Gillette Joins the Mail Order Gang

Was doing a Google search today and THIS POPPED UP. It appears Gillette wants to try and steal the mail order thunder from Dollar Shave Club and Harry's and the others. Only problem is the prices are still outrageous!

 

It figures.

 

I think Gillette is beginning to sweat cockle burrs.
They've had the USA by the throat for years with their high-dollar plastic weapons of mass irritation,
and now things are beginning to come apart.
If they were smart, they would re-introduce the New, the Tech, and the Flair tips again.
Most guys probably wouldn't mind spending $40-$50 for a new New. (I know I wouldn't)
They also need to start grinding DE blades right here in the USA again.
Then they would stand a chance.

As it is, I'd say they're goin' down!

 

They also claim the a cartridge lasts 1 month. I call em out on that. They do not last a month, I used to get 3-4 shaves per cartridge.

 

Ok..I'd by it on line and wait for delivery when it seems the same items can be purchased locally why now?.

 

Laziness my good man.

 

I have been getting those banner ads too and they crack me up. The same crappy cartridges that I get 3 tuggy, uncomfortable shaves out of for between $3.50 to $4.50 per cartridge. Ten times what a Feather blade costs, or over 20 times the current cost of a Voskhod.

Don't hold your breath Gillette

 

Haha same. I couldn't even get a month out of a 4 pack. I tried so many times, and all I got was absolute horror in return. My poor face.

 

I could get a week out of them, and tried for more but it just didn't work, as we all know.

 

I think I was spending $2.50 for a cartridge back in the day. It's so ridiculous.

 

Dollar Shave Club is still beating them hardcore. I have friends on Facebook who don't even shave, but share Dollar Shave Club Facebook advertisements all the time.

 

Now if they would make the Fat Boy in stainless, they could blow the doors off the competition. I wonder what it would cost to produce.

 

Last week I was in a Ralph's Grocery Store. They had the Gillette Fusion Proglide with flex-ball razor on sale $9.85 for the set up. It had 1 blade set up. They also had the 4 pack of replacement blade cartridges on sale now for $36.95 and the 8 pack for $49.95 for 8 replacement blade cartridges. I went in the same store last night, to get some apples I walked past the shaving supplies, they had the same items all for $10.00 more in price. I do not buy any of the Gillette products because I do not like the clown that they have advertise their products (I do not think the world rises and sets because of him) but you can rest assured "Hell will freeze over and Pigs will fly before I buy a Gillette Fusion anything!" at those prices.

 

Cartridge razors are the reason I went the beard route for so many years. Now, I'd shave twice a day it there was something to shave. As it is, I am satisfied shaving once a day with just one edge instead of five...

 

I could get 500 Voskhods delivered to my door for that, and still have a bit of change left over...

 

Why do you think I had a beard for so long. If I had not found the Generic DE/SS blades that I found while my wife and I were traveling on business in Idaho and Nevada in our RV. I will still have my beard or be using a worthless "Wet and Dry" Electric Re-Chargeable Razor. Which while I was looking for something a day or so ago I found in the Bathroom cabinet stuffed way in the back.

 

There's no way they can win with a return to DE. They couldn't justify it on a large enough scale to make it worth the millions in R&D and marketing, without tacitly admitting their carts are (to put it gently) inadequate for all beards. It would also acknowledge the existence of the old-style weshaving industry as real if tiny competitor, not a mere fad, AND it would admit it exists for two very good reasons that Gillette has caused: savings and quality of shave. Gillette can't afford to do any of those things.

They'll mostly sit it out (barring the above cynical attempt to cut in on the startups) because they can afford to.

 

Given that they still produce several DE blades (and, if memory serves, SE blades), I don't know that they're actually 'sitting out,' so much as focusing their cash flow primarily on their largest market shares.

 

True, but compared with cart sales, I wonder how much percentage DE and even SE makes of their overall shaving income. Would be interesting to find out.

 

Sometimes the product's growth potential can also be significant.. Those DE growth figures in the west would also be interesting...