... ... from "rebranding" and/or repackaging of items; the way I see it is the only ones to benefit are the marketing/advertising agencies or departments. What does it matter if the colour/design of the box changes, the contents don't most of the time, but the price goes up.
I consider those that perform these "exercises" are just like parasites; who pays for it all ,( and don't forget the junk mail that pours through letter boxes, it's all part of the same). Advertising and "image" have got way over the top; yes we need to know about new products and events, but to have so much continual repetition is unnecessary.
(Dons full suit of armour and tin hat and retires to bomb proof bunker)
Mike
What prompted this? Not in the modelling world, surely?
Bob
No, partly supermarket stuff and junk mail.
Over here in Oz, we all have outside letterboxes. Most, as in the case of Chez Bealman, are at the top of the driveway out on the street. If you put a sign on your letterbox saying "NO JUNK MAIL", then they will not put any in your letterbox.
Dunno what it's like over there in the UK, as I realise that most letterboxes are on the front door.
I do not have a sign up on ours, as I like looking through the junk mail - I have come across many bargains some weeks, especially in places like Aldi or electronics outlets. I keep an eye on the supermarket specials, too.
We have paper recycle bins that are emptied once a fortnight, so that's where the junk mail ends up after I've looked through it.
I hate junk mail. This works to an extent: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/stop-getting-junk-mail/ (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/stop-getting-junk-mail/)
It's not a complete answer but any reduction has to be good!
Regarding the other stuff you mentioned Mike, yes, there are a load of companies who actually MAKE nothing except cardboard boxes. Probably not even that, they are likely bought in too. The product is purchased in bulk, usually from the far east, and sold as the companies product. My ex wife and my daughter worked for a short time at a place that did exactly that. Folding a cardboard sleeve around a selection of items and shoving them into boxes. Nothing was ever tested or checked. Pack it - shove it out the door. I know FOR SURE that some of the items went out at over seven times what they paid for them and then the retailer puts a bit more on top.
Who pays for it you ask - you and me mate, you and me!
Trepidation, angels fearing etc&etc :) :-
There was a time a short while ago when mail ie "the post" was looking very uneconomic (because of everyone emailing) and the universal postie every morning was in jeopardy.
(I lived for a while in Brazil where one went to the equiv of the PO to collect ones mail. It was inconvenient )
The junk mail (commission) that we get now pays for postie to come to our front door each day, decline that and we risk that daily delivery.
However, times they are a-changing and now that the postie carries much of our ebay small purchases we may be in a position to decline the aforementioned junk without risk to posties job ( no I am not a postie, no connection ! )
Dont like the junk mail ? - light the fire with it, if you can get it to burn without extra kindling :)
Shredded it makes good cat litter. :D
:laughabovepost:
no cat ! And my chooks (as they say downunder) prefer autumn leaves and wood shavings :)
I am surprised though : It it that absorbent ? all that glossy stuff impregnated with Alum anti-flame (or whatever the Enumber is)
Quote from: MalcolmAL on November 14, 2017, 12:13:48 AM
:laughabovepost:
no cat ! And my chooks (as they say downunder) prefer autumn leaves and wood shavings :)
I am surprised though : It it that absorbent ? all that glossy stuff impregnated with Alum anti-flame (or whatever the Enumber is)
Most of ours is newsprint based, although the glossy stuff is good after shredding as it cracks the ink varnish. The cat likes a good read when he is doing his business. :smiley-laughing:
My cat likes Lidl's version of Kleenex for men - to shred mostly - but then he is 17 with an overactive thyroid.
Bob
(http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/58/1517-141117075640.jpeg) (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=58103)
OMG I'm using this site as social media :o
The company selling the object also makes more money.
A, With the repackaging, some will think it is a "New improved" and buy it again.
B, When they re-release a book with a new cover, sometimes with a new title as well, people will buy it again by accident. I know I've done this and with a 50mile round trip to the nearest book shop they don't get taken back.
Junk packaging and mail goes on the fire, sadly the gloss stuff doesn't burn well. I guess this is to stop people collecting Argos catalogues as free fuel.
Is this thread getting a bit silly?
Quote from: Zogbert Splod on November 13, 2017, 11:43:34 PM
Folding a cardboard sleeve around a selection of items and shoving them into boxes. Nothing was ever tested or checked. Pack it - shove it out the door. I know FOR SURE that some of the items went out at over seven times what they paid for them and then the retailer puts a bit more on top.
