Less than $10 for a tent?!? How can they do it...

[Rico]

http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/106154

I am amazed.... How can they make money with this? Sadly most of those tents will end up in the rubbish bin before to get even used... Disposable tents...

[Davidf61]

I go to Phillip Island most years for the MotoGp.

Last year was a $12 dollar Kmart 2 man dome tent, it only had to last 3 days/nights, then I gave it to a young kid when I left. Beats having some drunk fall on your exxy tent [ not uncommon ] and wrecking it. Weighed about 3 kg, but survived ok.

$4 a night accomadation and some kid will get a few uses out of it, why not?

Plastic reeked though......

[kaite]

I've had one of these tents for about 5 years, actually i still have it, it cost $17 at the Warehouse and it leaked along the front zip right from the start. I have used the tent heaps, at one stage for several months every night, when it is rainy i use it with a sheet of plastic (painters drip cloth) over it. I tie then a piece of string from the front of the tent to a tree, push bike or whatever, to make an air hole. Recently i saw the 12 dollar version at Kmart, so i went and splurged (and didn't think about the ethics of why the tent was so cheap)... and bought a new tent. These tents weigh under one kg, about 800gr with the plastic, i never use pegs. They are relatively roomy and very simple to put up, i love them, though some day i will buy a 400 gr tent....

[matagi]

I go to Phillip Island for the MotoGP too but I don't camp trackside. Which means I can take my $119 4-man standing headroom dome tent (with vestibule) and have a relatively luxurious stay on a powered, grassed caravan site. The tent has lasted 6 years so far.

[bailz66]

My Honey moon was spent in a tent which cost $20, its first night was in a massive storm and even though we woke up in an inch of water around the tent we were dry inside.

It lasted no worries for the two weeks and I still use it when I go for a general camp (Not Hike)

[Rico]

Fair enough, but here we are talking about a tent sold for $9 including free shipping in capital cities, which means that they are selling it for around $3...

For that money they had to:

Design the product and source the material
Sew the fabric (very labour intensive)
Add poles, labels, instructions, etc
Put all parts together, pack them in boxes, place them in pallets and inside a container
Ship the container half way around the world
Clear it with Customs paying an agent and import duties
Move it to their warehouse, unpack it and wait for the customers to buy the product (using in the main time shelf space, which is a cost)
Pack it again, label it, invoice and send to the customer.

And of course the $3 will have to cover returns, GST, etc.

I'd say that they are not even doing it as advertisement stunt, this is a cheap nasty tent, it is not going to do any good to their reputation... So they actually make money out of it.

So my question... How do they do it? I am sincerely amazed...

[Moondog55]

Possibly because that are using an old retail/restaurant sales technique called "Loss- Leader"

[Clusterpod]

Slavery and indentured servitude is alive and well.

Without blatant exploitation of workers, you can not possibly get products this cheap.

Its well worth considering what supporting this kind of industry is doing to your fellow human beings.

[Strider]

Slavery and indentured servitude is alive and well.

Without blatant exploitation of workers, you can not possibly get products this cheap.

Its well worth considering what supporting this kind of industry is doing to your fellow human beings.

Either they are making a genuine profit on these, or it is a case of dumping and Customs simply haven't caught up with them yet. However, I don't think its fair to make the assessment you have made based on such limited information.

[bailz66]

The tent is actually $19.95 + shipping but using coupons from the OzBargain site it becomes $9.95 with free shipping.

[Clusterpod]

Slavery and indentured servitude is alive and well.

Without blatant exploitation of workers, you can not possibly get products this cheap.

Its well worth considering what supporting this kind of industry is doing to your fellow human beings.

Either they are making a genuine profit on these, or it is a case of dumping and Customs simply haven't caught up with them yet. However, I don't think its fair to make the assessment you have made based on such limited information.

I maybe jumped to a hasty conclusion, but if RRP is around an hour at minimum wage in Australia, then exploitation of some form is a given.

Cheap goods are cheap for a reason. We shifted manufacturing offshore for a reason.

Exploitation of cheap labour is that reason.

[Strider]

if RRP is around an hour at minimum wage in Australia, then exploitation of some form is a given.

Is this another assumption?

[stepbystep]

if RRP is around an hour at minimum wage in Australia, then exploitation of some form is a given.

Is this another assumption?

Fact of life these days I'd say Strider!

[Clusterpod]

if RRP is around an hour at minimum wage in Australia, then exploitation of some form is a given.

Is this another assumption?

In Australia, the minimum wage for a full-time employee is $15.96, a 20 year old Junior is $15.59, and for a 4th year apprentice its $17.65.

I'm 39 years old and I get a few dollars more than that.

RRP of this tent is $19.95.

Distribution alone of this tent, would be pushing close to its cost in Australian man-hours, at minimum wage.

Even with the economies of scale taken into account, I think I am making fair assumptions.

I would be very interested in hearing a refutation, beyond that its a loss-leading item as we have already established the items RRP, that wasn't similarly an assumption.

[Strider]

I think you might be vastly overestimating the cost of production here. There is no way a single unit of this tent would cost anywhere near $20 to produce and distribute.

[Moondog55]

Given the simplicity of the standard dome design and the cheapness of fabric and materials I would guess roughly $3- for materials at the high volume purchase price and maybe 10 minutes labour on one of the newer high speed sewing machines. Factory production in an assembly line bears no relationship to home production.
Cheap labour by Australian standards it is, but depending on where the factory is located perhaps not "Slave" labour.
A lot of Australian factories have moved overseas for reasons other than the cost of labour although high labour cost is a killer at the mass market end

[kaite]

Most things we buy are too cheap, either for environmental or ethical reasons. Most of us will once in a while buy something, produced in a way that they are not that they are not happy to support. I guess we ought to try to do things a right as we can as often as possible... i buy what i can in second hand shops, and so on...