I needed a new clock for the wall in my office, so I went to Walmart recently and looked in the Home section. Among all the clocks for sale, I found one about 8 inches in diameter. It was not fancy at all, made of plastic with plain black numbers on a white background. It had a very functional and “easy to read” appearance, and it ran on a single AA battery. It was just what I wanted.
There was no price tag on the clock, and I said to myself, “Well, this is Walmart, so it can’t be more than 20 bucks. If it’s 20 or less, that’s quite reasonable.” I figured if it turned out to be much more than 20, I would just tell the cashier, “Nevermind, I don’t want it.”
When I checked out, the exact price for the clock was $3.88. Yes, you read that correctly. Three dollars and eighty-eight cents. I immediately thought, “The mechanism that makes it work must be sold separately. A real functioning clock cannot possibly cost less than four bucks.”
I took it home, inserted a AA battery, hung it on the wall, and — it worked. It worked quite well. Six weeks later now, it still is keeping perfect time.
So, my question is: How in the world can somebody sell a decent-looking, fully functioning wall clock for less than four dollars?
I mean, someone had to design it and make engineering drawings. Factory workers in China had to create all the parts on plastic injection molding machines. Then someone else had to assemble it and attach the little electronic time-keeping mechanism, and then test it to make sure it worked. Then another person, or probably a machine, stuffed the clock into cardboard packaging, which already had the description and barcode printed on it. Then, most importantly, the clock had to be transported from the factory to a container ship, loaded onboard, travel the entire Pacific Ocean, get off-loaded at a U.S. West Coast port, put on a series of trains and/or trucks, and finally arrive at the loading dock of a Walmart store in Connecticut. Then a Walmart employee had to remove the clock from a large cardboard box, put it on a dolly, wheel it to the Home section of the store, and put it on the shelf, where it could wait for me to come by.
So, my question is: How in the world can somebody sell a decent-looking, fully functioning wall clock for less than four dollars?
I mean, someone had to design it and make engineering drawings. Factory workers in China had to create all the parts on plastic injection molding machines. Then someone else had to assemble it and attach the little electronic time-keeping mechanism, and then test it to make sure it worked. Then another person, or probably a machine, stuffed the clock into cardboard packaging, which already had the description and barcode printed on it. Then, most importantly, the clock had to be transported from the factory to a container ship, loaded onboard, travel the entire Pacific Ocean, get off-loaded at a U.S. West Coast port, put on a series of trains and/or trucks, and finally arrive at the loading dock of a Walmart store in Connecticut. Then a Walmart employee had to remove the clock from a large cardboard box, put it on a dolly, wheel it to the Home section of the store, and put it on the shelf, where it could wait for me to come by.
Each individual step of the process I just described surely costs at least four bucks. And that’s not counting the ocean voyage halfway around the world, which seems to me should cost WAY more than a measly 400 pennies. (To be precise, 388 pennies.)
The brand name printed on the clock is “The Sterling & Noble Clock Company.” That’s a classy name, which evokes images of dedicated craftsmen in 19th century London, working away on the tiny gears and springs inside the pocket watches of upper crust gentlemen. Maybe Sterling & Noble was the firm that built church tower clocks that chimed every 15 minutes, like the one that alerted Ebeneezer Scrooge the next Spirit was due to visit. It turns out the brand name was created in the mid-1990s, and there’s no connection to historic English clockmakers, let alone Mr. Scrooge.
At my office the other day, I mentioned to some coworkers how inexpensive the wall clock was, and one of them immediately shouted, “That’s cuz China uses slave labor! Why do you think they’re kicking our [butt] economically?!”
Um, yeah. Not really in the mood for that rant again.
The brand name printed on the clock is “The Sterling & Noble Clock Company.” That’s a classy name, which evokes images of dedicated craftsmen in 19th century London, working away on the tiny gears and springs inside the pocket watches of upper crust gentlemen. Maybe Sterling & Noble was the firm that built church tower clocks that chimed every 15 minutes, like the one that alerted Ebeneezer Scrooge the next Spirit was due to visit. It turns out the brand name was created in the mid-1990s, and there’s no connection to historic English clockmakers, let alone Mr. Scrooge.
At my office the other day, I mentioned to some coworkers how inexpensive the wall clock was, and one of them immediately shouted, “That’s cuz China uses slave labor! Why do you think they’re kicking our [butt] economically?!”
Um, yeah. Not really in the mood for that rant again.
Anyway, it’s a mystery how a functioning clock can cost only $3.88. But in hindsight, I’m not sure I should’ve paid $76 for the 2-year protection plan.
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