Entertainment For Lively Minds
Overpriced
Posted by Adhoc Man on 15 March 2009 - 9:44am.
Last night I bought 8 razor blades and it cost me just under £15. I can't think of any other item so obviously over-priced; petrol is a positive bargain in comparison.
I think I might have to go down the Joaquin Phoenix route in future.
Is there anything else so ridiculously overpriced?
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aha...
but y'see they last for ages longer than the previous generation of razor blades. Overall, you'll save money over a year...
(and yes, I do *kind of* work for THEM...)
Razors are ridiculously overpriced
When they start putting tiny cameras on the packaging to stop people nicking them - they are overpriced!
no they don't
the fiddly mulitblades clogg with hair after one use so you can't use them again.
and also as DH pointed out on his own blog they face scraping industry tries it's hardest to confuse you into buying ramdom blades, handles etc
http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com/2009/02/swindled-by-shaving-indust...
Razor blades
are a terrible example of form over function. Do we need four or five blades? Of course not, it's just an excuse to charge more. As pointed out above, they just get clogged up more easily. Are people more clean shaven now than twenty years ago? I don't think so, it's all just one big con.
Use a good old fashioned safety blade
I get 10 for £2. Each one lasts a week and I get a close shave. I did buy and expensive-ish razor to put it in mind and it was a bit of a bloodbath for a week or so as I learnt how to do it. But do the maths - £10.40 a year versus £97.50. That pays for half a year of eMusic (or 450 songs).
tell me where you can purchase
said old fashioned razor and I'm there! Along with a proper badger hair shaving brush and sod all the millions of brands of foam/gel....
Badger hair brushes...
I get my shaving requisites (including badger hair shaving brushes) from http://www.theenglishshavingcompany.com
Badger hair?
Isn't one of our colleagues here called that?
Merkur razors
Not cheap but good.
http://www.mankind.co.uk/Futur-Brushed-Steel-Razor-PRODMEPS1/
Mine was £34 but I think exchange rates are having an effect.
If you do get one top tips would be:
hold blade at 90 degree angle to face.
don't press too hard!
use a good shaving gel (not foam) so you can see what your doing
concentrate
and definitely don't press too hard
Can I just add...
Don't press too hard
I wish someone
had told me that when I started!
When I wanted to start using a proper razor
I asked a barber to teach me! :-)
Rule 1. Keep your razor very sharp - Razor-sharp in fact
Rule 2. Don't push too hard
Also
Don't press too hard.
If you do
There Will Be Blood
A cut-throat cut...
...always looks very spectacular - loads of blood for little pain.
I presume
you are guessing the pain part. I would say its definitely a little more than I'd cope with.
'fraid not.
I've cut myself several times. I guess because the razor is SO sharp, you don't feel it.
These days I only have a proper cut-throat + badger hair + soap shave on special occasions, or I get my barber to do it when I'm feeling in need of a proper job.
Household Tip # 294
Avoid buying overpriced 'Turbo' blades by buying disposable razors, use them 2/3 times then chuck'em.
I was going to suggest bottled water but..
Van Morrison tickets?!
Printer cartridges
surely a cartel going on there?
Copyright
By coincidence the sale of printers is often compared with the sale of razor blades. A long long time ago (50's or 60's) some shrewd marketing man at Gillette realised that if they gave away or virtually gave away the razor in order to make all the money back and more on the blades. It's not a cartel, it's just that all the same marketing methods then make sure that the cartridges can't be manufactured by anyone else without infringing copyright.
The price of ink
Cartridge ink is more expensive than penicillin, human blood and nail varnish. Fact.
do people use printers that much
particularly at home I use mine more scanning than printing.
Imust have printed
a small rainforest for my degree coursework.
Just go to computer fayres
Cartridges are dirt cheap there. Of course, you'll have to get the right printer to match the cheapest cartridges. I once made 18 issues of a 32 page magazine doing that.
