Has anyone else noticed how much more expensive abdl diapers seem to be in the US? For example, with tykables they are $40 per pack of ten, while in the UK they are only £20 including tax (about $24). Just wondering if anyone has any idea as to why there is such a gigantic difference in pricing.
Best guess… Because Americans are willing to pay more. The market will bear what the market will bear.
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There are differences in wage structures (US minimum wage is often higher than UK) and shipping costs.
US wages are generally higher, but in my experience, short of really expensive places almost every comparable items is cheaper in the US, from cars, to groceries.
I believe the many of the ABDL diapers are produced in China? Perhaps it has something to do with tariffs and trade?
Presumably market size is a big part of it, so economies of scale at play. US has much larger population, so manufacturing and shipment will be on a larger scale, therefore have a lower unit cost. Also currency differences at play - I’d imagine bulk manufacturing in China is priced in USD as reserve currency, and shipping costs certainly will be, so distributors in UK would be subject to additional exchange impacts to bring in smaller volumes of products. All of that means more costs to recover, so retail price increases accordingly.
If products were being priced in USD, converting them to GBP would mean prices in the UK would be higher right? Also, I get the point about economy of scale and distribution, and while that’d normally make sense, the USA is just too big for that kind of scale to influence price, if distribution was costed in products in the USA can conceivably cost more because distribution needs to cover a much larger area, I’m not knowledgeable on supply chain though.
In both cases, I believe the post is about products being less expensive in the UK?
Who’s dumb enough to pay $4 per disposable diaper? Hmmm, a lot of Americans are pretty dumb.
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You’re right, I was reading it back to front! Teach me not to skim read. Hah! Distribution costs in the US would be more I suppose, just by virtue of size, so any scale benefit would be offset. Not sure if there would be any local sales taxes in the US either?
Sales tax would normally be higher in UK than the US, in this case diapers in the UK are sold tax free, not sure if the US applies sales tax to diapers, plus local sales tax in the US differ by state, so my understanding if that prices are usually listed before local sales tax.
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I’ve often wondered this myself. I’ve travelled to a lot of different countries and UK has the cheapest diaper prices (even though everything else seems to be more expensive) than anywhere I’ve been. I’m talking about medical diapers like Tena, Attends, iDslip, etc., I don’t buy AB diapers. My only guess is that as a medical product they might be subsidized in UK? I know that they are at least VAT exempt.
Over here in the UK, nappies (diapers) are exempt from VAT. (Value added tax, which is like sales tax in the USA.) Maybe import taxes on diapers made overseas makes a difference as well.
My understanding is that adult nappies are only exempt from tax if you have a medical need for them. Products on NappiesRUs for example definitely include VAT normally. If you ask for an exemption without a medical need then that’s tax fraud.
Going back to the original question, I think most of the main possible reasons have been mentioned; market demand, shipping & distribution costs, import tariffs etc.
Well you should see shipping to my country in singapore , it is like buying gold lol , $70 to $80 which is about USD50 or GBP43.
I didn’t know thanks.
I’m guessing the majority of the price difference is in shipping
Have you ever tried to ship a pack or two of Diapers?
Have you ever tried to ship a case?
Shipping small quantities is very close to the same cost as shipping much higher quantities
If I ship a couple packs I’m probably over $20 for shipping, but if I made that a case its probably $35-$40, for 4 times as many Diapers
That’s why it always makes much more sense to buy a case at a time, so you dont spend $400 on a case by doing more small orders when you could spend $200 on the same case if you order it all at once
Judging by elections, I’d say more than half of us.
(NOTE: I HATE (actually DESPISE/DETEST and any other synonym that fits) politics. This is a statement about people who choose to NOT VOTE! DO NOT Flame me for you thinking I’m against one side or the other. I’m not dumb enough to open that pandora’s box!)
BTW…we’re also the home of the $100,000.00 +++ SUV, pick-up truck… NO CLUE how the hell working class people afford them (actually I do but that’s neither here nor there…DEBT!) but every single day I see someone I know in a vehicle that cost more than I paid for my house in '96!
I’m would 100% guess it would be shipping. UK with royal mail makes it’s shipping market really competitive. Alongside supermarkets being hyper competitive which likely with medical diaper’s are cheaper.