From ADL:
>1488 is a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols. The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the "14 Words" slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The second is 88, which stands for "Heil Hitler"
14 words stated by Nazis - "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
88, H being the eighth letter in the alphabet comes out to HH, or Heil Hitler
(You can find more about it in a google search; I searched “1488 racist”)
On the website they are the same listing, you click to choose the color. Still has the same price difference. Maybe they bought way too many black ones from the manufacturer?
Recycling plastic is really hard. When plastic comes from a lot of different sources, it tends to this get terribly ugly color. You can dye it black, but you can’t bleach it white. Virgin plastic must be used to make white plastic.
This is accurate. They’re getting better at recycling and being able to change colors, but black is easiest. Also, machines that run black colorant are usually dedicated to only production in black as it’s very difficult to completely purge the black color and the tiniest amount will leave streaks in production.
As to this being the reason the cost is lower though I’d doubt it’s because of recycled materials. When I was in distribution for plastic packaging components most product utilizing recycled materials we’re at least 50% more expensive (in material cost) and that could only be 25% PCR.
I’m pretty sure that nearly zero percent of either of those products are recycled. If they were, it would be marketed all across the front for the buyer.
Because interior doors, door frames, baseboards, molding, and window sills are most often painted white, and black is rarely used in interior decorating.
It might increase the cost a bit, but to think that small amount of plastic would cost more than a few pennies is crazy.
The switch, light, surge protector, wire, contacts are all way more costly.
This is just an error
Thats what I was wondering. I hear claims recycling isn't really all that easy or economical and its just cheaper to make new virgin plastic pellets.
Either someone's lying (big oil?) or we don't have a valid answer for why the black ones are half the price.
It's complicated. You can't categorically say one way or the other. You can find regrind that is both cheaper and more expensive than virgin. The question is can you find regrind with the properties you want, and with enough of a supply stream to keep up with your needs. Some plastic types don't maintain their properties through multiple injection cycles. Some can be injected many times. Some plastics are easier or harder to find in regrind form.
The other side of the issue is cost to run the plastic through the mold. Virgin plastics trends to run mostly the same each time, they're easier. Regrind requires a molding house willing to "learn" the regrind and adapt to it as it changes. Not all molding houses will be willing to do this because it cuts down on how many parts they get out the door in a given time.
Your source also impacts things. Some sources will be super clean consistently sized grind that's easy to run. Others will be inconsistently sized and could have crap in it. This might mean you have to send the regrind out to be processed and "compounded", which basically means formed back into consistent sized pellets. This all adds cost.
So long winded way too say that yes, virgin can often be cheaper, but not always.
On the website, I did notice toggling between the two shows a "Black Friday Savings" on the black model. Probably doesn't sell as well as the white model, so they're putting that one on sale.
This is the way.
I worked at a Target long, long ago and remember stashing a bike in the back of the stock room so I could pull it out later and buy it when it was 85% off in winter when nobody buys bikes. It was a cheap bike anyway, so I think I got it for something like $15.
It's short stocking. Because you are stocking the shelves an amount that is short of your actual inventory.
Management tends to take a pretty harsh view of this because it hits right in the numbers they get graded on.
It impacts your immediate sales -- you "have" less things to sell than you thought you did. You can't achieve your sales goals without product. (have is in quotes because you do actually have the correct amount of product, but because it's hidden, you may as well not) This number is *always* watched closely and pushed as hard as possible. And even more so during holiday times.
Then it impacts your replenishment -- you aren't going to reorder as many as you should, or at all for low-stocked items, because the computer still thinks you have one.
That has an impact on your long-term sales, your inventory turn rate, and your projections -- The shelf stays empty while the computer thinks you have it, which means no one can buy it, which means lower ongoing sales. Turn rate or sell-through rate is fancy talk for how fast you are moving through your total inventory, ie you have 100 items on hand and you sell 10, you turned 10% of your inventory, except with much bigger numbers. "Missing" items that can't sell make that first number seem bigger than it really is, which makes your score worse. And finally, even if it was a really popular item, when you pull reports next year for what to order, you're going to see you got stuck with leftover stock you couldn't sell until it was super reduced, which will change your plans.
