Tesco's EA charging £199

Phirefly

Its not that I don't want them to do so on a whim, or to protect my own job, I fundamentally disagree with unethical offshore importing.

Its not about enforcing my view, its about the government enforcing standards, in food, clothing and other types of manufacture and supply. Prices will go up a bit, but the demand will still be there to temper this increase. People will get better quality and value and the industry would be strengthened, wages will increase, everyones happy.

Enough. I could bleat on about this all day but I really ought to get on with designing fabulous clothes that will be manufactured in an ethical factory

lisyloo

OFF TOPIC WARNING

Look at the lettings market, a better return in a building society account according to MSN finance.

That's a naive comparison because it doesn't take account of "gearing".

Best explained with an example.
Let's say your NET yield on property is 4% but you can get 5% in a bank account then you could say that the bank account is better.

However let's say you have £10K.
You can use this as a deposit to get a £100K property and get 4% return on £100K or get 5% on £10K in a bank account.

Clearly the geared investement is better (although the losses are also magnified on the way down).

I completely agree with you about the risk of short term gambling on the housing market, but I don't agree with any sloppy journalism that fails to take into account a basic concept such as gearing.

Gorgeous_George

Phirefly

You are right to promote your own interests but:

What car do you drive?
Where was your TV/DVD/Hi-Fi manufactured?

Why is fashion so important but engineering not?

Mrs GG buys meat at the local butcher who sources from local farms. That's our choice. Baked beans or a shirt for work and ASDA is fine.

Flogging a house? I only want it valuing and advertising, others may not. Tesco are more of a competitor to Rightmove IMO.

Hopefully Tesco will get into the HIP market too.



GG

Phirefly

Fashion, food, engineering, pharmaceuticals, knowledge they're all as important as eachother. I'm interested in the strengthening of UK industry in any of its guises. I'm not squeaky clean but I make more effort than many to buy British/organic/fairly traded/ethically produced/second hand. I'm not saying supermarkets are wrong, just that people should take more care in selecting the products they buy.

When it comes to estate agency however, I think this is an industry thats been getting away with too much for too long and I completely agree with you that to sell a house, all you need is a valuation and an ad, and the cheaper the better.

thelawnet

Phirefly wrote: »

We cannot supply Tesco as they want to retail a garment from us for less than we can have it made and shipped from our ethical UK, Dubai and Turkey manufacturers.

Ethical? In Dubai? You have got to be kidding me. Those clothes are not being made by local people in Dubai, they are produced by immigrant workers, and in Dubai immigrants have no rights and are subject to appalling abuses.

I in any case don't understand this concept of 'ethical factories'. There is a lot of poverty in the world, and having lived in the third world, people are very happy to have the opportunity to work in factories to earn a living, as it is better paid than working on the land. I can't stand this sanctimonious attitude that people have about third world labour, "Made in China" translates to improving standards of living and freedoms for a billion people, and it's not something to be ashamed of.

Instead we supply retailers who have more demanding standards and are prepared to pay for our excellent UK design. These retailers pass on these costs to the customer, but we're only talking a matter of a few pounds.

It's not really UK design, as you say they are being made in Turkey. If it really was fully UK-made, it would be far more expensive.

If people couldn't buy a top for less than £10, they'd pay the extra. This throwaway £5 clothing is a scurge, I hate the culture of buying some cheap loss leading rag from tesco just cos its such a bargain, only to wash it once, it go out of shape and throw it away, what a waste. No wonder the masses look so scruffy, they've allowed themselves to fall into the bargain retailers trap. You don't catch the Spanish or Italians trudging about in an out of shape supermaket t shirt.

Oh dear, how dreadfully elitist, perhaps the 'masses' should not be allowed out of their council houses until you've approved their clothes. They should be made to send their children to school in £40 shirts, not the £4 ones from Asda (quality does not scale linearly in price, a better-quality piece of clothing costs far more than double).

Phirefly

I was really hoping to let this lie, I'm sure all these property fanatics are getting incredibly bored with it but I have to get the facts straight.

Our Dubai Factory is owned and run by associates of our company, employs local people and pays a good wage. My colleague visited recently and was blown away by the conditions and potitive feedback from the workers.

Opposing far east imports is not just about the labour force, its about not suppoting a manufacturing base that has the poorest regulations on all aspects of production, including emissions, raw materials, indutrial waste etc.

And what we produce IS UK design. I design it. Here. In Leicester. And some of it is manufactured offshore in factories WE own and regulate. The rest of it is manufactured HERE. Upstairs from where I'm sitting this very minute.

If you read my post correctly, you'd see that far from expecting people "who live in council houses" to pay £40 for a garment, I'm suggesting we pay a few pounds more for quality garments. All of us. Forgive me if you have a professional industry insight not apparent in your post, but I'm puzzled as to how can you even begin to argue with me on scales of clothing cost prices when my colleague who sits five feet from me has just spent the afternoon working on costings for Asda? Your comment about linearity scales of cost vs quality is nonsense.

Eyesparky

I like the look of House Network ... they seem to produce good quality details particularly when compared to my local estate agents (only one of whom actually bothers to do floor plans etc). They also seem to be reasonably priced and proactive ... It looks like they will soon be offering a HIPS package and service that will be competitive to some of the figures I have heard bandied about.

I think the move by Tesco is only a first salvo in this market and they may well over time become a more full service provider. They are employing technology effectively from day one and creating a property portal with links to other service providers and property services. I particularly like the text back service they are using and expect this to become widespread in use by other companies (this is something traditional estate agents could have employed years ago with minimal effort).

There is no doubt that there is a sizable proportion of estate agents that are offering poor quality service at high prices with poor mobility in the market. This is a red rag to a bull for companies that make markets from streamlining processes and cost bases like the major supermarkets.

Good quality, full service estate agents that go the extra yard for their clients will still do well. The rest will suffer over the next few years.

glenderg

Phirefly wrote: »

I was really hoping to let this lie, I'm sure all these property fanatics are getting incredibly bored with it but I have to get the facts straight.

.

but I'm puzzled as to how can you even begin to argue with me on scales of clothing cost prices when my colleague who sits five feet from me has just spent the afternoon working on costings for Asda? Your comment about linearity scales of cost vs quality is nonsense.

And who pays for all the time you have wasted this afternoon? Your customers no doubt. Why don't you take a leaf out of your colleagues book and do some work so you can keep your prices down.

lynzpower

glenderg wrote: »

And who pays for all the time you have wasted this afternoon? Your customers no doubt. Why don't you take a leaf out of your colleagues book and do some work so you can keep your prices down.

is there any need to be so bloody rude?

anitamarie

I second that motion - there is no need to be that rude.

For my two pence worth, my thoughts on Tesco overall are that though the quality of their produce is questionable (particularly in the last couple of months I've noticed all the veg I've bought has been overripe verging on mouldy) essentially as someone said here, you gets what you pay for... logically extended, that usually means you get what you *can* pay for. That isn't a great deal for a lot of people and that's where Tesco/Asda, etc comes in - market demand. Sadly it seems those who can afford to be ethical are and the rest make do with their processed stuff. I'm sure we'd all like to eat Waitrose's finest organic range. As a healthy way to channel the energy in this debate why not see if we find better quality food elsewhere and ideally from independent/ethical retailers without breaking the bank? Does anyone know a good affordable site for organic retailers?

As to Tesco in the housing market, I think a nation of hyper brand consciousness people may have issues with a 'Tesco Value' sign and feel like even greater fools for paying out for a 'Tesco Finest' one with no real added value. But I may be wrong. It is certainly annoying as we build sites and fancied a crack at this particular problem ourselves!