Thursday, August 23, 2012

The high cost of cheapness

Watching t.v. the other day I was listening to an ad about foam mattresses.  The discount mattress centre was bashing a name brand memory foam company about price and boasting that their 10" foam mattress was way cheaper.  "Aha!" thought I, but are we talking about the same product.  My limited knowledge of foam mattresses is that you are looking not just for thickness but density.  In other words you can say you have 10" but the support and quality of the foam is really different.

If I convey nothing else to you over the course of the blogs I post let me emphasis this:  ALWAYS look for value.  Because something costs less does not translate to better value -- and it's often just the opposite.

You can whine about paying over 100 dollars for a pair of sandals at a good shoe store when you can get a pair at Wal Mart for 10 dollars.  But ask yourself this.  Which will last 10 times longer and which will (and most importantly) give your feet the support they deserve so that your feet serve you well all of your life?

Price is the lowest common denominator of goods and services.  If you want to drain the community of knowledgeable people in every place from hardware stores to furniture, shoes and even food -- just keep buying the cheapest items at self service outlets.

The term value has many dimensions from immediate, long term value to you to the long term value in the world you help support: pride in workmanship, pride in service, pride in professionalism and pride in community.

The high cost of the cheapest route when all is said and done is far more expensive than any of us can afford.

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