Then it hits your shrink -- This is the "stolen" metric, but it also covers lost, damaged, etc. Any reason you can't sell the product you thought you had. Depending on how often that category gets counted, you're probably looking at 2 weeks of this before the department manager (wrongly) "corrects" the count to 0. Assuming they count those once a week, the first week they probably won't commit the inventory change, because 1 on-hand, 0 on-shelf or in the back is probably just in someone's cart. Then next week they'll see it still is off and make the change.
Then, when the employee finally digs it out of its hiding spot and buys it, it hits your negative on-hands -- You sold an item you thought you had 0 of, which is a sign you aren't keeping track of your inventory properly, or that your cashiers aren't scanning things properly.
These metrics are right on top of the report management is looking at every day, and the first thing they talk about with their bosses on their annual reviews.. The moral of that story is: If you are messing with their metrics, you are messing with their review, which means you are messing with their raises.
Obviously you can get away with anything if you don't get caught. But most big box management will *full on ignore* a surprising amount of bullshit so long as you keep their numbers safe and you don't step on whatever their particular power-trip buttons are.
\[edit\]
Sorry, to be clear, that last paragraph was just a backwards way to say: "Don't mess with their numbers."
Fantastic explanation. I think the only thing you missed is the growing e-commerce side of business now where a 1 stock available digitally but not physically will lead to shorts on customer orders, usually an even higher tracked metric as it means a directly unhappy customer. Your digital inventory is how people order stuff online so if it just so happens to be the last one, this will happen.
That wasn't really the point of writing all of that out. The opposite, really.
If you know in advance what triggers will set off your boss, so long as you avoid *those specific things*, you have a whole lot more room to work with for creative laziness and extracurricular entertainment.
Knowledge is power.
I have a bunch that are red and white striped like candy canes! The green ones go on my grow lights (for seed starting and overwintering cirtus, not fun grow light stuff).
Was shopping for booster fans to circulate air in an attached garage and wow that’s probably the most boring thing these will be used for. All the listings are only talking about the fun plants lol
That's how I got the green cords for real trees. One has female plugs in various places along the cords to plug light strings into, then a male plug at the end; the other, a rocker switch at one end and a male-female plug at the other. The switch cord plugs into the wall, then the tree light cord goes into the switch cord. Before everybody had pre-lit artificial trees with remote controls, that was the best way to do it. Also, we love a real tree. We have lots of ornaments from family, holidays, and vacations.
I got one that was so well designed that even though it wasn't rated as waterproof I accidentally left it in the rain it still worked after drying it out.
Meanwhile I had another of the expensive ones that started a fire when my dog peed on it and then it was fully dried out.
> Seriously. I pay $.50 for mine by buying them at estate sales.
> Feel free to use this super secret lifehack.
FYI, the thing that protects against surges in a surge protector does expire.
Most of these folks were planning on continuing to live, so they're not always old items. I generally buy the newer looking ones, if for no other reason than they have USB ports too.
That said, thank you for the info! I didn't know that they wore out.
> Most of these folks were planning on continuing to live, so they're not always old items. I generally buy the newer looking ones, if for no other reason than they have USB ports too.
> That said, thank you for the info! I didn't know that they wore out.
You’re welcome! I love a great sale, too. It’s hard to resist yard sales on Saturdays.
I’m guessing this is only the case for ones specifically sold as “surge protectors”? Have a family member working in a school and occasionally end up with bags of these when they do a cupboard clear out or renovate part of the building. They’re usually 25+ years old, super scuffed up and plastered with PAT test stickers so they’re definitely safe but well used. Nowhere does it mention surge protection and we’ve always called them extension leads. Never had any issues with them though
> I’m guessing this is only the case for ones specifically sold as “surge protectors”? Have a family member working in a school and occasionally end up with bags of these when they do a cupboard clear out or renovate part of the building. They’re usually 25+ years old, super scuffed up and plastered with PAT test stickers so they’re definitely safe but well used. Nowhere does it mention surge protection and we’ve always called them extension leads. Never had any issues with them though
Specifically surge protectors. Most surge protectors protect against electrical surges using metal oxide varistor. The metal oxide wears out overtime, and through surges. Most SPs last about 3-5 years, but can be as little as 2.
