Branded To Death
In our world, the gap between price and quality is becoming more and more of an illusion, even as it becomes more and more a religious held belief.
I just came back from a trip to the supermarket with my wife.
She called me over into some deep, bright aisle I’ve never ventured into. She says, “We need soap.” I looked and saw about 10 meters of different offerings of soap, all shelved and colorfully displayed.
“I’m fine with anything, it’s just soap.” I retorted.
Now, we’ve been married a good forsaken long time, so I knew she knew and she knew that I knew, she just wanted some form of validation. But let me continue …
“It’s not just soap!” my wife countered. “Some has coconut oil, some is antibiotic, some is scented pineapple …”
As I sat there in soap aisle heaven, I was brought back to my childhood and where one of my core beliefs about economics and life had arisen.
Everything, everywhere, comes from the same soup, the same mix, the same factory.
It’s a belief that the differences in a type of product and its price are really just tweaks, sparkles, sprinkles, added to the basic mixture that hand churns out anything that is put into its basin. One moment you get soft ice cream.
Tweak a few things in the mix and you’ll spit out cat food.
I came upon this belief when I was 10 or 11. McDonalds had just opened in our small town. Wow! Everyone was there and it was bloody amazing. Heaven. You’d look up at their beautiful menu, say, “I want this and this and an order of that.” and BOOM!, before you could even scratch your balls, out would come your order.
I studied this process as a bedazzled youth and though I couldn’t see much of the goingsons, I did notice a hive of activity at the back, surrounding several machines. Thus, my belief was born - everything, everywhere, comes from the same mixing bowl.
Pour in the godly ingredients - some kind of carbon, hydrogen mix. Add some of the magic dust stuff for taste, texture, color, qualities and then set the dial to what you want delivered. It’s not far off a 3D Printer.
Soon after I went to the movies - saw Soylent Green and I was sold! I’ve never looked back and my belief has only hardened. There are things going on behind the counter that companies don’t want us to know. Mostly, that prices and quality are a big ruse … a big upsell for high priced products that relies on an incredible injection of the placebo effect.
I’m serious. It, so much of what we eat, wear, consume, value, use - all comes from the same big, humungous factory out there in China, India, Mexico, Brazil or some top secret place in Sub-Saharan Africa. One day they make $8,000 dollar Gucci handbags and the next they make $8 fanny packs. One sells few but with a big markup. The other sells many with small margins. They both make a killing. [That’s about all I know about economics 101]
Now, you may think I’m exaggerated. While I am just a tad, but I’m really not far off the mark.
Let me provide an example. I needed sunglasses a few weeks back, my POC ones had a cracked arm.
Yet, I’m trapped in Asia. So what does a poor boy do in this case? I went on Temu and got me a pair of POC ones. They arrived and I’ve worn them for a month - I SEE NO DIFFERENCE! Except for the $223 price difference. (Originals )??? - $230 USD Temu price - $7 USD. )
It’s all in our head and so many companies are laughin’ to the bank and even back to their yachts. And it gets much worse …
Sunglasses again, reminded me of another store/story of the same ilk. I used to always wear Bolle while running and racing. Loved them. I was home a few years ago in Canada and usually while home, I stalk up on things hard to get where I lived (Nicaragua at the time). A new pair of Bolles would set me back a few hundred but got talking to a friend and he says he wears Bolle too, safety glasses for work. I checked his out and damn! Same thing as my sports ones. But only $15 bucks on Amazon.
Now, I’m not saying there isn’t any value in paying more. Many times there is and the products last a lot longer. However, I’ve witnessed how this “quality gap” has been narrowing but still the “price gap” has not.
It’s so freakin’ (not my economics term), maddening and startling, the differences in quality and prices around this world.
I mean, my wife loves bananas. But here, bananas are $2 EACH. Yes, that’s right. They even grow them here in Korea, if you can believe that! Yet, down the road, at the bottom of the mountain in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, I bought a whole bunch of bananas, probably 150 or so, for 45 cordobas - $1.30. I’m not exaggerating.
I used to often visit my grandparents in Evian, on Lake Geneva. My Swiss grandmother would sit on the balcony with me, we’d watch all the Swiss tourists take the boat over from Lausanne. And we’d laugh and laugh. Why? While, we’d watch them get off the small ferry boats and the first thing they’d do was head up the hill to the first restaurant on the street, order a bottle of Evian for 10 Euro and feel like kings. Yet, right behind the restaurant, locals went and filled up their bottles with Evian water for free. I’m not freakin’ kidding you! Is economics, its deep secret, just keeping ordinary folk ignorant of the basics? I won’t even start writing about the rabbit hole that is bottled water, they sell us back the water we’ve already paid for?
I can’t say I understand economics at all. I actually think nobody does. It’s a great Barnum and Bailey’s show of freaks, illusions, illogic and frauds that nobody’s ever going to understand. Perhaps there was a time when it obeyed rules, but no longer … Fascinating nonetheless.
I believe we are still headed pell mell towards that big blendering machine in the sky, spitting out whatever we need after a few tweaks and sprinkles of “value added.” Same machine, same factory, same process - different price.
Economics - maybe it really is just marketing dressed up in the suit of a science?
Maybe it is. Although i'm good at memorizing subjects, i'm not good at applying them.
Economics, in my opinion, isn't a field anyone can choose (you need to have certain personality traits).