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Let's make quality the norm again

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Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#151

Post by jolt42 »

chairmansteve wrote: post #148
piker wrote: post #3

While it does relate to price discovery--i.e., some folks just aren't willing to pay for an additional unit of quality at 10x--my theory is that the decline in quality is another hidden form of inflation. Thing continues to cost X even though regulations have increased costs Y, ship production to China and scrimp on the inputs. (Or have market forces do that for you.)

Problem is, you pay 10x for shirt that is made in the same factory as the cheap shiry, just has a different logo.

10x is not a likely number for quality, but for status symbol cost.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#152

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

01284a7e wrote: post #147
giancarlostoro wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games are a good example of an area where the pricing makes no sense. Inflation has risen, and they make like $20 or whatever off a brand new game in 1990s bucks. Video game prices will go up more and more, it also kind of explains to me why prices rarely drop below $59 anymore, used to be on Steam some AAA games could be snagged up for $20 after a year, now you can barely find them on reasonable sales, they ho…

Sidebar: Don't video games have ever growing competition with existing games? I decided not to buy games until I beat the ones I already have. I am now stuck on NES games and will probably be stuck for the rest of my life.

Skyrim came out in 2011 and is at this moment, the 55th highest player count on Steam. Just playing top tier single player games over the past twenty years could keep you incredibly busy.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#153

Post by jolt42 »

bluGill wrote: post #118
sholladay wrote: post #109

One big problem is that prices are easy to compare, while quality is not. I recently bought a tub that was advertised as stainless steel on Amazon. I was suspicious but decided to take a chance. Turns out it is galvanized, not stainless. I’m not sure the average person knows the difference. To be charitable, perhaps that’s even why the listing advertised it that way. But the difference matters significantly in terms…

I finally subscribed to consumer reports. It is the only independent place we can trust for that information. However they only review a subset of the things I want to buy.

I think it's interesting that very often the best rated one is typically not the most expensive (nor the cheapest for that matter).

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#154

Post by recursive »

eru wrote: post #22
PMunch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Major known brands are guilty of this too, often regardless of price. I think this is part of the problem. Everyone wants high-quality (for the most part), but no-one wants to pay more than necessary. If known brand is no longer an indicator of quality, how do you determine that you want to spend say 2-5x the price on something? Reading reviews and such gets you part of the way, but they often focus on new products…

You can look for reviewer that care about the same things you care about? > Besides, who has time to wade through reviews for every purchase? Claude does! And most purchases I make are repeat purchases, so I don't have to read the reviews again.

Claude is subject to the same enshittification market forces. Think of the value Claude could unlock by having trusted commercial partners that just happen to have the best product in a market segment.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#156

Post by ssl-3 »

bluGill wrote: post #118
sholladay wrote: post #109

One big problem is that prices are easy to compare, while quality is not. I recently bought a tub that was advertised as stainless steel on Amazon. I was suspicious but decided to take a chance. Turns out it is galvanized, not stainless. I’m not sure the average person knows the difference. To be charitable, perhaps that’s even why the listing advertised it that way. But the difference matters significantly in terms…

I finally subscribed to consumer reports. It is the only independent place we can trust for that information. However they only review a subset of the things I want to buy.

There's also rtings[1]. They test consumer products and seem to try to keep their methodology transparent and consistent.

A lot of the data they produce is paywalled, but that's alright. They don't have advertising and they buy the products that they review. Someone has to keep the lights on and put food on their tables.

[1]: https://rtings.com

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#157

Post by sershe »

Tech workers in the US are probably around 90-99 percentile wage. Take something where the quality is well known and measurable, and can be purchased for extra money. How often do you fly first class, or even pay 10-20% extra to have more legroom, early boarding or a more convenient flight times versus picking the cheapest option that you can make work?

People will demonstrably shop primarily on price no matter what... The producers respond to that.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#158

Post by xingped »

jolt42 wrote: post #150
piker wrote: post #3

While it does relate to price discovery--i.e., some folks just aren't willing to pay for an additional unit of quality at 10x--my theory is that the decline in quality is another hidden form of inflation. Thing continues to cost X even though regulations have increased costs Y, ship production to China and scrimp on the inputs. (Or have market forces do that for you.)

I think 10x is quite rare. Quality ends up actually curtailing costs to some degree (eg. fewer returns, cheaper marketing - word of mouth). Buy a Weber grill, I had 2 grills before my Weber that lasted 3 seasons between them. I bought the Weber at about 2.2x the cost of the bargain grills and 17 YEARS later it's still going strong, built like a tank. Saved a lot not buying more cheapo grills.

Yes, this is quite common and is usually referred to as "it's expensive to be poor". That said, unfortunately these days it's very difficult to know which brands are still actually quality anymore and which are the ones still coasting on previous good engineering reputation while currently shipping substandard crap to make an extra buck for the bean counters in charge before the ship sinks.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#159

Post by supertrope »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #145
piker wrote: post #3

While it does relate to price discovery--i.e., some folks just aren't willing to pay for an additional unit of quality at 10x--my theory is that the decline in quality is another hidden form of inflation. Thing continues to cost X even though regulations have increased costs Y, ship production to China and scrimp on the inputs. (Or have market forces do that for you.)

Video games are a good example of an area where the pricing makes no sense. Inflation has risen, and they make like $20 or whatever off a brand new game in 1990s bucks. Video game prices will go up more and more, it also kind of explains to me why prices rarely drop below $59 anymore, used to be on Steam some AAA games could be snagged up for $20 after a year, now you can barely find them on reasonable sales, they ho…

That's what paid day one DLC, micro-transactions, and loot boxes are for. Ways of raising the price without raising the headline price.

Re: Let's make quality the norm again

#160

Post by bluGill »

jolt42 wrote: post #153
bluGill wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally subscribed to consumer reports. It is the only independent place we can trust for that information. However they only review a subset of the things I want to buy.

I think it's interesting that very often the best rated one is typically not the most expensive (nor the cheapest for that matter).

The more interesting part is to read the full detailed reviews on why they choose that. Often the most expensive or second most expensive has some useful features that they decide are not worth the cost but I do.

I have long thought they place too much emphasis on low cost over other factors, but the fact that I can get a useful review to make informed decisions is important.

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