please read IF you enjoy discounts

[Mauro]

That's not what he said. I offer a discount and I put stuff on sale. I have special sale clients.
what he said was the clothes are "unreasonably marked up " . That"s why i am heated.

Not to offend anyone else.

 

[APK]

I won't lie. I love sales and can generally only justify some of my purchases when the sale sticker shows up. That said, I totally get what Mauro and company are saying here. I've returned things in my time, but have never been so arrogant about it as to boast about being able to get it elsewhere cheaper. Even if that's the case, I never say so. I generally feel bad when making a return, so I don't go out of my way to be cavalier about it.

Whoever mentioned earlier that they prefer to simply buy the pieces that interest them and not let sales dictate their look has a great point. Being in college and without an income that puts me too far above what's considered the poverty level, I need to be thrifty with my purchases. This includes capitalizing on sales when applicable. I have, however, been prone to make a lot of purchases based on the simple fact of the piece being discounted. This has worked out well at times, but also led to a lot of purchases I came to regret. Had I plunked down the cash on one really amazing piece, I probably would've been happier with it in the long run than the handful of so-so pieces I got because they were on sale. It's the same idea with the person who is hesitant to throw down a couple bills to get a pair of really great dry jeans. Instead, they'd prefer to spend $30 or $40 at a time on poor quality, ill-fitting jeans.

 

[Jekyll]

Weirdly enough, H&M is one of the very few places that I ever pay retail.

Also, yeah, why the **** would you brag to a retailer that you got a better deal elsewhere?

 

[ctrlaltelite]

^^

Originally Posted by Scott Sternberg

...Talking about what a great deal you got on the aforementioned item is worse. If you must, tell your mom, because she has sale empathy and will take your victory as her own. It's sick.

 

[Mauro]

Jekyll- and why wouldnt you. It a great piece of clothing for the price.

 

[snuff_daddy]

wow that is some dumb **** ...sucks we lose out from other peoples mistakes



SF affiliates could always sell gift cards at a discount...but sell the clothing at retail
wouldnt that be a work-a-round??

 

[Mauro]

i dont think people are really into gift cards unless you are receiving one

 

[Biscotti]

To be honest it isn't that big of a deal to me; if I want something I'm willing to pay full retail.

May EG continue to flourish, and although they are not exactly my favorite in terms of aesthetic; I will surely buy whether discounted or not.

Price fixing and punishing retailers who sell below MSRP isn't some inner evil workings of the fashion industry; it isn't even some means at maintaining "brand appeal." For one thing, small manufacturers often do not have the means to supply huge chains, and the cost of production, transportation, etc are often reason for high prices; therefore, even with sales EG would never be on the wish list belonging to the masses. This fixing is to keep competition fair and to not have one retailer dominate.

 

[negusnegas]

I think it is reasonable to say that some mark ups are arbitrary. There is no question that a lot of boutique brands run tight margins, but that is not to so that in the aggregate the consumer pays a heck of a lot for the name on the tag and not for the quality or actual craftsmanship. Especially, when you get to the upper tier since I can go to CEGO and have a shirt made to measure or I can buy BOO or any of these other fashion brands off the rack at a higher price tag so yea I'd say some of the mark ups are marketing related and arbitrary.

 

[negusnegas]

By the way to clarify, I am talking about the manfacturer and not the retailer.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by negusnegas

I think it is reasonable to say that some mark ups are arbitrary. There is no question that a lot of boutique brands run tight margins, but that is not to so that in the aggregate the consumer pays a heck of a lot for the name on the tag and not for the quality or actual craftsmanship. Especially, when you get to the upper tier since I can go to CEGO and have a shirt made to measure or I can buy BOO or any of these other fashion brands off the rack at a higher price tag so yea I'd say some of the mark ups are marketing related and arbitrary.

Cego is a customer shirt maker. It is unfair to compare the price of his shirts with those of, say, Band of Outsiders.

With custom shirtmakers, you have this chain, and each "->" reflects a markup so that the entity on the left side of the chain gets paid.

Factory -> CEGO -> You, the consumer

with a brand like, say, Band of Outsiders, you get this:

Factory -> Band of Outsiders -> retailer -> You.

You see that in the second, there is an extra markup step. You are effectively paying for the design, overhead, etc... that Band of Outsiders incurs to bring a Band of Outsiders shirt to the market. You may not wish to pay for this, but certainly, it is unfair to dismiss it as being "arbitrary".

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by negusnegas

By the way to clarify, I am talking about the manfacturer and not the retailer.

You hold the common misconception that the designer is the manufacturer, which is generally not the case.

 

[dfagdfsh]

part of what makes a band shirt cost what it does is advertising and runway shows. CEGO isn't hiring supermodels and actresses to model their shirts and they aren't putting on runway shows during fashion week.

 

[Lysol]

This is a really long thread and I can't believe that I read through most of it. This is even the first time I've had a chance to login to SF in weeks.

As someone who has seen and been affected by manufacturer / distributor apathy in a different industry, I applaud EG for leveling the playing field and for being cool about it which it seems they have. I love SF discounts from all of our affiliates, as a consumer who doesn't love a couple bucks off, but I appreciate the standards behind the situation at hand.

For 7 years I ran a record label and mailorder record company. Independent music was our niche when few else cared. I made a decent living out of it for myself and was able to employ a lot of my friends. We worked very hard and we truly supported the scene. We weren't business people, we were kids who loved f*cked up music. For years things were rosy. Then things changed in the music industry and all of the sudden stores like Circuit City, Best Buy, Borders, FYE, etc., notoriously only concerned with bottom line and "it" artists, actually gave a **** about "indie" music. They went from non-factors to competitors overnight. A store like Best Buy was fine with selling music at break even or even at a loss because if it got you in the store and you bought a new television or refrigerator, their mission was accomplished. A CD that we were selling for $13, that we bought for $9, Best Buy was selling for $8.50 as part of some Sunday circular bullsh*t. How could we compete with that? When we confronted our distributor about selling these stores the same product for less, their response was that they weren't, these stores were selling the product at NEGATIVE margins. When we said, "Stop selling to them then", they were just like "Well, they're buying more than anyone else." They were too yellow bellied to take a stand on behalf of all of their retailers. This is why the music industry is a mess right now. It followed an immediate dollar. It never respected its artists, its retailers, its sub-distributors, or even its customers. Now everyone hates the industry, they'd rather steal it than support it, and who can blame them? The apparel industry is apparently smarter than that.

I look at Mauro and other affiliate's SF discount like an employee discount. It's a quiet, unspoken, "I've got a hook up" thing that really, as long as it's kept "hush-hush" shouldn't offend anyone. If Best Buy was selling those CDs for $13 like everyone else but all the cashiers friends got them for $9, I would be cool with it. Like Mauro has repeatedly said, keep your big trap shut.

Turn the tables around and god bless EG for keeping it trying to keep it even because god knows that if this with Bergordf Goodman undercutting Faranelli's we'd all be up in arms. I hope they would do the same in that situation.

 

[keykoo]

We need to put affiliate discount codes in private threads that can only be viewed by registered forum members of at least N post count. We also need to forbid anyone from talking about the discounts publically on the forum.

As much as I love the openness of this forum, there are certain things that we need to restrict to prevent people from ruining the relationships that we have fostered as well as the community in general.