Kodak TRI-X 400 B/W Film - 100' Roll - $8.99 from Walmart.com?!

[bascom49]

the coffee costs about 20¢ to make it is "location / ambiance / vibe" is built into the price of the coffee,
the condiments are a give-away .. some coffee place also give away glasses of seltzer water with their coffee.
also a "loss" but they figure you will buy a 7$ toast point with cuccumber and dill.

This is hilarious. No viable business loses money,
especially intentionally as you seem to believe.

The profit margin in that 7 dollar toast point includes overall operating expenses which do include condiments, cups, lids, utilities, and even seltzer water. Those expenses are there as an expected service that the typical customer expects as part of their purchase.

If too many customers take advantage of free seltzer water that $7 toast point becomes $9.

As is becoming more and more evident with each of your posts, you really do not understand marketplace economics.

 

[bascom49]

http://www.businessinsider.com/london-baker-makes-102000-cupcakes-groupon-deal-2011-11

 

[bascom49]

http://www.businessinsider.com/london-baker-makes-102000-cupcakes-groupon-deal-2011-11

Substitute 9 dollar rolls of bulk tri x for cupcakes.

 

[removed account4]

If too many customers take advantage of free seltzer water that $7 toast point becomes $9.

As is becoming more and more evident with each of your posts, you really do not understand marketplace economics

i understand it enough to have started my own businesses since i was a teenager and been self employed except for
a few years, since the early 1980s. not everything is the way you have suggested.
every customer who orders cup of espresso is given a glass of seltzer whether they ask for it or not. the price of
the food hasn't gone up, and the espresso price has remained the same since the shop opened. its business seems to
remain steady.
regarding businesses i owned .. we used to repair holes and cracks at no cost before we sealed driveways,
it was hours of labor and gallons + pounds of products given away for pretty much for below cost.
we did not go bankrupt, it was not built into the price of the materials we used or
the labor of coating the blacktop, and every year we had more customers.

 

[ic-racer]

Film is plenty affordable for the amount that most of us shoot. .

Show me this data. Thank you in advance.

 

[faberryman]

Show me this data. Thank you in advance.

Film costs what it costs. It is not going to get any cheaper. You can either reconcile yourself to that fact or continue to feel grumpy about it. Your choice. In the end, only you can decide how much you want to spend.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

This is hilarious. No viable business loses money,
especially intentionally as you seem to believe.

The profit margin in that 7 dollar toast point includes overall operating expenses which do include condiments, cups, lids, utilities, and even seltzer water. Those expenses are there as an expected service that the typical customer expects as part of their purchase.

If too many customers take advantage of free seltzer water that $7 toast point becomes $9.

As is becoming more and more evident with each of your posts, you really do not understand marketplace economics.

+1

I’ll provide a very real example. Out of every 100-200 rolls of film that I sell, 1 customer will wait until tracking information isn’t available any more and then make a complaint that the roll they bought never arrived and demand a return of their funds, which per Amazon’s very customer service oriented policies, they get their money back.

My loss isn’t just the roll, my loss is my cost of the roll, the cost of shipping that roll, and the cost I paid Amazon to handle processing the order and handling customer service, so for that 1 roll of Arista.EDU 400 135-36 that cost me $3.77 to put on Amazon, my loss is $8.75.

It happens frequently enough that I must account for it in my pricing, just like that coffee shop must account for the fact that customers are going to expect to put milk and sugar in their coffee. The coffee shop has an operating expense that is divided by the average number of cups of coffee they sell per day, and that is then added to the cost of that particular coffee, along with the cost of milk and sugar and the profit they expect to make.

There is no such thing as free, you are paying for the total expense to provide that service in one form or another, if not, then that business won’t be in business for long

 

[bascom49]

i understand it enough to have started my own businesses since i was a teenager and been self employed except for
a few years, since the early 1980s. not everything is the way you have suggested.
every customer who orders cup of espresso is given a glass of seltzer whether they ask for it or not. the price of
the food hasn't gone up, and the espresso price has remained the same since the shop opened. its business seems to
remain steady.
regarding businesses i owned .. we used to repair holes and cracks at no cost before we sealed driveways,
it was hours of labor and gallons + pounds of products given away for pretty much for below cost.
we did not go bankrupt, it was not built into the price of the materials we used or
the labor of coating the blacktop, and every year we had more customers.

I simply disagree with that business model. As a small business owner it would not be something that I would do. Personally I am not in business to give away hours of labor or products below cost.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

i understand it enough to have started my own businesses since i was a teenager and been self employed except for
a few years, since the early 1980s. not everything is the way you have suggested.
every customer who orders cup of espresso is given a glass of seltzer whether they ask for it or not. the price of
the food hasn't gone up, and the espresso price has remained the same since the shop opened. its business seems to
remain steady.
regarding businesses i owned .. we used to repair holes and cracks at no cost before we sealed driveways,
it was hours of labor and gallons + pounds of products given away for pretty much for below cost.
we did not go bankrupt, it was not built into the price of the materials we used or
the labor of coating the blacktop, and every year we had more customers.

