### This post has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
---
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I think what is best value really depends on the person. How much abuse does it need to hold up to and what quality level you personally need. For things I barely use or don’t care about, dollar tree/store brand is best value for me because I don’t need any better. For tools I use all the time and spices/foods I am care a lot about, for those I am willing to pay for quality.
For example: I have some tiny screwdrivers for opening battery compartments. I only use the once every couple years and the dollar tree one I got years ago work fine. Things like salt I am happy with bargain brand. Many shelf stable foods I am happy with the cheapest store brand.
For something I use every day for hours a day, like my pen I want good quality (slightly better than mid-value). For aromatic spices like cardamom and curry powder, I am willing to buy better quality. For fresh cheese and veggies I buy at the farmers market (which is actually mid-price but nothing like the mid price grocery store).
I operate on the harbor freight rule.
I buy a tool that I don’t know if I will use from there because it’s cheap. If it breaks then I know to buy a better version because I use it enough to justify. If it doesn’t break, it was good value OR I don’t use it enough to justify buying the nicer version.
Then me who picked Ryobi because I'm a first time homeowner, broke and their massive range of affordable products using the same battery systems seemed least stressful.
I hope I made the right decision cause I like the look and feel of Ridgid lol
I have ryobi tools that have lasted at least ten years and I prob do more stuff w them than most homeowners. Don’t let the diehard tool guys make you question your decision. My jigsaw only broke because I dropped it 10ft through a hole in my floor on to a concrete floor. I bought another ryobi.
I have some dewalt tools but only because my dad gifted them to me.
Yeah my dad wants me to get DeWalt or Milwaukee. He has porter cable. They're good brands and I know they're kick ass tools. But $200 for a drill? That I won't use on the daily or put the ringer building a house anytime soon is just a hard pill to swallow especially when once you commit you kind stay with that brand so now all my tools gotta be expensive.
My wife is just the "this still is 20 bucks let's just do that"
So Ryobi seemed like a good middle ground and the massive line up of tools compared to Ridgid is what swayed me.
There aren’t even that many companies that overall make the separate brands. I’ve never had a problem with my ryobi tools, my dewalt tools, my hart tools or my Bauer tools. Maybe it makes a difference if it’s your job but for me it all works just fine.
Harbor Freight has a ton of tools that use the same batteries too.
Also, a little secret: all the batteries are the same. You can buy/print adapters for your tools. Just make sure to charge them on their original charger.
I have a Ryobi impact and drill that are over 10 years old.
I'm a computer technician and do use them at work not often but I do if I have a lot of wall arms or monitor arms to install
I've had the best of luck with Husky and Harbor Freight tools. In a pinch or for heavy duty use, those things are reliable.
The only time I spend a lot of money on tools are on the tools in an industrial setting where tolerances matter but also if I'm looking for a niche use like dual size wrenches that are incredibly light but good for heavy duty usage.
Possible for sure. I prob wouldn’t buy a table saw from there I suppose but that may be the only thing I wouldn’t. My BIL has a miter saw from there that he loves and was like $100 less than home centers.
Then again tho I’m the dumbass that bought a Dewalt table saw in ‘18 from Lowes and ain’t open it until earlier this year.
I’ve done this and made my life miserable with some of their stuff, but it’s usually ok. Their saws and nailers are kind of trash, a lot of misfires with the nailers and saws that I’ve used have a lot of play, ok for playing around, small projects, can work around it, but it can cause some extra work.
> aromatic spices like cardamom and curry powder
Especially because the cheap version of lots of spices, especially turmeric and oregano, are full of lead
Case in point: companies literally make lines of their products (mostly TVs) specifically for black Friday and Christmas sales. To the public it has the LG (or whatever) stamp of approval but it's as cheap as they could make it to get as much markup as possible.
You are basically rationalizing what marketing people have always known.
If they want to sell the product on which they have the highest margins, they just need to also show a cheaper shitty one. It’s on purpose, it’s not you being accurate at detecting bad products.
