Quality Waste

Companies want you to buy stuff. But if they can help it, they want you to buy more expensive stuff.

Once upon a time, a decent television cost about three hundred dollars. Now, everyone wants you go get a large HDTV. 19 inches gave way to 21 inch to 25 inch. Once HDTV came around, the numbers went to 27 inches, 32 inches, 42 inches, 50 inches, and 60 plus inches. Indeed, 42 inches or more is pretty typical (you'd think they'd go metric just to make the number even larger!).

But other thing have gone up in price. A few years ago, Dyson came out with a vacuum cleaner that cost several hundred dollars, somewhere near 400 or 500 dollars back when 200 dollars was pricey for a vacuum cleaner.

Want to know what has gotten pricey? Simply Human made a trash bin for 100 dollars, when typical ones costs 20 dollars, tops. It was metal. It was attractive. Was it really worth 100 dollars? Probably not. But everyone else realized, well duh, they could make a 100 dollar trash can too! And they did too.

Indeed, you can now imagine anything moderately cheap and make it high quality and sell it for at least twice the price. The key? Make sure people already want it. Beds? They have beds that cost two thousand dollars or more!

Frying pans? Knives? Yup, they are pricey too!

What are things that are still pretty cheap? Hmm, well, I bought a flatware/cutlery tray. Still pretty cheap, but who buys this often? Refrigerators? Washer/dryers? Sure there's room to be more expensive. Typically, it has to look good too, so industrial design is important.

I'll tell you what I want though, and I certainly don't want it pricey. Light furniture. I bought a few bookcases from IKEA, and they weigh a ton. They had a great bookcase that was really, really light. Too bad they ditched it. The other key is being able to easily disassemble and reassemble things. Sadly, IKEA (nor anyone I know) has furniture that comes apart easily and weighs next to nothing.

Some things, I realize, people don't really want to spend more. Computers, for example. Why spend more?

But there's a few products that someone, some company is willing to jack up the price, and people are willing to get on the bandwagon and get it.