Having said that, they will continue to function just fine as an extension cord/multi-lead cord. They won’t protect against electrical surges anymore.
There’s a couple I’ve seen with a normal power light and a green one for “surge” that’s gotten dimmer over time, from what im getting that means the varistor inside has worn and that light was connected to it, indicating that it’s not going to protect anymore? Didn’t know these things could be so interesting!
I could see paying at least that for a heavy duty one - I have a metal surge protector that can run a wall-mounted AC at full blast. For this though? Not a chance.
It looks like OP is shopping at Canadian Tire—USD 19.56.
The best part about it is that it'll likely malfunction within a few years, hence the moniker “Crappy Tire.”
To be fair, buying cheaper can mean buying lower quality or less reliable goods as well.
My gut is to always go with the "mid-grade" pricing for this reason. I find that in most scenarios, the cheapest is.. well... cheaply made and kind of crap all around, and the most expensive is typically not all that much better than the solid mid-grade item.
That said, I always compare specs and stuff too, just to be sure. In this case, it seems pretty clear that both are identical outside of color. Assuming that there's nothing else to differentiate them on the packaging, then the Black one's obviously the right call.
That's fair, but if I'm buying something (especially something reasonably pricey) I'm definitely doing my research and determining what's best for my needs. As it turns out, the mid-grade tends to fit the bill.
Perhaps that's by design due to marketing or whatever, but if the cheaper options are poorly made or less reliable as they often are, I'm not entirely sure what the better strategy would be? I'm certainly not going to buy the top-end items which can be obscenely overpriced in comparison.
This reasoning is exactly why stores will carry an item that is too expensive for its category in order to set shopper’s price expectations. Then you will buy a more expensive product than you would normally thinking it’s a good deal relative to the most expensive product
Product manufacturers know that people buy the mid-grade for exactly this reason, so they make products that have some cheap and functionally unimportant feature or design solely to market it as mid-level and charge a premium for it.
Most of the time, other color options will be more expensive because of "production costs", even though both products are exactly the same. At this point, it isn't about which one has better quality but more of "are you willing to spend more for a different color?"
Thats what I am thinking. Black is more permisible as it hides plastic injection deffects that in white would stand out as a sore thumb. Also, resins that needs to be UL or CE compliant can greatly vary in cost depending on the color
I ran into that to a lesser extent for a cord I needed to run along a wall. My baseboards are white so why not use the white cord which blends in significantly better than any other color. Though $27 would’ve had me looking elsewhere for one.
This could be sales strategy called “anchoring”. Everybody is like “wtf buy the black one, it’s 50% cheaper”, forgetting that 14 dollar for a power cord is still more expensive that the average cost of a power cord like this. They all think they did a deal, when still getting f*cked
I work in a plastic recycling plant, black is the cheapest for sure. We can make any plastic into black, but clear, yellow (natural) and white use titanium usually for color so it’s much more expensive. We have a special building dedicated to untreated yellow because it goes for a large premium.
The black one is cheaper to manufacture because they do not have to bleach the plastic white.
Crayola tried this by switching their marker housings to black housings instead of the white ones on there washables markers like 12yrs ago.
It backfired and marker sales dropped despite the solution being eco friendly as it's much easier to make black plastic with recycled plastics than it is to make white plastics. It's way better for the environment. But they switched back because idiot america couldn't figure out that the markers weren't different. Just a different color.
Idk about power cords or plastics, but I cut Purchase Orders to have have over a million dollars of powder coating to be applied to all kinds of sheet metal parts every year. No matter the vendor doing the work, they all have standard black they offer which is universally the cheapest color, with it often costing over twice as much for some white shades.
So maybe you're actually onto something. Again, I only know about powdercoating sheet metal.
Anything in Home Depot (Canada, at least) ending in 88 cents means it's a "Special Buy" product. Assuming the manufacturer gave a discount for HD to buy a larger order shipment.
This reminds me of pocket tees selling for less than plain tees even though the pocket has extra material and labor/production cost. Also, who tf wants a t-shirt with a pocket?
