Axminster price increasing

[julianf]

And eat all of our fish.

Seriously though, one upside of it all is that, from January onward, the NHS is going to get £350m a week extra. Couldn't have come at a better time, considering the pandemic.

 

[D_W]

One answer - container costs have gone sharply up (in some cases tripled).
The UK does not have lots of container ports and the ones we do have are clogged with containers currently because of the Brexit situation (Calais likewise). The same import channels are used irrespective of origin so a bottleneck affects all sources.
Shipping times from China have increased - time is money I suppose.
Customs clearance will be affected by Brexit as well - the same people are dealing with all sources so any delay has a knock on effect. Shippers and import/export handlers build this in to the pricing. Pricing is short termist and volatile.

USA / China issues are very different. We know that there is a trade war going on but I am not knowledgeable about it.

There's a trade war here but it has practically no effect on thing like power tools. Wmh group or whoever owns jet has steadily increased price over a decade. They did do a hike shortly after I got my bandsaw, but I'm guessing that was more of an internal decision to just charge more.

Grizzly has seen similar price increases, but somewhat less universal across their lines. If we used normal retailers here for power tools, they'd likely be up a little higher yet. Amazon bought some company around 2006 or so that sold tools on the internet and as the guys at highland hardware described, made it not worth trying to sell them.

Rockler and woodcraft sell them still, but their prices and freight terms are pretty scrappy and only for the most timid of customers who really think that's going to result in some kind of plus after the sale service. Just my opinion, but I don't think most people complaining about power tool price tag would import and sell them for the same price. It's sort of like people complaining about $1300 us made guitars at retail. "I see no reason why this guitar isn't $500" . Ok, that's almost exactly the cost of labor and regulations, would you like one made of air so that it can be teleported to you?

If it were that profitable, someone would just come in and undercut it. The brexit excuse just sounds like finger pointing wishing something were true for argument's sake.

 

[Misterdog]

The brexit excuse just sounds like finger pointing wishing something were true for argument's sake.

Nail on head there. Some will blame Brexit for everything over the next ten years to 'prove' that their opinion was correct.
I'm surprised no one has blamed the Covid 19 virus on Brexit yet, or have they.
Covid has already had a more profound effect on our economy than many of our neighbours, though some will be blaming it on Brexit before it has even happened.

The next ten 10/20 years are likely to be grim enough from the effects of Covid without having to listen to all the keyboard experts blaming it on Brexit.

Still as long as we all pull together eh ?

Watching the US election it seems their society is even more divided than ours. Though hopefully they will have seen what happened here and never decide to have a referendum - over anything.

 

[Misterdog]

the NHS is going to get £350m a week extra

That figure was from the year of the election in 2016, we have been paying more into the EU since then.
Oh and it's a gross (sic) figure not a nett one.

 

[julianf]

If it were that profitable, someone would just come in and undercut it. The brexit excuse just sounds like finger pointing wishing something were true for argument's sake.

The pound has never recovered to its pre-referendum value. This is a statement of fact, as is the fact that imported goods become more expensive with a weaker currency. I don't mean to patronise, but to say it isn't a reason is, well, to quote you again "wishing something were true for argument's sake"


And this is only the run up to the main event.

 

[julianf]

That figure was from the year of the election in 2016, we have been paying more into the EU since then.
Oh and it's a gross (sic) figure not a nett one.

Does that mean the NHS is going to get more than the £350m then?

The bus clearly said £350m a week. "Let's [Let us] spend it on our nhs instead".

So we voted, and they're going to do it, right? I mean, we knew what we were voting for...

 

[Anthraquinone]

Also all the energy we buy in the form of coal, oil or gas is priced in US$. As the pound falls that addition cost has to be passed on to the UK consumer. Just before the Brexit vote sterling was at about £1.55 overnight, after the vote, it fell to $1.25. That alone has been costing the UK millions each week.

 

[Anthraquinone]

We ought to run a sweepstake on what the value of the £ will be on the 2nd January. Something between 1£ = 1$ to £1 = 1.50 ???

