Live data from Hacker News

Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

pluralistic.net

71–80 of 213 posts

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#72
post #68
post #38

I've got three kids. We have so much crap all around the house. We buy the junk that is constantly advertised to us. We purchase from Walmart which mostly sells crap too. If we stopped for a minute and got off the social media train of consumption, and bought only high quality things, but a lot less of them, we would have a much better life and no clutter. But we don't.

Any source for better quality products? Because I have a feeling, that some things might be more expensive, but in the essence it is the same crap with better packaging. Dreaming about buying water pistol, that doesn’t break within 2 weeks. Dreaming about not instantly breaking nerf gun. About pants, that lasts more than 4 months. My list is long.

There were a theory a while back, but I still think it's mostly valid. Originally you essentially had a three tier level of quality for basically everything, clothing, food, furniture, electronics, everything. Then marketing became an issue of price, and a race to the bottom started, to keep prices low, quality suffered. Still, a few people would, and could afford the high end options. The profit margin on the extreme high end is still large enough that it's profitable to service that segment, and the volume is in the low price/quality tier, but the middle tier isn't large enough to be as profitable, so it's not worth the trouble.

Over time the market adapted to a two tier system, low quality and low prices or high quality, and high prices (sometimes high prices and low quality). The entire middle tier disappeared, to even if I wanted a slightly higher quality steak or shirt, I can't buy it, because it doesn't exists, and I'm priced out of the high quality tier.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#73

> Passing a federal privacy law would end surveillance advertising at the stroke of a pen Unlikely—breaking the laws would likely just become a business cost, and make everything even more expensive for everyone.

Of course it depends on enforcement. But individuals literally cannot solve this problem alone. That's why we have government in the first place: to level the playing field and avoid these prisoner's dilemma situations. Only an entity as powerful as the government has the resources to disincentivize surveillance advertising. If they set penalties high enough, it will not "just become a business cost."

[deleted]

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#74

I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

Fully agree. I'd pay extra for a dumb TV, but nobody is selling them.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#75
post #38

I've got three kids. We have so much crap all around the house. We buy the junk that is constantly advertised to us. We purchase from Walmart which mostly sells crap too. If we stopped for a minute and got off the social media train of consumption, and bought only high quality things, but a lot less of them, we would have a much better life and no clutter. But we don't.

Impulse purchases? As someone who is as immune to advertising as one gets, I find your post intriguing, and I feel like asking what is probably a naive question: can’t you just not buy the stuff? Where does that break down?

Because kids. It's easy enough to say "don't buy it", but the family members buy the juke, the kid comes home bawling his eyes out because everyone else has product X, and it's only $Y, so you get it, because it's been a long week, and it's really only Wednesday and you can't really deal with something valued at only $19.95 right now and just maybe it will buy you 20 minutes of peace so you can cook dinner.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#77
The best purchases(the ones I am quite grateful for) I have made, ever, are the following brands/products:

1. LLBean. Running aparell, shoes, bedcovers. 2. Apple. I still have 2012 mac books that work well after a few repairs. M1s are good. 3. Peugot pepper mill. 4. American Apparel T Shirts. 5. FoamByMail top line Luxe maximum firmness foam mattress(Queen) costing a few hundred $ (after trial and errors and $$$$ down the drain on scammy mattresses before) 6. MS One note. 7. A grandfathered T-Mobile plan that gives me upto 6 lines for 120$ max(but I use 2 lines for 90$) and 6 GB of high speed data per line. 8. Camelback hydration backpacks. 9. Watering cones from Blumat (Have lasted 8+ years of use through 1-2 weeks of vacation) https://www.blumat.com/en 10. Benq 1080p projector(~1 hour a week of watch time since 2014), we don't use a tv.

I list these because they have lasted me a lifetime time and the most use and/or money saved over time.

There is a bunch of old stuff like watches and stereo systems my mom has from Japan that are still good and working from the 1970's and 80s

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#78
post #70

FTFY: "Everything advertised is overpriced" When you buy a product that's been advertised, you also have to pay for the ad that was served to you. Ban ads!

I’m astounded how many people blindly buy name-brand advertised crap. The advertising has gone so deep that many just default to buying name brand of everything under the assumption it will be better. I do the exact opposite: store brand everything unless there’s a compelling reason.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#79
post #38

I've got three kids. We have so much crap all around the house. We buy the junk that is constantly advertised to us. We purchase from Walmart which mostly sells crap too. If we stopped for a minute and got off the social media train of consumption, and bought only high quality things, but a lot less of them, we would have a much better life and no clutter. But we don't.

Why not?

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/BaristaService365/posts/10258694519... I clicked the link and went to the website, which at the time went to sarisell.com , a professional-looking storefront (they move to a new domain and update the ad every week or two). I thought there was a pretty good chance it was a scam since this is an $800 machine supposedly selling for $300, but I figured I would be reimbursed if it was,…

It might not be the case here, but lot of these are drop ship outfits that don’t do any kind of stock check and are susceptible to whatever the actual manufacturer in China is up to. I learned about it buying a moon lamp and it taking over 6 months. When it arrived it was a lopsided 3d printed thing (isn’t that relatively expensive at any kind of scale?) I also discovered a lot of these drop shipping outlets are the…

Interesting; that could be what was going on here, although at the price I kind of doubt it. I bought one of those floating moon lamps from a facebook ad too and it came quickly and was pretty great! Guess I got lucky. Mine is not lopsided, but it's definitely a decent 3D print, looks like low-quality stereolithography or maybe some kind of jetting. It hovers about an inch over the base and spins slowly. Great conversation piece; everyone thinks it looks impossible.
Post reply on HN