Why is Pine furniture so expensive ?

[Dog]

I often get catalogues through the post showing pine furniture (new) for sale. I can't understand why, even for simple book cases, the prices are so high compared to buying and making them yourself ?

 

[Aragorn]

3 reasons:
Overheads, overheads, overheads........ :wink:

 

[Alf]

Profit may be an issue too, funnily enough. :?

 

[Aragorn]

Alf - you obviously haven't been paying attention. Recent discussions here have revealed that we can't make a profit doing woodwork :wink: :wink:

 

[Alf]

Tsk. Of course, silly me. Although I was thinking maybe it was the catalogues that were making the profit... :?

 

[Signal]

Dog,

depends where you go mate :wink:

There is aplace near us caled
Furniture To Go or something like that.

You pay 18 quid to join and the stuff is
sooooo incredibly cheap most people
would be hard pressed to get the timber
for the price let alone finish, fixings yada
yada.

Quality is fair, machined dovetail drawfronts
tounge and groove backing as opposed to
hardboard.

I pop up there occasionally for "inspiration"
and a measure up :lol:

Signal

ps, can you buggers slow down on the posting
I cant keep up at the moment, no sooner have
I read a thread than some one else has posted
to it and I have to go back into it

 

[Dog]

Tsk. Of course, silly me. Although I was thinking maybe it was the catalogues that were making the profit... :?

I think you're right there Alf. £199 for a 6'x2'x9" pine book case is, to my mind, a complete and utter rip off....wish I owned the company selling it as they seem to be doing rather well

As for making a profit out of woodworking, that is a good point but when you see what people will pay for things like very rough, basic 'nail together' garden men/women with a plastic flower pot for a hat, a face painted on and two galvanized nails as eyes and these things shifting for upto £15 a time it makes you wonder why you spend so much time trying to get something looking good and appealling to catch your buyers eye...the pleasure of doing it I guess

 

[Waka]

Guys & Girls

The question posed was a good one and I agree why pine so expensive, even more so why is verneered furnitue so expensive. I guess the answer is because we are prepared to pay for it.

We on this site are all craftsman ( some better than others, all better than me) sould we pay the prices for cheap stuff, when a few hours in the WS can produce a masterpiece, ( as we've seen many times).

Let me give you an example, 9 ft tall, 3 feet wide, bootom section with cupboards 2 ft wide, top section with book shelves 1 ft wide.

All made in American White Oak, total cost of material £195.00. Hours to produce 16.

it doesn't matter what you buy in the shops , its a rip off and in a lot of cases unfrofessional work.

If you want something good then do it yourself or go bespoke, and if you go bespoke make sure he's better than you.

Waka

 

[Dog]

You posted just as I posted, same time, Waka, but I agree with everything you say apart from "some better than others, all better than me", I'd say you are ten times better than me and I won't back down either

 

[Gary H]

Dog wrote

I'd say you are ten times better than me and I won't back down either

That goes for me too

Gary

 

[Dewy]

Have you ever looked round these 'Pine Furniture' shops?
I looked round one locally & some were chipped showing the light coloured wood beneath the cheap stained matt varnish finish. I wouldn't say the word describing the colour but it's what sewage works are for. I've got an 82 year old pine chest & the shops idea of antique pine is nothing like real old pine. the rough edges on end grain were still there complete with breakout from a blunt router bit for door & drawer edges.
Since my 1st look, I have only used the shop to get ideas on what to make next then, using my tape & *** packet, write down the measurements.

 

[johnelliott]

It seems to me that some of us are being a little harsh on the retailers and makers of this furniture. Delving into the costs of mounting a retail operation quickly shows one that what seems like profiteering is in fact, for the most part, really not quite so bad.
Bear in mind that virtually any furniture shop will be VAT registered, which means that it will be losing 17.5% of its profit. It will probably be buying its stock for 50% of the selling price. Then they will need insurance to cover not only theft, fire etc but general and employer's liability. Staff will cost their wages plus employment tax (AKA employer's NI contributions). The rent on anywhere reasonable will make you gasp, then there will be business rates (about 40% of the rent) on top of that.
Running a workshop and making the stuff is also quite an expensive thing to do. Any such business that is only making £25 per hour per worker will be operating near the edge, and would need very low costs to survive
John

 

[Philly]

John,
Sounds like you have experience on the business/employing/making a living front. It is shocking how much money it costs to run a business, something not always obvious to the "employed" (as opposed to the "self-employed").
There again, shoddy overpriced goods are a rip-off. Vote with your wallet, I say :lol:
keep it real,
Philly

 

[Dewy]

The company I worked for (specialist toolmakers) gave us the percentages they used for wages (including directors), tooling & running costs plus profit.
These figures were.
37% wages
25% running costs
38% company profits
If we were able to cut the production costs the percentages were to be the same.
Therefore if costs were halved it would be shared out the same way.
They wondered why were not so inclined to work any faster.
The only way to do so was to increase the running costs by overworking the machinery & cutters beyond their specifications which made it more dangerous for us.
The average percentage used for wages in UK has remained at 40% for over 70 years.

 

[Waka]

John

I didn't intend to be harsh on the retailer , or did I. The fact remains that people in this country will happily pay for quality. Unfortunately the quality bit has been replaced with mass produced chip board, MDF and anything else that resembles wood, but itsn't.

Waka

 

[johnjin]

Hi Signal
quote
ps, can you buggers slow down on the posting
I cant keep up at the moment, no sooner have
I read a thread than some one else has posted
to it and I have to go back into it

Yeah I know what you mean
There has been 5000 posts in the last two months
That is half of all the posts since the forum began until
the end of march. An incredible achievement.
Congratulations Charley

John

 

[Dewy]

Solution John, Unsubscribe from all the topics you post in.
Then you can just browse the forum without constant emails. lmao :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Solution John, Unsubscribe from all the topics you post in.
Then you can just browse the forum without constant emails. lmao :lol:

?????????? emails?

 

[johnjin]

I did that a few weeks back Dewy and I've got to admit it helped a lot as they were popping up on the screen every 2 or 3 minutes. But I have been reading all the posts up till now and just went away for three days, came back yesterday and spent nearly a whole day just catching up. There is so much info on this site that I don't like to miss any of it.

All the best

John

 

[johnjin]

Hi Tony
In your profile you can set it so that you get an E-mail every time that a post is made in a thread that you posted in.

All the best

John