Price Mark Up

I'd imagine it may be a lot cheaper for Gillette to get their products from the factory to the shop in India as well. I'm not sure the higher prices here are solely down to "The Great British Rip-Off â„¢".

I'd sooner face the struggle to afford cartridges then the struggles a lot of Indians face.
 
To be frank, I wish Gillette had never approved the move to buy factories in Russia, Poland, India, Turkey & China in the late 80's - early 90's as they have eliminated all production in the First World as a result. Only two of those countries are today considered friends of the West. Money should never come before patriotism. Charity starts at home. ;)
 
Please be warned, the following is a bit of a rant about the global financial disparity, don't read it if you don't want to.

The guy selling the Gillette stuff in India probably walks to work, probably hasn't got a reliable electricity or gas supply, might not even have mains water or sewerage. Now, take all those bills off your monthly direct debits / standing orders and how much less do you have to earn to put food on the table? And that's before you consider that the food supply chain has the same 'cost reductions' in it as the blade supply chain.

We in the first world don't like the price based competition from the third world, however, if we lived in the same conditions we'd be crying poverty and going back to being union members in droves.

In other words, I'm OK paying £15 for a pack of 100 good quality blades. I work for a multi-national, I have colleagues al over the world in the same job as I do, I earn 10 times as much as my opposite number in a place called Satara in India. He's a member of the same professional bodies as I am, to the same standing. He does have a car, does have a house with mains sewerage, gas and electric, but on any given day it can turned off for an undetermined period of time, he has to pay for health care, pay for his kids education and the costs of 'Western' items aren't much below what we pay when you consider he's on 1/10 of what I earn.

We have it easy, don't get used to it, it can't last.

Rant over :)
 
TRXnMe said:
I have colleagues al over the world in the same job as I do, I earn 10 times as much as my opposite number in a place called Satara in India. He's a member of the same professional bodies as I am, to the same standing. He does have a car, does have a house with mains sewerage, gas and electric, but on any given day it can turned off for an undetermined period of time, he has to pay for health care, pay for his kids education and the costs of 'Western' items aren't much below what we pay when you consider he's on 1/10 of what I earn.

We have it easy, don't get used to it, it can't last.

Rant over :)
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On a more positive spin, the middle class in India is not only growing in number but also experiencing significant increases in living standards. It's not going to radically change overnight, but many 3rd world countries are improving their living standards. Take a look at SE Asia - compared to 40 years ago, the standard of living there has improved out of sight.

My point is, that contrary to popular opinion, the global standard of living continues to improve on average. This is not to say that everyone in every country is benefiting, but overall, the basic indicators of life quality tend to improve over time globally.
 
Supermangs said:
On a more positive spin, the middle class in India is not only growing in number but also experiencing significant increases in living standards. It's not going to radically change overnight, but many 3rd world countries are improving their living standards. Take a look at SE Asia - compared to 40 years ago, the standard of living there has improved out of sight.

My point is, that contrary to popular opinion, the global standard of living continues to improve on average. This is not to say that everyone in every country is benefiting, but overall, the basic indicators of life quality tend to improve over time globally.
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I accept that 'on average' life is getting better, however there are some big disparities and it does seem to me sometimes that the difference between blue collar and middle class is actually widening, in the first world as well as the third.

My Indian colleagues* are enjoying wage increases of anything up to 27% per year, problem is that these only match inflation which has run at close to 20% for the last 5 to 6 years, very similar to Britain in the 1970s really (so my Dad tells me).

I like India, any chance I get to travel out there and run a project I take it, however I'm going off the big cities as poverty is too prevalent there, get into the boondocks and folk can't afford to be beggars, they have to work as there isn't the wealth middle class to support them.

* The professional middle class ones, sadly the blue collar guys don't always do so well, India has more citizens than jobs so if you don't have skills life can be difficult, as a global business we try to be nice, but with competition as it is we do use temporary labour, and that comes at the lowest cost :(
 
I don't live in a 3rd world country.
I don't want to subsidise one.
I'm bored hearing about the latest drought.

Most countries on this planet would be a whole lot better than off, economically and socially, if people stopped deciding to have half a dozen offspring, and used the excess energy to actually make a change to their own community.

£15 for a plastic razor......laughable.
 
Stacy555, don't hold back & sugarcoat it for us!! Give it to us straight!! :D

I agree much with what you said, but droughts do affect everyone as food does not grow on the grocer's shelves. ;)Remember as well that most countries on Earth don't have any social programs, especially for their elderly, hence they depend on their children helping them in their old age & more children = more income. First World countries were like this as well until recently and it appears we may soon be back there with many of us teetering on financial disaster.
 
@Bogeyman I do tend to generalise.

But...... More kids = more income, is a massively overstated generalisation.

Sticking to the original posting, I just cannot get my head around the fact that we obviously subsidise the cost of a Gillette fusion on sale in India, if I can't afford an Aston Martin I don't expect to have it's cost reduced by someone else being charged more for their's.
 
Stacy555 said:
@Bogeyman...Sticking to the original posting, I just cannot get my head around the fact that we obviously subsidise the cost of a Gillette fusion on sale in India, if I can't afford an Aston Martin I don't expect to have it's cost reduced by someone else being charged more for their's.
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The only way to not do as such is to not buy their product or not pay taxes in a country that subsidizes "off shoring" of the business from which you wish to purchase from, the latter of which is basically out of the individual's control apart from voting en masse against it in an election.
 
Stacy555 said:
@Bogeyman I do tend to generalise.

But...... More kids = more income, is a massively overstated generalisation.

Sticking to the original posting, I just cannot get my head around the fact that we obviously subsidise the cost of a Gillette fusion on sale in India, if I can't afford an Aston Martin I don't expect to have it's cost reduced by someone else being charged more for their's.
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Just because it costs less, it doesn't mean that it is actually being subsidised. Unless it is actually being sold at a loss then all that is happening is that Gillette is making less profit there than here.

Gillette is a company that is very successful because it knows how to maximise the profit on its products in the various markets that it sells in. It depends on how sales numbers vary with changes in price. If you don't like it then you can always choose to purchase your shaving products from a competitor.
 
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