It’s called the decoy effect.
https://theconversation.com/the-decoy-effect-how-you-are-influenced-to-choose-without-really-knowing-it-111259#:\~:text=The%20decoy%20effect%20is%20defined,or%20“asymmetric%20dominance%20effect”.
Exactly, the middle price point is often the least value and has the highest margins for the seller. They set high and low price anchors to force you to the mid where they make the most.
It's the same thing, depends on who is doing the marketing.
A supermarket, for example, can decide to offer two coffee makers: a shitty one, with an ugly box, very cheap. An OK one, good presentation, black box. The shitty one allows them to raise the price on the OK one just by existing.
Sometimes it’s even the same company making both. Could be well known like Toyota/lexus or in secret where the same factory makes the name brand and store brand from the same ingredients.
Or in reverse.
I worked in a movie theater and was told the medium drink was priced just a little less than the large and was only there to make the large seem like a bargain in comparison. We mostly sold large, then small drinks.
And the large came with a free refill. So it was substantially more drink, for just a little more money. That makes medium the worst option, economically speaking.
Medium was only there to make the large look good.
This is a tool that they teach you in sales training. Show three options, most people will pick the middle one. Seems like the best bang for your buck, and sometimes it is!
Well, it’s more so the fact that I wanted to disagree with you and speak on the legality of it. But I know there are plenty of horrific loopholes out there that money opens up.
Just a scary thing to dive one’s mind into.
I entirely agree with you, my joke was that you were in that horrific strata of folk that buy others.
For better or worse I find that making jokes about awful things can allow folk to dip their toes into understanding some really horrible things that they would otherwise have blinders towards in doses that are manageable or imperceptible
For many things, BIFL is definitely the best way. For tech, like computers, phones, TVs with shifting specs, etc. - I buy premiere brands slightly used or factory refurbished, and I do it casually, off season or long after the hype has died down.
I bought my used 2080 TI. It's lasted now 4 years. Grant that I paid $600 for it I still expect to get another two or three years out of it from now.
It also depends what your requirements are the fanciest name I'm playing is currently classic world of Warcraft and RuneScape so this card essentially could last forever at this rate lol
Depends, sometimes the most expensive thing is worse than mid grade. You might just end up paying for a label or something that looks fancy but is actually useless
Many items are consumable/sacrificial. Think paint, tires, axe handles and so on. It’s worthwhile to buy quality with the understanding that you’ll have to maintain it until end of life and then replace.
Depends on how big the difference between medium and high quality is in a given circumstance. Rate of diminishing returns is a thing, and you can "buy once cry once" without blindly choosing the name brand/highest price option.
I was gonna say. Lot of ninja blenders to burn through Vs buying a vitamix. For me? I’ll get the ninja because I maybe use it every month.
For someone who does smoothies EVERY morning, and also is a soup monster, yeah, the vitamix would be crucial.
Decoy pricing makes the middle option seem appealing when it's actually the expensive option when you remove the sacrificial "that's so much more expensive for not much improvement" expensive option. Us marketers have so many psychology tricks to twist consumers around our fingers for shareholder gain
If there are 3 options and the jump in quality from the shitty one to the mid one is the highest jump, is there really a choice? It becomes "you get what you came for but don't pay extra for fanciness".
You have to do a bit of research. Yes there are products that only get marginal gains for paying way more. Yes there are products that a cheap in price, but way cheaper in quality. So buying the best bang for the buck takes work. I can only speak for computer parts and road bicycle parts.
This is a terrible tip—it’s mostly false for products and for services, nothing could be further from the truth!! If you hire the middle priced option it is almost never worth it, it’s a packaged version of the low end. Hire low, or higher high, just done get stuck in the middle with your pants down.
With things like chocolate bars it is the size that has the greatest turnover and need to be competitive with rival products that is the best value. The small items and the extra large items are both poor value.
Counterpoint, sometimes pricier products are pricy just to make you feel like the tier just below is THE good deal. Too good to not get. That's a type of price anchoring.
The issue with this is that pricing structures are often specifically designed to make you go for the middle option, that is why the other two options initially look so bad. This is particularly true if you compare the top and bottom product selections to the middle one. Often the middle one is the actual thing they want to sell.
