eliza61
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 21,023
I always wanted to know why the heck bikinis carried such a high price tag, especially now that most places price the tops and bottoms seperately.
Found a very interesting article today. I thought the video was pretty funny though. the girls in it said they routinely spend $100 bucks per suit and will buy 7-8 suits a season.
Yikes
Turns out, swimwear is surprisingly costly to make when compared to other garments. "The labor is the same as a shirt," explains Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NDP Group, "and there's only slightly less material -- a yard instead of two for a shirt -- so that's not enough of a difference to offset the price. It's the lack of ability to commoditize it or to use economies of scale."
That is, because swimsuits are a specialized item that people tend to buy seasonally -- as opposed to jeans, for example -- manufacturers don't produce as many. And because they make fewer bikinis, they can't take as much advantage of the cost savings that come from mass production, such as discounts for buying materials in bulk. As a result, it costs the manufacturers more to produce each suit.
Because the traditional swimwear season is so short, retailers quickly begin reducing their prices to keep consumers buying. But to afford those reductions, manufacturers have to set their original prices relatively high. "You have to mark it up to be able to mark it down," says Cohen.
The Well-Traveled Two-Piece
Another factor contributing to the price is what Cohen calls "the transit lifestyle of the product," that is, the series of stores that a suit moves through as the summer season ends. An example: Let's say a suit retails for $250 at a department store. No one buys it, even once it has been marked down. So the store sends it back to the manufacturer.
The manufacturer then turns around and resells that same suit to a discount store at a lower price. That store prices it at $100. If it still doesn't sell, that retailer may also send it back to the manufacturer.
For round three, the manufacturer sells the same suit to a jobber, "someone who buys bulk, pays 10 cents on the dollar, and sells in little shops all around the world," says Cohen. Each time the manufacturer has to deal with the returned merchandise, they not only have to resell the suit at a lower price they also have to absorb the transport costs of reshipping the merchandise around the country or even the world.
But the business model only tells half the story. The other reason a bikini can be expensive is because of what the consumer expects it to do -- fit well, flatter the body, and keep us from falling out of our tops.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/09/why-teeny-bikinis-have-such-big-price-tags/
Found a very interesting article today. I thought the video was pretty funny though. the girls in it said they routinely spend $100 bucks per suit and will buy 7-8 suits a season.
YikesTurns out, swimwear is surprisingly costly to make when compared to other garments. "The labor is the same as a shirt," explains Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NDP Group, "and there's only slightly less material -- a yard instead of two for a shirt -- so that's not enough of a difference to offset the price. It's the lack of ability to commoditize it or to use economies of scale."
That is, because swimsuits are a specialized item that people tend to buy seasonally -- as opposed to jeans, for example -- manufacturers don't produce as many. And because they make fewer bikinis, they can't take as much advantage of the cost savings that come from mass production, such as discounts for buying materials in bulk. As a result, it costs the manufacturers more to produce each suit.
Because the traditional swimwear season is so short, retailers quickly begin reducing their prices to keep consumers buying. But to afford those reductions, manufacturers have to set their original prices relatively high. "You have to mark it up to be able to mark it down," says Cohen.
The Well-Traveled Two-Piece
Another factor contributing to the price is what Cohen calls "the transit lifestyle of the product," that is, the series of stores that a suit moves through as the summer season ends. An example: Let's say a suit retails for $250 at a department store. No one buys it, even once it has been marked down. So the store sends it back to the manufacturer.
The manufacturer then turns around and resells that same suit to a discount store at a lower price. That store prices it at $100. If it still doesn't sell, that retailer may also send it back to the manufacturer.
For round three, the manufacturer sells the same suit to a jobber, "someone who buys bulk, pays 10 cents on the dollar, and sells in little shops all around the world," says Cohen. Each time the manufacturer has to deal with the returned merchandise, they not only have to resell the suit at a lower price they also have to absorb the transport costs of reshipping the merchandise around the country or even the world.
But the business model only tells half the story. The other reason a bikini can be expensive is because of what the consumer expects it to do -- fit well, flatter the body, and keep us from falling out of our tops.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/09/why-teeny-bikinis-have-such-big-price-tags/
