many years ago I worked for a computer retailer near Guanhua market (back when they’re still under the bridge and was tearing the bridge down), and I looked at the cost for many computer components and components like mainboard, cpu, hard drive, etc. have a 50nt margin (I kid you not!). Things like power supplies, mouse/keyboard, and other accessories have better margin. So the question is, if these business is making 50nt for every motherboard they sell, how do they stay in business? They would need to sell like 100,000 motherboards a month just to keep them afloat!
Why are their margins so low when their prices are so high? They have the equivalent of Best Buy prices. I buy all my electronics in Taiwan on ruten.com.tw which are closer to say newegg prices.
When I worked there you could look up every product and it would tell you what the “cost” is so you can’t sell below that price… they have to be lying because there’s no way the store is making any money selling them.
They sell the mainboards for the same price as you would pay in Europe for them and they don’t have to include sea shipment and forwarder costs. Also they get a lot of MDF (marketing development fund) from the vendors. I am quite sure that they have at least an 20% margin if not more. I also think that they buy from the vendor directly in Taiwan. In Europe the vendor sells to the distributor for lets say 7% margin, the disti sells to the reseller for 8% margin and the resellers sells to the end user for quite a nice margin as well. So in Taiwan they earn the 7% + the 8% margin.
So somebody’s definitely lying about the 50nt margin for a motherboard?
I am sure they have at least a 250NT margin with brands, but more with cheaper mainboard brands. The big ones can “force” the retailers but the cheap ones have to give more margin to be recognised.
When I tried haggling with them it never works, and while I worked at a retailer the “cost” was about 50nt, in some cases 20nt below the printed price on the catalog. They expect a lot out of the staff too, minimum of 1,000,000nt in sales each month.
thats crazy… but hey they work for 100NT an hour, overtime for free … so they probably can afford such a low margin.
No, their salaries are based on their sales…
The pay is 25,000 a month for the standard (1 million a month) sales, if they sell more their wages increases proportionally. They only get 4 days of leave a month though, and work from 11am to 10pm.
11 hrs a day just to live with your parents? Not worth it.
And how come Guanghua is so expensive compared to online shopping in the U.S. anyways? Low volume, high per unit costs? I’m pretty sure all the vendors there price fix cause stores offer the same products are approximately the same prices.
I don’t know if they price fix but they price their products more or less verbatim, there must be an agreement to do so.
I was sort of glad when they let me go because the working hour was nothing short of grueling.
You mean Best Buy is not a good, cheap price? 
I am asking seriously, I was making a beeline to shop there as soon as I set foot on te good ol US of A.
This time I am not buying a single electronic here in Taiwan. Everyone wants music players, laptops, etc. Hard to explain why it is so expensive here. Yet it is more expensive in the ol country.
They were probably all gangster controlled, laundering their money through computer stores … I bet you that the official books had different numbers than what they charged for it to the customer … 
You mean Best Buy is not a good, cheap price? I am asking seriously, I was making a beeline to shop there as soon as I set foot on te good ol US of A.
This time I am not buying a single electronic here in Taiwan. Everyone wants music players, laptops, etc. Hard to explain why it is so expensive here. Yet it is more expensive in the ol country.[/quote]
Haha, in America only the old and computer illiterate buy electronics at Best Buy. Best deals are available on sites like slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9
Best prices? For U.S. go to Google Shopping type in what you want and categorize by ascending price.
I was under the same impression when I went home last fall. I quick look around told me though. I wanted a wire to connect my music player to the stereo of my father’s car. Got sick of listening to his ONE CD. They were 18 bucks + 15% sales tax. Thought I’d do better at Walmart, they were 10 bucks, still wasn’t interested. Then went to the dollar store and got one for $1.25.
As for the 3C stores in Taiwan, it’s possible they are just writing a greater purchase price in their books to avoid paying so much tax on resale. As the OP says, it would be impossible for them to stay in business at that rate.
So how do they prevent their suppliers from screwing them over and actually demanding the purchase price in their books? After all they can legally demand the amount. I do notice a lot of them would skimp on the sales tax when you pay cash, so when you needed a receipt made (for declaration or official purpose) or if you want to use credit cards, they charge you the sales tax on top of its normal price. I wonder how come the government never goes after them on that?
If they tried that in the US they’d be audited by the IRS a long time ago and in jail for tax evasion.
I would bet my left arm that most companies in Taiwan keep at least two sets of books. The government gets to see only one. Many companies I buy from will not charge the sales tax if I don’t demand a receipt. I don’t know how the Taiwan Government stays in business with all the tax fraud going on, and they seem to be complacent with it. The people at the tax office even suggest to us sometimes that we shouldn’t report as much. They told us that by their books we are the biggest private school in this area. We are not, by far. And we still pay little in taxes. Of course (I’m Canadian) all things are relative.
what i think they showed you was the manufacturers list price. they’ll then be able to get another 10/15% off that
I was under the impression that “street price” is generally lower than “list price”, however I don’t know how business is done. They show us the “cost” price and we’re to make our own judgment on how much to sell for and we’re expected to make 100,000 a month in profits. It’s just really wrong that they make way more than that and pays so little for actually making the sale.