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Why are cartridges so expensive?

As a specialist in customer/market analysis and marketing I can say that I've never seen a marketing department that needed more than 15 persons to do what's really needed. I've seen marketing departments with hundreds of employees.
Please Google "Parkinson's law" to get to know why.

I remember reading a book called "Code Complete" years ago by a software expert from Microsoft. It's a decent software book, but the thing I remember most about it was the forward where he described Microsoft when it had about 100 employees. If I remember right he said about 10 of them were engineers and 70 were marketing!
 
Pure greed if you ask me. I mean really, how much do you think it costs them to make a razor and blade?

It's worth remembering that all that "greed" pays the employees' salaries and benefits, a large amount of federal, state, and local taxes, plus something for the shareholders--after accounting for overhead, which would include the physical plants' construction/maintenance, transportation, energy, advertising, legal, accounting, raw materials, and much, much more.

It's "greed" wot pays my wages, so I say let's have more of it. :thumbup1:
 
+1. This is a capitalist society, I don't believe that anyone would honestly say that if they owned Gillette they'd reduce the prices, therefore profit, therefore their own income.
 
Pure greed if you ask me. I mean really, how much do you think it costs them to make a razor and blade?
I have heard they cost like 15 cent but I could be wrong. All Gillette does is they get some sport celebrity to play in their commercial and wait for the money.

My dad never liked M3 or the Fusion. I remember in the early 90ties when I was a kid he used to shave with his DE razor or his Trac 2. He bought me a Trac 2 but I didn't like it back, I might try it again to see if I can change my opinion.

I agree with a lot of people here in this topic, many guys don't know that there are better alternatives. The most razors you buy should last you forever if you take a good care of it. Blades come in bulk thus it will save you a lot of money and there are a lot of soaps/aftershaves to try out.

To be honest with you guys, I never knew that there where so many shaving products and shaving hobbyists when I was gathering information about this subject :001_rolle
 
King Gillette had it right: (I paraphrase)

"Give away the razors, sell them the blades."

Carts are just taking this to the extremes offered by modern marketing in late-stage capitalism.


So true... I got roped into the Fusion, which I used for years, because I received the razor free in the mail.
 
Like someone said earlier, Gillette is THE BRAND. In some countries gillette is synonymous with "blade." They can afford to sell at high prices because of so much history and it's inherent cultural status(kinda like iphones) .

If they only cost some cents to make you would think the competition would have much better prices but they also want to make as much money as possible without devaluing their product. So they lower their prices just enough in comparison to Gillette where it's worthwhile for people to buy instead of Gillettes products.
 
We are undoing 50 years of technology is what is commonly thought! But let's be real, gillette owns AOS, they know and with dollar shave club and Harry's, we are not the only ones tapping into their profits, used to like shaving with carts, did not know better, glad I am one of the lucky ones now who discovered DE, love my products and routine now so much more!
 
Supply and demand.

First, you create demand with a lot of advertising (hype);
then you (can) fleece the gullible public for what it's worth, because you have successfully convinced them that this particular product is superior.


There are signs however that the public might be slowly waking up to this....



Cynical me.



B.

I think that was only the case back in the day, when people still knew there were other ways to shave and the cartridge needed to be hyped to get people to choose it over the competition.

Now days there isn't any competition besides electric razors. Don't want to use an electric? Congratulations, enjoy your cartridges. It's less that people are convinced that they are superior and more that it's literally the only thing people are even exposed to or are aware of. You have to do quite a bit of digging just to find the cartridge that's priced between a Bic disposable and a Gillette Fusion on the scale, and even then you won't find it in stores.

The same thing goes for shaving soap and brush vs canned foam. Most people think they've hit the jackpot when they "discover" that they can shave with hair conditioner. Shaving soap doesn't even register on the radar.
 
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Gillette and Schick like to make $

$Gekko.jpg
 
Cost has little relevance if one enjoys the shaving system one's using. The same thing applies to many items we use and enjoy in our lives.
 
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OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
I get 10 shaves from a Trac II cart. When Walmart decided to discontinue Wilkinson Sword Trac II I hit every Walmart in my greater metro area and bought them up for .50 cent per pack of 10.

I only use the Trac II when traveling, so with 300 carts, I'm probably set for life.
 
I get 10 shaves from a Trac II cart. When Walmart decided to discontinue Wilkinson Sword Trac II I hit every Walmart in my greater metro area and bought them up for .50 cent per pack of 10.
Winner! I cannot imagine being one-upped on that deal.
 
There is cost, price, value and perceived value.

Many of us spend far more than the cost of a MachX and foamy.

Just look at some of those pictures on other threads.

That is capitalism. P&G is trying to make many competitors disappear. The difference between Socialism and Oligopolies is who determines what is for sale.

We are outliers by using what many consider old methods.

New doesn't always mean progress.
 
I just did the math while looking at a $100 SE razor that uses DE blades (I'm new and I can't spend 30 minutes every morning shaving, so I was comparing quick and dirties).

I get a full month out of fusion blades if I am doing a daily clean shave as long as I take ten seconds to clean and dry the blade after use. These run me $3.25 a pop.

I just got into DE shaving, and am using an MTO until my AS-D2 gets here. It looks like feathers last six shaves(ish) and I can get them for $.30 a pop.

Thats 10.7¢ a shave for top notch carts vs 5¢ a shave for top notch DE razors. When you look at it that way, with cheaper production costs for the DE (it's a set design, looks mostly animated, not much advertising, and it's done predominately overseas), the American made, "cutting edge technology" and complicated carts aren't such a bad deal.
 
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