Doing Honest Business

Hmm. As the previous thread (comments) goes on, it may sound as if I am pretty stringy about paying the extra. HAHAHA :) But I am all for consumer benefit, of course I dun mean for businesses to lose money and close down. I just dun like businesses that is out to take advantage of the situation of festive season to raise price. I like to bring my business ($$$) to honest businesses.

Sorry, but i decided to reply the comments of the previous blog here, rather than at the comments because this may ended up long. :P I have reflected on qa' comments and I try not to justify my arguement and am pleased to have feedback.

qa mentioned:
"Why don't you complain about others who reduce the price of their goods sharply hours before the new year - it is not fair to others who have bought earlier or doesn't it means that the earlier prices are too high."

I do complain - What does it shows here? It is a sign of consumers reaction to the unhealthy practice of the businessmen at Chinatown by not buying and wait till the eve night to make their purchase when the price drops. Those who bought earlier I felt unjust for you but they have made their decision and choice so there is nothing to say.

Let's have a positive example here. I have found it in this malaysia shop call SEASONS. (I do not get any benefit out of this, just making comparsion and learning from each other. I only benefit from the cookies I bought from them. HAHAHA.) They launched their cookies more than a month ago (end dec 2005), selling at RM24.80 per tin. However, I made a trip to SEASONS on the eve, thinking they may drop price, but I was wrong again.(I did this twice, last year and this) Even though they left a few tins left but the price still hold at RM24.80, they were starting to pack those leftovers. My salute to them. They have kept true to their consumers by refusing to drop price even if they have to discard tins of good food, but anyway it is really abit left like 6 pieces of 1kilograms of "thousand layer" cakes and a few cartons of tins of cookies.

What can we learn from this? If I can sell 1 tin at $11 to make profit, why should I price it at $20, then wait till eve to drop price? Then I have betrayed (cheated) my consumers, who believe that they have bought $20 value of goods when it is only $11. I want to build consumer loyalty, as the marketing theory says:" It is more expensive to win a customer, then to keep a customer." which is proved true many times. I will end up spending more money doing a marketing strategy like advertising, to win customers, then evaluate my ROI (Returns On Investment) to see if the marketing strategy is successful.

Let me sidetrack a little. I have friends, who have stalls in Chinatown last time. They all complained that they do not make much, because of high stall rental and high competition. One of the reason why they drop price is because packing up also cost money, so they will rather drop price to sell (sad to say sometimes at a loss) They have to spend money to transport the food stuff away to warehouse or to dispose, which also cost money.

So like SEASONS, they have priced their cookies correctly and sold most of their goods, made the profit and on the eve, they are not even desperate to make sales. Workers are happy that they can pack up and go home early too.

qa said:
"Why begrudge the workers or MZX for earning a little more bonus during this period. "

Now, I have nothing against workers making extra money during this period. I am happy that they get their extra money because they really deserved it and work hard for it. I am just upset that the extra cost to the company have been passed to consumers like you and me, who only make a meagre living. Sad hah?