Companies with decreasing product quality (Read 1154 times)

I believe that this decline quality is all our (collective) fault. Companies produce the products that people will buy at the price point people will pay. When mega-monopoly retailer demands a retail price of X, the manufacturer knows that they have to produce at cost Y, and something has to give. At first the give was trading higher cost labor for lower cost, and then quality of materials had to go to hit the cost point. The electronics revolution of the late 20th century really did make it cheaper to make many products and improve quality at the same time -- we really got it all: lower cost, better quality and more capabilities. But that same formula doesn't apply to all products, and we consumers demanded that it be the same across the board. In the end, we got what we're willing to pay for.

It's not just a decline in product quality, it's also a decline in service quality. Anyway, my most (least?) favorite example of declining quality is motherfucking Dell.

Champion...their stuff is hit or miss. Bras are almost always perfect, but sometimes I think the cheap C9 stuff they make for Target is better than their regular stuff in terms of quality. I have 2 pairs of their tights that have some pretty sketchy seam work.

I have a pair of Champion shorts (cheap C9 ones) I bought almost 5 years ago and I still wear them at least 2 times a week, yet the pair I bought this year fell apart immediately. Same with the tights. I wore a pair of Champion tights ONCE and they ripped up the seam! I don't skimp on tights anymore...no one wants the seam to split up the back of my tights on a run--no one.

Since I work at a concumer product manufacturer, maybe I can shed light from my perspective. Our product quality has declined because of price. It's not just what the consumer will pay for. It's more about what the consumer is offered. We would like to make a better product and give the consumer a chance to choose. The problem is that we can't get our best product to the consumer. People go to the big retailers for everything. The big retailers will not pay us for our product, so it never gets to the market for you to choose. We have to cut all corners just to get to the market. And...the cheap imports will take our place on the shelves if we don't make it cheap. We'd like to make it better, but our company would never survive. I purposely did not name any big retialers, but we sell at almost all of them. I won't tell you what we make unless you really want to know.

I won't tell you what we make unless you really want to know.

Sex toys...? SRL, I remember once really liking Eddie Bauer stuff...it was reasonably priced and bullet-proof. But it was probably 10 years ago that I found the quality to be so unpredictable that I stopped shopping there, too.

Oh no. Someone put a knifey through the tights. I dunno about declining quality, but Eddie Bauer (once a local company) was and may still be a great example of a company with quality all over the map. I can get two shirts there... one will be rugged and last for a few years, and the other will fall apart after a few times through the laundry. Well, "can" and "will" as of, say, 2001. I haven't bought stuff there in years for precisely this reason.

Pair of my EB jeans actually split on the back after a few months. I ironed on a patch. EB sizing and fabric is inconsistent. I own two pair of EB jeans of the same style and listed size, but one pair is baggy and the other pair is super tight.

EB sizing and fabric is inconsistent. I own two pair of EB jeans of the same style and listed size, but one pair is baggy and the other pair is super tight.

Old Navy is like that...and their quality is REALLY hit or miss. Their boys' clothes have always been well made and worth the money, but the stuff I've gotten is all over the place. I've also bought 2 pair of the exact same jean and had them not fit the same--mostly a length issue, I've found. Or one pair will shrink more than the other in the wash. Weird.