Bait For Lee Valley

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Quoting anything by the "square" or square metre in this day and age is fraught with danger.

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But surely this is the method used by the local council when determining fees and they would never use a method that was in any way inaccurate (at least under-estimated). They might miss out on revenue.

Now all you say might be true, however my point is that prices are frequently determined by how much the vendor thinks they can get away with, so returning to the original point, even if the local supplier could get Lee Valley cheaper, putting the prices down to compensate would probably not be a given. Retailer A might drop them but retailers B would not.

If you get a special deal on bread in the sanger shop one week, do you drop your prices? I think your average retailer would think 'that's a win to me'.

1/10 for a clear and lucid explanation ..... NOT

Which of the clear and lucid posts above is that directed at, Mr Willson?

If it's "1/10 .... NOT", does that mean it's really 10/10 ? :D

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Originally Posted by silentC

If you get a special deal on bread in the sanger shop one week, do you drop your prices? I think your average retailer would think 'that's a win to me'.

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In my case, I think "well hopefully that will offset the increase in the cost of tomatos because of the ^&%$^%$ hail last week!!".

In fact what I did do, was analyse our sales in great detail, and adjusted our prices so that the most popular product gave the greatest margin, and the least popular was almost given away.

Interestingly, increasing the price only made the most popular ones more popular, which of course made me very happy and enabled me to order those Bessey Clamps!

Perhaps that's what we are missing here: If only a few people are prepared to pay the big bucks demanded by the local retailers for the good product, and they are making as much as they would by selling ten times as many, without the need to keep a hugely expensive inventory, good luck to them!

I know we're arguing in circles, but can I just say that, like builder A, I'm happy with my lot, and don't charge to get out of bed! :D

P(It does cost a lot to make me go away though!!)

:D :D :D

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Originally Posted by silentC

Which of the clear and lucid posts above is that directed at, Mr Willson?

If it's "1/10 .... NOT", does that mean it's really 10/10 ? :D

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Must have been one of yours!! :D :D :D

P

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Originally Posted by silentC

Which of the clear and lucid posts above is that directed at, Mr Willson?

If it's "1/10 .... NOT", does that mean it's really 10/10 ? :D

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It refers to this one:

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Originally Posted by SilentC

To get approx. sq. metres from squares, you multiply by 9.25. A square metre is roughly 10.76 square feet. 22 squares = 203.5 square metres = 2190.46 square feet. Divide by 100 gives you pretty damn close to 22....

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I pondered it for a few minutes but couldn't make a lot of sense out of it. Now this could mean one of various things, such as; I'm really stupid and have an abysmally low IQ of a single figure, or, The explanation was very difficult to follow, or, (and this is the most likely one here).the explanation was cr@p and was obtuse in the information it conveyed. :D :D

Alas poor Bob! :D

It's the old 10-11-12 metric conversion rule of thumb.

One square metre = approximately 11 square feet

and I'm buggered if I know what = approximately 10 or 12 anythings, (it was a long time ago and I didn't think it mattered), but whatever they are it's a pretty simple conversion.

Cheers,

P (or was it the 9-10-11 metric conversion rule of thumb.)
:D :D :D

Now that I think of it, 3 metres is 10 feet, but what is twelve (or was it nine?)

P :confused:

Oh great, thanks Peter, that's cleared everything up .... NOT

I object in the strongest possible way to your inference that my explanation of how 1 square = 10 square feet was anything other than accurate, within the tolerance of rounding errors and the somewhat truncated version of my reasoning as presented.

In case you were not joking and you really did fail to grasp my explanation, I was attempting to prove that 1 square = 10 square feet by converting to square metres, which I know how to do, then to square feet and then back to squares.

If any of the arithmetic used still escapes you, I am happy to go into greater detail.

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Originally Posted by bitingmidge

what I did do, was analyse our sales in great detail, and adjusted our prices so that the most popular product gave the greatest margin, and the least popular was almost given away.

Interestingly, increasing the price only made the most popular ones more popular

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Its hard to begrudge someone's opportunism. After all, don't we all try to advance our lot in life?

What I can't understand is the argument I often see on this board that we should support so-and-so retailer/tradesperson because we need to compensate for their higher costs.

Since when did the seller's costs determine the price he/she asks?!?

For example, I pay more than a student or child to see a film or travel on a train, but the cost of the showing the film or driving the bus is the same regardless of who buys the ticket. Midge's example of "increasing the price only made the most popular ones more popular" is another case in point.

Like SilentC said, the sellers' decision on what price to ask for is not restrained by "how much did it cost me" - they ask for what they can get. Sometimes its a seller's market (which seems to be the case for tradespeople at the moment and good luck to them) and sometimes its a buyer's market depending on market demand and supply.

I also don't agree with the argument that "Builder B is charging the right price because his/her quality is better". I reckon that 80% of home-owners are pretty clueless about what makes for a good job (myself included), hence the opportunity for some builders to profit at their expense. This forum goes some way toward countering that.

I'll just step off my soapbox, now, because the air is so thin at this altitude. :D

Sorry but I'm still none the wiser about this bizarre form of measuring area - square feet makes sense, square yards, square metres are all fine - squares - what drunk thought that one up. A few days ago I had a very frustrating conversation with the call centre operative at an insurance company.

CSO : how many squares is your house?

J : haven't a clue - how big is a square?

CSO : err err ... well how many square metres is your house?

I then guestimated in square yards converted that 1:1 into square metres just to be on the safe side and told her the result ... sounds of much clicking calculator buttons followed

CSO : that is XX squares. How many bedrooms does your house have ?

J : 3

CSO : a 3 bedroom house is normally YY squares - would you like me to put YY down.

She might has well have just said how many bedrooms have you got cos its fairly obvious that they don't actually want to know how many squares your house actually is - just how many squares it should be.

On subject of Australian rip off prices - I'll be bringing back a ladder stand-off in my luggage from uk next time I go because the lowest quote I've found here would pay for buying it in the uk + excess baggage + having it gold plated + custom built display case. Its a few bits of aluminium and a spring but apparently they have to be imported from Germany!!!

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Originally Posted by silentC

If any of the arithmetic used still escapes you, I am happy to go into greater detail.

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No that's fine thanks silent, I understood it all perfectly up until the words "To get" :D

But now we have Jackie confused. :)

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Originally Posted by ndru

For example, I pay more than a student or child to see a film

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At one time in my life, through illness I had a lengthy time wearing an eye patch. Every time we went to the cinema I'd ask for a 50% rebate because I only had one eye, and could only see half the screen.

NOT ONCE did I get away with it!!!

Bastards!!!!! (Let's just call them Cinema B from now on shall we??)

P
:D :D :D

Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, when will you ever learn? This daily struggle you have with everything Australian would be made so much easier if you would just lay back and go with the flow. Who cares if squares are a silly and arcane system of measuring house floor areas? That's the way it's done and we just have to live with it.

Now as for ladder stand-offs, I'm not surprised at the cost nor that they have to be imported from Germany because, frankly, I've no idea what one is.

;)