Thread: ABC Landline Upcoming Story on Lucas Mills 18 Sep 2016

Sadly "the" consumer wants to pay as little as possible, not even realising the effect this has of the Australian workforce.
Even to the extent that the ubiquitous "Check-out Chick" is in serious danger of disappearing, slowly being replaced by check-out stations operated by the supermarket goers. All this under the guise that is is "quicker".....

On the other side of this coin, the "Made in Australia" label which is supposed to encourage the consumer to buy the product is often not worth the cardboard it is printed on.

Just me 2c worth

Yvan

I really enjoyed the show and my hat goes off to the Lucas family for their success in what I consider to be the best mill on the market.

Although the monitory win was SFA, the satisfaction of saying stick that you copying f.... b....rds would have been very satisfying.

Well done Lucas

Originally Posted by yvan

Even to the extent that the ubiquitous "Check-out Chick" is in serious danger of disappearing, slowly being replaced by check-out stations operated by the supermarket goers. All this under the guise that is is "quicker".....

I think it's great people can check out themselves. Large scale supply chains and retail are all about reducing cost and increasing efficiency at every possible opportunity.

No one complains when warehouses are automated, when production of food is automated, when farm machinery is huge. Yet one tiny portion of the whole chain of retail is made more efficient and people complain about it. If this attitude was applied to the whole supply chain we would be paying twice as much for food.

The whole argument that it saves jobs is very misleading. I would much prefer cost savings go elsewhere. It's not like the money simply disappears from the economy. Food may be cheaper so people have more money for discretionary purchases such as from a retail or hospitality place. Or more likely supermarkets make more profits which in turn means more tax and more dividends. It doesn't disappear.

I would much prefer to use money on discretionary purchases and scan my own groceries. It's easy and more productive than standing in line doing nothing.

I worked in China for some years and I can tell you some hair raising stories of industrial espionage, copying and corruption but I can equally tell you some stories of clever, brave and downright hilarious countermeasures! I have been asked to write a book on it but Chinese law has no protection for whistleblowing so the book may have to wait a while?
I am however AMAZED that Chinese law and enforcement has improved to the stage shown in that inspiring Lucas Mill Landline episode. In my time, and that is not many years ago, there was NO action possible against a Chinese company for "foreign company patent" infringement. That episode gave me hope for BOTH China and companies like Lucas!
Just one 'copying' story that predates even my experience. When 'thongs' (flip-flops to our overseas friends) first came to Australia from USA, an 'enterprising' (= sleaze bag!) Australian sent an early pair to Japan to copy. He received a letter/telegram from his Japanese cohort to confirm that he wanted them exactly as per the sample? He replied angrily with "YES, and hurry up with production"! Sure enough, in a few months he received 10,000 pairs of luridly coloured thongs all with an identical ragged 50mm diameter hole in the same place on the sole! Unbeknown to sleaze bag, it was illegal to import shoes into Japan and so Japanese Customs punched a ragged 50mm diameter hole in the sample!
I could be enticed with a few drinks to tell some of my stories but I have also been known to tell them without inducement at Post Graduate Business Schools...... lectures which seem to end up in a bar somewhere anyway!

fletty

In the mid 50's onwards, Japan was the country producing cheep goods for a lot of the Western world. It was said that the Japanese were great inventors....as long as they were told what to invent !!!

Yvan

Originally Posted by chris0375

I think it's great people can check out themselves. Large scale supply chains and retail are all about reducing cost and increasing efficiency at every possible opportunity.

No one complains when warehouses are automated, when production of food is automated, when farm machinery is huge. Yet one tiny portion of the whole chain of retail is made more efficient and people complain about it. If this attitude was applied to the whole supply chain we would be paying twice as much for food.

The whole argument that it saves jobs is very misleading. I would much prefer cost savings go elsewhere. It's not like the money simply disappears from the economy. Food may be cheaper so people have more money for discretionary purchases such as from a retail or hospitality place. Or more likely supermarkets make more profits which in turn means more tax and more dividends. It doesn't disappear.

I would much prefer to use money on discretionary purchases and scan my own groceries. It's easy and more productive than standing in line doing nothing.

Alan Kohler (on ABC TV News) had a story on this about the time Wesfarmers presented their latest earning report in August. Based on the chart Alan displayed, Australia has a low inflation rate because the cost of food and other household items purchased through Coles has been falling, in real terms, for some years. So what you're saying appears born-out by the data.

Great Ep. of LandLine. Hopefully I'll have enough timber in the next few years to warrant a Lucas Mill.