Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
worseonpurpose.com
Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
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Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#2I've come to the conclusion this proliferates because it's very hard to start a business. If there was tons of competition the market would decide.
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#3I read years ago about a drill which was sold at Walmart with the same sku as in higher-end stores but the Walmart version had plastic gears. This was due to pricing pressure by Walmart on the manufacturer.
Me, personally, I seek out first Swiss brands then German brands when buying most things. I'm willing to pay extra.
In fact I'm a little pissed off this week because I ordered some oxygen absorbers off a Swiss website that listed a Swiss address but they were shipped directly from china. Investigating the site more closely, yeah, it's just a fake website made to look Swiss.
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#4"Worse on purpose" is just "Minimum viable product"
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#5I read years ago about a drill which was sold at Walmart with the same sku as in higher-end stores but the Walmart version had plastic gears. This was due to pricing pressure by Walmart on the manufacturer. Me, personally, I seek out first Swiss brands then German brands when buying most things. I'm willing to pay extra. In fact I'm a little pissed off this week because I ordered some oxygen absorbers off a Swiss web…
There are Chinese machine manufacturers who use fake German brand names because for a long time Germany was selling the manufacturing machinery to China and they have a good national brand image.
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#6Interesting (and very helpful!) that they keep a list of good brands. I wonder how they judge that - do they just look at ownership?
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#7I've come to the conclusion this proliferates because it's very hard to start a business. If there was tons of competition the market would decide.
The legal and regulatory obstacles to starting a business probably don't help but IMO the bigger issue is trying to break into markets that are dominated by massive global players who benefit from economies of scale and access to funding that newer companies don't have.
The other side of this is that consumers don't have the information required to properly differentiate between competitors. If I'm shopping for a new TV I have no idea where or how it is made which is why so many people default to brand names as very rough proxies for quality. That information asymmetry is exactly what websites like this are trying to combat, but it's clearly an uphill struggle.
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#8"Worse on purpose" is just "Minimum viable product"
The definition of “viable” matters
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#9"Worse on purpose" is just "Minimum viable product"
It's just crapitalism - make thing as cheap as possible and charge as much as possible.
Re: Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality
#10Incredibly depressing, but a good and important thing to read!
Not to sound overly cheerful, but shout out to my Makita DHP484 combo drill/driver and 100 piece bit set that, for a low three figure price, is far more powerful and capable than the noisy old corded monster it replaces.