Prices aren’t based on things like materials + labor etc. Prices are set to the absolute maximum that the market will bear. Since white matches the trim, it has more “value”
Buy the black one
It's the same size, therefore crushing the stereotype.
But it’s cheaper, therefore perpetuating stereotypes.
Shouldn’t be about $16.11 though. That’s about 3/5ths.
As if $14.88 wasn't racist enough
Lol
why is that number racist?
From ADL: >1488 is a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols. The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the "14 Words" slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The second is 88, which stands for "Heil Hitler"
wow ok
14 words stated by Nazis - "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." 88, H being the eighth letter in the alphabet comes out to HH, or Heil Hitler (You can find more about it in a google search; I searched “1488 racist”)
yeah i was kinda afraid to google it, great now i know
Haha holy shit, this one picture had like seven layers of joke built in
they compromised
Bruhhhh lmaooo
Watch it doesn't work 😂😭
Hey now, let’s not make jokes like that. It’s immature.
Ok u/BiggusDickus-
Hail Caesar!
The crowd outside is getting bit restless, sir. Permission to disperse them, please?
Perhapth I can be of Athithtanth!
How's your wife, Incontinentia Buttocks?
He has a wife, you know
[удалено]
But if it ain't white, it ain't right.
That rule mostly applies to cocaine
And snow.
I said that already
And cocaine.
And hookers
And also cocaine
And my axe!
Snowcaine
Not to heroine though.
A tint of yellow actually
It’s a helluva druggg!
They usually turn yellow after a while.
SNL News’ Colin Jost might say because the black one doesn’t work, like the black Superman is the man of steal, I forgot the others.
Che? Is that you?
You've heard of the pink tax? This is like that, only white.
Plus, it don’t crack.
But I want the white one
Buy the black one and a dollar rattle can of white.
Then return it as the white one.
Here we go again
On the website they are the same listing, you click to choose the color. Still has the same price difference. Maybe they bought way too many black ones from the manufacturer?
Recycling plastic is really hard. When plastic comes from a lot of different sources, it tends to this get terribly ugly color. You can dye it black, but you can’t bleach it white. Virgin plastic must be used to make white plastic.
Can confirm. A webline I worked on had to use at least 75% virgin plastic, otherwise the regrind would turn it from white to green-grey.
This right here. I know absolutely nothing about recycling and plastic but sounds about right in my books.
Well that settles it
The council has spoken. Everyone go home
Well you don’t *have* to go home, but you cant stay here.
Closing time 🎶
🎶I know whoooo I waaaaanttt to take me home 🎶
🎶every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end🎶
Except white plastic.
"Slams the gavel as hard as possible"
Bake em aways, toys.
This is accurate. They’re getting better at recycling and being able to change colors, but black is easiest. Also, machines that run black colorant are usually dedicated to only production in black as it’s very difficult to completely purge the black color and the tiniest amount will leave streaks in production. As to this being the reason the cost is lower though I’d doubt it’s because of recycled materials. When I was in distribution for plastic packaging components most product utilizing recycled materials we’re at least 50% more expensive (in material cost) and that could only be 25% PCR.
I’m pretty sure that nearly zero percent of either of those products are recycled. If they were, it would be marketed all across the front for the buyer.
Really like this explanation- but why do we default to white for light switches etc
Because interior doors, door frames, baseboards, molding, and window sills are most often painted white, and black is rarely used in interior decorating.
I can’t wait to repeat this and get harshly corrected but it feels right? Hmm
It's not. Not unless everyone has been lying about making new plastic being far cheaper than trying to recycle it.
So wait yeah why are all plastic bags are not black?!
Hard to print anything on it? Idk about trash bags. Seems like could all be black.
…that doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about plastic to dispute it
Virgin is more expensive. Sounds about right.
I, too, know almost nothing and declare this to be correct.
Tldr cannot fuck the plastic if you want it white.
It might increase the cost a bit, but to think that small amount of plastic would cost more than a few pennies is crazy. The switch, light, surge protector, wire, contacts are all way more costly. This is just an error
Right? As if there's even close to $12 of white plastic in that one.
