I was reading about how perfumes cost so much less to make than they sell for.
What items have THE highest mark ups?
Clothes, cars, etc?
Fine jewelry, very high (600% is not uncommon); groceries, very low (often less than 10%)–at the retail level.
However, the question is vague until you specify some things. The manufacturing process is the beginning of the chain, the retail sale is the end. Most products have several steps in between. And every step/link in the chain has its own mark-up, taken by a different entity. So are we talking about the price differential from the factory’s internal billing to the consumers hand, or some portion thereof?
Then there’s the question of whether research and development costs and equipment costs are included in the “cost to make something.” It’s easy to select information that supports a point, not always easy to get all relevant info on a subject and evaluate it. I’d be curious to know exactly how the “cost to make perfume” was arrived at.
I’ve heard that bottled water has a markup close to 2,000% to the manufacturer. No cite available.
No Question: Information.
I’ve heard of 10 sheets of paper selling for THOUSANDS of dollars.
Surely it costs more than the price of ten sheets of paper to gather said information.
Soft drinks at fast-food franchises?
I believe I’ve read several threads that insist that the whole biggie Coke is only .07 or .08 worth of stuff. That’s why it’s FREE the next time you come 'round, and it’s more expensive to have someone schlep it over to you than it is to let you pour it yourself to your heart’s content.
I agree with the bottled water. Second to that has to be movie theater popcorn. The soda too, considering that they run Coke commercials before the show, so after getting paid for that the cost of the soda is probably a wash.
I think the question is OP is after is the markup from the retailer to the consumer. Obviously there are many steps along the way, but the most directly observed one is how much the retailer pays for it, versus how much he charges you.
Though I could be wrong interpreting intent.
What about this stuff that Cecil wrote about a long time ago? What does the stuff cost the gummit to mine, extract and isolate?
THis question was asked on some weekend gameshow on NPR. I can’t remember what the three choices were (IIRC, 2 of the three were diamonds and popcorn). Popcorn, according to the show had the highest markup at around 6,000% (again, IIRC).
When we used to sell small items like small snap rings and o-rings, mark-ups could be extraordinary.
They may have cost us quite litterally only 1 or 2cents in quantity, but customers would insist on only buying 2 or 3 of them.
Therefore, we still had to create an invoice and mail it. The postage alone cost $.48, not including processing costs of the order. We’d often invoice the customer $3 or $4 for a few snap-rings that only cost us about 5 or 10 cents, combined.
We’d still lose money on those orders in the long run. So we stopped selling them. Not worth our while.