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Unfortunately, as you mention, not all are high-quality. If I want good white-label vodka I go to Costco. Good white-label monitor arms apparently come from A

by hug 7y ago

Unfortunately, as you mention, not all are high-quality. If I want good white-label vodka I go to Costco. Good white-label monitor arms apparently come from AmazonBasics. Good white-label socks come from a third place. Even worse than the fact that these different classes of products are in different places is that even items in the same class from the same place are completely different quality. Costco's vodka might be fine, their whiskey might be awful. Monitor arms from amazonbasics are fine but their mic arms are garbage. There's no manufacturer of consistently very high quality consumer goods. There's not even a manufacturer I can point to and say "everything they make, even in their narrow field, is fantastic". And that sucks.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Sears used to be that, back in the day (not recently - say, maybe pre-2000). "Quality at a decent price" was their motto, and they did pretty well at it. You could by clothes, tools, appliances, and none of it would fall apart on you. They also had, perhaps not white-label brands, but their own brands. Craftsman tools were pretty solid. There might be an opening for someone to do that again. There's a cost to going to 17 places for 17 things. Even if you're online shopping and getting free delivery on everything, there's still a cost in terms of time and aggravation. It might be worth something if some business solved that. Unfortunately, I don't see anybody who would do so. Amazon would have to control quality of everything they sell (or start a premium brand that was actually premium). Sears has been irrelevant for a couple of decades, and soon will be history. Costco seems to me to have the best chance of pulling this off - their quality is reasonable-to-good on most things we've tried there, but there's a lot we haven't tried. Still, they seem to have the best handle on consistent quality out of any of the current contenders.
jjeaff 7y ago
I find Kirkland products to all be of pretty high quality. Especially the food. And you can get Kirkland socks, home goods, just about everything. Though I don't think they do electronics. There was an expose a few years ago on olive oil. Kirkland brand olive oil was one of the only brands to actually be pure olive oil. And that was comparing it to many Italian "high end" brands.
Terretta 7y ago
Since talking monitor arms and mic stands and narrow fields, how about ‘monoprice’?

by hug 7y ago

AnimalMuppet 7y ago

Sears used to be that, back in the day (not recently - say, maybe pre-2000). "Quality at a decent price" was their motto, and they did pretty well at it. You could by clothes, tools, appliances, and none of it would fall apart on you. They also had, perhaps not white-label brands, but their own brands. Craftsman tools were pretty solid. There might be an opening for someone to do that again. There's a cost to going to 17 places for 17 things. Even if you're online shopping and getting free delivery on everything, there's still a cost in terms of time and aggravation. It might be worth something if some business solved that. Unfortunately, I don't see anybody who would do so. Amazon would have to control quality of everything they sell (or start a premium brand that was actually premium). Sears has been irrelevant for a couple of decades, and soon will be history. Costco seems to me to have the best chance of pulling this off - their quality is reasonable-to-good on most things we've tried there, but there's a lot we haven't tried. Still, they seem to have the best handle on consistent quality out of any of the current contenders.

jjeaff 7y ago

I find Kirkland products to all be of pretty high quality. Especially the food. And you can get Kirkland socks, home goods, just about everything. Though I don't think they do electronics. There was an expose a few years ago on olive oil. Kirkland brand olive oil was one of the only brands to actually be pure olive oil. And that was comparing it to many Italian "high end" brands.

Terretta 7y ago

Since talking monitor arms and mic stands and narrow fields, how about ‘monoprice’?