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This is why people don't have money. 40,000 people in Europe pay $7.42 a pair of socks? 1. Collect socks 2. Figure out how to get people to pay 5x retail for

by mdasen 18y ago

This is why people don't have money. 40,000 people in Europe pay $7.42 a pair of socks? 1. Collect socks 2. Figure out how to get people to pay 5x retail for something readily available everywhere. 3. Profit who has time to shop for new ones? Hmm, it is time consuming. I mean, the whole grabbing a package takes forever. There is nothing that is less satisfying to me than going to a store to buy socks. Yeah, it's just so difficult and disappointing. I guess she's got a really hard life what with her sock problems. -- The article compares them to Netflix, but Netflix is different - they're offering a service at lower cost with greater variety. This company is offering less variety at higher cost. This is why people have trouble with their finances - they start spending money they don't need to be spending on services and products they don't need. Yeah, everyone needs socks, but they don't need a service to sell them socks at way above retail. How hard would it be to bookmark socks you like on Amazon and order them when you need them? Or go down to the local store and purchase them?

JacobAldridge 18y ago
In most ways, I agree with you, and the comparison to Netflix as a value discussion makes no sense. Clearly, though and if we trust those numbers, this is a service with a demand. Part of that may be the value it delivers - I mean, if I'm earning $2M pa that's about $1000 / hr, so going to the store or even jumping onto Amazon isn't going to pay off for a while. Even hiring an assistant to buy socks regularly mightn't be worth it. There would still be a cheaper way, and using hourly rate math is fraught with danger, but this is pitching itself as a premium service. I'm guessing they're nice socks, and it's hassle free. So I'm putting it down as yet another idea I wish I'd had / implemented.
patio11 18y ago
This is why people don't have money. I think the point of items like this is not "I am going to spend the rent check on socks" but rather "I have money which is more than sufficient for my needs, but my life is stressful and I have very little time, and I will willingly trade money for time or stress relief, even in doses that seem smaller than some people might appreciate." My business is built on charging people $30 for something they could do for free. Of course, its only free if you think the extra hour of your life it costs you was valueless. My customers don't. I paid $3.50 this morning for a coffee and pastry when I could have brewed my own darn coffee and packed a pastry from home for a third of the price. Is that rational? Eh. $2.50 saved a day times twenty work days a month is about $50. That's sort of below my feel-burning-urge-to-change-habits line these days, particularly since the equivalent amount of mental effort of my business would have much better returns.
- BvS 18y ago
  What about buying socks when you are at a clothes shop anyway. Even if its only every two years, you could easily buy 20 pairs at once since you are hardly running the risk that they will be out of fashion next season. Even rich people go to buy clothes themselves at last once every other year, don't they? Seems like less time in contrast to fill out an online form.

by mdasen 18y ago

JacobAldridge 18y ago

In most ways, I agree with you, and the comparison to Netflix as a value discussion makes no sense. Clearly, though and if we trust those numbers, this is a service with a demand. Part of that may be the value it delivers - I mean, if I'm earning $2M pa that's about $1000 / hr, so going to the store or even jumping onto Amazon isn't going to pay off for a while. Even hiring an assistant to buy socks regularly mightn't be worth it. There would still be a cheaper way, and using hourly rate math is fraught with danger, but this is pitching itself as a premium service. I'm guessing they're nice socks, and it's hassle free. So I'm putting it down as yet another idea I wish I'd had / implemented.

patio11 18y ago

This is why people don't have money. I think the point of items like this is not "I am going to spend the rent check on socks" but rather "I have money which is more than sufficient for my needs, but my life is stressful and I have very little time, and I will willingly trade money for time or stress relief, even in doses that seem smaller than some people might appreciate." My business is built on charging people $30 for something they could do for free. Of course, its only free if you think the extra hour of your life it costs you was valueless. My customers don't. I paid $3.50 this morning for a coffee and pastry when I could have brewed my own darn coffee and packed a pastry from home for a third of the price. Is that rational? Eh. $2.50 saved a day times twenty work days a month is about $50. That's sort of below my feel-burning-urge-to-change-habits line these days, particularly since the equivalent amount of mental effort of my business would have much better returns.

BvS 18y ago
What about buying socks when you are at a clothes shop anyway. Even if its only every two years, you could easily buy 20 pairs at once since you are hardly running the risk that they will be out of fashion next season. Even rich people go to buy clothes themselves at last once every other year, don't they? Seems like less time in contrast to fill out an online form.