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Comment by code_duck | Hacker News Reader

I can answer that. It’s because when you order a four dollar bikini from China, it’s generally not the same product as one would order for $40 in the US. Merchants and wholesalers in the US have done diligence and quality assessments on their suppliers. You have no such luxury ordering from a seller on Amazon. Your only way of assessing quality is reviews and photographs, and then, the seller has essentially no liability or accountability. There are many tiers of quality for products in China, and almost always when you order a cheap one online, it is lower quality than the product you can buy for 5 to 10 times as much at a US retail store.

I’ve done small-scale importing from China for a retail business. The quality of the product you receive is generally related to whether the seller is concerned with repeat business in the future.

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I used to work in a company importing textiles and fitness equipment, so I see and do agree with your point of view. While this is true, I’d wager it doesn’t matter for a large number of consumers and their buying habits. A lot of “durable goods” are really just consumables we collectively lie to ourselves about. That bikini may be used on one trip and a new one desired for the next. Is it actually worth spending a lot of money on that article of clothing? Does the increase in quality matter if it only needs to last a few days?

I do the same with ties. If I need a specific color for a wedding party and I never plan on wearing it again, to China/Amazon I go. A single tie from my much smaller “I’m definitely going to wear this repeatedly” collection costs more than the ten others I’ve purchased from Amazon. The cheap Amazon ones are practically falling apart after two parties, but it doesn’t matter because that second party wasn’t part of the plan. My upside is saving a few hundred dollars on ties I won’t wear.

You are saying middleman doing quality control deserves 400% markup. I can easily imagine middleman who adds 25% markup to find $8 high quality bikini for total cost of $10 to consumer instead of $40 to consumer.

The core problem is rather huge currency imbalance. Anything done in US, including quality assurance, is hugely expensive. The Gap has to pay massive executive and retail employee salaries in dollars and have stores with rent in dollars. The currency imbalance benefits merchants on one side and consumers on other side.

How is this a currency imbalance? Even if they used the same currency, the cost of doing things in location A (USA) is much higher than location B (China). Same reason the production isn't in downtown Beijing either.

Chinese brands do the same QA just fine. There's nothing wrong with brands like Anker for example.

I believe you pointed out the exception, not the rule

I think it's part of a broader trend of Chinese brands competing on equal terms.

Xiaomi and Huawei make phones that are quite comparable in quality to any of the established western and Korean brands; Xiaomi also apply their brand to a lot of very good electronic stuff that's very good value - electric scooters, air purifiers, smart home equipment etc. Rigol and Aneng make consistently good test equipment at a fraction of the price of western equivalents. Japanese brands used to dominate the radio control hobby industry, but they have been almost completely displaced by Chinese brands.

Yep, there are a few great brands based in China who sell on AliExpress/Amazon, another is ugreen. Everything I've bought from them so far is high-quality gear at a great price. Just wish there was an easier way to find other brands like them, other than randomly buying stuff from diff brands and testing the products your self.

I would argue Chinese brands have probably already overtaken non-Chinese ones at this point. Many of them just aren't really available outside of China. But if you started with a blank slate today and could buy either only Chinese or western products I think the Chinese ones would be the better deal for consumer products. And not necessarily only on price. As you said Xiaomi has a very appealing ecosystem that is hard to match.

Perhaps the problem is not China in particular, but the substitution of trusting brands for trusting reviews. Great Chinese brands exist, like Anker, but people still seem to go straight for that 5-star (probably fake) lorem-ipsum-esque brand at half the price.

Distributors in China certainly know the quality they’re dealing with. If they are establishing a brand, they are seeking repeat business and a good reputation. That’s opposed to ordering unreliable labeled or generic goods from an unknown seller on Amazon who could disappear at any time, and may operate ten another store fronts. So, like the principle I concluded with, a known brand will provide a higher quality.

Totally agree here. Price is only one factor. I live in Shanghai and from time to time will buy something cheaply that isn't of great importance. Still the quality difference vs. minimally acceptable level in the US is world's apart.

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