I noticed these backpacks, laptop sleeves and satchels all discounted to $2 at the Epping Officeworks, VIC.
http://imgur.com/yPoOXMv
http://imgur.com/cunFNLZ
http://imgur.com/0eFyFIm
http://imgur.com/51IAlxS
I grabbed one of each, they scanned at $10 (same price on website) but as you can see the store sign had them at $2 each. The manager said it was fine to have them at $2 each.
$6 in total. Bargain!!!
Here is a copy of my receipt http://imgur.com/R5QSjc4
Just added some photos.
are they made of paper?
because $2 is too much for that
It says cardboard, but it's a shiny material (not sure how waterproof it would be) but stronger than paper. The inside is all stitched together with material and all the zippers work great. Definitely worth $2, you won't be disappointed!!!
think the bag can fit a 17inchbased on the one you brought? according to the dimensions it should just fit but wouldn't mind your confirmation
Here is a photo of my 13inch macbook.
I think it should fit a 17inch! Seems to be a fair bit of room over.
cheers
Tyvek. Its not the brand of the backpack but the brand of the material. Basically crinkly plastic.
I looked up Tyvek and its mainly used in the US to wrap around housing frames to help seal them up. This is what I found: The material is very strong; it is difficult to tear but can easily be cut with scissors or a knife. Water vapor can pass through Tyvek, but liquid water cannot.
holy sh*t. I've just seen the future - and its a cardboard backpack.
shows u the 500% markup they make, now selling at cost price at most, wouldn't be losing money.
You don't know that. It's not uncommon for stores to sell below cost for the purpose of clearing stock. I bought a CD from Target for 5 cents once.
Just have a quick look at alibaba, it will give you an idea of what backpacks can be had for $2 a pop. We are not comparing store to store we are comparing what it costs to purchase wholesale.
They wouldn't be losing money as can be seen. problem is we as consumers can not necessarily get those prices, but it does show u the markup.
btw these are known as Kraft paper backpacks
Because they can carry low quality cheese?
The wholesale purchase price is just one of the costs involved in the equation though. Officeworks is paying rent, electricity, labour, etc and those aren't cheap. Factor that in and there's no way Officeworks are looking at anywhere near a 500% markup.
You are discounting the fact that cost attached to hiring people, moving stock from one place to other, running cost etc which goes into cost price as well.
They might not lose money if you only look at how much it costs them to get it, but they might be losing money if you count all those other factors in.
No I'm not, just saying what a markup there is on items, sure there are running costs etc but as mentioned I am only talking about how much of a markup there is. 500% is not justified even with your so called overhead. For the actual item itself I would guarantee they wouldn't be losing money especially for such a retailer as large as office works with their buying power.
You Must also remember they may sell an item ridiculously cheap but view this as an opportunity to get customers in their door to buy other items. A lot of people like yourself look at it with a 1 track mind sense and not see the bigger picture.
@Stringr: Yes, the markup seems unreasonable if you just look at the cost of the product, but, as soon as you bring in electricity, transportation cost, warehouse cost, cost of the land, etc etc it becomes more reasonable.
You are seriously not going to compare someone who has a warehouse, has employees (at higher wage), who pays tax in Australia, to a factory owner who suffers lower wage rate and lower rent rate (in terms of capital), are you? I've seen people talking about AusPost charging more for parcels, and even if we talk about the truck drivers, Australians pay tonnes more than Chinese does on transportation of the goods (due to minimum wage and overtime pay). So yeah, I think you are being unfair.
Also, if you really want to go in detail, yes, we are not getting the products at cost price and yes, they are probably not charging at a competitive market price, but they have monopolistic power since they are closer to you (convienience) and since they have it available on spot, compared to online shops. Therefore some people would be willing to pay extra therefore they can charge extra. Though, be fair, they have invested money to get that monopolistic power, i.e. owning the store at location where it is closer to you, instead of being a online store (which incurs cost of land in city which is more expensive than having a warehouse at woop woop etc). So you cannot really say that they are being an extortionist without looking at how much monopolistic power they have and how much it costs them to provide the good at that location.
Assuming OfficeWork has customers from the surrending surburbs, OfficeWork has potential customers possibly from the city and the surrounding city (being very generous since I think most of the times, people go to the OfficeWork at their suburb and wouldn't need to go OfficeWork at other town/City). Whereas Ali, they sell to the whole world, you cannot seriously expect them to survive off from same profit margin even if you assume same running cost. The volume of sales is different for them, therefore fixed cost attached to the product sold is different as well (economies of scale is in play).
Also, you have to bear in mind, OfficeWork might not get it from those people at Ali, they might be getting from 3rd party and they'd probably bring up mark up as well. Not to mention, Australia doesn't charge 10% GST on imported goods under $1000 for grey imports, but if you were to sell in Australia as a company, the good attracts GST as well.
These are the reasons why I believe that the markups by OfficeWork are not completely unreasonable, they face different cost and they sell far less compared to people at Ali. I think it's enough to show that the price mark up by them are not too unreasonable (that being said, yes, I wouldn't buy from OfficeWork without looking at online alternatives first, I am an Ozbargainer), even though they are high, it has some justifications. I wouldn't be able to say whether it is competitive market price (I have my doubts on that because location advantage allow them to have some control over price), but to say that they are flat out extortionist, I think is going too far.
STOP Hijacking my post you flogs. No one cares if they are extortionist or selling it at a profit or not. It's cheap, real cheap. You couldn't find one elsewhere at that price. So if you want one buy it, otherwise take your business degrees and wall of text and go elsewhere.
I'll never post a bargain on here again thanks to you guys draining my life!!!
@keanedog: That's pretty much what I thought. It's really cheap, I simply thought it was unfair for someone to complain about the mark up and stuff, then he called me an 'one tracked mind' which made me slightly peeved and made me write the whole chunk of text.
If you thought my words were offensive to you, I apologise, I didn't mean it like that. It was not my intention.
You can report the comments for being off topic, if that is what you think they are.
Anyone found any at other stores?
The back back looks really cool.
Anyone get one at other stores.
Saw a few of these at Officeworks Mona Vale 2103. Not sure what the price was,
so ugly -_-
Made of cardboard?
You better prepare your umbrella for that
HI Keanedog, would you please post the tax invoice so that I can show to the other Officeworks store:)
I'm in the process of trying to dig up the receipt. Sorry. It was a manager's sale so not sure if it's applicable to all stores!!
Thanks, I went to a store today and found out the same bag but price is $10. the manager is happy to beat the price if I can have the copy of invoce/receipt….please help!
Saw them for $2 each in Perth Victoria Park branch if anyone is interested. And lots of boxes of 1250 DL envelopes at $5 and many other A4 notebooks for 50c each too.
Can you upload a receipt or a photo ?