You want a free kit……..?

[Max Headroom]

I don’t do Japanese models but even I’m tempted…….🤔

 

 

Trevor

 

[Duncan B]

It's the thin end of the wedge and will ultimately result in the death of many small, independent UK retailers (and some bigger ones). Even Amazon are worried about the rise of Temu and Shein and they killed off enough shops on the High street themselves!

 

Duncan B

[janneman36]

Indeed @Duncan B those are the clickbait traps of temu!

They tempt you, I blocked their ads.

cheers, Jan

[bentwaters81tfw]

15 minutes ago, Duncan B said:

It's the thin end of the wedge and will ultimately result in the death of many small, independent UK retailers (and some bigger ones). Even Amazon are worried about the rise of Temu and Shein and they killed off enough shops on the High street themselves!

 

Duncan B

I wouldn't worry too much. If you look beyond the popular media, China is in deep doo-doo, and literally thousands of businesses are failing. It's hitting the likes of Temu and AliExpress. This is why they are offering such bargains.  Even the Army isn't getting paid.

[Max Headroom]

What sort of business model are they using?

 

Trevor

[scautomoton]

1 minute ago, Max Headroom said:

What sort of business model are they using?

 

Trevor

a bad one clearly...

[bentwaters81tfw]

2 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

What sort of business model are they using?

 

Trevor

There are millions out of work in China. Most of the Western countries have pulled out and moved production elsewhere. Employees made to take pay cuts, counterfeit money, and the ruling party stealing cash from citizens. They are in a bad way. There are warnings of revolt and civil war.

[Circloy]

15 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

What sort of business model are they using?

Send me your details & I'll sell them on tell you.

[sardaukar]

I looked into temu and I made the mistake of installing their app on my phone, i get bombarded with offers.

 

Anyway I got an offer saying I could get 3 free things, they had a few interesting kits so I picked out 3, only then to be told I had to buy 50 quids worth of stuff to get my free gifts. Instant cancel.

 

Id watch prices, they had foreart kits which are 1/72 kits claiming the RRP is £40 and they were reduced to £20something. These kits are 10quid on hobbyeasy. 

[Duncan B]

On 9/27/2024 at 11:12 AM, bentwaters81tfw said:

I wouldn't worry too much. If you look beyond the popular media, China is in deep doo-doo, and literally thousands of businesses are failing. It's hitting the likes of Temu and AliExpress. This is why they are offering such bargains.  Even the Army isn't getting paid.

Temu have been using the same under cutting methods in the U.S. for a few years already and have taken a significant section of the online marketplace there. They are not offering these bargains because they are struggling for a market base, they are doing it to increase customer base at the expense of the businesses that are struggling. They are backed by big money and are taking the long term view that they will survive at the expense of other businesses (both domestic and international). They are literally banking on other businesses going to the wall.

 

 

15 hours ago, sardaukar said:

I looked into temu and I made the mistake of installing their app on my phone, i get bombarded with offers.

 

Anyway I got an offer saying I could get 3 free things, they had a few interesting kits so I picked out 3, only then to be told I had to buy 50 quids worth of stuff to get my free gifts. Instant cancel.

 

Id watch prices, they had foreart kits which are 1/72 kits claiming the RRP is £40 and they were reduced to £20something. These kits are 10quid on hobbyeasy. 

 

Some of the kits I have seen advertised claiming to be 70% off etc have had the RRP inflated by 100% to start with, that Border Models 1/35 Kate is one example. Despite that there is no doubt that in the short term a lot of model shops will not be able to compete with their discounts and free postage offers. Temu's prices won't stay low forever though but by that stage your LMS may well have either given up importing kits from the far east or simply have given up completely. The end result is even less shops on the High Street than there are now.

 

Duncan B

[Duncan B]

On 9/27/2024 at 7:29 PM, Max Headroom said:

What sort of business model are they using?

 

Trevor

 

Boom boom!

 

A long term one where they have the resources to tough it out longer than the competition so that they become the 'last man standing' and can then dictate the prices. It might look like a daft idea to go giving things away at cut down prices but if you are backed by billions of $ and those same backers own a lot of the factories producing the stuff in the first place then it's not so daft after all.

 

Duncan B

[FalkeEins]

 

..just watched some you-tuber showing off his free Temu kits. If enough of us asked for a free £50 Meng F-4G that offer wouldn't last for long......would it?

[Duncan B]

7 minutes ago, FalkeEins said:

 

..just watched some you-tuber showing off his free Temu kits. If enough of us asked for a free £50 Meng F-4G that offer wouldn't last for long......would it?

It would last until they run out of stock which is long enough to affect any UK LMS with a Meng F-4G on its shelf as that's pretty close to the UK Trade price.

 

A well known UK based Importer did their own investigation into Temu recently and on the back of that has decided to stop importing various brands from China (and potentially cut back on others I believe) so if anyone out there doesn't think Temu is having an effect on the UK Model scene already they are misguided and need to keep an eye on the shelves in their LMS as the brands disappear over the coming months.