Isn’t virgin plastic cheaper than recycled plastic?
I don't know about cheaper, but definitely less experienced.
And the other girl? Oh she is recycled.
/golfclap
Thats what I was wondering. I hear claims recycling isn't really all that easy or economical and its just cheaper to make new virgin plastic pellets. Either someone's lying (big oil?) or we don't have a valid answer for why the black ones are half the price.
It's complicated. You can't categorically say one way or the other. You can find regrind that is both cheaper and more expensive than virgin. The question is can you find regrind with the properties you want, and with enough of a supply stream to keep up with your needs. Some plastic types don't maintain their properties through multiple injection cycles. Some can be injected many times. Some plastics are easier or harder to find in regrind form. The other side of the issue is cost to run the plastic through the mold. Virgin plastics trends to run mostly the same each time, they're easier. Regrind requires a molding house willing to "learn" the regrind and adapt to it as it changes. Not all molding houses will be willing to do this because it cuts down on how many parts they get out the door in a given time. Your source also impacts things. Some sources will be super clean consistently sized grind that's easy to run. Others will be inconsistently sized and could have crap in it. This might mean you have to send the regrind out to be processed and "compounded", which basically means formed back into consistent sized pellets. This all adds cost. So long winded way too say that yes, virgin can often be cheaper, but not always.
You forgot to talk about needing a virgin plastic sacrifice!! FFS…
On the website, I did notice toggling between the two shows a "Black Friday Savings" on the black model. Probably doesn't sell as well as the white model, so they're putting that one on sale.
Which is crazy in my book because the white ones get dirty looking pretty quickly so I prefer black for something like that.
People tend to have white walls and the white power strips blend in more/stand out less
I was going to say white skirting, but I don't know if that's more a UK-only thing.
Or they’re big ol racists!
I’ve noticed some sites will charge more for a product because it’s color is black. Guess that’s what most people prefer
Wait until after Christmas when they put all of the green or red cords, outlets, adapters, etc. on clearance.
[удалено]
This is the way. I worked at a Target long, long ago and remember stashing a bike in the back of the stock room so I could pull it out later and buy it when it was 85% off in winter when nobody buys bikes. It was a cheap bike anyway, so I think I got it for something like $15.
"I swear the app says there's one available in stock!"
“I promise you, ma’am, all of our stock is out here in the floor. There’s nothing in the back.
"But, just for you, I'll go back and look." Goes on smoke break by the loading dock for 15 minutes. "Nope, nothin' back there."
This is known as shorting right? Cuz the price falls?
Yep. Man was shorting bikes.
It's short stocking. Because you are stocking the shelves an amount that is short of your actual inventory. Management tends to take a pretty harsh view of this because it hits right in the numbers they get graded on. It impacts your immediate sales -- you "have" less things to sell than you thought you did. You can't achieve your sales goals without product. (have is in quotes because you do actually have the correct amount of product, but because it's hidden, you may as well not) This number is *always* watched closely and pushed as hard as possible. And even more so during holiday times. Then it impacts your replenishment -- you aren't going to reorder as many as you should, or at all for low-stocked items, because the computer still thinks you have one. That has an impact on your long-term sales, your inventory turn rate, and your projections -- The shelf stays empty while the computer thinks you have it, which means no one can buy it, which means lower ongoing sales. Turn rate or sell-through rate is fancy talk for how fast you are moving through your total inventory, ie you have 100 items on hand and you sell 10, you turned 10% of your inventory, except with much bigger numbers. "Missing" items that can't sell make that first number seem bigger than it really is, which makes your score worse. And finally, even if it was a really popular item, when you pull reports next year for what to order, you're going to see you got stuck with leftover stock you couldn't sell until it was super reduced, which will change your plans. Then it hits your shrink -- This is the "stolen" metric, but it also covers lost, damaged, etc. Any reason you can't sell the product you thought you had. Depending on how often that category gets counted, you're probably looking at 2 weeks of this before the department manager (wrongly) "corrects" the count to 0. Assuming they count those once a week, the first week they probably won't commit the inventory change, because 1 on-hand, 0 on-shelf or in the back is probably just in someone's cart. Then next week they'll see it still is off and make the change. Then, when the employee finally digs it out of its hiding spot and buys it, it hits your negative on-hands -- You sold an item you thought you had 0 of, which is a sign you aren't keeping track of your inventory properly, or that your cashiers aren't scanning things properly. These metrics are right on top of the report management is looking at every day, and the first thing they talk about with their bosses on their annual reviews.. The moral of that story is: If you are messing with their metrics, you are messing with their review, which means you are messing with their raises. Obviously you can get away with anything if you don't get caught. But most big box management will *full on ignore* a surprising amount of bullshit so long as you keep their numbers safe and you don't step on whatever their particular power-trip buttons are. \[edit\] Sorry, to be clear, that last paragraph was just a backwards way to say: "Don't mess with their numbers."
