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Comment by remcob | Hacker News Reader

Ikea, at least at the time, had very affordable fridges with A++ and A+++ energy certification. I trusted the energy certification, and assumed name-brands had no significant advantage over white-labeled (since it's all Chinese import anyway). It lasted a at least decade till I sold it to the next tenant (at a profit ;)).

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Interesting, thanks.

We have a small fridge in our small kitchen which will need replacing soon as the door has gone rusty underneath and the seal is beginning to go.

It used to be a standard size of fridge but they're all wider and deeper now (maybe to allow thicker walls for better efficiency - the internal dimensions are often no bigger) and we can't find a name brand model to fit in the space, only cheap budget brands. So it's good to know that a cheap fridge can be just as good.

Meanwhile, our other name brand white goods have needed replacing after 2-3 years each. It's impossible to find anything with a decent warranty. Strange to remember that my parents' fridge, cooker, washer, drier when I was a teenager were all older than me.

Ikea also has a 5 year warranty on their electrical appliances.

actually big appliances don't make that much sense to build in China and import... because they're big. there are quite a few factories on EU territory for this reason. always worth checking.

The cost of moving things like fridges is almost entirely in the last few miles. Shipping heavy things is really, really cheap (in bulk).

i understand that it's not about weight but volume/footprint and by correlation time from factory to warehouse to shop/customer. having factory on the same continent cuts your supply chain response time by months which means you can allocate floor area better.

OTOH i don't sell fridges, so that's all just thinking aloud :)

Still, Poland is a major production hub for heavy appliances (fridges, washers, dishwashers).

Well, maybe they're actually simply competitive ;-). And don't forget that factories cost a lot, as does training personnel - so if poland happened to have a stable enough climate and rules that don't scare away investors, then than might well compensate for a higher hourly wage (and in any case, wages in china aren't exactly what they were 20 years ago!). Finally, I'm not sure what kind of tariffs and bureaucratic issues there are - some perhaps overhead; but some to ensure product safety and standardization - but that too means importing has some extra costs.

I'm totally no expert, but any or all of that sounds more plausible than shipping cost issues; I did some quick googling and rough guesstimation (40ft container fits 67 cubic meters, so say 33000$ of goods, at around 1000$ to ship from shanghai to rotterdam), and I guess it's no more than a 3% surcharge; possibly less if you consider I bet I didn't find the best deals. It's not nothing, but neither is it particularly shocking (and you might save on trucking costs because you can pick the port and that port is likely particularly well connected).

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