Check this out... maybe someone can appreciate it.
Gillette ad 1930
- Thread starter Warlockdlx69
- Start date
Love the ad! What strikes me is the expense of the blades. $1 for 10 blades was a lot of money to put out in 1930. It's possible to find the same deal or close to it today on certain brands of blades.
That's always been Gillette's business model. Cheap or free razor, make money on the blades.
- Thread starter
- #4
lol hes right... a mach 3 with one cartridge costs less than an 8 pack, and in some cases, even a 4 pack of blades for it...
Usually when Gillette launches a new razor you can buy a pack with blades and goo and the razor comes free with it. And I've heard about Gillette sending out free razors in other places.
King Gillette (the founder of the Gillette company) is famous for inventing the loss leader business model, where you give away (or sell at a loss) some kind of base product and make money on related products. Besides razors & blades/cartridges, inkjet printers and computer game consoles usually work like this.
And that ends today's history/economics lesson
King Gillette (the founder of the Gillette company) is famous for inventing the loss leader business model, where you give away (or sell at a loss) some kind of base product and make money on related products. Besides razors & blades/cartridges, inkjet printers and computer game consoles usually work like this.
And that ends today's history/economics lesson
Great advertisement. Thanks for sharing it with us. Amazing though that we take so much for granted, e.g., the cross-cut corner for instance.
A dime sounds like a lot but consider the average person made $.50 an hour, and that's huge.
When the mach3 came out, it seemed that every male between late teens and mid twenties was sent one; in the UK.
It worked, I remember most guys talking about it with some awe.
Ah, when America was America...
Talking to the older folks in my family who were alive in the thirties, I find that many, if not most, men around here were still shaving with straight razors back then. A dime per blade would have been prohibitively expensive, at least for cotton pickers and hog farmers.
Norm
Norm
When I was 18 they sent me a Gillette Sensor along with instructions on how to shave. That was a pretty smart move. I went on to buy their deoderant, shave cream, and razors. I haven't gotten one since then.
Side note... At the time i recieved it, I didn't have to shave but I looked forward to using it when I could. That was never to be; my older brother stole it from me.
I bet the cost of blades went down over next few years.
Looking at the ad, I wondered if straight shavers then damned the 'new' blades like some here damn hyper-modern-razors.
Check my previous thread that contains more vintage shaving ads...
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=30586
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=30586
When I was 18 they sent me a Gillette Sensor along with instructions on how to shave. That was a pretty smart move. I went on to buy their deoderant, shave cream, and razors. I haven't gotten one since then.
Side note... At the time i recieved it, I didn't have to shave but I looked forward to using it when I could. That was never to be; my older brother stole it from me.
I was 14 when they sent me a M3. I thought it was kind of odd but it sure did make me feel like a man. Of course I only had to use it about once a week. Although I (actually my parents) did buy replacement cartridges I preffered the Aveno sensitive skin cream so they didn't get to milk as much money out of me (my parents). It wasn't until I was about 18 that I had to start shaving everyday that they sent me a new vibrating one. So I've (my parents've) never had to pay for my Gillette razors.