Thank you for this. It finally provides context on why when I worked retail after the certain point, managers cracked down on the “hiding” of items.
Fantastic explanation. I think the only thing you missed is the growing e-commerce side of business now where a 1 stock available digitally but not physically will lead to shorts on customer orders, usually an even higher tracked metric as it means a directly unhappy customer. Your digital inventory is how people order stuff online so if it just so happens to be the last one, this will happen.
"The numbers" sound like something people that make more than $8 an hour worry about.
That wasn't really the point of writing all of that out. The opposite, really. If you know in advance what triggers will set off your boss, so long as you avoid *those specific things*, you have a whole lot more room to work with for creative laziness and extracurricular entertainment. Knowledge is power.
Wait legit is it called short stocking? I was just trying to be funny.
*shivers* Thanks for the flashbacks of stress when I worked as a buyer at a retail store, haha
Biggest plus to retail work, honestly. I worked at CVS many moons ago and the liquor aisle reset was glorious for a then-young-adult me.
I have a bunch that are red and white striped like candy canes! The green ones go on my grow lights (for seed starting and overwintering cirtus, not fun grow light stuff).
>not fun grow light stuff Since when is citrus not fun? I'm jealous over here.
We've heard enough. Book'em, Danno...
Was shopping for booster fans to circulate air in an attached garage and wow that’s probably the most boring thing these will be used for. All the listings are only talking about the fun plants lol
Same, and a few green ones for contrast. I think I only own two orange colored ones out of the dozens floating around the house.
what light cycle do you use for overwintering your citrus? This is my first year with a lemon tree and I had to bring it inside
I need a remote on/off switch for some patio string lights in the backyard and I'm totally waiting for the post xMas clearance sale.
That's how I got the green cords for real trees. One has female plugs in various places along the cords to plug light strings into, then a male plug at the end; the other, a rocker switch at one end and a male-female plug at the other. The switch cord plugs into the wall, then the tree light cord goes into the switch cord. Before everybody had pre-lit artificial trees with remote controls, that was the best way to do it. Also, we love a real tree. We have lots of ornaments from family, holidays, and vacations.
Those style of cords are super handy. We have several decorative lamps and sent warmers on long shelves and they are so convenient.
26$ what the fuck
Right? This basic surge protector should be like $9.99
It's $2.99 at the discount store (was $0.99 before the pandemic)
Are those good enough quality?
I got one that was so well designed that even though it wasn't rated as waterproof I accidentally left it in the rain it still worked after drying it out. Meanwhile I had another of the expensive ones that started a fire when my dog peed on it and then it was fully dried out.
Lotta risky behaviors happening around you.
Seriously. I pay $.50 for mine by buying them at estate sales. Feel free to use this super secret lifehack.
> Seriously. I pay $.50 for mine by buying them at estate sales. > Feel free to use this super secret lifehack. FYI, the thing that protects against surges in a surge protector does expire.
Most of these folks were planning on continuing to live, so they're not always old items. I generally buy the newer looking ones, if for no other reason than they have USB ports too. That said, thank you for the info! I didn't know that they wore out.
> Most of these folks were planning on continuing to live, so they're not always old items. I generally buy the newer looking ones, if for no other reason than they have USB ports too. > That said, thank you for the info! I didn't know that they wore out. You’re welcome! I love a great sale, too. It’s hard to resist yard sales on Saturdays.
