Comments on: Quality Costs

By: Christina

Christina — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:56:20 +0000

I never spend more than $10 on sunglasses. Every summer I hear at least 3 people I know complaining about how they lost their ($30, $60, $200) pair of sunglasses, and in the words of Gail, I give my head a shake. It seems the forces of the universe (those same forces that suck one sock in a pair out of the dryer when you close the door) love expensive things too. I’ve had the same pair of $10 sunglasses from Wal-Mart for the last 2 or 3 years now. The universe doesn’t seem to want them. Sure, they don’t come with a fancy hard-cover case and a little silk cloth to clean them with, but I can just as easily toss them in my purse and wipe them with the front of my shirt when I need to

By: Dianne

Dianne — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:35:58 +0000

Just a few thoughts:
My $300 watch tells time just as nicely as a Rolex
I know the quality difference between perfume and eau de toilette and don’t mind paying for it because I have only one
I have shoes that are expensive, but I also don’t have the quantity that are found in most womens closets and I take very good care of them
A $40 wine glass breaks just as nicely as a $5 wine glass
Do the research on the best under $20 wines and you will find some jems
We try to avoid as much disposable as possible in our lives (ie: old bed sheets are cut nicely and used in lieu of paper towel, The Keeper Cup and Lunapads are used in lieu of disposable)
Cloth napkins are also better quality than paper towel and look nicer on the table and once they are too soiled get relegated to the rag drawer
Quality for us also means being as gentle on the earth as we can
We don’t mind paying more for quality because we don’t have excess quantity
Cheers.

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:13:41 +0000

Many Large “brand-name” manufacturers have a “generic” line that is made in the same factory as their top of the line using the same components. I have “whirpool” washer and dryer…….yes they say inglis on them and Inglis is a “lower whirpool line followed by roper which I had for years. I buy mostly generic unless the family doesn’t like the taste but they don’t know ahead of time whether it is brand name or not.
The main things I NEVER buy generic are : Ketchup (has to be heinz), fem hygiene products, mac and cheese and thousand Island dressing ( the only dressing out of the 4 that I buy that is runny like water when I switched to generic) and toothpaste,
Personally I don’t see the fascination of costco. There were 3 things cheaper in Costco on my one trip and for the $1.50 I would have saved I would have spent more in gas getting there! I guess it depends on what you buy though. A close GF swears by shopping at safeway which is cheaper for her but for my family I shop at Sobeys….but only on 10% Tuesday!

By: jrochest

jrochest — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:41:06 +0000

Oh, and Eleni — Every time I go into Costco I spend 300 dollars (the Dyson vacuum, ie) so it’s not all that great for saving money for me. But they have fabulous underwear and towels.

By: jrochest

jrochest — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:38:31 +0000

Expensive stuff: knives & good pots are worth it. Certain clothing items, like shoes (I can walk in shoes made in Brazil, Spain, Italy or France: cannot walk in shoes made in China. No matter how cute they are, I can’t buy them) and handbags. Toiletries: face soap (goatsmilk from Mudlark,now must be ordered from internet and I still do it), tampons & toilet paper. Food: cat food from the vet, coffee, fruit, bread. Vacuum is a DYSON, and always will be.

Cheap-happy stuff: clothes. Once I realized that my H&M suits were as well made and much more fun than the suits from Holts, I stopped going into Holts. When I’ve paid off my student loans, maybe. Furniture: all from thrift stores, all recovered and refinished: better quality and more fun than most affordable new stuff. Appliances: all used, all work fine. Car: always used, when I have one at all.

By: Ajana

Ajana — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:40:25 +0000

This entry made me smile as I had just read the article “Buyer Beware: The Many Ways Retailers Can Trick You” on the Live Science website. It’s opening sentence says: “Shoppers do crazy things. And retailers bank on it.”

Having read The Undercover Economist (Harford) and part the way through Consumed (Barber), I figure I’m getting savvy to the ways of evil marketers… er shops, etc. use to get money out of me.

