I don't have a child's private school to pay for, but my insurance premium tripled this year and I feel your pain 😣
Do you ever think we will tap on premier instead of contemporary?
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I don't have a child's private school to pay for, but my insurance premium tripled this year and I feel your pain 😣
You know,I do noticed lately, a lot of designers are increasing price on their leather pieces. I remember couple year ago, I was able to get DH a Gucci briefcase for under 2k, Now, it's impossible to find a designer leather briefcase less than 2.5k and don't let me started with LV on their leather pieces. Coach do have nice leather, especially their new outerwear. I was able to get a PCE from a lovely lady in the forum and got me 2 leather jackets. Coach can tap on that to drive more sales since their leather good price is still low compare to premium designers.
I think they have the potential to move up market but there are still stigmas about where the item made from. It's impossible for people to change their mind about paying close to 1k on a bag that made in Asia. you can fight me all day long but the allure of Made In Italy or anywhere in Europe will get people to spend their money. The book " How Luxury Lost it Luster" may tell the truth and it's good to educate yourself. However, most people don't care. Made In Italy/France/ UK/ USA will always ***** other places. No matter how many time I testified that my Coach bags made in China are way more quality than other Made in Italy bag and people will tell me it's made in China. Why pay that much money for a made in China bag? sigh....
I think they have the potential to move up market but there are still stigmas about where the item made from. It's impossible for people to change their mind about paying close to 1k on a bag that made in Asia. you can fight me all day long but the allure of Made In Italy or anywhere in Europe will get people to spend their money. The book " How Luxury Lost it Luster" may tell the truth and it's good to educate yourself. However, most people don't care. Made In Italy/France/ UK/ USA will always ***** other places. No matter how many time I testified that my Coach bags made in China are way more quality than other Made in Italy bag and people will tell me it's made in China. Why pay that much money for a made in China bag? sigh....
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I agree with the whole post, and want to add something on that topic of leather prices increasing. Obviously, prices on designer goods are inflated for the brand name alone, however, there actually was an increase predicted in raw leather prices. I mean for the leather itself, not just the brand name.
Reading your post reminded me of an article I'd read over a year ago, and I'd actually saved the link! Turns out, I'd saved two links!
Two articles from 2014, about a rise in global leather prices ---
http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/4538115-less-beef-means-leather-goods-set-to-skyrocket/
http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/05/23/what_has_a_beeffree_diet_done_to_leather_prices.html
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Therein lies the problem. China is not known for producing quality items whether it's for a Chinese company or an American company. Poor quality control and shoddy workmanship from China over the past years has ruined China's reputation for being able to produce quality products. From the quality of the components (fabric, plastic, paint, etc.) or from shoddy work done on the product itself, (seams, rivets, seals, etc.) too much shoddiness has appeared in the 'Made in China' products and now they find themselves with a bad product quality reputation....and sometimes even a dangerous one, lead paint anyone? So now, anything produced in China is almost automatically assumed to be of poor quality, whether it really is or not.
Actually, in all honesty, a lot of production has been moving out of China over the last years (and I don't just mean Coach). And the big reason for that is very simple ... rising labor costs ... as well as rising labor unrest, which further increases costs. It's been all over the business news for quite some time. China also raised their minimum wage a couple years ago, further boosting those labor costs.
A high percentage of Coach products are now manufactured in Vietnam, Philipines, Thailand ... just look at the tags over the last few years. And this is FP as well as MFF. And Coach is not alone in that .... like I said, there has been, and continues to be, a movement of manufacturing out of China and into other lower-labor-costs countries.
A high percentage of Coach products are now manufactured in Vietnam, Philipines, Thailand ... just look at the tags over the last few years. And this is FP as well as MFF. And Coach is not alone in that .... like I said, there has been, and continues to be, a movement of manufacturing out of China and into other lower-labor-costs countries.
Yes, I knew all of that, but that wasn't my point at all. My point was that the quality of made in China products have developed a bad reputation over the years to the point where a lot of people prefer to not buy made in China products.
Yeah, I probably should have elaborated to the conclusion.