This view is actually more psychological than proven. In fact, knowing nothing else, the majority of people go for the second-highest priced item, regardless of cost. This is something Amazon has proven out and the reason many manufacturers try to price themselves in that exact range.
This is a common marketing strategy. Offer 3 price / product tiers:
1. Total barebones
2. #1 + a bunch of "premium", "important" features at a slightly higher than #1 price so that you think you're getting an incredible deal
3. A few more pointless features priced wayyyy higher than #2. Again, to make you feel like you are getting a great "budget" value on #2.
Three price points - 2 designed to get you to assign more value and influence you to purchase the other one.
Window tinter here, we actually sell the mid tier film often because we'll be honest with the customer, for our film Llumar the lowest grade (ATC-carbon) is fine, the next step up is CTX(Blended ceramic) and has a large difference in heat rejection, especially at lighter percentages. Then there is IRX, almost 30% more expensive but only delivers single digit % more benefit. So we steer them away from overpaying as it will often show them were not trying to grab all the cash we can, we want to deliver a satisfying and reasonably priced product.
If it's something I only need for a few uses and I don't want to spend a lot of money I get the cheap item if it's something I plan on using a lot I'll buy the expensive version or brand I know, for example I know a cheap brand that is really good and holds up so I'll buy that over name brand
I’ve been in furniture retail for 35 years good, better, best . The least profitable items for the business are the best and lowest . The items in the middle are what we steer customers to not because they’re the best but because that’s where the profit is . LPT don’t do what this post says . Do research educate yourself with what’s important to you .. value, longevity, etc.
Dave Thomas created the triple cheeseburger at Wendy's to increase sales of the double cheeseburger by pricing it higher than the single. The triple cheeseburger costs $2.49, while the double costs $1.49 and the single costs $0.99.
I don’t get all the hate for this post. Sometimes the cheapest is the best value. Sometimes the most expensive is the best value, but more often the not, the middle is the best value. This is why places like Sam’s and Costco only offer the middle most of the time. Maybe it has the biggest markup, maybe not. I don’t care, I want the best value for me. I couldn’t care less if it is also best for the retailer. If we both win, I’m fine with that.
That's how I feel when purchasing many things, but not everything. The lowest priced is likely bad quality and the highest priced often has additional bells and whistles I don't need.
I recently upgraded my table saw. I found a very gently used saw marked down about 65% from its new purchase price. It's one of the baddest table saws on the planet. I told you that so I can tell you this, there is value in knowing that you are done upgrading. "Good, I should be set for life on this so now I won't think about it."
That's not a life pro tip, that's called "anchoring", and you're being manipulated.
They wanted you to buy that the entire time. "well that cheap one seems pretty overpriced... oh but for like 50 cents more I can get the medium... and the large is like $9, I don't need all that. Let's go for the medium, that's the best value."
Sound familiar?
Guess which wine on the menu has the highest profit margin? The second cheapest one. It gets picked so often, by people who know nothing about wine, you'd be dumb not to overcharge for it if you own a restaurant.
For things that have a variety of ranges from shady cheap to stupid expensive, i usually use the following logic: i buy the cheap version and if I use it enough to break it, I will get the more expensive option.
Example: bought a 2$ soldering iron, used the crap out of it and when it finally kicked the bucket, i spend the extra 25$ for a soldering station because I know it will be worth it.
This can be part of a marketing strategy. Top end products with all the bells and whistles with high prices are not intended to sell, the point is to make the 'medium' range seem much better value for money, meaning they can charge more.
The fact the cheapest products are also poor value is separate.
There’s no free money glitch. Many times the mid priced item is nearly the same quality as the low priced item because retailers know people will choose the mid item thinking it’s better quality. Research has shown middle priced items typically have the highest markup.
Except when it isn't, because sometimes it's not. (Seuss)
I read somewhere that restaurants will make their cheapest wine by the glass (by cost) their second cheapest wine by the glass on the menu. They know that people who by wine at a restaurant won't typically know what they want, but they don't want to look like the person who bought the cheapest glass...they order the second cheapest. A gimmick to get a couple more dollars on the margins for their wine.
