Comment by quickthrowman
2 days ago
Most people don’t understand why or how stuff is priced, or that low volume items like this probably have a decent amount of expensive human labor included in the price. You aren’t going to set up full automation to assemble 350 cameras.
My car mechanic charges $160/hr.
>Most people don’t understand why or how stuff is priced
You'd think HN users aren't "most people"
Not everyone is you.
Not even on HN!
what’s the margin you reckon on that $160/hr your car mechanic is charging you? human labor is not that expensive, the margins of business employing human labor are. I recently needed a plumber, called up a company, plumber showed up, etc. got an estimate from the company which was outrageous. I was expecting this so I got plumber’s number. called him and asked him if he’d do the job for 1/2 the price - win-win.
I sell and run electrical service and project work for a living.
I’d guess they net 15% on average on that shop rate after accounting for all of the overhead. Some jobs will be high margin wins, some jobs will make a bit, some jobs will lose money.
The shop rate doesn’t just include labor, it also includes all of the overhead of the shop: equipment like lifts, alignment machines, tire machines, consumables, service writers, rent/mortgage, software, diagnostic tools, utilities, blah blah blah.
Btw I quote all residential electrical work at ridiculous prices because I don’t want residential customers, possibly you called a commercial oriented plumber first?
michael&sons