Worse on Purpose – How Corporate Greed Killed Product Quality

Post by GitPushOrigin » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

GeoAtreides wrote: post #97

bsenftner wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a little research study back in 2003 where I went to various grocers and purchased the same product at these grocers and compared. Walmart has larger boxes, and less contents, universally, for pretty much everything in a box, and they charge 1/3 more for their 2/3rds of what you get everywhere else. They make nearly 50% more profit from that little slight of hand. And try discussing this with any shoppers and t…

>Walmart has larger boxes, and less contents in EU labels must show prices per kilogram of product, to make this kind of fuckery harder

Post by NorthernWind » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 8:30 PM UTC

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #91

bsenftner wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a little research study back in 2003 where I went to various grocers and purchased the same product at these grocers and compared. Walmart has larger boxes, and less contents, universally, for pretty much everything in a box, and they charge 1/3 more for their 2/3rds of what you get everywhere else. They make nearly 50% more profit from that little slight of hand. And try discussing this with any shoppers and t…

And a ridiculously high percentage of the time markdown prices on the shelves at Walmart are not reflected at checkout. Happened to me just this weekend. Walmart, one of the largest companies in the USA, whose job is to sell items, can't do the basics of keeping pricing/signage in sync? BS.

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #90

pjc50 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you start with a $3000 loss per month This is a question of access to capital. Since we're all on the VC site we should understand how that works; for things like that it's very important to get "angel" investors who are comfortable putting in less-than-six-figures to get a product to the stage where it is proven for bigger investors. I'm glad that everyone's quoting Market for Lemons now, but it doesn't quite a…

Why would a capitalist fund something that will obviously not make money, like a random Finnish dude's operating system, when there's already Microsoft Windows?

Post by pseudohadamard » Fri, Jul 24, 2026, 6:21 AM UTC

xnx wrote: post #23

This entire site can be boiled down to: products get decrease in quality when customers don't know or don't care what quality is. Price is a clear and obvious thing to measure, quality is much more difficult. Consumers get little or no formal education in quality, and advertisements (and even review sites!) almost never address it properly. Any review site that is paid for by ads or affiliate links has the default po…

Post by MrMember » Fri, Jul 24, 2026, 10:39 AM UTC

eszed wrote: post #92

anal_reactor wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I've heard of this effect in marketing. If you make any reference to Switzerland, it's instant sales bump, even if you hold everything else equal. This is also how you got "Häagen-Dazs" ice cream brand. It's fully American, but the name sounds vaguely Scandinavian, so it has to be better, right? Well, customers sure do think so, and are willing to pay the premium.

Not challenging your marketing presumption; I've noticed, and seen pointed out, the same thing. As a side note, years ago Häagen-Dazs was better (high milk-fat, etc) than the other widely-available brands. It's now owned by Nestlé, so I don't buy it anymore. How much has it been enshittified?