Jeff Liebermann wrote:

The problems start when there are competing products. I call it the
Walmart effect. Walmart, Kmart, and many online vendors specialize in
selling solely on the basis of price. If there are two competing
products, differing only a few pennies in selling price, *ALL* their
orders will go to the lower priced product, with nothing to the higher
priced equivalent. Walmart aggravates the effect by setting the price
at some artificial low level, and challenging their vendors to meet
their price goal.

It seems to me that there is a good opportunity here for other
retailers. If a retailer sold only electronic goods that were well
made and well designed, they could sell them for ten to thirty
percent more than the junk sold at Walmart and Kmart.

I think many consumers would be willing to pay a little extra for
devices that would probably last four to ten times as long. This
would be especially true if they had two (or more) cheap-junk brand
devices fail.

The retailer could require vendors to only use non-junk capacitors
with voltage ratings at least three times the voltage the capacitors
would be exposed to. They could also require that no part of the
device ever get more than 30 degrees warmer than the temperature of
the room it is used in.

The devices could have much longer warranties and the store could
advertise itself as "The quality store". I do not think this would
require excessive advertising, especially after the first few years.
--
I don't understand why they make gourmet cat foods. I have
known many cats in my life and none of them were gourmets.
They were all gourmands!