Why are we being ignored?

[hdhaskell]

This hobby wouldn't be appealing if you could get these products at your local discount store or drug store and everyone was doing it.

This forum certainly wouldn't exist, because what would the big deal be?

We are interested in this because the kind of shaving we do went out with the milkman, the diaper service, the one income family, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the soda jerk at Woolworth, Route 66, the Blue Plate Special, and the rotary telephone. We are the guardians of an art form when it was done right and people took the time to do it right.

Ever wonder how Ward Cleaver, Teddy Roosevelt, and Babe Ruth shaved?

Speak for yourself! I live right next to route 66, and we still have a milkman! Although my wife bristles at any comparison to June Cleaver. (It's a lot easier to make it on one income when you live on Route 66.)

 

[hdhaskell]

It depends on the brick and mortar store. While the chains probably will not do it there are specialty stores that want to differentiate from the Walmart-Target-Kmart axis and the drug chains. I was at one today that is more of a bed and bath place which carriers a rack of Castle Forbes, Proraso and Musgo products in addition to Edwin Jagger and Derby blades. The shopkeeper said that they're adding Jack Black soon. So they are out there - you simply have to find these diamonds in the rough and keep going back once you find them.

Sounds like a gem! Put this place on the shopping map (under "more") or go to Guenron's sticky in The Marketplace forum so the rest of us can find it. It helps him and helps us.

 

[infotech]

We aren't really being ignored, but we're getting the wrong kind of attention. Gillette buys AOS, Gillette changes one of the best DE blades on the market, soap manufacturers lose tallow... All of this leads to one thing, like always: companies are out for their bottom line and there isn't any money to be made in the world of DE. Not like there is with a cartridge anyway. Gillette realized this when their patent on DE blades ran out. I'm convinced that as soon as the middle east is converted to cartridge shaving you can kiss our coveted blades goodbye and shaving with a DE will all but disappear.

 

[Go West Young Man]

We're being ignored because DE/SE/Straight shaving is a dying art in it's last days.
Other than a few hobbyists on the internet, the real long-time users (in the West at least) are getting older and passing away. Very few people since the 70's began shaving with a blade, most new shavers in the last 40 years learned on cartridges and only a minute percentage will ever change.

Now, WETSHAVING, on the other hand, is a growing market. Guys are much more interested in spending money on quality grooming products and upscale creams/soaps/balms/ etc have gone from niche to moderately mainstream in the last 10 years.

 

[Peter Mount]

Does anybody have access to sales figures for wet shavers of all types? It would be interesting to see sales figures for Australia as well as this is where I live.

 

[hdhaskell]

Does anybody have access to sales figures for wet shavers of all types? It would be interesting to see sales figures for Australia as well as this is where I live.

I've asked for data like this before and couldn't find them. My impression is that, if the data exist, they're considered market research and you'd have to pay for them. I believe that what we B&Bers think of as wet shaving -- that is, obsessive wet-shaving associated with various retrosexual hobbies like whisky drinking, pipe-smoking, and dressing up -- is probably stable. But out on the edge there is an enormous, shifting demographic that I call "moist shaving" which is basically anyone who uses a brush or a pre-cartridge razor. You probably won't get good numbers for moist shavers because many of them don't even think of themselves as moist shavers -- just guys trying out a new product to see if it works for them.

 

[stubblefree]

Quote from your writing on this thread

" Do the stores consider DE shaving a fringe thing? "

EXACTLY MY FRIEND............We are still a minority out there...........AND DWINDLING FAST...........believe it or not !!

So dont fret !!.....toast to it while the going is good.

 

[jcummins]

In the Kansas City Area, I have found that I can pretty much find anything if you aren't particular about what. . . .

Nordstroms carries the AoS Shaving Soap and Creams as well as some Badger Brushes
Bath and Body Works carries Bigelow brand creams.
WalMart carries the VDH brand soaps and (not sure here but . . )possibly some blades.
CVS Pharmacy has the Williams Soap

You can find some of that stuff fairly easily (like I said . . If not too particular on certain brands). The real kicker was finding razors. I have actualy found a place called Diebels Sportsman that carries a few Edwin Jagger and a Merkur Future Razors. They also have the Badger brushes as well.

That you can find everything in KC area that you would need, there is a Very Limited selection of what you can get.