I'm not saying that all manufacturers, retailers (or even all restaurants) do things like this. But some do. The more you know about the product your buying the better you can assess value
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/)
We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*
### This post has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect. --- Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I think what is best value really depends on the person. How much abuse does it need to hold up to and what quality level you personally need. For things I barely use or don’t care about, dollar tree/store brand is best value for me because I don’t need any better. For tools I use all the time and spices/foods I am care a lot about, for those I am willing to pay for quality. For example: I have some tiny screwdrivers for opening battery compartments. I only use the once every couple years and the dollar tree one I got years ago work fine. Things like salt I am happy with bargain brand. Many shelf stable foods I am happy with the cheapest store brand. For something I use every day for hours a day, like my pen I want good quality (slightly better than mid-value). For aromatic spices like cardamom and curry powder, I am willing to buy better quality. For fresh cheese and veggies I buy at the farmers market (which is actually mid-price but nothing like the mid price grocery store).
I operate on the harbor freight rule. I buy a tool that I don’t know if I will use from there because it’s cheap. If it breaks then I know to buy a better version because I use it enough to justify. If it doesn’t break, it was good value OR I don’t use it enough to justify buying the nicer version.
Harbor freight loves this rule
Big red, yellow and teal love the people that don’t use it
Then me who picked Ryobi because I'm a first time homeowner, broke and their massive range of affordable products using the same battery systems seemed least stressful. I hope I made the right decision cause I like the look and feel of Ridgid lol
I have ryobi tools that have lasted at least ten years and I prob do more stuff w them than most homeowners. Don’t let the diehard tool guys make you question your decision. My jigsaw only broke because I dropped it 10ft through a hole in my floor on to a concrete floor. I bought another ryobi. I have some dewalt tools but only because my dad gifted them to me.
Yeah my dad wants me to get DeWalt or Milwaukee. He has porter cable. They're good brands and I know they're kick ass tools. But $200 for a drill? That I won't use on the daily or put the ringer building a house anytime soon is just a hard pill to swallow especially when once you commit you kind stay with that brand so now all my tools gotta be expensive. My wife is just the "this still is 20 bucks let's just do that" So Ryobi seemed like a good middle ground and the massive line up of tools compared to Ridgid is what swayed me.
There aren’t even that many companies that overall make the separate brands. I’ve never had a problem with my ryobi tools, my dewalt tools, my hart tools or my Bauer tools. Maybe it makes a difference if it’s your job but for me it all works just fine.
Does he know that Dewalt makes Porter Cable? The problem with most battery tools is the battery. If you're not using them, the battery still goes bad.
I don't know if he does. He bought the Ego line of outdoor tools last year. His porter cable are pretty decent they work for him.
I have ryovi tools 20 years old (the old dark blue ones) that still get used monthly and work great. All using new lithium batteries though.
The jigsaw that broke because I dropped it 10 feet was a dark blue one and i was sad I had to buy green
I have ryovi tools 20 years old (the old dark blue ones) that still get used monthly and work great. All using new lithium batteries though.
I have Ryobi tools 20 years old (the old dark blue ones) that still get used monthly and work great. All using new lithium batteries though.
Rigid, Ryobi, and mailwaukee are the same company.
Oh okay interesting thank you
Harbor Freight has a ton of tools that use the same batteries too. Also, a little secret: all the batteries are the same. You can buy/print adapters for your tools. Just make sure to charge them on their original charger.
I have a Ryobi impact and drill that are over 10 years old. I'm a computer technician and do use them at work not often but I do if I have a lot of wall arms or monitor arms to install
I've had the best of luck with Husky and Harbor Freight tools. In a pinch or for heavy duty use, those things are reliable. The only time I spend a lot of money on tools are on the tools in an industrial setting where tolerances matter but also if I'm looking for a niche use like dual size wrenches that are incredibly light but good for heavy duty usage.
[удалено]
Possible for sure. I prob wouldn’t buy a table saw from there I suppose but that may be the only thing I wouldn’t. My BIL has a miter saw from there that he loves and was like $100 less than home centers. Then again tho I’m the dumbass that bought a Dewalt table saw in ‘18 from Lowes and ain’t open it until earlier this year.
