Was Marc & Lori's deal 5% each or 2,5% each? If it's 2,5% each like I suspect, what the actual ****?

Their risk mitigation of doubling their equity isn't worth that much if the untested product doesn't take off? The $1 royalty is basicly worthless too right? Less than 1% extra equity?

Outside of that I don't really see the big vision for this product. The easy to open thing isn't that special for me, all the stuff I could possibly need to have access to while travelling I put in my wallet or if it doesn't fit I take along a smaller hand luggage case? Do people really put their passports or documents or whatever in their main luggage bag?

The weight thing is nice but putting your luggage case on the weight scale isn't that difficult. Not a feature I would pay a prenium for

The battery thing is very nice but I'm fairly certain I've seen that before.

Finally, I really am not going to look around too much when looking to buy luggage and I'm fairly certain most people are like that, so they will need to somehow get massive recognition in the industry to reach a significant % of potential customers.

I assume it's bad editting because Marc & Lori are obv smarter than me, but I don't think I've been shocked more by a deal being closed than this. Very curious whether this made it past due diligence. Their FB page indicates that it did but no clear proof to be found (by me).

By the way, that old people handbag knitting company, how is that legal? They were paid $17 per bag and they can make 3 bags a week. That is far below US minimum wage right? Not from USA so maybe this is a stupid question . The idea itsself was interesting because people love to spend money on that type of ****.


Overall best episode in weeks imo.

A cool feature of Trunkster is the GPS feature. Pretty cool imo.

They didn't say how long it took them to make them(I don't think they are working all day obv), but I thought they would all instantly be turned down because of the potential "OMG OLD PEOPLE LABOR" concerns down the road. Can you imagine the local news interviewing one of those old ladies and her saying she's been working off the clock to keep up with production because she didn't know what else to do? Seems inevitable.

I also thought they must have huge concerns with quality control, but I don't know much about knitting or having 92 year old women do detailed work like that so maybe I'm not giving them enough credit.

Instead they praised it. Oh well.

There's absolutely nothing controversial about it. There is no clock. It's called piece work. Nobody's holding a gun to their head. Those old folks might hold one to yours if you tried to take this away from them, though.

I don't know how to nit ( ) but nitting is very time intensive. Would be surprised if it took less than 7-8 hours to nit one. Though I think they are not targetting old people that need the money but more old people that are bored. The money is more of a gesture. Doesn't mean that your scenario can't happen with them getting negative press due to underpaying someone who needs the money, and imo it is something to consider.

How is it not controversial when their effective hourly rate is ridiculously low? Are they not employees of the business? Why is there even minimum wage legislation if you could bypass it with a system like piece work? It's not because people are happy to do something that they can't be being exploited.

They are hired as independent contractors, not employees. There is no minimum wage. This is not new, nor is it an uncommon practice.

Republicans must run an awful lot of states. By "an awful lot," I mean something like fifty.

Read my edited post, please.

You should really stop now.

As an independent contractor, you can go write an article and earn less than minimum wage, right now, from any of the fifty states, afaik.

I have no idea what this has to do with anyone's political affiliation. Independent contractor. Look it up.

There is Zero chance a Shark will put their name on a contract that uses Senior Citizen sweat shop labor.

That is true. Good thing that's not what's happening here. You would think their reaction to the concept might have clued you in to that.

Yeah because..

A) We really know exactly how the negotiation went based off of the like 5 minutes worth of ridiculously heavily edited info we saw.

and

B) We know if this deal ended up going through in the end.

Obviously the whole independent contractor thing makes it "legal" to do what she's doing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to be a PR nightmare.

Oh, come the **** on. I don't care how it was edited. It was crystal clear that every one of them was fawning over the idea of giving these olds something productive to do. I don't need to know if a deal went through to see that. This would have been the first time in Shark Tank history that someone showed up with an idea that the sharks felt was unethical or immoral and they didn't trash or it or their objections were edited out.

independent. contractor.

It's like I'm talking to people from another planet or something.

Look at all of this horrible press:

http://www.hlntv.com/video/2013/04/0...siness-success

http://www.bustle.com/articles/12735...-vintage-style

http://heavy.com/news/2015/12/sarah-...odes-season-7/

http://www.inquisitr.com/2610771/sha...ing-expertise/

http://www.contracostatimes.com/brea...ure-shark-tank

http://www.marinij.com/article/NO/20...NEWS/151209869

http://www.marinscope.com/mill_valle...36c04b801.html

You guys are just completely out of touch. It's like Bizarro World. Maybe you've never set foot in a retirement home. I don't know.

The scandal will be when the first gangster old is exposed for outsourcing their production for pennies a piece.

Wonder why heater is so pro employing seniors for below minimum wages with no workers comp or healthcare benefits ???

There's a story in there befitting a Dr Phil episode.

JFC. Workers comp? Healthcare benefits? They're seniors living in retirement communities. Are you really this dense?

I wonder why you are so pro stopping seniors from doing something they clearly enjoy. I also wonder how a business concept such as this seems to be completely foreign to so many of you.

Dr Phil question to heater:

" Did you feel abandoned by your Grandparents when you were a child ? "

I assume you've realized how ridiculous your initial stance was so now you want to play it off as a joke. Nice work.

Maybe you should contact your local congressman and see if there's anything that can be done about shutting down this sweat shop.

I don't have anything against her idea, it is a great idea. However, she clearly is not in the cheap manual labour business with her idea, she clearly wants to charge a prenium for her special product with identity. Why is she being supercheap in the remuneration she offers to her employees then? The prices she mentioned was: $47 to make, retail for $225. $225 is not even close to expensive for handbags, she can easily increase that price. Even if I'm wrong on that the margins also seem pretty good, she can cut down on the margins easily.

Finally, Once again: why does the elderly people being happy with their employment have anything to do with it? That should not be the qualifying factor (or even one of the qualifying factors) for determining whether a worker is being exploited or not. Otherwise we can just import boats full of Chinese and offer them $5/hour for manual labour.

Fine. We'll have you decide for them whether or not they are being exploited. That makes more sense.

I never said I am the one who should decide. I'll give my view on some of your arguments:

Yes, giving old people that want to be productive something productive to do is a very good idea. That doesn't mean any effort to do so is not open to criticism. Imo it's also important to consider that it is a business and not a charity. These people should be considered employees, not volunteers or whatever. The shareholders are benefitting from paying ridiculously low wages to its employees. Lets for sake of argumentation translate it to an hourly wage: lets assume it translates to $3/hour. That are clearly wages that if they would be paid to "regular employees" iso "old people" would be considered as sweat shops. On what world are these employees not being exploited for money? Where do you draw the line what is OK and what is not?

What does their age have to do with anything? Do you automatically assume that because they live in a retirement community that they do not need any money? It happens all the time that people get kicked out of retirement communities because their money has dried up. Obviously ways to make money as a senior are very limited, that does not mean we should consider it acceptable for them to work at wages that would be considered slave labour for regular employees.

I am not pro stopping them from doing so. My initial question was merely why this is legal. I've come to realise that it is legal via what I can only assume is a very problematic law. I guess my new question should be is how is this kind of practice morally acceptable by any standard? Why are people cheering on people making profit from paying old people sweatshop wages? Why can't they be paid decent wages? Like I said the margins and pricing seem to suggest that there is room.



You have not convinced me that this is a practice that should be legally or morally acceptable.

Again: independent contractor. There is nothing untoward about it. I'm not on a mission to convince you of anything. You can go ahead and figure this one out on your own. Google is your friend.