4 ms·

To some degree you can get products with longer lifespans, if you look at commercial/industrial models. Sometimes you have to sacrifice fancy features though.

To some degree you can get products with longer lifespans, if you look at commercial/industrial models. Sometimes you have to sacrifice fancy features though. I think the reason consumer products mostly suck is that manufacturers have been hiding inflation by cheapening construction. Occasionally it's for weight savings, but I think keeping prices lower is the main reason. People don't realize they're getting vastly inferior products to the one they or their parents had a generation ago, until it's too late.

rollerboi 7y ago
>hiding inflation by cheapening construction So true. I've heard for years that the size of our cereal boxes/chip bags/candy bars are decreasing, ever so slightly, while the price remains the same. Reminds me of that whole frog-in-a-pot thought experiment. If you toss a frog into a pot of boiling water, it jumps back out immediately. But if you put it in a pot of room-temperature water, and slowly raise the temperature, the frog gets acclimated slowly and doesn't notice that sooner or later, he's being boiled alive.
- tomrod 7y ago
  The analogy is apt, but one must remember in the original frog experiment the frog's brain had been surgically altered. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog#Experiments_and_analysis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog#Experiments_and...
  - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
    > the frog's brain had been surgically altered. Article says removed.
    - tomrod 7y ago
      Yep. That certainly qualifies as an alteration! :) To be frank, I wasn't sure how much of the brain stem was left, but was aware of wikipedia's wording.
- kevlawrence 7y ago
  To your point, I noticed that chocolate milk cartons have decreased from 1L to 750ML, yet they kept the same price. Further, the 750ML option was not offered before, and the 1L option is not offered now, which adds to the deception.
  - squiggleblaz 7y ago
    I find it most frustrating when you go to a shop and there's two things roughly equivalent you want to buy, one of them is $2 for 200 mL and the other is $1.80 for 180 g. There's every other kind of trickery in the shops to prevent you from being able to assess the relative value of two products, to render those price comparisons redundant (like the fact that the two products are listed, one $/100 g and the other listed $/kg). I've just moved to Germany, and here it's almost impossible to buy the thing you want — they always seem to subpackage it into segments so that you have to use more than you want and therefore come back. I thought the marketplace was hostile in Australia sheesh. (But, 750 megalitres is significantly more than 750 litres.)
0xffff2 7y ago
> Sometimes you have to sacrifice fancy features though. Often times I see this as a bonus these days. My refrigerator does not need to be "smart" for example.
somacert 7y ago
Marketing tends to follow a tick-tock model. New and improved! (we made the box smaller) 25% more! (box back to normal size, price goes up.)

rollerboi 7y ago

>hiding inflation by cheapening construction So true. I've heard for years that the size of our cereal boxes/chip bags/candy bars are decreasing, ever so slightly, while the price remains the same. Reminds me of that whole frog-in-a-pot thought experiment. If you toss a frog into a pot of boiling water, it jumps back out immediately. But if you put it in a pot of room-temperature water, and slowly raise the temperature, the frog gets acclimated slowly and doesn't notice that sooner or later, he's being boiled alive.

tomrod 7y ago
The analogy is apt, but one must remember in the original frog experiment the frog's brain had been surgically altered. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog#Experiments_and_analysis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog#Experiments_and...
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  > the frog's brain had been surgically altered. Article says removed.
  - tomrod 7y ago
    Yep. That certainly qualifies as an alteration! :) To be frank, I wasn't sure how much of the brain stem was left, but was aware of wikipedia's wording.
kevlawrence 7y ago
To your point, I noticed that chocolate milk cartons have decreased from 1L to 750ML, yet they kept the same price. Further, the 750ML option was not offered before, and the 1L option is not offered now, which adds to the deception.
- squiggleblaz 7y ago
  I find it most frustrating when you go to a shop and there's two things roughly equivalent you want to buy, one of them is $2 for 200 mL and the other is $1.80 for 180 g. There's every other kind of trickery in the shops to prevent you from being able to assess the relative value of two products, to render those price comparisons redundant (like the fact that the two products are listed, one $/100 g and the other listed $/kg). I've just moved to Germany, and here it's almost impossible to buy the thing you want — they always seem to subpackage it into segments so that you have to use more than you want and therefore come back. I thought the marketplace was hostile in Australia sheesh. (But, 750 megalitres is significantly more than 750 litres.)

0xffff2 7y ago

> Sometimes you have to sacrifice fancy features though. Often times I see this as a bonus these days. My refrigerator does not need to be "smart" for example.

somacert 7y ago

Marketing tends to follow a tick-tock model. New and improved! (we made the box smaller) 25% more! (box back to normal size, price goes up.)