 

To understand how Temu (or any other Far East supplier) is doing it here's an example from when I worked in Taiwan. On my last trip before Christmas one of my European colleagues found a 1/16 R/C Formula 1 car in a shop for less than £20 (IIRC it was about £15). Him and his buddy bought one each and ran them around the car park in the evening. Before long most of the Expats had one (and all sorts of nonsense took place until they intentionally drove them into the sea, set fire to them or just dumped them). I came home and we went Christmas shopping for my wee boy. In Toys R Us here was the exact same brand of R/C car retailing at over £120. At £15 I presume the shop in Taiwan was still making a profit so what was the manufacturing costs compared to the UK RRP I wonder? That's how Temu can seemingly offer things at ridiculous prices (I bet they don't/can't do it with goods made in the EU or the US). When they have favourable access (through their backers) to the local factories and to Chinese Shipping firms it becomes even easier. They are selling in volume so can run on tight margins but I don't believe they will continue to run on those same margins once they have a clear run at the markets.

 

Duncan B

[FalkeEins]

so they're deliberately aiming at putting others out of business to clean up in the aftermath? Or am I just being very naive here....  not surprising then that importers would be concerned.  Retailers too....never has 'use it or lose it' been more valid...but hasn't this been a 'problem' since Trumpeter and others came on the scene. 

[Biggles87]

A very interesting read. I try not to buy anything from China if I can possibly help it ( not just kits ) but it’s becoming increasingly difficult as origins are sometimes buried in the small print behind western sounding names.

 

John

[Duncan B]

20 hours ago, FalkeEins said:

so they're deliberately aiming at putting others out of business to clean up in the aftermath? Or am I just being very naive here....  not surprising then that importers would be concerned.  Retailers too....never has 'use it or lose it' been more valid...but hasn't this been a 'problem' since Trumpeter and others came on the scene. 

They are certainly deliberately undercutting as many businesses as they can so the end result will be less competition as the other businesses either stop stocking the same items (which is difficult when Temu etc seem to have access to all the Chinese manufacturers) or the other businesses go bust trying to compete. In short, yes they are trying to dominate the market at the expense of other businesses.

 

Duncan B

[Noel Smith]

I looked at Temu once out of curiosity when I saw something of specific interest in one of their photo banner headiings. 

 It tried to direct me to looking at all sorts of other detritus instead of what I was interested it. Most of what they showed appeared to me to be just a load of cheap tat !

Never looked on their site again after.

[593jones]

The prices seem to fluctuate, too, I was looking at a Meng Models 1/35 T-72B3 yesterday, priced at £30.00, today it's £45.00!  Dynamic pricing?

[Mike]

It's the same game the supermarkets started in the 70s.  Undercut everyone until there's only a few big companies left, and placate everyone that the economy of scale will mean lower prices, then once you've achieved your goal, charge what you like because there's no competition.  They did it with fuel and insurance, and we kept buying into it, and still do.  Collectively, we're all short-termist fools

 

Anyway - that's in grave danger of becoming political, so let's be careful now.

[Bullbasket]

Trawling through the internet earlier (I was looking for Plastmodel's site), I came across a site that had nothing to do with models. It was women's clothes, and it was Temu, so it looks like they're trying it on (no pun intended) in other genres.

 

John.

[JohnT]

22 hours ago, Mike said:

It's the same game the supermarkets started in the 70s.  Undercut everyone until there's only a few big companies left, and placate everyone that the economy of scale will mean lower prices, then once you've achieved your goal, charge what you like because there's no competition.  They did it with fuel and insurance, and we kept buying into it, and still do.  Collectively, we're all short-termist fools

 

Anyway - that's in grave danger of becoming political, so let's be careful now.

 

 

And its been going on for 100's of years too.  I recall being told in my economics course that a certain well respected UK high street store in the early part of the 21st century would get a smallish supplier to make goods for them at a good price.  The small supplier was over the moon and ramped up production at the expense of their other customers who then went elsewhere.  Once in deep the high street store suddenly stopped placing orders and the small supplier just collapsed and went out of business.  The High Street store then picked up the pieces and went into production for themselves.  I've seen the same in the 1980's with a well known national house builder using subcontractors and slowing payments till the end of a particular site when they sub contractors get bumped and find that the company they have been dealing with is a sub contractor of the main developer and guess what - they are bust too.  The money for the sales goes one way and the costs of the builds go another

 

No love in business as they say.  It's a jungle.

[Mike]

18 minutes ago, JohnT said:

No love in business as they say.  It's a jungle.

It should be "All's fair in love, war & most of all, business".  It shouldn't be, but it is.  Would anyone hang around with a friend that constantly messed them about, did awful things, lied to them and conspired against them?  I wouldn't (and didn't), so why is it acceptable in business?

[Graham Boak]

This is because of insufficient legislation to prevent it.   Guess who actively lobbies against such legislation whenever whatever legislation is suggested.  Without legislation there is no restriction or punishment.  Without restriction there are no morals.

[JohnT]

4 hours ago, Mike said:

It should be "All's fair in love, war & most of all, business".  It shouldn't be, but it is.  Would anyone hang around with a friend that constantly messed them about, did awful things, lied to them and conspired against them?  I wouldn't (and didn't), so why is it acceptable in business?

Sounds like a girlfriend or two I had …………….

 

for a weekend anyway 😀

[Max Headroom]

Bottom line

 

is the kit any good anyway!