What do businesses do during a recession? Try to stay in business.
On of the first tactics we see is shops trying to print as cheaply as possible in an attempt to get the price sensitive customers. This is all well and good in a free market, but who suffers from underpricing? I think both the shop and the customer will pay the price for underpricing.
1) the shop - They cut their prices. Now they need to bring in a lot more of these low margin jobs just in order to pay the bills. They cannot afford highly experienced press operators. They have to work quickly to get these jobs out the door and onto the next print so they may cut corners and miss some quality issues. What happens when they mess up a large volume job? Having to replace 50,000 shirts could easily put a number of shops out of business.
2) the customer - When going for the cheapest price, customers will likely be prepared for prints that are inferior quality, but they may not be prepared to see that their shirts look like garbage when they arrive. Their brand identity suffers and they lose customers. If they decide to complain and ask for a refund or reprint, it may just not happen with the price-slashing shops. With such low margins they just can’t afford to be accountable.
It is so cliche, but in this industry you really get what you pay for. . .
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