Penicillin is expensive
only if you buy the branded stuff. Same as printer ink. Here ink is a cheap as a generic pack of painkillers -> http://shop.ink.co.uk/
yes but the printer
company put chips on their catridges that mean you have problems using generic or refilled ones . i had some cartridges we bought when the company had some spare cash but our printer later claimed they were out of date and refused to print. I know there are work round sites etc but they usually need hours on line and you still end up with inky fingers.
Not my Canon
The warning software for when I'm about to run out still works with cheap ink.
King Camp Gillette
That is actually the inventor of the safety razor himself, Mr King Camp Gillette in 1901! Great name. He realised the money in things you just throw away when seling metal bottle tops. What a different age.
batteries
4 AA's - 8 euros. Nonsense.
Get em from IKEA
10 for a quid; AA or AAA
or buy rechargeables
I bet the £1 last five minutes.
Nope...
They're all I've ever bought for at least 5 years. They're as good as any other alkaline battery.
you do end up buying
a half tonne of meatballs and bookself evertime you go though! plus you need a car to shop at Ikea
Car?
I'm told that both the IKEA that I visit (Bristol and Cardiff) run courtesy buses for those without cars.
Magazines...
....I guess that's what subscriptions are for.....
Magazines aren’t overpriced
Compare what you pay for a magazine to what you pay for a paperback book.
Then compare how much it costs to assemble the material for, buy paper for, print and distribute them.
academic journals
is where the scam is the content is paid for by government (ie us) and given to the publishers for free who then sell it back to us in one case last week £137 for one edition even digital copies are are overpriced.
I think books are cheaper
When I break it down to "buy magazine, read magazine, put magazine into recycle bin", compared to "buy book, read book, put on shelf with other books, if book was enjoyed then re-read book, once, twice, three times etc", then magazines are way overpriced in comparison to books.
If you break it down to unit cost and compare that to cover price then they're much cheaper than books but books don't have advertising to reduce their price....
I bet very few books get re-read
by the inital buyer thinking about my own habits it must be down to 1 in 20. That being said you can get paperbacks for pence on ebay and in charity shops so books are cheaper.
Paperback books
I always thought these were abut a fiver until browsing this week. £10 and upwards - hitting hardback price levels. S'pose it's so they can do all the 3-for-2 offers and stuff. Luckily the High Teas book from that nice Mr Maconie was half-price.
Last book I bought
Just the other week was cover price of £6.99. Standard size paperback; companies are putting out odd sizes and trade size paperbacks more and more though, and those never seem to be less than £8.99.
“Capitalism” comes in for a lot of criticism
but one of its benefits is that you can’t rip people off for long. As long as there are proper rules about cartels etc. in place, if someone is genuinely overcharging for goods and services they will, before long, be undercut by someone offering something just as good for less.
In the case of razor blades the moral is not to fall for bullshit and branding. There are plenty of cheap razors you can buy that do the job just as well as heavily marketed “brand” products.
But Richard, I want the best a man can get!
I can look like David Beckham if I use the same razor as him! Obviously!
Shaving’s irksome enough
without knowing that with every stroke you’re chipping in to pay for David Beckham’s latest hideous tattoo.
I just thought... why didn't they employ Razor Ruddock?
apart from the fact that he looks like he's been on a diet of lager and pies for the last 10 years, he's perfect!
Has anyone mentioned...
... re shaving procedure - 'don't press too hard!'
Price of petrol
is an obsession in this fine land of ours. However when analysed it is less than half the price of a pint of beer.Funny how people dont complain about the price of their pint so vociferously.
Bet they will do
if it goes to 50p per unit
Does anyone actually know the price of a pint?
I haven't got a clue to be honest as I'm usually buying it with a round or some food.
I'm a wine drinker...
So I know that it usually costs £3 or less. Unless you happen to go to the Slug and Lettuce in Manchester, where it costs a Who-tastic £5.15. I had to ask if that came with the bottle as well.
Price of a Pint
Last pint I bought (several weeks ago,I don't get out much)cost me £2-80.Deuchars IPA it was.
