# Corridor Bench



## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

I was planning to build a bench for the corridor in my entrance. I figured the materials cost it would have cost me about $60.00 to $80.00 including the hardware; we are talking now for pine lumber 1”x 2”, 1”x 6” and for the posts 2”x 3” – nothing fancy.

Well I was walking by this store and saw the attached bench for $89.00 on sale. It is made out of Rubberwood in Thailand and it is finished in clear polyurethane. The workmanship is excellent and I don’t know anything about Rubberwood but I will assume from the looks and feel that is much better than pine. Of course I grab it and the point of this post?

I just can’t imagine how someone can build this bench and sell it for $89.00 and make a profit. By the time you add the materials cost, labour, hardware, finishing, packaging, transportation, instructions and what not you will be way over the selling price!!!!!


----------



## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

howdy Nicolas..

I just looked it up. Rubberwood is a member of the maple family and actually is the "rubber tree" used for latex mfg. ... go figure!!

As for cost, ya figure those Thia's are working for a buck an hour, if not less(assuming it was even made in Thailand and just not a port of origin at worse, or point of assembly. Margin is probably an indicator of volume of production.


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

kolias said:


> I just can’t imagine how someone can build this bench and sell it for $89.00 and make a profit. By the time you add the materials cost, labour, hardware, finishing, packaging, transportation, instructions and what not you will be way over the selling price!!!!!


Therein lies the quandary and some of the great inequalities in life. The workers in this factory earn peanuts per day. Their boss, the owner, sells the products on for peanuts to an exporter who sells it on to a retailer in the U.S. and Canada where it is marked up 3x to 100x (that's 100 times the exported price) and because it is more than 75% of the value of the sticker price it then gets labeled "made in Canada" because some rich guy "gambled" and paid $8.90 for it.

We used to sell products made in China. The company didn't buy production merchandise they bought the "end of line" stuff. Every production run has a certain amount of overrun that would be available for a few cents on the dollar (Chinese price.) By the time it hits the storefront, the price balloons to $20.00 cost and $39.97 retail. There is no justification for the sticker price any more. It is totally irrelevant to either the quality or workmanship.

If your managers had invested time, money and effort into improving productivity and production quality, all of that production would have remained in the originating country i.e. the U.S. or Canada. However, given that senior executives are paid based on the profits they generate. The pay scale is approved by the people he appointed to "support him." He owes no loyalty to the people who made him the money in the first place. It is no wonder that such high quality craftsmanship should be available for peanuts. Just consider yourself lucky that you're no longer exploited like the guy who made the bench.


----------



## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Nicolas

I think it comes form the error that many wood workers get into ,over build ,, it does not need to be made like a tank  sometimes less is more.

I recall seeing a cabinet made to hold about 14 plates and it was over 200 lbs.of wood just to hold some china ware.. 

=========



kolias said:


> I was planning to build a bench for the corridor in my entrance. I figured the materials cost it would have cost me about $60.00 to $80.00 including the hardware; we are talking now for pine lumber 1”x 2”, 1”x 6” and for the posts 2”x 3” – nothing fancy.
> 
> Well I was walking by this store and saw the attached bench for $89.00 on sale. It is made out of Rubberwood in Thailand and it is finished in clear polyurethane. The workmanship is excellent and I don’t know anything about Rubberwood but I will assume from the looks and feel that is much better than pine. Of course I grab it and the point of this post?
> 
> I just can’t imagine how someone can build this bench and sell it for $89.00 and make a profit. By the time you add the materials cost, labour, hardware, finishing, packaging, transportation, instructions and what not you will be way over the selling price!!!!!


----------



## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

Not to mention the pieces are all probably cut and finished in high speed production lines, so it would require less workers, which in turn (depending on machine overhead) means bigger profits for the owners.


----------



## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

That's a really nice bench for the price. I went through the same thing with the laundry room cabinets. Even making them out of MDF I could not make them a cheap as I bought them when you add in the hardware, finish and labour. I know woodworking is not about saving money, it's about the pleasure. But sometimes you just can't justify reinventing the wheel. 
We HATE buying things from Asia. Not only because it destroys our own economy, but because I know those people's jobs are as close to "legal" slave labour as it can get. Same for Mexico.


----------



## allthunbs (Jun 22, 2008)

CanuckGal said:


> We HATE buying things from Asia. Not only because it destroys our own economy, but because I know those people's jobs are as close to "legal" slave labour as it can get. Same for Mexico.


Hi Deb:

The philosophy is that in the next generation, China and India will both have their economies comparative to our own. Then the average working man will enjoy the same fruits of their labour as we enjoy in North America and Europe. The problem is that they have to go through the same maturations as our history went through. The difference is their industrial maturity will take place over a much greater compressed timeframe than our own. Their communications tools and their education is already far advanced. 

Until their rural economy improves though, it will always seem that they are working under slave-like conditions. That will progress naturally as the rural population dies off, leaving the younger, greedier generation to fill the gap with greater industrialization and higher food yields. 

For our part, we have to be patient and vigilant that they continue to progress and develop their society for the benefit of all of society, not a select few, as is happening right now. In this regard, I'm very disappointed in the government of China and hope they take corrective actions soon.


----------

