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Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 17, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I still don't understand the economy. The volume of this can't be large - I never actually witnessed anybody buying anything, I assume that somebody does, but not that frequently. The clothes themselves seem to be pretty standard ones, similar to what I see in every store, not some junk or second hand ones, so they must cost something? How these costs are covered? How are they ensured against loss or theft? How much can they be sold for to make it viable - I mean, I can just go to the store and buy the same, so it has to be significantly cheaper than in the store, but it's not that expensive in the store already. I mean, I can buy a shirt at Costco for something like 10 bucks or less, if price is what I'm after, how much lower can they go and still be profitable on low volumes?

How are they ensured against loss or theft?

Handful of seller's cousins standing nearby, I presume.

how much lower can they go and still be profitable on low volumes?

As @2rafa said, the purchase cost of this merchandise is near zero, and so is seller's opportunity cost of labor/time.

The clothes themselves seem to be pretty standard ones, similar to what I see in every store, not some junk or second hand ones, so they must cost something? How these costs are covered? How are they ensured against loss or theft?

The answer to all of that is that those clothes cost almost nothing when you directly import them from China/Bangladesh/Vietnam. Single dollars, often cents, per item. It's all mass produced plastic garbage.

Go onto shein.com and sort cloths by "price, ascending". Bulk is even cheaper than that.

On top of this, they aren't paying taxes.