ANYONE here CAN / DARE to reveal the REAL mark-up of ANYTHING that we BUY???

chengjianer on 18/11/2014 - 12:18

Since this is a bargain site, i guess it would be better if we can get to know the price of a product that the seller actually pays for it. Can be anything from toothbrush, shoes, clothes, cars or more valuable stuff.

So we can truely know what it is a TRUE bargain!

From me, i have worked in a dollar shop before, generally price is doubled from the purchase price on most items, like toys, party plates etc but there are exceptions selling for less. For example, we pay for $1 for an item, we normally sell it for $2.

The other places that i work for i don't know their purchase price so i cannot comment on other things.

So yes, please share with your fellow Ozbargainers if you can!! :)haha..

General Discussion

Comments

  • 2jzzzz on 18/11/2014 - 13:16
    +3

    I worked at a large automotive based retailer and the mark up was crazy. We used to get a flat x% off as staff, but then they changed it to cost plus 10%. In that short time, it showed what their cost really is.

    Small bulbs, electrical connectors we could get at about 90% off. All spare parts had the suppliers cost and then 120% on top. So started at $10 costs, would be $22.

    Oil didn't have much of a mark up at all, so the big sales in that must be to get customers in to buy filters and flush and make profit there.

    All of the camp chairs, 4wd accessories, picnic, travel stuff had a mark up of at least 100%.

    After seeing that, I didn't really care if I bought stuff with my discount to for family.

    • chengjianer on 18/11/2014 - 13:43

      Haha, great start!

      Can i assume you work for SCA or Autobarn or Repco?? :)

      You say "but then they changed it to cost plus 10%" does that mean you get a 90%OFF staff discount of everything's RRP???

      • 2jzzzz on 18/11/2014 - 14:12
        +1

        They quickly changed it back to either x% off or cost plus 10%, which ever was the smaller discount. Guess they were selling too much oil under cost at the flat rate.

        No longer with them, but it was similar 90% off at the sister stores owned by the same company, thanks for the cheap fishing and camping gear (quite a clue as to who I worked for)..

  • jzdhgkd on 18/11/2014 - 13:47

    Non-warehouse pharmacy.

    30-50% on shopfront items.

    Script items vary hugely. Some items cost $3 and we can sell for $15-20. Others might cost $150 and we sell for $153. It depends on prices of local competition and how much of a discount we can get from our supplier for buying in larger quantities and having a supply contract with them.

    • chengjianer on 18/11/2014 - 13:59

      Oh, ok..

      But like do you ever jack up the price if there's a limited supply or stocks left or that item becomes very popular suddently???

      • jzdhgkd on 18/11/2014 - 15:13

        We've never done that before. Our pensioners complain when the cost of scripts rise by 20c with the new calendar year and so it would be suicide to follow the typical "demand/supply" model of pricing.

  • [Deactivated] on 18/11/2014 - 14:12

    You can look at companies profit for the fairest indication.

    Then you can consider a coffee shop or a fashion store. Each product markup would be enormous, but the overall profit after rent and wages would be hopefully a bit more reasonable.

    So then you can compare like this:

    • Cisco reports about 65% profit
    • HP (enterprise product arm) reports about 15% profit

    So HP looks like better value buy at face level.

    • dasher86 on 18/11/2014 - 16:27
      +1

      probably better to look at gross margins not profit.
      And even that can be grossly manipulated.

      Eg. Starbucks making a loss in the UK, does that mean that their cost price is greater than their selling price? No, you need to take into account overheads, depreciation and tax etc.

      • conan2000 on 19/11/2014 - 08:20

        Ha, I used to work at Starbucks in the UK. One example of a mark up was the mugs they sell. They cost somewhere in the region of 10-50 pence (it was about 8 years ago, so I can't remember exactly) to buy in and they sold them for £6 each.

      • retiredfeline on 19/11/2014 - 11:47
        +1

        Starbucks (and other international firms) make a loss or very little profit in the UK due to clever cross-border accounting. Governments are waking up to this loss of revenue.

  • notbad on 18/11/2014 - 15:08

    you guys are probably not including shipping/warehousing costs when seeing the invoices which your company paid the supplier. also staff / rent / bills / marketing etc

    • jzdhgkd on 18/11/2014 - 15:15

      We generally don't get charged shipping to order things into the pharmacy.

      And of course this isn't taking into account overhead costs - that's not part of a question regarding product mark-up and it's not possible to generalise across industries.

    • chengjianer on 18/11/2014 - 20:37
      -1

      No, that's actually not what i truely mean..

      This website is purely or almost about prices of everything, so wouldn't it be nice to let everyone know what is the REAL price before adding all other costs in?? Unless it's a mystery / secret…

  • Bullzye on 18/11/2014 - 15:16

    Used to work in IT department of a large clothing chain with 2 brands. The markup was huge. Some of the items had cost price of $25(does not include shipping to Australia from factories in china or any other tax). The retail price would be $125 or similar. Mind you some of their goods sold for over $800.

