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I’ve always viewed it as less a discussion about any sort of real defined “quality metric” and more companies asking “what is the least amount of time, money, a

I’ve always viewed it as less a discussion about any sort of real defined “quality metric” and more companies asking “what is the least amount of time, money, and effort we can put in before people stop buying it?” Even more simply put: what is the worst version of the product that people are willing to buy?

xp84 1y ago
Yes! And because all competitors besides niche artisanal players are simultaneously playing that same exact game (or in many cases, there are 10 brands all made by 3 conglomerates), people have little chance of actually stopping buying the product even when its quality level dips to absurdity. People will “stop buying” one brand and buy another, but the root of their frustrations is identical across brands and manufacturers.
- Forgeties79 1y ago
  Yeah for a lot of stuff every vendor is making basically the same thing the same way.
ungreased0675 1y ago
There is some logic to not over-engineering a product or using more materials than necessary to produce something. I wonder why that seems to have manifested in an anti-consumer application some places.
- Forgeties79 1y ago
  $$$
- gtowey 1y ago
  I think it has to do with having no limits on executive compensation. There is no incentive to create long-term value when you can cost-optimize your brand into the garbage while creating large short term profits from which they can pay themselves outrageous bonuses. It's an easy playbook and there is no shortage of people willing to trade their reputation for a few hundred million. Our economy has become almost entirely a race to the bottom.
WalterBright 1y ago
Many products come in 3 levels of quality: 1. the stripper, designed for a minimum price that will draw people into the showroom 2. the luxe, which has every feature, designed for the people who don't care about the price 3. the midrange, which is what most people wind up buying This strategy maximizes the profit that can be made. You'll see it from refrigerators to cars.
- gtowey 1y ago
  The problem I see is that main difference between those options is not quality, but features. For example with refrigerators you see integrated touch screen, viewing windows, and all kinds of esoteric features. But the core of the product, the compressor and overall cooling system is not actually any better. In fact, looking at reviews shows that those parts are often garbage quality too. So it fails at the core job of keeping your food cold, and the added features are just more things to fail as well meaning that buying the more expensive products are generally a lose-lose situation.
  - hedora 1y ago
    Concretely, don’t buy anything made by Samsung. Here’s a $3000 washer / dryer with a 90 day [x] warranty: https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/all-in-one-washer-dryer-combo/electric/5-3-cu-ft-bespoke-ai-laundry-combo-vented-all-in-one-ultra-capacity-washer-and-electric-dryer-with-ai-home-in-dark-steel-wd90f53avsus/ https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/all-in-one-washer... [x] I got tired of following footnote disclaimers. Note the headline 20-year warranty and $2,200 price tags are blatant lies. The two year warranty below that claim has footnotes that references more off page disclaimers. When we had a samsung appliance die, we found the actual warranty was only 90 days. Even worse, there are zero repair companies willing to touch samsung garbage in our area because it’s impossible to debug issues. So, even with their samsung care package, you’re still throwing this thing out in a few years. I’ve also attempted to call their customer support. It makes the IRS call center seem prompt.
    - sp0ck 1y ago

xp84 1y ago

Yes! And because all competitors besides niche artisanal players are simultaneously playing that same exact game (or in many cases, there are 10 brands all made by 3 conglomerates), people have little chance of actually stopping buying the product even when its quality level dips to absurdity. People will “stop buying” one brand and buy another, but the root of their frustrations is identical across brands and manufacturers.

Forgeties79 1y ago
Yeah for a lot of stuff every vendor is making basically the same thing the same way.

ungreased0675 1y ago

There is some logic to not over-engineering a product or using more materials than necessary to produce something. I wonder why that seems to have manifested in an anti-consumer application some places.

Forgeties79 1y ago
$$$
gtowey 1y ago
I think it has to do with having no limits on executive compensation. There is no incentive to create long-term value when you can cost-optimize your brand into the garbage while creating large short term profits from which they can pay themselves outrageous bonuses. It's an easy playbook and there is no shortage of people willing to trade their reputation for a few hundred million. Our economy has become almost entirely a race to the bottom.

WalterBright 1y ago

Many products come in 3 levels of quality: 1. the stripper, designed for a minimum price that will draw people into the showroom 2. the luxe, which has every feature, designed for the people who don't care about the price 3. the midrange, which is what most people wind up buying This strategy maximizes the profit that can be made. You'll see it from refrigerators to cars.

gtowey 1y ago
The problem I see is that main difference between those options is not quality, but features. For example with refrigerators you see integrated touch screen, viewing windows, and all kinds of esoteric features. But the core of the product, the compressor and overall cooling system is not actually any better. In fact, looking at reviews shows that those parts are often garbage quality too. So it fails at the core job of keeping your food cold, and the added features are just more things to fail as well meaning that buying the more expensive products are generally a lose-lose situation.
- hedora 1y ago
  Concretely, don’t buy anything made by Samsung. Here’s a $3000 washer / dryer with a 90 day [x] warranty: https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/all-in-one-washer-dryer-combo/electric/5-3-cu-ft-bespoke-ai-laundry-combo-vented-all-in-one-ultra-capacity-washer-and-electric-dryer-with-ai-home-in-dark-steel-wd90f53avsus/ https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/all-in-one-washer... [x] I got tired of following footnote disclaimers. Note the headline 20-year warranty and $2,200 price tags are blatant lies. The two year warranty below that claim has footnotes that references more off page disclaimers. When we had a samsung appliance die, we found the actual warranty was only 90 days. Even worse, there are zero repair companies willing to touch samsung garbage in our area because it’s impossible to debug issues. So, even with their samsung care package, you’re still throwing this thing out in a few years. I’ve also attempted to call their customer support. It makes the IRS call center seem prompt.
  - sp0ck 1y ago