Gillette Supposedly under investigation.....

From this Wikipedia Thread about Gillette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillette_(brand)

"Procter & Gamble shaving products are currently under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in an inquiry into alleged collusion between manufacturers and retailers in setting prices. An industry insider has revealed that the Fusion range of blades, which cost 5p ($0.08) each to manufacture, sell with a mark-up of more than 4,750 per cent."

And here is the article written about that:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-heads-cost-just-5p-make-sell-2-43-each.html

Anybody else heard anything about this. I randomly stumbled across it myself. Now I figured that Gillette Fusion cartridges were cheap to make but I never assumed they were THAT cheap to make. Considering the price markup. Maybe Gillette needs to get dinged for a change. Apparently this is a UK investigation but the same needs to happen over here.

Not surprising. The other day, running errands with my wife, I looked at the price of 4 fusion carts. at two different stores. Both store were charging either the exact same amount, or it was so close that I can't remember the difference. I believe it was $13.77 for 4.

I thought it a bit odd that a locally owned grocery, and a huge multi-state megalowmart discount operation would be charging the same price for the same item...

Doesn't matter- I will probably never buy Fusion carts. anyway...

I really hope this does turn out to be true, and gillette get a good wapping fine and forced to bring there prices down, it might help them stop looking at the best way of selling more cartridges and perhaps looking more at the art of shaving again, perhaps even producing some nice DE razors again.

Wouldn't it make perfect sense for them to release DE razors? Everything is retro now anyway, they could charge Merkur Vision prices and people would buy it. It's not like they have to do any R&D work either, they already designed everything 70 years ago. However if this happened, I'm sure they'd make some weird blade that only fit in their razors.

I must respect Gillette for what they made in the past but the mach3/fusion blades will never be on my shopping list again.

theyll probably get off, its so hard to prove collusion. and even if they can they'll be hit with a fine that they can easily pay

Johnnie Walker said:

Wouldn't it make perfect sense for them to release DE razors? Everything is retro now anyway, they could charge Merkur Vision prices and people would buy it. It's not like they have to do any R&D work either, they already designed everything 70 years ago. However if this happened, I'm sure they'd make some weird blade that only fit in their razors.

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Nope. Why would anyone pay $100 for a new razor when there are hundreds of thousands of perfectly good vintage ones out there that people can buy for a lot less? Any new Gillette DE razor would likely be made in China and believe me, you wouldn't pay $100 for that.

This doesn't really surprise me. Great find though, it will be interesting to see what comes of this.

mmack66 said:

Nope. Why would anyone pay $100 for a new razor when there are hundreds of thousands of perfectly good vintage ones out there that people can buy for a lot less? Any new Gillette DE razor would likely be made in China and believe me, you wouldn't pay $100 for that.

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im not so sure, if gillette made a brilliantly presented razor using quality craftsmanship people would buy it.

I'm divided between Mack and Millay on this one. After all.....people do buy 1000 dollar razor handles from AOS.

mmack66 said:

Any new Gillette DE razor would likely be made in China and believe me, you wouldn't pay $100 for that.

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The Chinese are perfectly capable of manufacturing a quality razor (or anything else you can think of). What you meant to say was that Gillette would design a cheap, *** product made out of inferior materials and then give the specs to the Chinese to manufacture at low cost. I've really grown weary of the nonsensical "crappy because it's made in China" tirade. It's old and without merit.

Tom C said:

The Chinese are perfectly capable of manufacturing a quality razor (or anything else you can think of). What you meant to say was that Gillette would design a cheap, *** product made out of inferior materials and then give the specs to the Chinese to manufacture at low cost. I've really grown weary of the nonsensical "crappy because it's made in China" tirade. It's old and without merit.

