Frank Boettcher wrote:
On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:14:47 -0500, dpb wrote:

Swingman wrote:
...

It's pretty simple in this age of corporate greed ...
I submit "corporate greed" is simply a reflection of the consumer
choosing price over quality in the most part...


I would respectfully disagree. In many, I would say most, cases
corporate greed is the driver to decisions that will reduce the
quality of the product when in fact there is perfectly good demand and
profit in the higher quality product. It is not the goal of the
corporation to reduce the quality, simply the outcome. The goal is to
make ten more points of profit margin because, you the consumer, don't
know any better anyway. In many cases, the consumer does not get a
choice or the higher end choice becomes harder and harder to find.

And the big retailers are partners in this effort. They tell the
manufacturer's brand managers, hey you get it from China at a dirt
cheap price or you will lose your shelf space, and we'll develop our
own store brand and get it from China ourselves.

It's true corporations are motivated to improve profit margins -- that's
their job.

Unfortunately, the success of the mass retailers isn't owing to their
profit margin, it's that the customer has gone there and selected price
as their dominant factor in choice.

Small numbers of consumers (relatively, and I consider myself one of
them and can count on the fingers of one hand the numbers of time I have
been in the Super-Center in the last year) will select on the basis of
other reasons but, for the most part, there simply aren't enough of them
(high-end consumers) to support them (merchandisers).

Consider how often do you go to the Borg for a common item because it is
10 cents cheaper than the "real" lumber yard? Yet expect the yard to
have all the "good stuff" that the Borg doesn't carry? Just can't work
that way. (And that's not meant to be specifically "you personally",
but as an "editorial you" because you can certainly recognize the trait
as being widespread).

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