Web organized team buying in China gaining popularitycustomer adventures, travel, finance — by TDavid @ 9:57 am PST
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We all know that if you buy in bulk, you’ll usually get some type of discount, but some enterprising people in China are taking that a step further by organizing online and then visiting a store like a flash mob to team buy items.
Welcome to China’s newest shopping craze, tuangou, or team buying. By combining the power of the Internet to compare prices with the stealth tactics of the flash mob, team buyers are driving hard bargains in the world’s hottest economy. Many team-buying websites have sprung up to catch the trend, which first began in online forums and chat rooms.
So instead of one person buying a $300 camera, 15 strangers meet up at the store to bulk purchase the cameras at a discount. The organizer of the team buy goes with the group and serves as the main negotiator and can form organized walk outs if the deal isn’t good.
The store still has to turn a profit and if they sell all their inventory to one group, then they lose the possibility of moving that inventory at a higher profit to others. For items where they want to move the inventory I can see the benefit of hooking up with team buyers.
I wonder if anybody will try this in the US? And would you go meetup at the local retail store with a dozen or so strangers you met on some team buy website trying to haggle down a better bulk price? Not sure that I would, although I’m not completely opposed to the concept.
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Perhaps employers will start “team job openings”. Employers could then pay the “cheapest wages” by “teaming up”. Why is it that the public doesn’t get the concept that if you want the merchant to give you “a deal” that the “cost” of giving you that “deal” has to be passed on in one of two ways:
1. Reducing the wages paid (this could be in raw materials or assembly or both)
2. The merchant or manufacturer will start tacking on “a cushion” to the price to “offset” the “deal demand”.
Perhaps the question in each consumers brain should be:
If I demand a lower price, which person involved in the manufacture and sale of this item just got a pay cut? And start thinking about how you are going to feel when your company /employer starts cutting your paycheck . Or maybe you might want to picture all the 5 year olds that are now working in horrendous conditions so you can buy your “toys” cheaper.
Grow up!
Comment by PJ — May 29, 2006 @ 1:42 pm PST
It’s true that the discount has to be cut from somewhere - and it may be someone’s paycheck. However, the reason bulk buy discounts are offered here in North America is because the vendor saves the time and expense of attracting new customers. In this sense, the buying team leader is acting as a salesperson for the vendor, and the ‘commission’ is the discount the end users receive. Just one more way of looking at it.
Comment by elsie — June 8, 2006 @ 6:19 pm PST
Hi Elsie and thanks for your feedback on my comment however please consider the following:
“Bulk Buying” is NOT the purchase of a “few of the same identical items”, it is the purchase of a large
quantity of “identical same manufacturer model #, color, features, items”. The Vendor has NOT saved the expense of “attracting” new customers because without his advertising the “group” would not have known of his existence so he doesn’t save there. As far as “commission”, okay, let’s look at that. “Commission” is the “payment” received by a person in exchange for servicing a vendor’s clients thru the process of expediting the exchange of payment for product AND for continuing to expedite and service the vendor’s clients’ concerns and needs AND building a long term relationship with all parties involved. Now, in a “buying team”, is the “leader” willing to accept the responsibilities of coordinating warranty issues, delivery issues, service issues, update issues, vender/client dispute resolution issues as well as maintaining records that could pertain to issues such as “re-calls” , rebates etc…….. Soooo, that’s kinda my point…..
Comment by PJ — June 8, 2006 @ 11:50 pm PST