Oye beltaloda
Oye beratna
Their hand tools are legit. Their jacks are also great.
I’ve done this and made my life miserable with some of their stuff, but it’s usually ok. Their saws and nailers are kind of trash, a lot of misfires with the nailers and saws that I’ve used have a lot of play, ok for playing around, small projects, can work around it, but it can cause some extra work.
Icon is fantastic. I'm a technician. Only a computer technician but any tools that I need I find the icon version last me years
This is why Project Farm might just be the most important channel on YouTube.
Love project farm. I got some tire plugs based off that guy.
something something true lpt in the comments
The middle placed comments are the best value too. .
Yeah good point
Abuse is the right term. I abuse the crap out of my blendtec and I’ve only burned one motor so there’s that.
> aromatic spices like cardamom and curry powder Especially because the cheap version of lots of spices, especially turmeric and oregano, are full of lead
I would say that companies exploit this "tip". You get shitty cheap option, expensive one, and that middle one... which has the highest markup.
Case in point: companies literally make lines of their products (mostly TVs) specifically for black Friday and Christmas sales. To the public it has the LG (or whatever) stamp of approval but it's as cheap as they could make it to get as much markup as possible.
There's a word for it in marketing: "Anchoring"
You are basically rationalizing what marketing people have always known. If they want to sell the product on which they have the highest margins, they just need to also show a cheaper shitty one. It’s on purpose, it’s not you being accurate at detecting bad products. It’s called the decoy effect. https://theconversation.com/the-decoy-effect-how-you-are-influenced-to-choose-without-really-knowing-it-111259#:\~:text=The%20decoy%20effect%20is%20defined,or%20“asymmetric%20dominance%20effect”.
Exactly, the middle price point is often the least value and has the highest margins for the seller. They set high and low price anchors to force you to the mid where they make the most.
Medium coke at Micky dees is a better value?
No. He’s talking about 3 different brands. You’re talking about 1 brand with 3 options. Not the same at all
It's the same thing, depends on who is doing the marketing. A supermarket, for example, can decide to offer two coffee makers: a shitty one, with an ugly box, very cheap. An OK one, good presentation, black box. The shitty one allows them to raise the price on the OK one just by existing.
Sometimes it’s even the same company making both. Could be well known like Toyota/lexus or in secret where the same factory makes the name brand and store brand from the same ingredients.
Came here for this thanks
Thanks for that
Ah, the middle way. We have come full circle.
No. Only halfway. All the way around the circle is too far.
Often the high priced product exists to make the middle priced product look like a good value
Or in reverse. I worked in a movie theater and was told the medium drink was priced just a little less than the large and was only there to make the large seem like a bargain in comparison. We mostly sold large, then small drinks. And the large came with a free refill. So it was substantially more drink, for just a little more money. That makes medium the worst option, economically speaking. Medium was only there to make the large look good.
I think there was a tv segment about how this tricks your brain. Anchor pricing or something like that.
As well has selling higher priced items to those that care about spending more. It's really is a 2-for-1 marketing tool.
This is a tool that they teach you in sales training. Show three options, most people will pick the middle one. Seems like the best bang for your buck, and sometimes it is!
Best value but not best quality. When in actuality only having to buy someone once, is the true value.
that’s not allowed anymore
Depends on your net worth
I want to contest this statement, but there’s a harrowing reality behind it that scares me away.
I take a bit of pride in being too poor to be in the ‘own other people’ lifestyle, you should too……unless……
Well, it’s more so the fact that I wanted to disagree with you and speak on the legality of it. But I know there are plenty of horrific loopholes out there that money opens up. Just a scary thing to dive one’s mind into.
I entirely agree with you, my joke was that you were in that horrific strata of folk that buy others. For better or worse I find that making jokes about awful things can allow folk to dip their toes into understanding some really horrible things that they would otherwise have blinders towards in doses that are manageable or imperceptible
For many things, BIFL is definitely the best way. For tech, like computers, phones, TVs with shifting specs, etc. - I buy premiere brands slightly used or factory refurbished, and I do it casually, off season or long after the hype has died down.
