Solid Perfume › Forums › General Lauder Solids Talk › What's Your Solid Spending Budget Like This Year? › Re: What's Your Solid Spending Budget Like This Year?
Since I am not impressed with any of the new solids this year…GD and store exclusives, I will not be buying any solids at this point. I am interested in the EL LV exclusive powder compact…the crystal one with the card suits on it. This one will be lots of $$$$ and I know that I have time to get one.
Right now I am in the midst of a huge master bathroom remodel. Everything becomes relative to the remodel costs. The fact that I do not care for any of the new EL solids…well that's a good thing right now. <img src='style_emoticons//laugh.gif’ border=’0′ style=’vertical-align:middle’ alt=’laugh.gif’ />
RE: EL feeling the pinch of us collectors spending less money on solids…might not be the case. And here's why I say this.
Most of the money is in the designing and creation of the prototype. Then the labor and material costs are figured in to set a retail price on the solids. The manufacturer also factors in number of sales needed to make a profit. So…EL will not lose money on the solids. Also…the retail price is usually a mark-up of 3 to 4 times wholesale or cost of an item. This is evident in the warehouse pricing that EL gives its employees. I would be so bold as to say that the warehouse sales are just more profit for EL…because many of the warehouse items are either returns from the dept stores or items that didn't sell well. Also…we have noticed that there has been a price increase for the solids and less BLING. That is the way that EL can counter lower sales…raise the price but lower the actual production cost of an item. That may be why we have been seeing less crystal on the pieces and the higher prices. The LV sign, we all seem to agree, was high priced for its lack of bling and backside design.
And here's another thought…I dont know if others on the BB have noticed this, but eventually the solids and powder compacts sell at the department stores. So, if the true collectors are NOT buying these anymore, someone out there is still paying full retail price for these items. The sales clerks at the dept. stores (SAKs, Neimans and Nordstroms) dont ever look overly worried that I refuse to buy the stuff at their full retail price. Also…let's keep in mind that cosmetics is a billion dollar a year industry. There is huge mark-up in the stuff. My $6 Revlon lipstick is just a good and pretty as the $22.50 ones that EL sells. So, if Revlon can sell products for $6.00 then the cost to make the stuff has to be around $2.00. All cosmetics companies and ingredients are governed by the FDA and if you read the ingredients on let's say a drugstore version of Loreal skin care and EL ingredients..basically same stuff. Also…mascara…Maybelline is just as good as Lancome and for 1/4 to 1/3 the cost. Sure…the rent for counter space in a dept store has to somewhat higher than self space in a drugstore or Walmart…but the fact of the matter remains…there is HUGE profit in cosmetics.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?