 

[Misterdog]

We ought to run a sweepstake on what the value of the £ will be on the 2nd January. Something between 1£ = 1$ to £1 = 1.50 ???

Maybe as low as when the last Labour government were in power, Jan 2009 ?

$ 1.37 which of your Brexit dreams did you use then ?

This is a statement of fact, as is the fact that imported goods become more expensive with a weaker currency.

Is this what you said to Gordon Brown at the time ?

 

[julianf]

We ought to run a sweepstake on what the value of the £ will be on the 2nd January. Something between 1£ = 1$ to £1 = 1.50 ???

Its ok, we wont actually need money.

You have to remember that we hold all the cards.

 

[julianf]

Is this what you said to Gordon Brown at the time ?

I'm quite certain that Gordon Brown wouldn't need this explaining to him.

If you have an event, be it a international banking crisis, or an unfortunate referendum result, that causes a countries currency to fall, then imported goods become more expensive - most people can grasp it, its really basic economics.

Or were you blaming the 2008 crisis on Gordon Brown? I don't think that was any more his fault than Covid was our current fearless leaders fault.

There are, however, plenty of economic experts who credit Gordon Brown with some quite skilful economic policy over that period, just like there plenty of scientific experts who credit Borris Johnson with quite skilful scientific policy during the pande.....

 

[TFrench]

Thrilling as all the political brexiteering "he said, she said" waffle is, take it to the off topic area before this gets locked...

 

[Dr W]

Meanwhile, getting back to Axminster...
I don't shop with them often enough to comment on the price hikes but they do seem to be losing the plot on customer service. They messed up my recent order, forgetting to send the main item (even though it was in stock). These things happen - every company makes the odd screw-up - what matters is how they respond afterwards. On this occasion Axi Customer Services showed very little interest in rectifying their error. Even after promising a refund for the missing item, they didn't actually get round to doing it until after I reminded them a week later. Hate to say it but I'll be avoiding them in future unless there's absolutely no alternative.

 

[Misterdog]

What is happening in China may have more effect than Brexit, shock horror.

However China's president surprised the UN gathering by making a bold statement about his country's plans for tackling emissions.
He called on all countries to achieve a green recovery for the world economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the official translation, Mr Xi went on to say:
"We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060."
Until now China has said it would peak its emissions by 2030 at the latest, but it has avoided committing to a long-term goal.

It all has to be paid for somehow.

Then VAT at 20% is added to any other cost increases, and is borne by the consumer.

 

[Jake]

That figure was from the year of the election in 2016, we have been paying more into the EU since then.
Oh and it's a gross (sic) figure not a nett one.

The cost of Brexit to date exceeds the total of all UK membership contributions ever paid to the EU.

 

[Misterdog]

We've stopped discussing peoples opinions on Brexit as it is off topic.

 

[clogs]

out of interest,
roughly 1 year ago a freind was paying just over £500's or the Dollar equiv for a forty foot container from China to the UK...
and I was quoted €1400 for the same size container from Bordox,FR to Chania Crete......

whilst the waters are muddy the greedy ones take advantage.....I for one will never buy any machines from AX, EVER....
even if it cost's more to buy from a mum n pop place...they want recomends and repeat customers.....

 

[partsandlabour]

We've stopped discussing peoples opinions on Brexit as it is off topic.

It can't be 'off-topic' , it's going to come into play whenever the subject of price increases/imports of equipment etc. comes up.

 

[Misterdog]

It can't be 'off-topic' , it's going to come into play whenever the subject of price increases/imports of equipment etc. comes up.

Possibly, if the imports were from the EU.

 

[mr rusty]

As a smallish UK manufacturer of industrials (TO ~£6M), we've had a cracking good end to the year -order book was great for Nov-Dec. We are definitely seeing some "re-shoring" from our customers. Freight costs for our imports and exports have increased though recently. We're still a bit down year on year, from the first lockdowns but it's not all doom and gloom out there