Thread: The good old days

I seem to remember many years ago when they came out with the first stainless DE blades I think it was the English Company Wilkinsen and they used to advertise you could get at least 10 shaves with each blade. It seems you can only get a couple now so what happened?

Planned obsolesence is a thing of the past. Outright cheap and shoddy is the order of the day.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I seem to remember many years ago when they came out with the first stainless DE blades I think it was the English Company Wilkinsen and they used to advertise you could get at least 10 shaves with each blade. It seems you can only get a couple now so what happened?

Profit Margins that is what happened

Many blades became MUCH thinner.

I would think that it has to do with the economies of scale of production, in that there are far fewer DE shavers around than there were back in the day. As a result less blades are made with the same or higher costs of production, thus blades are more expensive to manufacture. Many of the old blade manufacturers have either gone out of business, quit producing DEs, or have sold the rights to their names to foreign companies. In some cases quality has remained good and in other cases, quality has been sacrificed to price.

Funny, I was thinking about the near universal decline of product quality just last week. It's startling to me that so many products regardless of their use at best pale in comparison to when they were made in the "good old days" and at worst are almost worthless crap.

I fear such a dramatic change in product quality will have a very real and negative impact on the ability of humanity to continue to advance. I see us going backward in many ways.

Chris L

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Funny, I was thinking about the near universal decline of product quality just last week. It's startling to me that so many products regardless of their use at best pale in comparison to when they were made in the "good old days" and at worst are almost worthless crap.

I fear such a dramatic change in product quality will have a very real and negative impact on the ability of humanity to continue to advance. I see us going backward in many ways.

Chris L

Chris,
I know what you mean--just look at how few quality straight razor manufacturers there are now compared to even the 60s and 70s. The Internet has made it possible for a lot of things like DEs and str8s to remain viable as it has lowered the cost of distribution and increased the market reach world-wide at a much lower cost.

One of the things I miss is the interaction with the local proprietor of the old brick and mortar store for items like razors, hats, men's clothes, etc. Here in Montana, due to a low population, we have lost a lot of really nice specialty type shops.

Gentlemen:

Sadly, and painfully, I admit reality: Corporate zombies with an insatiable hunger for profit convinced men that a vibrating plastic razor with five blades was the answer to everything.

Regards,

Obie