  • Sondog on 18/11/2014 - 16:17

    One of the highest markup is on Jewellery. You just have to see how much they reduce prices during a sale. I'm talking about 500% and more. Incredible!

    • chengjianer on 18/11/2014 - 20:27

      Really??!! Yet they are still making profit, i believe…

  • leonheart1 on 18/11/2014 - 16:20

    Bottled water is pretty damn high since it's effectively just tap water.

    • Charity on 21/11/2014 - 03:44

      Yes. Better than 6000% markup was the figure when I used to work for a brand of water owned by a company rhyming with Oca~Ola

  • ynot1985 on 18/11/2014 - 20:34
    +1

    My friend used to work at Kathmandu. Staff discount is 70% off RRP. so at 70% off its still profitable for them (no limit to how much staff can buy)

    • chengjianer on 19/11/2014 - 09:13

      Oh great! Next time if i walk into Kathmandu store to bargain the prices i could say "look your staff discount is about 70%OFF can't i get 60%OFF only??!!" That person definitely think "You ass…" LOL…

  • Karlos101 on 19/11/2014 - 07:44

    Used to work at a Battery world store. Car batteries like century are usually bought at half the price they are sold for. But with Battry World franchises its understandable when you consider battery world take a cut of earnings as a franchise fee + you have physical running costs on top of that.

  • zambuck on 19/11/2014 - 08:04

    Interesting topic, however as previous posters have mentioned, it's not entirely accurate to look at only the supplier price. I was involved in managing the retail software for a whitegoods chain some years ago. A specific item, say a fridge, would have its initial cost from the supplier (eg. $900), plus there would be a second and slightly higher "floor cost" figure that takes into account some of the transport and distribution costs (eg. $950). But supplier deals sometimes included rebates for high volume, so for example if the retailer orders 50 fridges this month, the retailer gets a 10% rebate.(ie. supplier cost becomes $810) And of course none of these figures takes into account the actual store running costs.

    So "cost plus 10%" can mean all sorts of things depending on how you interpret it. $990, $1045, $891?

  • affable on 19/11/2014 - 08:24
    +1

    Supermarkets are not so profitable, its all about volume -
    Red bull energy shot 60ml cost $2.21 sell $3.99
    Heinz Baked Beans 420g cost $1.42 sell $1.79
    Kraft Vegemite 600g cost $7.02 sell $8.67

    ask if you want any others.

  • SuperMick on 19/11/2014 - 11:41

    I am a chef, though retired now. Most restaurants have a markup of 350 to 400%. Buy it for $1 sell it for $4.That is not a big markup, considering all of the waste that gets thrown away, things like peelings,outer leaves, meat off cuts etc: The other thing is food that cant be turned into something else if it hasn't been sold, pasta things like that, go straight into the bin.

  • jackspratt on 19/11/2014 - 14:53

    I worked for Customs many years ago.

    From memory, the items with the greatest mark-ups (from the landed price + duty + sales tax) were clothing and ceramic tiles - generally in the range of 3-500%.

  • cloudy on 20/11/2014 - 11:24
    +3

    Parents used to own a fruit shop, it's typical to mark up by around 200-250%, for quiality fruits, if u buy cheap stuff, they can mark up by 300-400%.

    In saying that, overall profits are tiny when u take into account overheads, labour costs, theft etc…

    Making a net profit is about 10% of sales, sometimes when someone steals something, u basically have to sell 10x the amount stolen, just to break even from the theft. So yea, even though mark ups are high, in the end of the day, the amount made can be pretty thin.

  • earths_pacifist on 20/11/2014 - 18:00
    +1

    As most do, our store would check out what the local competition had. Went into Myer - $140 for the same top (design/material exactly the same)that we were selling for $40. This was about 6 years ago.

  • Geewhizz on 21/11/2014 - 06:49

    Comparison with "the price of a product that the seller actually pays for it" is far from accurate, or even fair.

    There are overheads for most sellers - rent, insurances, wages, power, etc etc. Most Hardly Normal stores (just an example) are owned by franchisees who pay a percentage to Gerry. If the customer opts for interest free finance, GE takes a hefty percentage of the sale in commission, and so-on.

    • jackary on 28/11/2014 - 13:04

      My understanding with financing deals (eg GE, HSBC) was that the retailer/staff member actually got a bonus for making the sale interest free, paid to them by the financier.

      • Geewhizz on 28/11/2014 - 19:32

        The retailers pay the finance company because, in theory it's because the interest free promo exists that they made the sale.

  • altomic on 28/11/2014 - 20:37

    the crap that I sell on Fleabay is marked up 400%

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