Thomas W
Banned
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2005
- Messages
- 5,710
You know, big business is strange. I’ve mentioned this before, but feel this insight again needs repeating.
I have come to the conclusion that the big retailers in this country are largely responsible for the influx of products made overseas. Big box retail is all about volume and price point. They themselves could care less about country of origin, and I’ll even go so far as to say they have little interest in performance. It’s not about offering the best to their consumers, it’s just not. The demographics data, consumer profiling, marketing strategies, same-store sales comparison, category productivity, sales per linear foot of shelf space, product shrink, retail traffic patterns, are just a handful of exhausting stats that are used to calculate generated sales.
Now to put this into perspective in terms of knives, this statistical matrix is then formulated and spits out a price point that is perceived by the retailer as the optimum place a knife needs to be to maximize sales. Now just to stay on this subject, I won’t broach the additional requirements put on manufacturer’s both prior and after placement is achieved (programs, pricing, margins, capacity, delivery, buy backs. turns, sell through percentages, to name just a few). Ahh that analyzed price point…throw in the margins the retailer is required to make, and it’s a recipe for a blade that has to be outsourced for most. It forces some manufacturer’s to go and make a product they really don’t want to make, at a place they don’t really know, in a location they’ve never been. This is not to say the products are all bad performers that fit into this criteria, but certainly the final offerings are not the best a manufacturer can bring to the consumer. It’s not that the manufacturer wants to build to this performance and quality level, but again with the real dollars that are available with this type of business, you do build to their wants and desires.You could say these knives are a virtual OEM for the big box stores
The Oso Sweet is one of those knives (except for the fact that Kai produces the knife). I don’t expect anyone here to be completely blown away by the knife. I’m not blown away by the knife. It’s a $20-$25 knife. It was built for a handful of big box retailers under the umbrella of their critical and stringent requirements. Not everyone that walks out of a retailer with an Oso Sweet will know and understand that our quality can and will vary based on the objective of the particular job. I do trust though that there will be a level of understanding with the ELU that this knife is not indicative of our capabilities. All of the big box retailers carry more than just the OSO Sweet, so there are choices, including a ton of Made in the USA Kershaw’s for not much more monies.
I guess I needed to say all these things so that there was some understanding with the forum members as to what goes into decision making on the economy based knives, hopefully it did that.
I have come to the conclusion that the big retailers in this country are largely responsible for the influx of products made overseas. Big box retail is all about volume and price point. They themselves could care less about country of origin, and I’ll even go so far as to say they have little interest in performance. It’s not about offering the best to their consumers, it’s just not. The demographics data, consumer profiling, marketing strategies, same-store sales comparison, category productivity, sales per linear foot of shelf space, product shrink, retail traffic patterns, are just a handful of exhausting stats that are used to calculate generated sales.
Now to put this into perspective in terms of knives, this statistical matrix is then formulated and spits out a price point that is perceived by the retailer as the optimum place a knife needs to be to maximize sales. Now just to stay on this subject, I won’t broach the additional requirements put on manufacturer’s both prior and after placement is achieved (programs, pricing, margins, capacity, delivery, buy backs. turns, sell through percentages, to name just a few). Ahh that analyzed price point…throw in the margins the retailer is required to make, and it’s a recipe for a blade that has to be outsourced for most. It forces some manufacturer’s to go and make a product they really don’t want to make, at a place they don’t really know, in a location they’ve never been. This is not to say the products are all bad performers that fit into this criteria, but certainly the final offerings are not the best a manufacturer can bring to the consumer. It’s not that the manufacturer wants to build to this performance and quality level, but again with the real dollars that are available with this type of business, you do build to their wants and desires.You could say these knives are a virtual OEM for the big box stores
The Oso Sweet is one of those knives (except for the fact that Kai produces the knife). I don’t expect anyone here to be completely blown away by the knife. I’m not blown away by the knife. It’s a $20-$25 knife. It was built for a handful of big box retailers under the umbrella of their critical and stringent requirements. Not everyone that walks out of a retailer with an Oso Sweet will know and understand that our quality can and will vary based on the objective of the particular job. I do trust though that there will be a level of understanding with the ELU that this knife is not indicative of our capabilities. All of the big box retailers carry more than just the OSO Sweet, so there are choices, including a ton of Made in the USA Kershaw’s for not much more monies.
I guess I needed to say all these things so that there was some understanding with the forum members as to what goes into decision making on the economy based knives, hopefully it did that.
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