I’ve always seen it that on average everyone got okay with buying cheap shit because of how bullet proof the more expensive stuff was: “okay it won’t last quite as long, but it’s less than half the price”
Over time, more and more people go for the lower end of the market and the high end starts to compromise on quality in order to compete and not become entirely irrelevant.
Eventually, the market is saturated at a given quality level and the cycle continues again because humans are idiots and the dopamine hit of “getting a good deal” can easily override a lot of more rational reasoning.
There are a few brands out there that do still build to a high (and repairable) standard. Funnily this topic came up the other day on here about Miele stuff, and generally they are still pretty high standard today.
If you’re in the market for a new appliance, the best strategy seems to be, find a local repairman for whatever it is you’re looking to buy (or maybe see if you can find a repair community online) and just ask which are the best built brands and then go and buy something from their middle or high end. Never bother with the low end, even with an otherwise good manufacturer.
Obviously, and this is the kicker, this can be prohibitively expensive for many people, so manufacturers probably will continue to be incentivised to race to the bottom.
I’ve always seen it that on average everyone got okay with buying cheap shit because of how bullet proof the more expensive stuff was: “okay it won’t last quite as long, but it’s less than half the price”
Over time, more and more people go for the lower end of the market and the high end starts to compromise on quality in order to compete and not become entirely irrelevant.
Eventually, the market is saturated at a given quality level and the cycle continues again because humans are idiots and the dopamine hit of “getting a good deal” can easily override a lot of more rational reasoning.
There are a few brands out there that do still build to a high (and repairable) standard. Funnily this topic came up the other day on here about Miele stuff, and generally they are still pretty high standard today.
If you’re in the market for a new appliance, the best strategy seems to be, find a local repairman for whatever it is you’re looking to buy (or maybe see if you can find a repair community online) and just ask which are the best built brands and then go and buy something from their middle or high end. Never bother with the low end, even with an otherwise good manufacturer.
Obviously, and this is the kicker, this can be prohibitively expensive for many people, so manufacturers probably will continue to be incentivised to race to the bottom.