Old report but I hadn't heard of this before. I knew they're often stolen but not for mass resale. Not surprised, what with the price of name brands (go Dorco, SuperMax or vintage, baby!)
That is not surprising. Ever notice how Fusion, Hydro, and other cartridges are kept behind a locked display panel? The hassle of getting a salesperson to unlock the panel is one of the reasons Gillette and Schick are losing market share. People don't have to deal with that nonsense with Harry's or Dollar Shave Club. Overpriced, annoying to purchase shaving gear also fuels the black market. Many introductory posts also indicate that it has fueled the growth of traditional shaving.
Nobody steals the variety of Dorcos from Dollar General (I guess, they're still hanging freely on the pegs) yet they shave just as well as any modern Gillette. Poor saps.
If I had to hunt down a clerk to unlock the razors I wouldn't buy them either, but that's not the case where I shop. I have no problem buying Mach 3's in bulk packages at Sam's Club, if I wanted to pay the price I could also buy Fusions and Schicks, none of them are locked up. Most local pharmacies don't want to pay for good loss control personel so they just lock stuff up. When I was using DE and SE razors I had to buy on-line and wait one to two weeks plus usually pay shipping to get any level of decent blade, why is that easier or more convenient than hunting down a clerk at the local pharmacy?
Because, you can buy 100 DE blades on eBay for under $10. How much would 100 Mach 3 Cartridge refills cost you, after you got the clerk to open the locked cabinet???
More than I was ever willing to pay? Which is why I stuck to whatever crappy DE blades I could get from the dollar stores, etc
Perhaps you missed the part where I don't have to have a cabinet unlocked, my carts are right out there in the open where adults can just buy them without asking some semi-literate kid to assist! I've bought 100 blade packs of Personna Labs for $10.00 and had to toss the blade every 2-3 shaves, some were unusable out of the box and even the good blades required 2-3 passes to get a shave equal to a single Mach 3 pass. Pay as little as you want, you get what you pay for. I consider $0.18/shave and a third the time spent shaving pretty reasonable.
Hey - if carts work best for you, then they work best for you. I mean, different strokes for different folks. I can get an okay shave with an electric, but I don't like the experience. Does it mean I hate electrics? Nope. I keep one for emergencies. Same with a lot of blades. I'm getting rid of all my "lower" end blades because I'm getting better shaves from midrange blades. Are they bad? Nope, just that I don't need to hang onto them, when I know people that really like them.
Sounds like your face was made for Carts. Me, I suffered every shave with a cart. Pain, lots of pain. YMMV, and that what makes the shaving world go around. Cheers.
But it is the case where many other people shop. Not all drugstores and supermarkets lock cartridges up, but an increasing number do, and not everybody has a Sam's Club in da hood. The closest one to me is 60 miles away. Overcharging for cartridges and then putting them behind a locked case is looking at things from a seller's perspective. Consumers look at things from a buyer's perspective, and so go online. There they are not limited to whatever the local stores put on the shelves. Harry's and Dollar Shave Club use the same business model as traditional shaving outlets - a relatively expensive razor, but much less costly replacement blades and so much lower total cost of ownership. Trying to make this into a cartridge vs. double edge issue is missing the point. This black market thingy is nothing new. This article was written in 2010, seven years ago: http://www.minyanville.com/special-...tistics-most-stolen-retail/9/15/2010/id/30054
If you don't like the way a local store treats you go on line and let them know you're doing so and why. You pretty much have to go on line for SE/DE supplies anyway unless you're happy with the iffy discount store stuff. Nothing will ever change as long as consumers just tolerate being treated like juvenile criminals.
I was randomly driving through a tiny spot on the map near me and noticed a store called $ Central...shabby storefront of an ancient empty stripmall from the '60s, you know the type. They saved money on using the $ instead of spelling out DOLLAR. Anyway, inside was the Eclipse 3 blade system made by Health Smart in China. New one to me, reminiscent of that dark gray/orange BIC system. (not my pic) The carts are badly designed so I don't even plan to try one, but the handle (Sensor type) is quite nice for what it is...chunky and rubberized, black and silver semi-skeletonized plastic. I loaded an old Sensor cart, which I'm never fond of but can't bring myself to pitch, and it was a refreshing shave. Worth a buck, especially since it should fit Big Lots' gray SuperMax carts which shave me just fine. Just thought I'd mention it.
This is unfortunate but in my opinion, the machine shops that are duplicating Wolfman and BBS razors, even down to the markings and serial numbers and then selling for big money on eBay, are worse offenders. Taking advantage of our community. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Didn't know there _were_ any. If I had a machine shop that could do that, I'd be making my own - it's not like the designs are difficult to come by. Amazing how some people would rather work harder to be criminals, isn't it?
It's easier to cash in on a big name. For instance, you can buy a Timeless machined razor anytime for $230, but a Wolfman is almost impossible to buy. There's huge demand, so people are willing to pay $500 for a RAZOR........ Criminals only see dollar signs Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Understood - it's still working harder to be a criminal. If you already have a machine shop, then you have an amazing ability to make your own niche - it's already been proven that people will pay $200-500 for a chunk of steel, so you could make your OWN chunk of steel, market it through sites like this, and let word of mouth make you money without having to risk the wrath of the US Postal service, E-Bay, PayPal, and people that locate your address
