# Slides 05.12: Comparing the Same Item Across Stores, Secondhand, and Online Lesson 5.12, two days (days 131 and 132). Slides 1 to 12 are Day 1. Slides 13 to 18 are Day 2. All prices marked [update]. * * * ## Slide 1: Day 1. Do now - Four sweatshirts are on the table. - Write what you think each one cost. A, B, C, D. - Then circle the one you would buy. - Two minutes. Notes: take four guesses out loud and write the spread on the board. Then the hook: one of these cost four dollars more than another and will last three times as long, and nobody can tell which from here. Image: four hooded sweatshirts hanging in a row with blank price tags. ## Slide 2: Day 1. Four kinds of places - Discount store - Mall brand store - Secondhand shop - Online marketplace - Same item. Four prices. Four different levels of quality. Image: four small icons in a row: a big-box aisle, a mall storefront, a thrift rack, a phone screen with a listing. ## Slide 3: Day 1. Discount store and mall brand - **Discount store.** Lowest tag price. Available today. Easy free returns. - Risk: thinner fabric, fewer stitches per inch, single-needle seams, narrow size range. - **Mall brand.** Better construction. Wider sizes. Free returns. You can try it on. - Risk: you pay for the brand and the store, so the same quality costs more. ## Slide 4: Day 1. Secondhand shop - Best quality for the price. Often heavier fabric than a new discount item. - Keeps a garment in use instead of in a landfill. - You can inspect it in your hands before you pay. - Risk: one size only. Sold as-is. No returns. May have a flaw or hidden wear. - Risk: it will not be there tomorrow. Image: a rack of used sweatshirts with handwritten price tags. ## Slide 5: Day 1. Online marketplace - Widest choice. Often the lowest listed price. - Risk: you cannot touch it. - Risk: shipping and returns cost money. - Risk: sizing is a guess from a chart. - Risk: you wait. Sometimes weeks. Notes: hold up the shipping bag here but do not open it yet. Step 3 opens it. ## Slide 6: Day 1. Quality check 1: seam strength - Hold the fabric on both sides of a seam. - Pull gently sideways. - Look for gaps, loose thread, or the seam opening. - Good: nothing moves, no thread shows. Notes: demonstrate on garment A for ten seconds. Pull gently. Say "gently" twice. Image: two hands pulling a seam apart slightly, close up, with a small gap visible. ## Slide 7: Day 1. Quality check 2: fabric weight - Hold it up to the light against a white card. - Heavier fabric blocks more light. - Feel the weight in your hand. - Good: for a sweatshirt, about 9 ounces or more is heavy. Image: a flashlight behind a thin fleece, light coming through, next to a heavy fleece blocking it. ## Slide 8: Day 1. Quality check 3: stitch density - Lay the ruler on a seam. Count the stitches in one inch. - 8 per inch is low. - 10 to 12 per inch holds. - Count the seam that holds the garment together, not the decorative topstitching. Notes: this is the mistake every class makes. Show both seams on garment A and name the difference before the rotation starts. Image: a ruler laid along a seam with individual stitches visible. ## Slide 9: Day 1. Quality check 4: read the label - Fiber content, with percentages - Care instructions - Country of manufacture - Is there a brand label at all? - No percentages means you do not know what you are buying. Image: a garment care label with fiber percentages and wash symbols. ## Slide 10: Day 1. The hidden costs of buying online - Listed price $9.99 [update] - Plus shipping $______ - Plus sales tax $______ - **What you actually paid $______** - If it does not fit: return shipping $______ - Days you waited: ______ - The five hidden costs: shipping, return shipping, a restocking or return fee, sizing risk, time. Notes: pass the shipping bag and the packing slip. Build the landed cost on the board from the real slip. Ask: the listing said $9.99. What did it cost to get one that fits? ## Slide 11: Day 1. The reveal - Garment A: $______ , ______________________ - Garment B: $______ , ______________________ - Garment C: $______ , ______________________ - Garment D: $______ , ______________________ - Compare to the guesses on the board. Notes: [Sal: fill in your four real prices and vendor types.] Ask which garment scored best on stitch density and whether that matched its price. Usually it did not. ## Slide 12: Day 1. Exit card - 3 quality checks you can now run on a garment - 2 hidden costs of buying clothes online - 1 question you still have about where to buy clothes Notes: two students read one line. Sort the cards. A big "needs more" pile means Day 2 opens with 90 seconds on stitch density. ## Slide 13: Day 2. Do now - Yesterday you counted stitches per inch. - Which of the four sweatshirts would you buy for a little cousin who is about to grow two inches? Why? - One sentence. Notes: take two answers. Hook: today the buyer is not you. You get a buyer, eight items, and ten minutes to make a recommendation you can defend. ## Slide 14: Day 2. The task and the rules - Your station gets one buyer card and one spec sheet of eight items. - Your recommendation must name: - one item, and the total your buyer pays including shipping and tax - two quality checks that support the choice - one hidden cost you accepted or avoided - the second-best item, and why it lost - Everybody at the station signs the poster. Notes: have them read the buyer card out loud at the station and underline the three limits: money, time, size. ## Slide 15: Day 2. The poster template - OUR BUYER IS: - WE RECOMMEND ITEM: - TOTAL THE BUYER PAYS: $______ - QUALITY REASON 1: - QUALITY REASON 2: - ONE HIDDEN COST WE ACCEPTED OR AVOIDED: - SECOND BEST, AND WHY IT LOST: ## Slide 16: Day 2. Sentence frames - We recommend item ___ for ___ because ___. - The total is $___ , under the buyer's limit of $___ . - Item ___ has ___ stitches per inch and ___ seams, which means ___. - We avoided the hidden cost of ___ by ___. - Item ___ lost because ___. ## Slide 17: Day 2. Defend it - 90 seconds to present. - 90 seconds of questions from the other two stations, plus one from me. - Write your questions for the other stations before they present. - My question may be the hard one. Notes: ask at least one station: your buyer needs it Monday, your item ships in 12 to 20 days, answer that. ## Slide 18: Day 2. Closure - The item I recommended was ______. - If my buyer had twice the money, I would have said ______ instead, because ______. - Turn in the handout and the poster. Notes: three students read. These lines come back out in Lesson 5.14 Day 2, where each student builds a comparison alone.