How Much Is Too Much?

Have you ever noticed the variability in pricing on similar items? I’m a business owner, but I’m also a parent. So when it comes to shopping I go out of my way to find the best possible prices on thing that either I, or my family need. The internet is a great way to shop, but the price variability is amazing. While you may find what you are looking for at a reasonable price, when it comes to shipping & handling they charge you a small fortune. Does shipping really have to cost that much? Or are they passing those, so called, savings from the item price onto the S&H?

I like to think that I do a good job at pricing the items for my business, Serigraphx, since I look at item prices as a parent and not as business owner. Yes I’d like to be able to charge a small fortune for the products and service I provide but I wouldn’t feel right about it. Things are tight for everyone, myself included, and trying to gouge the customer simply isn’t good business.

Some of you reading this are probably thinking, Ok what kinds of prices are we talking about it? So let me illustrate. Serigraphx is a custom screen printing business and one of my products is a t-shirt with the word LOVE on it. The cool thing about the t-shirt is that in front of a mirror it reflects the word HATE. Well if you do a Google search for “love hate” you will find all kinds of things, but one of them is for the same t-shirt I sell and it is listed for $28. While some of you might say, that is not bad! Consider the fact that I sell a very similar t-shirt for $13.95! That is only one example, I’m sure you can find other similar items, big and small, with price tags that make you wonder.

I don’t think that Serigraphx's products are of an inferior quality or that the other shops selling similar items have superior products. In this particular example, the product is a 100% cotton t-shirt and I see it as a parent. It’s only a t-shirt! Why is the price tag so high? I did go to college and learned about “charge what the market can bear”, but come on. It is still a t-shirt no matter how you slice it and $28 is a bit steep in my book.

Don’t get me wrong, I love t-shirts and especially love custom making them, but I see no reason to over-charge my customers for such basic clothing items. Serigraphx is not a multi-million company yet, but if it ever gets there I hope to maintain the same basic pricing that I use today. I am a parent first and a business owner second.