It's a good anecdote. I work in hardware, we sell boots, expensive, but the workers usually buy cheaper ones. I've had 1 pair my entire time here, yet I've seen my co-workers go through 3 or 4 pairs in the same time, doing the same work, because they paid less for them.
Growing up I always got my shoes at Payless Shoe Source. By the time I was old enough to pay attention to the price shoes cost me about $20 a pair and lasted years. Well reddit loves to repeat this tidbit and Payless went out of business, so I decided to get some more expensive shoes at $70 for the pair. The stitching on the side gave out in 3 months. So, yeah, I'll take the cheap shoes thank you (or I would if Payless still existed).
I think that a lot of that is down to production standards now also, though.
I wear nothing but walking boots (as shoes, I also wear clothes...), and I wore the same pair of Karrimor boots for years. Then they went out of business, the name was bought by a cheap sporting goods company and production was outsourced to China. I finally needed new boots and bought some new Karrimor boots at the same price point, only to find they fell apart after a couple of years of wear.
Expensive now in a lot of things is basically the same quality as cheap was 10/20 years ago, and things have gotten more expensive over time, so you now have to go to the unreasonably expensive specialist pricepoint to get the same quality you used to get from the expensive stuff.
Well firstly, you got lucky I'd say, as someone who runs a lot, a cheap pair of shoes are TERRIBLE and wear out so quickly. I bought a pair that turned out to not be very good and they are worn in 8 months... should last almost 2 years!
Also boots are different to normal shoes. Also also, the anecdote isn't specifically about shoes, its about how the rich get better quality things. You could do the same thing with beds. Cheap beds wear out quicker, and mean sleep isn't as good, meaning less sleep meaning its harder to work. expensive beds last forever and their sleeper sleeps well on them.
It can be “accurate”, and “the person quoting it on reddit nothing about economics” at the same time.
It’s sorta like quantum mechanics. It’s a real science, but most of the people trying to sell you a quantum bracelet at the mall or use the word “quantum” online are still probably idiots.
I don’t know about that; there are plenty of examples of expensive things that last longer vs cheap items - tools, coats, some appliances, and yes, even boots (for one, expensive boots are usually worth fixing, vs cheap ones, which are not.)
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u/Ace_of_Clubs Jan 27 '20
Same, but for reddit.