The Razors‐and‐Blades Myth

[farnamstreet]

Thought this was pretty interesting.

http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/the-razorsandblades-myth

[mpauls]

My friend, I once again agree.  Very interesting, Good stuff.

[turar]

Was this considered in the research?

  ;D

It works for me so far.

[oldye]

Gillette sent me a free mach 3 razor when I turned 18...I've been using them ever since and have probably spent about 400-500$ on blades...not a bad return on the 2-3$ investment they made.  The few times I've tried other brands/electric I've been extremely disappointed and simply won't trust my face to anything other than Gillette.   

[nodnub]

I agree that there is little or no switching cost but people tend to stick with what they are used to.  I am using the same gillette razor type that I started shaving on: Sensor Excel. I have tried Mach 3 etc but I prefer the Sensor series. I have tried other brands, Wilkinson Sword or Schick (received free handle/razor pack once or twice). I didn't like it as much and ended up throwing it away after a while.

 

I think most guys stick with the same brand, and within that, stay with the same razor model, for many years. Even though the economic switching cost is almost zero. 

 

 

[Guest longinvestor]

I suspect that Gillette carefully engineers the blades with the metric "cost per shave" by pre-determining the end-of-useful-life while rationing the improved shaving comfort in measured quantities with each new model release. I often stand in front of the razor shelf at Sams Club studying the prices of the 3 generations of blades from Gillette. I have not put them into a spreadsheet, maybe I should. The story is unlikely to change.