Harbor Freight charges $1 extra for green extension cords instead of orange

I guess they have their use, but I dislike green extension cords. my daughter has a few of them, and she tends to leave them laying in the grass when I go over to mow her yard.

She now has a few shorter ones.

Not good for visibility, but great for blending. We use them for Christmas and Halloween so that you don't see a ton of cords about. I have to move them or weed eat around them if it rains much during those months.
- Ah that makes sense. I live in Canada, our ground is white and covered with snowdrifts that time of year.

Well the green one is only for the garden according to the label. Don’t even think about plugging it in indoors.

I plugged it indoors.

I now have a garden in my bathroom.
- I think you have to go to same prison as the people who cut the tags off their mattresses now
- That doesnt sound too bad tbh
Garden use might mean a different plastic that resists UV light better than the orange one.
- My greens ones haven't faded. The orange ones are almost white after a year outside.
Oh man, I thought about it. What happens now?

Orange is probably the bulk of the cords sold, so green is made in lower quantities and thus higher per-unit cost.

Well, green energy tends to be a bit more pricy

🤝

My guess is people who care about whether the cables blend in with their lawn are willing to pay more for them.

It's also possible they sell fewer green ones, meaning they produce fewer and don't get as much of a benefit from economies of scale.
- You’re right. This is just evidence of a modern well-run supply chain.
  
  Amazon does this better than anyone, and you’ll commonly find products available in different colors with each having a slightly different price. These prices change dynamically based on trends like historic and forecasted demand, current on hand quantities, and many other factors.
  
  Edit to add: Some more advanced brick and mortar stores (see B&H Photo in NYC) use electronic price displays in the shelving to allow them to change prices more dynamically and frequently without having to incur the labor costs of restickering and retagging product.

Theoretically it could be that the ingredient to make the coating green cost more, but most likely it's just an attempt to get more money.

Green ones are only used for decorative reasons, so the suppliers may make fewer green cords thus driving up the price.
It also could be that they want to clear the shelf space of the orange cords, and for some reason they have more of them than the green once.

But of course, the store is business and they exist to make money.
While it probably is the latter; I remember when I worked for sherwin williams, green was one of the most expensive colored pigments.

Might be a nudge to get people to default to orange and only buy green if they really want it to make their stock needs more predictable.

It actually might be related to the cost of the color of the jacketing itself. The different dyes used in plastic production have varying costs, in lots of cases.
- It's likely lower volume too, so the cost in switching brings a higher opportunity/downtime cost on smaller runs.

The ends are different also

Green dye has been on shortage for a while

Car colors are often $1000 difference.

Fun fact, this is part of the reason so many cars are silver, white, or black now. A lot of base models of cars are only available in those three colors, along with maybe red. To get a different color, you have to get an upgraded package... and there's your $1k price jump.
- I'd be happy to spend $1k more for better colors, but many new cars don't even come in any interesting colors regardless of the price.

Garden cord has a slightly thicker shielding because it is designed to be outside for extended periods.

Shame on you I’m colorblind

So, light gray is cheaper than dark gray.

They aren't the same cord, the green one is a thinner wire size and is 14 gauge, and the orange one is thicker at 12 gauge.

EDIT: Nevermind, they are the same, I saw the 12 gauge wire, not the orange 14, that's on me.

camouflage fee

I use stingers used on film sets instead. It’s more that $1 markup.

that's a bit funny but I can't think of why

Something something, going green is expensive?

In Canada, they charge 50-100% for black extension cords

In Europe red are usuallly the cheap PVC ones while black has higher quality insulation and last much longer, well worth the price difference.
I've heard it's 80% for one with just a female end

Well, green stuff usually is more expensive.

If the die costs $0.03 per km of cable they have to mark it up at the factory, which means the disty needs to mark it up, so the retailer has to mark it up.

/S

It's a $1 toll for being the kind of dipshit who cares what color an extension cord is

Green extension cords on stage are acceptable...it's close to black.

Bright orange is not.
- They are also a safety hazard. You need to put some gaffer tape over the cord so no one trips over it, and then it will be black anyway
I did not realize this would be such a divisive statement lol
- You called people dipshits simply for them having a purpose for a non-orange product.