What I was getting at, was that *if* the quality is inferior (which I do not think is always true, but that's not my point), then it's probably a result of the exact same cost-cutting motives that put the manufacturing in the laps of cheaper labor workers to begin with. For one thing, if you're going out of the way to use cheap labor, then you'll likely also be more willing to "cheap-out" on the leather/hardware/equipment/etc as well. And secondly, lesser paid and/or overworked workers don't exactly have the best incentive to take pride in doing their best work.
So now they're moving to the "new" cheap labor (just like so many other businesses) ... Philipines, Vietnam, Thailand, and where I just noticed the New Year compact wallet was made, India. Simply the new places for cheap labor, which means that Coach's motives are unchanged, and so *if* there are quality issues, they won't be changing either, whether inside or outside of China.
Which in turn takes me to ---- it's not the specific country per se (China in this case), so much as it's chasing the cheap labor. And that, technically, can happen anywhere. Heh ... it reminds me of my mother-in-law, who hired the cheapest repairman she could find to fix her roof. He was actually sighted reading a how-to book on the subject. And the leaks prove it.
And that happened right here in America. ... Cheap-out, and that's what you get.
What I was getting at, was that *if* the quality is inferior (which I do not think is always true, but that's not my point), then it's probably a result of the exact same cost-cutting motives that put the manufacturing in the laps of cheaper labor workers to begin with. For one thing, if you're going out of the way to use cheap labor, then you'll likely also be more willing to "cheap-out" on the leather/hardware/equipment/etc as well. And secondly, lesser paid and/or overworked workers don't exactly have the best incentive to take pride in doing their best work.
So now they're moving to the "new" cheap labor (just like so many other businesses) ... Philipines, Vietnam, Thailand, and where I just noticed the New Year compact wallet was made, India. Simply the new places for cheap labor, which means that Coach's motives are unchanged, and so *if* there are quality issues, they won't be changing either, whether inside or outside of China.
Which in turn takes me to ---- it's not the specific country per se (China in this case), so much as it's chasing the cheap labor. And that, technically, can happen anywhere. Heh ... it reminds me of my mother-in-law, who hired the cheapest repairman she could find to fix her roof. He was actually sighted reading a how-to book on the subject. And the leaks prove it.
And that happened right here in America. ... Cheap-out, and that's what you get.
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I agree with the whole post, and want to add something on that topic of leather prices increasing. Obviously, prices on designer goods are inflated for the brand name alone, however, there actually was an increase predicted in raw leather prices. I mean for the leather itself, not just the brand name.
Reading your post reminded me of an article I'd read over a year ago, and I'd actually saved the link! Turns out, I'd saved two links!
Two articles from 2014, about a rise in global leather prices ---
http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/4538115-less-beef-means-leather-goods-set-to-skyrocket/
http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/05/23/what_has_a_beeffree_diet_done_to_leather_prices.html
.
Definitely rising costs on raising livestock which in turn sees raw materials costs rise. I own livestock so i know firsthand the impact it all makes... crops, fuel, heck even property values(ie; land taxes)
It's a snowball going down a hill.
Very good points.
Noticing that too. Of coarse no brand is immune from the odd defect, but it's also interesting to see the issues coming forth in this special release line that is supposedly of their highest quality.
Unfortunately, even the likes of LV has these quality control issues too, and iirc, most of their problems run right across the made in USA/France/Spain borders. :-/ Just off the top of my head, the problems with the empreinte Lumineuse (cracking, wasn't it?), straps on damier ebene Neverfull, and yikes -- remember that other shoulder bag that had actual ripping of the canvas near the strap attachments on each side (think it was damier ebene, but didn't pay attention for long since the style was way wrong for me)? I know people are sometimes accused of being overly picky, but once entire threads are devoted to the recurring problem, it does go on your "never buy" list. Sigh. :-/
The solution is to get people to stop being sloppy or greedy. Heh ... anyone know how to reverse human nature?
The solution is to get people to stop being sloppy or greedy. Heh ... anyone know how to reverse human nature?