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Why are cartridges so expensive?

I still don't understand this, why are carts (Fusion/M3) so expensive? I could get litteraly 3 shaves from one Fusion cart before it became dull. I mean these DE blades are way cheaper and they provide a better shave AND it's only one razor. lol one beats 5 :lol:
 
Not a ton of mass market alternatives, and P&G has shareholders to pay. Thats my slightly cynical take.

If people ever really stopped buying them, the price would come down and reach a new supply demand equilibrium
 
Someone has to pay for all the advertising and endorsements. Gillette has a massive marketing budget which is paid for every time someone buys a pack of carts.
 
My thoughts are they have to pay for all of their marketing which is very expensive. They have research and development teams to pay, QC people to pay, and shareholders. They also have their prices jacked up sky high due to the reality that most all men will shave at one point in their life, some of us more than others :laugh: Most people will pay the prices they ask than take the time to learn how to shave with a safety razor or straight and pay for the strops, brushes, and razors. So simply put, because they can and they know the majority of men and women will purchase them.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Corporate greed and hype advertising. Gillette is no longer a company, just a brand. And P&G is simply in the business of being in business.

Not much regard for making a quality product anymore (which is pretty much true for a lot of companies brands today).

Like others have said this is just my own cynical view.

Thanks,
Mike
 
The price of a product has two extremes:

1. The producers cost of input material. A producer can, in the short run, sell his product for the cost of the raw material, since it takes time to lay off personnel and shut down production lines. If the price goes below that point however each made product add to the loss. A good example of this dilemma is the car industry during times of recession.

2. The customers willingness to pay. To share holder companies there generally is only one priority: profit maximisation. I've been working with companies that have been setting a price adding several hundred percent to the production cost. That's not to uncommon in monopolies and oligopolies like the cartridge industry. That should assure an astronomic profit. Sadly it doesn't. A successful business tends to accumulate enormous overhead. Suddenly you have high paid staff functions that really doesn't add much to the income. when the situation get too bad you generally lay off some, but internal politics generally assure a quick regrowth.

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.
 
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OR..., big 'or' here, BUT..., maybe their watching the DE, SE etc. trend rise back up slowly, so they jack up cartridge prices so far until most of us are almost de-converted to 'old school' shaving, then BAM! $2.50 a blade for a St. Petersburgh finest! Long shot maybe, but theoretically possible.
 
Not all cartridges are expensive.

Last week on E-Bay, I bought 100 Trac II cartridges made by Personna for under $11.00. Less than $.11/cart.
 
Last week on E-Bay, I bought 100 Trac II cartridges made by Personna for under $11.00. Less than $.11/cart.

I bought some 7 o'clock yellows on fleabay last night. I looked at the sellers' other items to see if they had anything else I had to have and noticed that they were selling Personna Atra/Trac II carts for about what I was paying for my yellows.
 
There's another part of the picture that goes with the supply and demand part that we often overlook. It's the perceived lack of an alternative. When the average guy goes to the store to find a razor and blade combo, he only has a couple of options. He can go with the Fusion, Mach 3, Schick's 3 or 4 blade razors or an electric. Sure, there are those old 2 blade systems, but they're just for old guys who don't want to upgrade. The disposables are for travel, so nobody needs those. That's where they stop. People (normal people, haha) don't research shaving any more than they do brushing their teeth. They need a tool, there's an aisle full of a couple alternatives and they choose. Many aren't aware that DE razors are an option or that straight shaving isn't a dance with death.

Basically, most guys are ignorant to the alternatives because of the marketing of the newer models. I know I didn't know anything about wet shaving until I was looking online for aftershave for sensitive skin and found an article that pushed for DE/Straight wetshaving. Sure, there are the newer DE razors on the shelves, but I think they get overlooked as a cheaply made gimmick because of the dominance of the cart. Guys pay high prices because the companies ask them and the buyer doesn't know of an alternative.
 
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