No, you didn’t go bankrupt, you simply accepted a lower profit margin. You were still making money, just less on the jobs that required that kind of thing to be done. Nothing wrong with that, however, intentional or not, your pricing still reflected the fact that some jobs had that expense.

 

[bascom49]

I’m exiting this thread.. While the conversation is meaningful and interesting in terms of discussions about retail, business and profit margins, we have moved away from the point that I am concerned with.

I am opposed to the original reason that the thread was created and the content of the original post.

The OP made the post to alert all of us that there was an opportunity to capitalize on someone’s obvious mistake.

The OP saw a mistake in pricing by a vendor, admitted that he knew it was a mistake, admitted taking advantage of that mistake and encouraged others to do the same.

It bothers me that this forum was used in this way. Such activity has an impact on products and services that I personally enjoy and that I want to see remain sustainable and viable in the consumer marketplace.

I’m going to make a point to include Adrian Bacon in my purchase decisions accordingly.

Adrian, please pm me so that I can find you on Amazon.

 

[removed account4]

I simply disagree with that business model. As a small business owner it would not be something that I would do. Personally I am not in business to give away hours of labor or products below cost.

sorry ... thats just the way it was .. whether it was the way you would do it or not..

No, you didn’t go bankrupt, you simply accepted a lower profit margin. You were still making money, just less on the jobs that required that kind of thing to be done. Nothing wrong with that, however, intentional or not, your pricing still reflected the fact that some jobs had that expense.

maybe .. it was a long time ago. we had a flat rate. and it worked.

 

[RattyMouse]

RattyMouse has suffered a huge blow with the loss of Acros.

What is it that we analog photographers are not getting when it comes to supporting the retail vendors that produce the means to our analog lively hood and enjoyment?

I'd love to pay Fujifilm a higher price in order to keep Acros around. Sadly, Fujifilm is too dim to even try that.

I am no fan of Kodak the company, but I'd never try to rip them off and get their film cheap, nor any vendor selling that film at a low price by mistake.

 

[Helios 1984]

I'd love to pay Fujifilm a higher price in order to keep Acros around. Sadly, Fujifilm is too dim to even try that.

I am no fan of Kodak the company, but I'd never try to rip them off and get their film cheap, nor any vendor selling that film at a low price by mistake.

+1

I like to think that every dollar I spend on film help the industry stays alive.

 

[1kgcoffee]

RattyMouse,
How much would you be willing to pay? $20-25 a roll? You might be willing but for that price market forces take over. They sell less film and its all a wash. Fuji doesn't make money. $20 a roll is what Fuji is currently charging for a 36exp roll of velvia. They priced themselves out of the market, perhaps to test consumer sentiment. I can't imagine why B&H is trying to sell off near date stock for less than $7. Fuji is thinking longterm, has done their market research and is opting out. Too much competition from properly scaled competitors. I will be surprised if Velvia isn't axed in the next year.

Meanwhile Eastman Kodak - bless their heart - is on the verge of a second bankruptcy. The only survivors in this market are small scale producers.

I don't agree that these companies are being greedy, although I wish I had started shooting film sooner.

 

[Sirius Glass]

If I order a dozen [12] would I get a baker’s dozen [13]?

 

[warden]

I’m exiting this thread.. While the conversation is meaningful and interesting in terms of discussions about retail, business and profit margins, we have moved away from the point that I am concerned with.

I am opposed to the original reason that the thread was created and the content of the original post.

The OP made the post to alert all of us that there was an opportunity to capitalize on someone’s obvious mistake.

The OP saw a mistake in pricing by a vendor, admitted that he knew it was a mistake, admitted taking advantage of that mistake and encouraged others to do the same.

It bothers me that this forum was used in this way. Such activity has an impact on products and services that I personally enjoy and that I want to see remain sustainable and viable in the consumer marketplace.

I’m going to make a point to include Adrian Bacon in my purchase decisions accordingly.

Adrian, please pm me so that I can find you on Amazon.

Complete agreement.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

A few years ago, I listed some ammunition for sale on one of the firearm forums with a price far below reasonable market value. I was selling quite a lot of ammo in various calibers below market value to raise badly needed funds. I erred with one make/caliber and priced it at approximately seventy percent off. A buyer very quickly replied stating they'd take it all. Realizing my mistake, I apologized and relisted it for fifteen percent off the lowest fair market price, as I did with all the other offerings... still a very good deal. The guy relentlessly PMed me with angry threats, cursing and accusations. He did this over and over again for two weeks. He was pissed that he couldn't force me to screw myself for his benefit.

What did I have to say to that jerk? Effff---Yooo!!

Although WM messed up, that's all it is. One person... paid low wages sitting in a tiny cubicle... made a mistake. Do we really want that poor bastard to lose his job from a simple one-digit error?

Don't misunderstand me. Had I known about the pricing guffaw I would have ordered as much as I could afford to buy. But I'm not going to cry, stamp my little feet, and accuse WM of foul play because they didn't sell at a loss. They messed up. That's all. Get over it.

 

[removed account4]

If I order a dozen [12] would I get a baker’s dozen [13]?

d00de, yor adai l'eight, 4/20 was yesterday