I too thought that at first, with the idea that it was 'left overs' from what hadn't sold in the German stores. However now I believe it isn't like that at all, instead they buy direct from manufacturers but order fixed price limited quality orders, only placed annually, or possibly bi annually.
The limited quantity is the key. They order less than they know they can sell, so the stuff shifts fast and there is always something new.
This would be in contrast to our DIY places that probably have some sort of on going contract with suppliers to keep the shelves full of stock.
Incidentally I notice that quite a lot of those who replied to the OP have not attempted to answer his question at all, simply providing some testimonial about a product they bought.
" don't touch them with a barge pole - tried them out and the triggers snapped on 3 out of 4 without putting anything more than a firm handshake pressure on."
Cos they are *dirt* cheap, since they will work for USD3.00/day.
I'm sure they have their share of dodgey manufacturers just as everywhere else. But as with any supplier they will make exactly what the UK Buyer specifies. If the buyer comes up with a poor spec and doesn't want to pay for high quality then low quality is what they get.
Some UK buyers may have the idea they can sell the same poor quality goods they sold previously, but made much cheaper in China, for the same or higher price, so making even more profit.
I just cut/pasted what you said as an example of Makro selling and consumers buying goods of such abysmal quality to be patently not suitable for their purpose.
Not at all. It so happens China has quite a monopoly of the production of cheap manufactured goods. 70% of Walmart's manufactured goods are made in China. I'll be in Makro this afternoon taking back a Chinese "Powerstation + Compressor" .
You'll forgive me and all that, I know. But the quality of the original tools that are now being copied *dirt cheap* in China was galaxies ahead of the rubbishy tat offered cheaply now. I can remember when the price of a set of genuine "Mole" wrenches was about 2 weeks pay for my father in the '60's, but they were made of proper steel, they were actually "Straight" could be relied on, and were safe to use, and the joints weren't mega slack and wobbly. Unlike the stunted, mis-shapen offerings for sale for today for £1.99 or less.
However the difference was you did only have to buy them *once*, and because of what they cost you looked after them, and didn't lend them out to people who would people misuse them. With them you could produce good work. That amounted to good value IMB.
When I left Uni (1969) I bought myself a (very) restricted set of Lindstrom electronic engineers pliers/cutters. See and read :
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They are still available on the RSWWW website at about £25 quid a piece ( as opposed to £4.99 a set of 7). But they are made of good steel, the jaws actually meet (Very precisely AAMOF), and can cut the finest multistrand wires without leaving incompletely cut "whiskers" that might be left hanging around in your workpiece and cause subsequent short circuit faults in service, and consequent service visits in warranty. They therefore also represent good value IMB.
I don't know what happened to the original Mr Mole who made the original Molegrips (Anybody?? doesn't seem to be on the web) , but it's good to see Lindstrom are still in business.
Now, SWMBO couldn't find the receipt for the failed "Power station and Air Compressor". So I opened it up to see what made it tick, or otherwise. It wouldn't hold it's charge, the immediately obvious reason being the battery was a "Dry lead acid" type 12v 17 amp hour accumulator, these need quite careful handling even if of a reasonable quality ( I.E. Sonnenschein, not "Sunnyway :) ) but this was not mentioned on the case of the product or in the manual. It had discharged itself over last winter and gone into deep discharge. I also noticed the compressor had broken free from it's mountings because the mounting screws engaged into open slots not holes (Well time's money, and profit's profit even if you're Chinese) and the (self tapping) mounting screws, only 3 off, were tiny, about 2 mm in diameter, and screwed into long whippy mounting pillars about 3 cms long and 4 mm diameter of the same plastic as the box, (presumably a quietening ploy) and one of these had sheared off at the box end.
Now accepting the battery and plastic box was nackered, I did wonder if the compressor could be extracted for ad-hoc use. Taking it out I observed that the large white Nylon plastic gear wheel on the crankshaft of the compressor (driven by the motor) had wisps of black plastic emerging from it's centre?? Yep, it engaged on a sector machined out of the crankshaft but it had failed at that point, melted and burnt, and it was loose on the shaft.
So that explains why the last time it was used it seemed to take an awful long time to blow up a tyre, whilst making optimistic noises :-)
Curious and noticing that the pressure guage went up to 300 PSI (!) I looked at the compressor and noticed that the Cylinder/Cylinder head was held down by a pair of long 2.5 mm screws, both of which were loose :(( As, in fact were all the mounting screws within the whole device the and the piston seal was a rubber "O"ring, but no provision had been made for lubricating the piston/cylinder bore, which was open to the air.
The unit had only been used twice. Once in an un successful attempt to start my car using it's "Power Station" facility. The battery although in good condition at that time was just not man enough to turn over my
1.9 Ltr diesel. I did just about manage subsequently to inflate 3 car tyres.
That's it, £26.00, end of story. BTW a replacement battery off the web was £46.00. :-(
ISTM these products, built to the same standards as Christmas Cracker novelties and Christmas toys are intended to be put away in a cupboard after Christmas and forgotten about along with all the rest of the tacky Xmas crap.
Good for one single use if you're very lucky!
The serious aspect of this is the futile wastage of the raw materials and energy that have gone into the making this tat and transporting it from China to UK.
Our grandchildren will curse us for our profligacy. That battery that couldn't even do it's job, IE. start a car engine *once*, weighed about 15 lb and was mostly Lead, which will take more energy in it's recycling than ever went into it's manufacture, and one wonders how much Lead was chucked about the Chinese environment making it.
I have just (finally) pensioned off a set of Maun sidecutters I bought in 1973. They were secondhand (ex BT) then; bought them in Canterbury Wednesday market. Dull black blades, silver handles and a cantilever action. Stamped 'PO 1971'. Replaced them with a pair of CK ones..
I thought you might be amused by this recent example of BT's efforts to wring out more profit at every opportunity.
For domestic phone wiring, if a joint box is required, standard practice is to use the BT joint box type 77A. (The sheds used to sell these but now sell Commtel or some other junk)
BT domestic equipment like the 77A used to be sourced in the in UK from firms such as Austin Taylor who still manufacture (and sell some on line):
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supply both the Austin Taylor box 77A (RS 264-8109 at 2.20 ea) and the BT Joint Box Kit (RS 410-0609 at 3.10 ea), the difference for the extra pound being the BT kit is bubble packed and contains a plastic insertion tool and a couple of fixing screws. However this kit is entirely made in China.
So the BT kit probably costs substantially less to manufacture in China than the Austin Taylor version but costs substantially more to buy, meaning much more profit for BT, whilst pulling the rug out from under their traditional UK supplier.
I hope he trapped a finger in his infernal invention and died of septicaemia. They're handy, but having the release arm just long enough to perpetually jam on the adjustment bolt is stupid stupid stupid.
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