OK, so I was in the men's toiletries isle at Wally-World today looking for a few sticks of deodorant......& being a former smoker I find myself checking on the prices of a pack of marlboros & whistle when I see the price remembering when they were $2.25 a pack. SO, I made a point to look at the price of cartridges for various models. An 8 cartridge pack for the gillette fusion was (are you sitting down?)... $32.00~!!!!!!!! An 8 pack for the Gillette Turbo was $28~!!! An 8 pack for mach 3 (which is what I used because once upon a time I thought they were cheaper....(silly me...) $24~!!! THEN I saw 5 packs for like $18, $14, & $12. NOW....I spend $3.10 on a pack of 10 Gem SE blades which last me maybe 2 months.........just bought a 100 pack of derby which came w. a free stick of Arko for $15. In all, I've got over 200 blades which will last me ALMOST 4 years. $60 altogether spent in blades. SO, for those of you who enjoy the wet shave, you can enjoy it a bit more knowing you won't be bled dry by the cartridge monopoly of today's market. I was overcome with a sense of sheer satisfaction when I saw those prices & once again I told myself......MAN am I glad I gave that up!!! SHEESH!!! $32 for RAZOR BLADES for crying out loud!!! And wet shavers are RARE???? You'd think people would learn the time old maxim.....when times get rough, you revert back to the old skool! When we went through the depression, families went back to the old stew pot & wooden spoon! ALAS, you can't free fools of their chains if they revere them so much!!! Gentlemen & Ladies....I tip my hat to our collective enjoyment, pampering & most of all, our sensibilities, LOL!!!
Besides the cost savings which is substantial, I thourghly enjoy my morning shave routine every day, man alive what I've been missing all these years. I'm also a former smoker for 11 years now and miss it not at all, every once in a while I check the pricing of cigs or the roll your own and walk away just shacking my head wondering why one would spend that kind of bucks to send up in smoke, and knowing down the road what they;ll have to go through. Believe me I know even with 11 years of being clean of tobacco my next step is the oxygen bottle. Its a shame really. If one is lucky they'll take a semi head on. Its cheaper and less painful in the long run.
Congrats on the quitting smoking & the cartridge! LOL! It's been almost 6 years for me & I don't miss it at all. I've had the occasional cigar & enjoy a pipe now & then (once every few months) I don't feel the need for another though. Same as how I feel about a cart. razor, LOL! I don't miss cigarettes at all. It's amazing how the prices have sky rocketed! My mother used to pay $0.50 for a pack of pall malls, LOL!
Tobacco has gone through the roof! The last time I ordered snus, taxes and shipping cost me about $100.00, and I can't remember how many cans I got but it wasn't that many! I never have been a smoker but a dipper, I'm going to buy a couple of stingray's pipes and give them a go, they seem to be cheaper than anything else to use.
:signs108 Williams Warrior Williams Warrior is offline Old Bond Join Date: May 2010 Location: Tampa,FL Posts: 1,000 Happy 1000th post dude! Please resume normal thread programming!
Nothing can equal a great wet shave in quality of the shave and cost. Plus it is the greatest way to start the day.
I haven't checked out cartridge prices in quite awhile, but those are just unreal. Maybe even with all the AD's kicking in, we are saving money. Even if not, the quality of the shave is worth it.
Yeah, I got bent over pretty good, when I bought my last batch of snus. I remember getting pissed when cigarettes went up to a buck fifty per pack. Economy and better shaves were the reasons I dumped the carts. Then, I acquired RAD. So much for economy. At least it's cheaper than collecting cartridge blades.
I'm kind of glad, quite apart from any health issues, that I never started with any kind of tobacco. At least with tobacco prices, though, you can partially blame the government, its taxes and regulations. Cartridge manufacturers don't have that excuse. There are inexpensive generic twin blade cartridges and disposables out there that work pretty well for people who may not know about traditional razors. You can get pretty decent Atra compatible cartridges for around 50ยข each, and Bic single blade disposables were still fairly cheap, last I checked. Probably most people who use the expensive cartridges use them for a really long time. There will always be people out there who claim they can use a Fusion cartridge for a year by stropping it on their jeans, and if they're happy, why bother to argue?
To be honest , at the price the Fusion cartridges are, you would need to be able to get 6 months of shave with a single cartrige to make it even with DE blades price, and that is totally not the case. I like the Proglide but when i think of the price , i understand why i shave with a DE.
Thing is...I would pay a higher price to get shaves like I got today with my Super Speed, UberLather, Omega boar, etc...I never enjoyed shaving as much as I do now...And I'm not kidding...I could see paying more for the pleasure...But the fact that it is actually much less expensive, is simply "icing on the cake"... And I'm digging this cake like crazy...:happy102 Or for stingrays'...like "lather on the PIE"...more pie for all the Den-Mates...
We've got it good! The sad thing is that we live in a society is always in a hurry & it's in a hurry because it waits til the last possible minute before doing something. THat's why shaving cream comes in a squirt can, it's why there's cartridge razors with hinges on them so technique doesn't slow you down....Seriously. You pay the price for laziness & procrastination. I say enjoy life I slow down!
The business part of my brain is kind of laughing with these guys as they head to the bank. I can almost see the meetings where they're saying, "Welp, we're up to $3 a blade and sales are as high as ever. I say let's keep pushing it." You charge as much as people are willing to pay. The public is so reluctant to take a stand by changing their ways that they'll pay whatever the price is. I saw a guy on the shaving aisle at Target a few weeks ago who was complaining about the prices of cartridge blades. But you know what he did? He took them to the register and handed over his arm and leg. That's fine with me--keeps the costs of my kind of gear down.
AMEN BROTHER!!!! Complaining doesn't solve the problem, recognizing the problem is the first step to a solution. Finding a cheaper way to shave is the next step. The adapt or die thing in evolution is grand......we just have to get humanity to catch up on the adapt or pay thru the nose gene...LOL!
Of course you realize the cost savings you get from the blades is more than offset feeding all the AD's right? At least for the first year or so when you must-have, gotta-have, everything you read or hear about. I'll bet I've got north of 500 bucks tied up in my shave cabinet. The AD's eventually pass though and then yes, this becomes much more cost effective. When I was purchasing off the shelf razors I turned to the disposables years ago. The three-blade generic jobs usually ran about 10 bucks for eight razors if I remember, and I used them until they hurt. Can't see paying $32 for cartridges. Just doesn't compute for me.
In the end, if you tally of the cost of the shave, per shave......it's still less w. all the A.D.'s...lol I have enough to keep me busy for almost 4 years. I'll run out of soap & cream before I run out of blades. (I think) I'll know in 4 years. I know I've spent a total of close to $400 over the past 3 months. That is the AD's....but I'm done buying! I've got plenty to experiment with, I have a ton of blades, I've got 5 razors, 200+ blades & 50+soaps & creams. I will be golden for 4 years....that's not WHY I got it all, lol, I had the money to burn & wanted to experiment. BUT, I'm still spending less on a daily shave. Even as I use & buy as I go 4 yrs from now (lol) I'll still be spending less per shave. THAT is a plus at least!
I've found they just open it up to the online market. My target JUST stopped selling VDH & Col. Conk. NOW the only place I can find shaving soap is CVS, Walgreens, & the general store downtown. Locally anyway, but they only carry the cheap stuff. If you want anything descent or foofy, you go online anyway. It kinda sucks because the market is tailored to people who wait to the last minute to get ready for their day & rush thru their morning getting to work wound up.....and getting home from work wound up....LOL! My inability to buy good stuff locally is being inhibited by a market that courts the lazy. :happy102