I was buying a fairly inexpensive face cream from a chain store counter when the salesperson told me that if I spent another US$30 (equiv.) I could get a FREE gift (tautologous). I pointed out that this FREE gift would actually cost me $30. The salesperson just didn’t get this concept! “No it’s free.” “No to get it I must give you $30.” Whoosh!

Turning down ‘free’ things can really throw some salespeople here (Hong Kong) because folks here will queue for hours to get something ‘free’, even if poor quality with no monetary value.

IMO, there is nothing that is really free. Everything has a cost - money, time, space, etc. Now I estimate what that cost is before I buy/accept it… except free luxury chocolate samples because that goes without saying.

By: Eleni

Eleni — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:38:14 +0000

brand names only products:
toilet paper, dish soap, body soap, laundry detergent, aluminum foil, q-tips, batteries, and Fruit of the Loom or Hanes for socks and underwear

I don’t mind generic: Paper towels, feminine hygiene stuff, granola bars, some cereal, mozarella or cheddar cheese, zip-lock baggies, frozen veggies, canned tuna

I joined Costco last month, and the best deal I’ve found so far was on the Kitty Litter - 22.7 kg (that’s 50 freakin pounds!) for only $8.69. It’s a brand I’ve never heard of, and I prefer it over the Maxx brand.

I know that a lot of food that is generic is actually manufactured by the big brands. It’s probably the same for other industries as well.

I’ve also learned through experience that cheap shoes aren’t worth it - unless it’s a cheap pair of flip flops that will only be worn a few hours a year at the beach.

Umbrellas - it seems that the expensive good quality umbrellas always get lost of forgotten in a restaurant or something. So I now insist on only cheap flimsy umbrellas.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:20:02 +0000

I just wrote on my blog the other day about my solution to curtains. I had a 9′ x 5′ section of windows I wanted to get curtains for to replace my defunct roman blinds and allow me to let more light into my family room. I bought two $10 table clothes, a $10 curtain rod, and a $4 worth of curtain rings (that have alligator clips on the them) and now have have a very pretty set of “curtains” without any sewing. Leaving the store, I saw the same brand, pattern, material, colour curtain panel, that was even a bit smaller than one of my table clothes, go for $26 a piece. All together, I paid $34 plus tax for a window treatment that would have cost easily double otherwise.

I BATTLE over “cheese” in my house. My husband HATES “fake” cheese, and DESPISED store brand cheese, until I finally made him perform a taste test. The rules were, if he picked the “name brand” cheese from the “no name brand”, I got to pick which cheese we picked up next time.

Guess who won?

And, finally, I was able to prove to the lifemate that cheap coffee made well is far better than expensive import coffee if you have someone that knows what they’re doing at the helm.

And I have yet to find a brand of laundry soap that works better and hurts my skin less than Purex, which is usually cheaper than the store brand where I shop.

I got my favourite body spray, plus the matching body lotion, for $.99 at a Liquidation World today. It’s wonderful stuff.

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:10:59 +0000

Certainly more expensive shoes are definitely better (Hush Puppies, Nine West). I have a pair of Hush Puppies which I took for repair more than a few times in the last 3 years. The shoe repair people told me that those shoes should last at least 5 years, despite walking on them every day. I can’t help destroy the heals, however, because the way I walk. But it costs less to buy a comfortable pair for about $100 and then take them for repair for $15 a year, than buying a pair every six months for $40 or 50?

However, I do find buying Prada for $500+ a pair a bit too much.

By: Cat

Cat — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:51:26 +0000

Purina Maxx Multi-cat clumping litter. When I switched over to it I thought it helped with the litter box smell and it was easier to scoop, and it was only $4 more expensive than the regular Equality brand I was buying.

But the expensive stuff caused my one cat to have bowel issues. My vet thought it was a food allergy, so my cat was put on a pricey diet ($70 for a 10lb bag of kibble that my cats could inhale in 3 weeks), plus the cost of a couple of visits and medication. Eventually I realized the symptoms coincided with new litter, but not after a couple of months of my kitty’s suffering and $300+ in vet bills.

Needless to say, I’m back to using Equality clumping cat sand.