worst as it was common for it to come up as fake after testing. Even when Chinese honey was "real", it has a flat, bland taste to it.
Cheap brands that pay the minimum get a blend of low quality Australian honey mixed with Chinese honey. The best labels get premium locally sourced honey, pure as it gets.
Even when Chinese honey was "real", it has a flat, bland taste to it.
They probably feed the bees sugar water, something normally done only during harsh winters to prevent the hives starving
All aldi, coles and woolworths products comes from the same factory. I have worked in one of those factory before.
All aldi, coles and woolworths products comes from the same factory. I have worked in one of those factory before.
All? Same formula?
They each have their own preference to ingredient balance. But its usually all the same just a bit of tweaking here and there based on the brands preference. Sometimes its just changing the packaging boxes when we swap product lines.
@mrvaluepack: If it was the case then whoever came up with the original recipe would be coming down on the people copying that range. So exactly which factory did you work for and what lines were involved?
@try2bhelpful: Lol u think they care to copyright ingredient and recipes? Everyone copies everyone. You cant copyright the formula to soap.
@mrvaluepack: Actually you probably can copyright how the ingredients of a product are combined and put together. You can’t copyright soap, per se, but you probably could copyright the formula for a certain brand of soap. So, exactly what factory and what lines were being copied?
@try2bhelpful: The original company hardly ever makes their own flavours, they outsource them to another company. That company sells pretty much the same flavour to multiple companies but with a minor change to the ingredients for each. So they are not identical, however the flavour is pretty much identical. And no, you cannot copyright a recipe or how it is made in Australia, you can only protect your brand.
@try2bhelpful: No you can't. Look it up. All homebrand, coles brand and aldi branded products come from the same factory i know this because I was a planner at one of the factories. Even some of the well branded products as well come from that same factory, just different packaging and brand label.
@mrvaluepack: I am sure, some do. But do all homebrand products of both stores come from the same factory? I doubt it.
@virhlpool: Depends on the product you are referring to. If its a protected industry with only 3-4 major producers then yes. If its not and there are many independent small factories then maybe not.
@try2bhelpful: Lol if you are going to pretend like you know something it helps to get the right terminology. You cannot copyright food and drinks, copyrights are for creative works like books, songs, poems, artwork etc. They are not for products/formulas.
It's why you can use someone recipe online because there is no protection for it. The word you are thinking about is a patent, you can patent ingredients, processes, compositions of soap. But there it is a costly exercise and the tests for a valid patent are far harsher. One of these tests is usefulness and a nice tasting product is not an example of usefulness. You also have to publish the recipe out so everyone knows it/plus it only lasts 15 years.
You will find most food manufacturers will not go for a patent a recipe because it's not worth it. They do try and keep their recipe from getting out by getting employees who have access to sign non-disclosures. This is known as a trade secret - think cocacola and pepsi.
wow that’s a huge mark up
Ingredients cost less than $2 bottle and label about 40c. Retails in hairdressers $49.95 each.
Pretty sure there's a few more things than just the ingredients and label that make up the final cost of an item.
How much does your friend think his development costs were? As well as things such as bottle? Inner and outer cartons? Transport? Overheads? Labour? etc etc…
Not saying that the markup/profit is what you may call reasonable, but your statement overlooks quite a bit.
users here are always denigrating aldi as low quality, which is bullshit….meanwhile fawning over any coles / woolies special like its a shopping miracle.
ive had to return literally mouldy food back to woolies and coles customer service is some of the worst ive seen….
but keep on supporting the shit duopoly you all deserve and enjoy paying 30-50% more at your self serve checkouts while chasing those rewards & flybuys points & collectible plastic pieces of crap… lol!
I returned mouldy bread once to ALDI - bought in a rush & didn't check the date. Always check the date & don't buy stuff in a rush!
I needed to exchange socks (wrong size) at Coles during lockdown & they initially refused due to recently updated returns/exchanges policy & then allowed it after speaking with a manager.
Woolies staff member kindly cut a whole watermelon after I pointed out their display advertised cut watermelon but only whole watermelons were available.
YMMV
Gotta agree with you franco. Self service checkouts without a discount are the ultimate FU - they literally have you doing their work - yet people lap it up.