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Hey that sounds about right......

haha

Tom's got it right. The Chinese are capable of building anything you want, for a price. You pay for crap, that's what they'll give you - in the thousands, if you want.

mmack66 said:

Nope. Why would anyone pay $100 for a new razor when there are hundreds of thousands of perfectly good vintage ones out there that people can buy for a lot less? Any new Gillette DE razor would likely be made in China and believe me, you wouldn't pay $100 for that.

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You and I maybe, but what about the general public? They are buying Fusion cartridges at $4 a piece right now. So who's to say they wouldn't buy a DE razor for $20-$30, even a $100?

Tom C said:

The Chinese are perfectly capable of manufacturing a quality razor (or anything else you can think of). What you meant to say was that Gillette would design a cheap, *** product made out of inferior materials and then give the specs to the Chinese to manufacture at low cost. I've really grown weary of the nonsensical "crappy because it's made in China" tirade. It's old and without merit.

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I don't believe I made any statements regarding China's manufacturing capabilities, but they have and do make inferior products, just as any other country has and does, including the United States.

mdunn said:

theyll probably get off, its so hard to prove collusion. and even if they can they'll be hit with a fine that they can easily pay

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If they do get fined they won't pay it. They will pass that fine along to the consumer.

Sullybob said:

If they do get fined they won't pay it. They will pass that fine along to the consumer.

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Another valid and sad point.

Millay said:

I really hope this does turn out to be true, and gillette get a good wapping fine and forced to bring there prices down, it might help them stop looking at the best way of selling more cartridges and perhaps looking more at the art of shaving again, perhaps even producing some nice DE razors again.

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Not a chance IMO. This is like saying, "Swiffer should get into the mop and bucket business." (another P&G product) There are tons of people who would rather use the tried and true mop and bucket with some Murphy's Oil Soap than a Swiffer Wetjet, but Swiffer doesn't care about these people. Likewise, Gillette isn't into the art of shaving, they're into making money.

Johnnie Walker said:

Wouldn't it make perfect sense for them to release DE razors? Everything is retro now anyway, they could charge Merkur Vision prices and people would buy it. It's not like they have to do any R&D work either, they already designed everything 70 years ago. However if this happened, I'm sure they'd make some weird blade that only fit in their razors.

I must respect Gillette for what they made in the past but the mach3/fusion blades will never be on my shopping list again.

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As much and you and I like to use a DE razor, I don't think it makes sense for Gillette to manufacture them anymore. It's not a mass market sort of razor anymore, and it probably shouldn't be. Most guys don't like to think about shaving, and they want to do it as quickly as possible. I'm perfectly happy with this remaining a niche market. Gillette can continue to make cartridge razors, and I'll continue to ignore them.

I can perhaps see them making some DEs on a limited scale to address the needs of guys like you or I, but I don't envision it will ever replace their bread and butter. They wouldn't ever advertise DEs, for example. It would send mixed signals and undermine their cartridge brands. They would likely sell them quietly at AOS stores, for a very high price.

gollum83 said:

You and I maybe, but what about the general public? They are buying Fusion cartridges at $4 a piece right now. So who's to say they wouldn't buy a DE razor for $20-$30, even a $100?

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A lot of the general public thinks that DE razors went out with high button shoes. A lot more don't even know they existed. Some folks might buy a razor for $100, but they can already do that now. Gillette will never release DE razors on a wide scale because they can't make money on the blades. The blades are where the money is made. Always has been and always will be.

mmack66 said:

A lot of the general public thinks that DE razors went out with high button shoes. A lot more don't even know they existed. Some folks might buy a razor for $100, but they can already do that now. Gillette will never release DE razors on a wide scale because they can't make money on the blades. The blades are where the money is made. Always has been and always will be.

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Agreed. The only way to make money would be to make the DE blade proprietary all over again. This is not likely to be profitable because people would just use the standard generic razors and blades already available. They wouldn't buy into the hype for the most part simply because of the name "Gillette" being on it. I'm sure most guys think about the manufacturer and science behind their razor as much as they think about doing housework (please do not take this to be sexist).