Antigen Test Cost Rip Off

Thrugelmir

Davesquire said:

eskbanker said:

You could make essentially the same argument about any form of retail - if you cherry-pick the underlying wholesale net unit price paid to distributors and compare it with the fully-loaded retail price (including staff, rent/rates, taxes and all the other business costs), there will always be a substantial discrepancy, which is inevitably exacerbated in an environment such as airports where customers are captive (but overheads are also higher).  The bottle of water sold in an airside WHSmith at £1.50 probably cost the company 10p from the wholesaler, for example, but the same fundamental principle applies for pretty much any retail environment even if actual margins obviously vary....

I get where you are coming from, but come on! You don't in any way believe that there isn't a teensy teensy bit of 'captive audience with no alternative' exploitation going on? Really?

Same discussion always arises from those that have never run a business. 

eskbanker

Davesquire said:

eskbanker said:

You could make essentially the same argument about any form of retail - if you cherry-pick the underlying wholesale net unit price paid to distributors and compare it with the fully-loaded retail price (including staff, rent/rates, taxes and all the other business costs), there will always be a substantial discrepancy, which is inevitably exacerbated in an environment such as airports where customers are captive (but overheads are also higher).  The bottle of water sold in an airside WHSmith at £1.50 probably cost the company 10p from the wholesaler, for example, but the same fundamental principle applies for pretty much any retail environment even if actual margins obviously vary....

I get where you are coming from, but come on! You don't in any way believe that there isn't a teensy teensy bit of 'captive audience with no alternative' exploitation going on? Really?

I didn't actually say that and was just highlighting that a selective comparison of two numbers is misleadingly simplistic!  Just because I choose not use emotive language like 'rip off', 'exploitation' and 'profiteering' doesn't mean that I'm defending the margin being applied though, but without sight of the full finances involved it's just speculation for any of us to hypothesise about the profitability of these activities....

silvercar

Thrugelmir said:

Davesquire said:

eskbanker said:

You could make essentially the same argument about any form of retail - if you cherry-pick the underlying wholesale net unit price paid to distributors and compare it with the fully-loaded retail price (including staff, rent/rates, taxes and all the other business costs), there will always be a substantial discrepancy, which is inevitably exacerbated in an environment such as airports where customers are captive (but overheads are also higher).  The bottle of water sold in an airside WHSmith at £1.50 probably cost the company 10p from the wholesaler, for example, but the same fundamental principle applies for pretty much any retail environment even if actual margins obviously vary....

I get where you are coming from, but come on! You don't in any way believe that there isn't a teensy teensy bit of 'captive audience with no alternative' exploitation going on? Really?

Same discussion always arises from those that have never run a business. 

Put ‘health’ and ‘profit’ in the same sentence and people always complain.

JamoLew

eskbanker said:

You could make essentially the same argument about any form of retail - if you cherry-pick the underlying wholesale net unit price paid to distributors and compare it with the fully-loaded retail price (including staff, rent/rates, taxes and all the other business costs), there will always be a substantial discrepancy, which is inevitably exacerbated in an environment such as airports where customers are captive (but overheads are also higher).  The bottle of water sold in an airside WHSmith at £1.50 probably cost the company 10p from the wholesaler, for example, but the same fundamental principle applies for pretty much any retail environment even if actual margins obviously vary....

Agree - I can go to Costco and get a crate of 40x500ml bottles of water for ~£3

Separate them and stick them in any retail environment and the  effective markup will be huge

Wages,profit,operating costs etc etc all need to come from somewhere

MiserlyMartin

Of course it's a total rip off. There is massive profiteering / exploitation going on in many aspects of the whole Coronavirus thing, to the point where it suits many for this whole thing to go on for as long as possible, from vaccine companies, to PPE manufacturers, to handgel suppliers, to big online retailers enjoying record profits, to those in receipt of furlough, those wanting another stamp duty holiday, the green lobby...  the list goes on.... For many, corona suits their aims very well.

MattMattMattUK

MiserlyMartin said:

Of course it's a total rip off. There is massive profiteering / exploitation going on in many aspects of the whole Coronavirus thing, to the point where it suits many for this whole thing to go on for as long as possible, from vaccine companies, to PPE manufacturers, to handgel suppliers, to big online retailers enjoying record profits, to those in receipt of furlough, those wanting another stamp duty holiday, the green lobby...  the list goes on.... For many, corona suits their aims very well.

Supply and Demand
Gross vs Net Profit
Increased Sales
Understand those things and you will realise that very little of what is happening is "profiteering / exploitation".

superbigal

MMMM   As a good example FFP3 Masks are now half the price to Jo Bloggs against what even the Govt was paying for them.
FFP2 Masks have dropped even more.
Generally the actual costs of production however has actually increased, as many are now being produced in the UK rather than Turkey or China.
Many distribution outlets who bought at "inflated" prices are now suffering themselves with Stock they cannot shift without taking a huge loss. I have little sympathy for some of them.  Others were only selling with the usual margins and I have more time for them.
Whatever your views on supply and demand (I am a Buyer to trade) I do not think anyone can doubt blatant profiteering was and still is in play.

Back to my original point I guess Rip Off is over the top.  However I fully expect Airport testing, boots testing etc will slash in price in next few weeks.

eskbanker

If anyone has evidence of profiteering then there's nothing stopping them from initiating action against companies doing so, for breaching the Competition Act 1998, and in particular section 18:

18 Abuse of dominant position.

(1) Subject to section 19, any conduct on the part of one or more undertakings which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market is prohibited if it may affect trade within the United Kingdom.

(2) Conduct may, in particular, constitute such an abuse if it consists in—

(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;

[...]

Thrugelmir

superbigal said:

Whatever your views on supply and demand (I am a Buyer to trade) I do not think anyone can doubt blatant profiteering was and still is in play.

If you can source your manufacturing directly from China, Thailand or Vietnam etc. Then margins on product of any kind can be be huge. What hits is the cost of doing business in the UK. Rent, rates and the ever increasing cost of employing labour. 

niktheguru

These don’t sound like Oct tests, they’re lateral flow tests, just like businesses are using for their staff and some NHS trusts are using for their staff to check if they may have covid. (In the NHS if these lateral flows are positive, then a pcr test is done to confirm. )
you can’t really compare lateral flows to pcr testing as one is a bedside test the other needs processing in a lab. Saying that, these private companies are taking the Michael for their astronomical prices for pcr tests for travel.