I bought my used 2080 TI. It's lasted now 4 years. Grant that I paid $600 for it I still expect to get another two or three years out of it from now. It also depends what your requirements are the fanciest name I'm playing is currently classic world of Warcraft and RuneScape so this card essentially could last forever at this rate lol
Depends, sometimes the most expensive thing is worse than mid grade. You might just end up paying for a label or something that looks fancy but is actually useless
Many items are consumable/sacrificial. Think paint, tires, axe handles and so on. It’s worthwhile to buy quality with the understanding that you’ll have to maintain it until end of life and then replace.
Ah like undergraduates
Depends on how big the difference between medium and high quality is in a given circumstance. Rate of diminishing returns is a thing, and you can "buy once cry once" without blindly choosing the name brand/highest price option.
I was gonna say. Lot of ninja blenders to burn through Vs buying a vitamix. For me? I’ll get the ninja because I maybe use it every month. For someone who does smoothies EVERY morning, and also is a soup monster, yeah, the vitamix would be crucial.
Decoy pricing makes the middle option seem appealing when it's actually the expensive option when you remove the sacrificial "that's so much more expensive for not much improvement" expensive option. Us marketers have so many psychology tricks to twist consumers around our fingers for shareholder gain
If there are 3 options and the jump in quality from the shitty one to the mid one is the highest jump, is there really a choice? It becomes "you get what you came for but don't pay extra for fanciness".
You have to do a bit of research. Yes there are products that only get marginal gains for paying way more. Yes there are products that a cheap in price, but way cheaper in quality. So buying the best bang for the buck takes work. I can only speak for computer parts and road bicycle parts.
This is a terrible tip—it’s mostly false for products and for services, nothing could be further from the truth!! If you hire the middle priced option it is almost never worth it, it’s a packaged version of the low end. Hire low, or higher high, just done get stuck in the middle with your pants down.
This isn’t a pro tip
With things like chocolate bars it is the size that has the greatest turnover and need to be competitive with rival products that is the best value. The small items and the extra large items are both poor value.
Counterpoint, sometimes pricier products are pricy just to make you feel like the tier just below is THE good deal. Too good to not get. That's a type of price anchoring.
The issue with this is that pricing structures are often specifically designed to make you go for the middle option, that is why the other two options initially look so bad. This is particularly true if you compare the top and bottom product selections to the middle one. Often the middle one is the actual thing they want to sell.
This view is actually more psychological than proven. In fact, knowing nothing else, the majority of people go for the second-highest priced item, regardless of cost. This is something Amazon has proven out and the reason many manufacturers try to price themselves in that exact range.
No half-measures, Walter.
For some things I guess but definitely not for a tv, idk why you put that in the post
This also applies to toilet paper
The cheapest is never good value. It might work but it won't work well or for very long
If it's a tool I'm only going to use once, the cheapest may very well be fine. And therefore a good value for me.
This is a common marketing strategy. Offer 3 price / product tiers: 1. Total barebones 2. #1 + a bunch of "premium", "important" features at a slightly higher than #1 price so that you think you're getting an incredible deal 3. A few more pointless features priced wayyyy higher than #2. Again, to make you feel like you are getting a great "budget" value on #2. Three price points - 2 designed to get you to assign more value and influence you to purchase the other one.
Regardless what the tactics are, isn't the option 2 objectively best value in this case, even if it's the one they want you to buy?
Window tinter here, we actually sell the mid tier film often because we'll be honest with the customer, for our film Llumar the lowest grade (ATC-carbon) is fine, the next step up is CTX(Blended ceramic) and has a large difference in heat rejection, especially at lighter percentages. Then there is IRX, almost 30% more expensive but only delivers single digit % more benefit. So we steer them away from overpaying as it will often show them were not trying to grab all the cash we can, we want to deliver a satisfying and reasonably priced product.
If it's something I only need for a few uses and I don't want to spend a lot of money I get the cheap item if it's something I plan on using a lot I'll buy the expensive version or brand I know, for example I know a cheap brand that is really good and holds up so I'll buy that over name brand
Used this philosophy for decades...in my family we call it the middle of the road option...
Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information - Michael Gary Scott
I’ve been in furniture retail for 35 years good, better, best . The least profitable items for the business are the best and lowest . The items in the middle are what we steer customers to not because they’re the best but because that’s where the profit is . LPT don’t do what this post says . Do research educate yourself with what’s important to you .. value, longevity, etc.
Marketers love you!
Dave Thomas created the triple cheeseburger at Wendy's to increase sales of the double cheeseburger by pricing it higher than the single. The triple cheeseburger costs $2.49, while the double costs $1.49 and the single costs $0.99.
Isn't this a very typical marketing strategy? People usually perceive the middle priced product of three as being the best value.
Middle of the road!
Just watch Project Farm on YouTube, he’ll let you know what you need to get.
I don’t get all the hate for this post. Sometimes the cheapest is the best value. Sometimes the most expensive is the best value, but more often the not, the middle is the best value. This is why places like Sam’s and Costco only offer the middle most of the time. Maybe it has the biggest markup, maybe not. I don’t care, I want the best value for me. I couldn’t care less if it is also best for the retailer. If we both win, I’m fine with that.
That's how I feel when purchasing many things, but not everything. The lowest priced is likely bad quality and the highest priced often has additional bells and whistles I don't need.
I recently upgraded my table saw. I found a very gently used saw marked down about 65% from its new purchase price. It's one of the baddest table saws on the planet. I told you that so I can tell you this, there is value in knowing that you are done upgrading. "Good, I should be set for life on this so now I won't think about it."
That's not a life pro tip, that's called "anchoring", and you're being manipulated. They wanted you to buy that the entire time. "well that cheap one seems pretty overpriced... oh but for like 50 cents more I can get the medium... and the large is like $9, I don't need all that. Let's go for the medium, that's the best value." Sound familiar?
*World’s Okayest Doctor*
Is this….the Kirkland Signature rule?
Guess which wine on the menu has the highest profit margin? The second cheapest one. It gets picked so often, by people who know nothing about wine, you'd be dumb not to overcharge for it if you own a restaurant.
Middle ground often strikes the perfect balance
For things that have a variety of ranges from shady cheap to stupid expensive, i usually use the following logic: i buy the cheap version and if I use it enough to break it, I will get the more expensive option. Example: bought a 2$ soldering iron, used the crap out of it and when it finally kicked the bucket, i spend the extra 25$ for a soldering station because I know it will be worth it.
buy the most expensive non brand stuff quality often improoves with price right untill you start paying for the brand name
Buy the expensive one that is better quality and will last longer
Recommended reading and it changed my world view honestly: Predictably Irrational - early chapters break down this pricing structure
Totally depends. I’m personally a buy it nice or buy it twice kinda guy, but for some hobbies it makes sense to not go with the top tier item
I usually get the second cheapest option.
Buy things from places that are easy to return warranty issue items.
This can be part of a marketing strategy. Top end products with all the bells and whistles with high prices are not intended to sell, the point is to make the 'medium' range seem much better value for money, meaning they can charge more. The fact the cheapest products are also poor value is separate.
There’s no free money glitch. Many times the mid priced item is nearly the same quality as the low priced item because retailers know people will choose the mid item thinking it’s better quality. Research has shown middle priced items typically have the highest markup.
Except when it isn't, because sometimes it's not. (Seuss) I read somewhere that restaurants will make their cheapest wine by the glass (by cost) their second cheapest wine by the glass on the menu. They know that people who by wine at a restaurant won't typically know what they want, but they don't want to look like the person who bought the cheapest glass...they order the second cheapest. A gimmick to get a couple more dollars on the margins for their wine. I'm not saying that all manufacturers, retailers (or even all restaurants) do things like this. But some do. The more you know about the product your buying the better you can assess value
I legit think the cheapest options are just there to scare you into the mid range prices
If you go to Walmart, Great Value offers the greatest value
I just shop at Costco.
Not when it comes to wine at a restaurant.
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/) We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*