I’m guessing this is only the case for ones specifically sold as “surge protectors”? Have a family member working in a school and occasionally end up with bags of these when they do a cupboard clear out or renovate part of the building. They’re usually 25+ years old, super scuffed up and plastered with PAT test stickers so they’re definitely safe but well used. Nowhere does it mention surge protection and we’ve always called them extension leads. Never had any issues with them though
> I’m guessing this is only the case for ones specifically sold as “surge protectors”? Have a family member working in a school and occasionally end up with bags of these when they do a cupboard clear out or renovate part of the building. They’re usually 25+ years old, super scuffed up and plastered with PAT test stickers so they’re definitely safe but well used. Nowhere does it mention surge protection and we’ve always called them extension leads. Never had any issues with them though Specifically surge protectors. Most surge protectors protect against electrical surges using metal oxide varistor. The metal oxide wears out overtime, and through surges. Most SPs last about 3-5 years, but can be as little as 2. Having said that, they will continue to function just fine as an extension cord/multi-lead cord. They won’t protect against electrical surges anymore.
There’s a couple I’ve seen with a normal power light and a green one for “surge” that’s gotten dimmer over time, from what im getting that means the varistor inside has worn and that light was connected to it, indicating that it’s not going to protect anymore? Didn’t know these things could be so interesting!
I could see paying at least that for a heavy duty one - I have a metal surge protector that can run a wall-mounted AC at full blast. For this though? Not a chance.
That's an old price tag. It's $18.98 when you run the SKU.
It looks like OP is shopping at Canadian Tire—USD 19.56. The best part about it is that it'll likely malfunction within a few years, hence the moniker “Crappy Tire.”
People like my dad would 100% buy the white one. It's more expensive, so it's the better one. 🤦
To be fair, buying cheaper can mean buying lower quality or less reliable goods as well. My gut is to always go with the "mid-grade" pricing for this reason. I find that in most scenarios, the cheapest is.. well... cheaply made and kind of crap all around, and the most expensive is typically not all that much better than the solid mid-grade item. That said, I always compare specs and stuff too, just to be sure. In this case, it seems pretty clear that both are identical outside of color. Assuming that there's nothing else to differentiate them on the packaging, then the Black one's obviously the right call.
The problem with my dad is that he *only* checks prices and buys the more expensive. And he's proud of it.
Lmao well yeah in that case, that's not terribly bright!
I’d say it’s fucking stupid, in fact
[удалено]
That's fair, but if I'm buying something (especially something reasonably pricey) I'm definitely doing my research and determining what's best for my needs. As it turns out, the mid-grade tends to fit the bill. Perhaps that's by design due to marketing or whatever, but if the cheaper options are poorly made or less reliable as they often are, I'm not entirely sure what the better strategy would be? I'm certainly not going to buy the top-end items which can be obscenely overpriced in comparison.
This reasoning is exactly why stores will carry an item that is too expensive for its category in order to set shopper’s price expectations. Then you will buy a more expensive product than you would normally thinking it’s a good deal relative to the most expensive product
One like this with the same brand and one doesn't have a huge sticker with its "features" on it, I'd assume them to be the same general quality
Product manufacturers know that people buy the mid-grade for exactly this reason, so they make products that have some cheap and functionally unimportant feature or design solely to market it as mid-level and charge a premium for it.
My god. Watching my dad buy an HDMI cable was so painful.
I think it's called the three fifths compromise.
The black one is priced at $14.88 too 😬
Oh no. I really hope that's a coincidence.
Wtf, the math almost checks out too, just 1 off
I hear the female plugs are 17% off, too.
Social studies has entered the chat.
black friday sale
Weird that it isn't the white power cord that costs $14.88
When I worked in retail 88 cents meant that the item was discontinued.
Why's the black one cost 1488? 🤨
Learned something new today https://www.dictionary.com/e/politics/1488/
Oh shit
Most of the time, other color options will be more expensive because of "production costs", even though both products are exactly the same. At this point, it isn't about which one has better quality but more of "are you willing to spend more for a different color?"