Try an iPint
Mine was free and you can refill it a volonte. Only works if you like Carlsberg, mind.
Peanut butter
I swear there's a bloody conspiracy. Tesco and Sainsburies have now stopped selling own brand peanut butter - Tescos was fantastic and only 50p. I used to get through a jar a week at least. Sunpat peanut butter (the very worst brand of peanut butter - fact) in comparison is now £2.95. That's almost three quid! Six times the price of the Tesco value jar which you can no longer buy. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!!!
Sorry, I just eat a lot of peanut butter and I'm angry about it.
Get yourself down to Lidl…
Er… that's it.
why not make you own
bound to be cheaper!
http://www.peanutbutterlovers.com/recipes/food_proc_pb.html
Make it last longer
by mixing it with strawberry jam. Yum yum!
Eat Less!
Do you know how many calories there are in peanut butter?
Sainbury's own brand crunchy is good though and certainly not £2.95
I would rather be fat and wheezy...
..than live without peanut butter.
Good on you!
Enjoy it all, crunchy or smooth
I'm fed up of people telling us what to eat
Why not be a real rebel and have the stuff that's swirled with chocolate spread too. Or make your own by blending with Nutella or Green and Black's chocolate spread (which is overpriced, just so we stay on topic).
Live fast, die young.
Try this
http://www.meridianfoods.co.uk/index.asp?Dietry=Wheat%20Free&details=146
£3.40 last time I bought some
Nice
Peanut Butter Conspiracy reference in there :-)
http://open.spotify.com/album/4q35iTtumeBpC3mM1S9HKc for anyone who's interest has now been piqued
Cigarettes
keeping up the habit costs a bloody fortune and they're due to go up here again next month by about 50c.
I know
It's almost as if they want us to smoke less or something!
A loaf of Bread
seems to have got more and more expensive over the past 12 months. A loaf of Brennans in my local Centra has now hit the £1.50 mark.
So much for competition
A Warburton's Toastie loaf is £1.29 in all the big supermarkets.
The price of bread....?
WTF ?!
Dishwashing tablets
A disgrace. And they have it in cartons of 10, 22, 48 so you can't easily work out whether it is cheaper to buy in bulk.
Nappies
A disgrace. And again, they have them in confusing packs with varying amounts inside.
And they brand them "walker", "toddler", "infant", "small". When a kid gets to about 12 months, they are all of these things.
Better than our previous product
I always fall for the marketing blurb.
With razors, I am looking forward to the twenty bladed Gillette "Excalibur" with the one bladed "Control" still available to buy just across the shelf. The brilliance of Boots and their constant varying of Nurofen is also a marketing lesson. They still sell normal plain jenny Nurofen but for 50p extra you can have Nurofen "Express"...forgetting that some people really savour their headaches before they are zapped.
or you could buy generic Ibuprofen BP
for pennies - it's Nurofen without the logo
Yes..
and strangely enough it's also made by Boots
Well, given that anyone* can make a generic drug
it's hardly suprising that Boots make their own, especially as Boots discovered/developed Ibuprofen in the first place.
This doesn't change the fact that the market for generic drugs is huge and competitive and generic Ibuprofen BP is available for pennies almost everwhere (including Boots)
(*anyone licensed to make drugs, obv.)
You deserve a headache...
...if you're dumb enough to throw your money on a brand-name painkiller like Neurofen. Seriously, any fool knows that the own-label cheap shit is the same stuff? Don't they? And to think, these people are allowed to vote! WTF? As Alan Partridge might say: 'this country.'
Although
there is a link between brands and placebo effect. So your sort of right.....
Bloody car insurance!!
My son(17) will be sitting his driving test very soon and he has(or will soon have)a little Peugot 106 worth about £5oo. Third party insurance for this is £1500.
I'd be grateful for any info in getting cheaper insurance for him. I'm sure there'll be a part of the Massive who've already been there.
Initially we insured the car in my name...