Who pays for it you ask - you and me mate, you and me!
Of course they do. That's how businesses work - look at most electronics, you can buy from China, or you can pay someone who's applied a vast margin.
Not really sure what the rant is...? Junk mail, or branding? I'm always amused by some corporate rebranding exercises, Abbey National spent millions on their huge corporate renaming exercise to change to... Abbey. Wow. Transformational. Royal Sun Alliance did the same to become... RSA Group.
No junk mail in Japan, at least we don't get any apart from the odd mailshot from companies we've done business with in the path. Tonnes of leaflets though.
Our postie delivers junk mail (and sometimes only junk mail ::)) and the ones that annoy me are for the local curry/pizza takeaway which offer free delivery within a 2 mile radius. I've rung one or two up (purely in the name of research, of course) and asked if delivery was free to my address and have been told I'm outside the 'free delivery limit' >:(
The other thing I get lots of is plastic bags for me to fill with clothes etc for various charities. Being a single chappie it's not often I can help but, occasionally, when I have a change of fashion sense and decide the tweed plus fours must go in favour of cord jodhpurs, I put the bag out and no one collects it!
What I want to know is how they know what's in the bag ???
Isn't it about time @Tank (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=2) rebranded this Forum? >:D
:whistle:
As for junk mail, it does keep the bin-men in a job, and the recycling plant busy, and the printers have something to do now they don't get so many books to print, and how else would folks get to know about those wonderful offers for stuff they just must have don't need? And now there are so many electronic devices to operate our homes automatically, and electronic mail is replacing the written letter, the poor old house-breaker can only determine whether it is truly safe to break in to your home by the amount of junk mail he can see through your letterbox that's piled up on the doormat.
Everything has its uses. ;)
:laughabovepost:
Quite correct.
And NPN, I don't really want to know what's in the bag. :no:
Incidentally, most of the junk mail here in Australia is huge catalogues and delivered by people who spend all their waking hours wrapping it all up, then driving around sticking it into your letterbox.
Not part of the mail service, though I have noticed the postie dropping some off lately. :uneasy:
Quotelook at most electronics, you can buy from China, or you can pay someone who's applied a vast margin.
Yep, seen traders seling items identical to stuff I've bout from Chinese shops on Ebay, just repackeged and price hiked way up.
Tesco used to sell their own brand Wetabix clone at 36 for about £0.65 now sold as Everyday Value 24 for £0.75; Royal Mail rebrand to "Consignia" a few years back didn't work, wonder how much that cost? Quite a few are a bit more subtle just a change of logo, price to customers still goes up to pay for it.
I never put old clothes and stuff in those plastic bags somebody or other wants me to leave for them to collect. I use them as bin liners. Anything I have no longer have need for that is useful, be it clothes or whatever, I take directly to a charity shop of my choice. That way I know that it has in fact gone to charity, not to some shady reseller. There have been news items locally to me of these scammers, and while genuine 'charity bags' may be pushed through my letterbox, I have no way of knowing the genuine from the fake.
McVities have recently rebranded their Jaffa Cakes.
Who benefits?
The packaging printer and McVities themselves as there are 2 fewer 'cakes' in the box.
Has the price reduced? Draw your own conclusion.
I remember reading many, many years ago of a guy that signed up for every item of junk mail he could. He used a hand press, that you could buy specially for the job, to turn papier-mâché into artificial logs for his wood burning stove.
Quote from: Dorsetmike on November 14, 2017, 10:55:02 AM
Yep, seen traders seling items identical to stuff I've bout from Chinese shops on Ebay, just repackeged and price hiked way up.
The RC environment is rife with rebranding.
CFJ
Quote from: daffy on November 14, 2017, 11:07:44 AM
I never put old clothes and stuff in those plastic bags somebody or other wants me to leave for them to collect. I use them as bin liners. Anything I have no longer have need for that is useful, be it clothes or whatever, I take directly to a charity shop of my choice. That way I know that it has in fact gone to charity, not to some shady reseller. There have been news items locally to me of these scammers, and while genuine 'charity bags' may be pushed through my letterbox, I have no way of knowing the genuine from the fake.
that is my strategy too