I much prefer self service checkouts. Particularly the new ones you get in Coles that have more room like traditional checkouts. Why do I need someone to run my product under a scanner when I’m quite capable of doing it myself? It isn’t rocket science and they have someone to help you if there is a checkout issue.
so why are you still paying a premium on your purchases?
oh thats right…coles is doing it solely as a cost cutting measure to further increase their profits….and suckers like you lap that crap up about 'convenience' and are happy to do the work of former coles staff for them….
oh thats right…coles is doing it solely as a cost cutting measure to further increase their profits….and suckers like you lap that crap up about 'convenience' and are happy to do the work of former coles staff for them….
Oh that's right… Aldi are running way less checkouts, totally piled up, customers lined up, plus a surcharge on credit cards that most people use,
Lets see, why is that? My guess is….to increase their profit. Don't fotget a coin to get a trolley so all the trolleys are returned to the bay. That saves Aldi having to pay the for trolley collection around the carpark.
@CurlCurl: lol….i can fill my huge aldi trolley to the brim and its never over $150-200….youd be lucky to get 3 shopping bags of stuff at colesworth, but hey you do you!
@franco cozzo: So you buy lots of big shit that doesn’t cost much. Reminds me of the old saying “ never mind the quality, feel the width”. Honestly mate I buy from all the Supermarkets and, despite the advertising, ALDI is not some magical kingdom where people in the know shop. It all comes down to what you consider value at the time you buy it. At any time, on any day, this can vary. ALDI seems to act like a cult. It tries to make itself immune from criticism by putting forward a “we know best, don’t we?” aura. Just sell me good stuff at decent prices, I’m not interested in the brain washing propaganda.
@try2bhelpful: youre talking shit mate….i buy plenty of meats produce dairy groceries deli & even hardware ….whatever i want. literally!
even a few bottles of vino in that $200!
I have nothing against self service checkouts - people can have what they want. I too find them convenient sometimes.
I do have something against undiscounted self service checkouts.
@afoveht: I just find this bizarre. If you don’t want to use self checkouts then don’t. However, I don’t think I should pay less for using something I, personally, find convenient. There are probably dozens of other things in a supermarket that cost money, or save money, in the way they are handled. It would be madness trying to put a price differential on them.
other things in a supermarket that cost money,
No other thing has me knowingly blatantly replacing a paid worker with my own work. There's a reason why IKEA costs less than freedom
No other thing has me knowingly blatantly replacing a paid worker with my own work
This has been happening since the industrial revolution…
Does your local petrol station have an attendant fill up your car for you while you have a quick smoke?
@johnno07: Self-servos were always cheaper than full service servos when they became a thing. Discount dude, discount.
Many years ago I used to work at a full service servo when there weren't many left - we were always more expensive. (One of the long-time attendants actually smoked regularly in the driveway and would rest his smoke on the plinth near the pumps when he was attending to customers, with the boss's full knowledge - but that's another story).
These days I regularly drive past one of the few remaining full service stations I know of - still always more expensive.
@try2bhelpful: nothing better than being able to scan all your items in under 20 seconds, then wait around for 3 minutes for an attendant to come over to check that you were not trying to shoplift the reusable bags that you brought into the store
@ginormousgiraffe: Not my experience. Then again I bring my own reusable bags that don’t look like the store ones. The only time I have troubles is if the shelf price is different to the discount price and the weight of some fruit or vegetables. With the first one we might not notice this has happened with standard checkouts because the operator is scanning so quickly. With the self serve we keep on eye on the prices as we scan and, if we see this issue, I scoot back and take a picture of the shelf price and we don’t hold up a whole line of people whilst I do that. Then I get the support person to fix the issue. A nice support person showed us how to overcome the issue with the fruit by positioning the fruit before scanning the code of one of them.
If you are having the issue with store type reusable bags then put a big black testa mark on your bags before hand. If you get hassled then show them the mark.
Now they have the bigger self service ones I much prefer to use the self service. However, you should be happy because that is one less person in the long line of people at the serviced checkouts.
@try2bhelpful: Coles self serve checkout recognises anything in your trolley or basket, it isn't a matter of it being a coles bag since I don't own any of them anyway.
However, you should be happy because that is one less person in the long line
You want him to be happy that you are using the self service, not that woolies are providing service or commensurate discounts. That's the issue you're not seeing / addressing. You have become their stooge.
@afoveht: I don’t see how I’m being a stooge for doing something I want to do in the first place. So how do you think this would work? The logical thing would be a surcharge for using the full service queues and I, certainly, don’t agree with that. I would much rather than are used by people who really need them without incurring a penalty.
I thought a lot of those cheap are crap? It's easier to ask if any of those cheap are actually good. To me it's Aldi and Kmart.