...and put the kids as named drivers until they hit 20
be careful
The insurance companies have gotten wind of this trick, and have been known to refuse paying out if they have a strong feeling the car was used more by the kid than the policyholder.
Yes...
..thanks to Stimpy for the reply, but I'm with you on this DavidShep.
Anything car related
I never feel more ripped off than with car stuff: petrol, insurance, tax, MOTs, servicing, repairs....
how about buying a train tickets
and then ending up on a coach!
Train tickets full stop
Especially the line between London and Cardiff, any bloody journey along that stretch is just ridiculously pricey!
It's cheaper to hire a car for a week than it is to buy two return tickets from London to Bath. Stupid!
plus on my last journey
on that route I had to pay full fare for journey that was delayed by 40 minutes I never see why we should have to pay for full fare for delayed trains. You wouldn't pay full price for avloaf that was 35% mouldy. But I won't get on a public transport rant.
Cinema Popcorn....
Popcorn - the most profitable commodity on earth...
FACT!
(or at least generally considered opinion)
I don't see why anyone needs to eat at the cinema
there's no one in Britain who will die of malnutrition in the course of the 90 minutes gap between grazing.
The Word (a pop paper)
Just joking, David.
Water filter cartridges
My wife was given a Brita water filter jug for Christmas or her birthday (can't remember which). The jugs cost next to nothing, but the cartridges (which they claim need replacing every 3 weeks or so) are bloody dear. 3 for £10 in Sainsburys - and that was some kind of special offer. I can't see what's wrong with tap.
Time ain't cheap
and how much do I spend on this bloody thing. 73 new posts on razor fecking blades, read diligently one by bloody one........
(Another busy day at work, dear?)
Better Than Working
This. Isn't it.
Although...
Subject matter - Tic Tacs.
Task - a quantity vs price feasibility study.
Conclusion - one of the most insanely overpriced products ever.
I class the above exercise as work.
iTunes MP3s
OK, I know they're not MP3s, they're Apples proprietary format.
But really - £7.99 for something that costs virtually nothing to produce and distribute? I can't believe that anyone would pay that much for a download. Places like CDWow are cheaper for an actual CD, for goodness sake. Sent to your house. From Hong Kong.
You're paying for the music
not the physical artefact
Overpaying for the music
It's just a bizarre, ludicrously over-priced way to sell music. I honestly cannot understand how they get away with it.
I can't understand
why people buy i tunes downloads as well, and to be honest MP3s in general. Bit of detective work means you can usually find the equivalent cd for a similar price
Yes, but
I want it now! Downloading delivers instant gratification.
overpriced
I appear to have stumbled into Which magazine
Would that be...
Which Magazine? or
Which? Magazine?
Witch magazine
Difficult to find and expensive.
(Tugs his, um, warlock)
Sorry, more painful than the Glasgow dentist, back fleetingly this a.m., I saw, before Fraser booted him out again.
A desktop PC - 17" screen, tons of disk space...
...full size keyboard, mouse, speakers, loads of memory, full operating system - all for less than a sim-free iPhone
Cool...
Can you slip it in your pocket and make phone calls on it?
Not to mention the battery life is iffy
I don't eat a lot of chocolate
so when I bought a kit kat yesterday, I was gobsmacked to find it was 60p. That's 12 shilling etc etc.
An economist writes....
I know choccy bars are more expensive than you think they should be but in this instance you were ripped off. I like to think of myself as a kitkat expert as I buy one nearly daily (I'm sure I read somewhere that they're good for you!!....perhaps not.) and I normally pay 40p but a normal newsagent would normally charge about 48p. In a supermarket multipack you could pay as little as 25p each.
I was wondering where the Grumpy Old Men had gone...
Which of you is Rick Wakeman?
Fender guitars
Made by cheap labour from two pieces of wood screwed together.
The Mexican made Fenders, perhaps
The US made Fenders are made by expensive labour from two pieces of wood screwed together
The Custom Shop Fenders are made by craftsman luthiers from two pieces of wood screwed together