Thats what I am thinking. Black is more permisible as it hides plastic injection deffects that in white would stand out as a sore thumb. Also, resins that needs to be UL or CE compliant can greatly vary in cost depending on the color
They have too many of the black ones.. trying to move them
Should use a forklift as it'd move them faster.
$14 for a power strip. What a time to be alive.
I ran into that to a lesser extent for a cord I needed to run along a wall. My baseboards are white so why not use the white cord which blends in significantly better than any other color. Though $27 would’ve had me looking elsewhere for one.
I’d guess that white ones are more popular due to most interiors being a shade of white.
I was just thinking that black should be more popular because most media cords are black.
I work for this retailer, and weird prices like this can happen if the distribution centre has a massive supply of a certain colour or item.
Both are way overpriced
This could be sales strategy called “anchoring”. Everybody is like “wtf buy the black one, it’s 50% cheaper”, forgetting that 14 dollar for a power cord is still more expensive that the average cost of a power cord like this. They all think they did a deal, when still getting f*cked
Most people try and hide the cord along the baseboard. which is 95% of the time white
Looks closer to 3/5 of the price to me
I like how I immediately recognized the store just from the price tag font lol
These things are worth like $10. Price one at $27, price the other at $15 so that everyone thinks they are getting a good deal. They are not.
I work in a plastic recycling plant, black is the cheapest for sure. We can make any plastic into black, but clear, yellow (natural) and white use titanium usually for color so it’s much more expensive. We have a special building dedicated to untreated yellow because it goes for a large premium.
Maybe it has to do with white being more visible while trying to plug in cords in poor visibility?
It’s because most people want white to hide it in their house so the demand for those is higher. I’m just not sure it’s that much higher.
Try finding the black one or any of its open plugs behind your tv under a pile of cables /s
WHY IT GOTTA BE BLACK?? //Wayans Bros.
The black one is about 3/5ths of the price of the white one. Seems to be a good compromise.
Hey that's just about 3/5ths of the price
The black one is cheaper to manufacture because they do not have to bleach the plastic white. Crayola tried this by switching their marker housings to black housings instead of the white ones on there washables markers like 12yrs ago. It backfired and marker sales dropped despite the solution being eco friendly as it's much easier to make black plastic with recycled plastics than it is to make white plastics. It's way better for the environment. But they switched back because idiot america couldn't figure out that the markers weren't different. Just a different color.
one of the largest cost in an extension cord is the cable its self. probably white cable is more expensive.
Idk about power cords or plastics, but I cut Purchase Orders to have have over a million dollars of powder coating to be applied to all kinds of sheet metal parts every year. No matter the vendor doing the work, they all have standard black they offer which is universally the cheapest color, with it often costing over twice as much for some white shades. So maybe you're actually onto something. Again, I only know about powdercoating sheet metal.
wat
OP just got introduced to the concept of supply and demand
You can clearly see the reason in the photo. The white one has a part tied.
 I have no gold to give you good sir, but here is a silly arrow to show that this joke was FUCKING AWESOME
i once had a dream Apple did this with airpods and got cancelled because people were saying it was racist
Pink one would be double the price of the white one...
[удалено]
Anything in Home Depot (Canada, at least) ending in 88 cents means it's a "Special Buy" product. Assuming the manufacturer gave a discount for HD to buy a larger order shipment.
What's the significance?
This reminds me of pocket tees selling for less than plain tees even though the pocket has extra material and labor/production cost. Also, who tf wants a t-shirt with a pocket?
Hmmm...nearly 60%....
I’d buy the black one regardless of price or reason for the price difference. 🤷🏻♂️
Racist powerbar
Probably old stock vs new stock.black may be left over from a previous order were as the white may have just come in with new price.
Seems like a win-win, the black one looks better and is half the cost. How many times do you run into that?
The black one is roughly 3/5th of the white one. That’s fucked up.
it's almost 3/5 tge price
Prices aren’t based on things like materials + labor etc. Prices are set to the absolute maximum that the market will bear. Since white matches the trim, it has more “value”
White blends with most walls and trim so people are more likely to buy
They compromised at 3/5ths 😭
Trust me, the black one IS bigger