Especially in the current market though, profits are increased through numerous different levers. For awhile, it was price price price, and the lowest won. This

Especially in the current market though, profits are increased through numerous different levers. For awhile, it was price price price, and the lowest won. This built the Chinese outsourcing manufacturing engines and the Walmart stores, and now Amazon is eating them in the same way. Now however it's becoming more fashionable to not simply have the cheapest price, but to have things like socially responsible sourcing of products (coffee especially does this), low friction purchasing processes and easy returns (Amazon), companies that make note of being produced in the same country, companies that make efforts to take care of their own staff making it more palatable to pay more to ensure the people making what you consume are paid living wages, or subscription convenience allow products that are technically higher priced to compete in the market much more effectively than previous years. I.e. the drumbeat of the last few decades, where employees are paid the bare minimum possible, where corners are cut at every aspect, where service and quality take a backseat to just the lowest possible price, are going out of fashion. The rules of the game are changing, and so the players must also change.