Another shave, another nearly-faultless performance by Mssrs. Quattro and Barbasol. I still find the Barbasol less smooth than modern gels, but I'll use it until I run out.
I've discussed paying for quality several times in this blog, but so far, I haven't talked about when you can't pay for quality. What I mean is, because of the dynamics of the marketplace, sometimes you can only choose cheap.
Let me give you an example. The bench I put my TV on cost about $50 at IKEA (no IKEA hate, please; I'll probably address them sooner or later). It assembled easily, looks pretty good and has help up admirably under the assault of my children for about seven years. And I didn't want it.
When I went shopping for a bench, I wanted simple looks with solid construction. IKEA and Target offered attractive options made of particle board for well under $75. I wanted solid wood since I've found that particle board varies widely in quality. My only options for similar units made of solid wood came from places like Crate & Barrel and the laughably-named Design Within Reach for $750.
Simply put, I couldn't find anything between an order of magnitude. When it came down to it, my only option was cheap, since I wasn't going to shell out $750 for a table to hold my TV.
I've found other product categories that seem to have a high and low, but no middle. Men's dress shoes, for instance, have $99 specials and $350 (and up. Way up.) models, with few options in between. Briefcases as well seem to have a gulf between canvas, nylon and cheap leather models and the real deal.
I suspect this dynamic has evolved because manufacturers can always find a high-margin luxury market and/or a high-volume economy market but they can't always find a mid-level market. And, to be fair, the particle board bench has held up as well as I would have expected solid wood to hold up. Nevertheless, you'd think someone would seize on this opportunity already.
Maybe I'll start a line of $25 razors and see who bites.
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