I hate this saying. This saying is a catch-all for the cheap “made-in-china” products that fill the aisles of every store we shop in.
I know why people say it. I even admit to saying it myself. What bothers me is that we accept it. We accept that we wasted our hard-earned money. We accept that we’ve been duped into buying something that is (for lack of a better word) crap.
I apologize for the rant, but it all started with socks. Megan loses her socks. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves, when in reality the daycare doesn’t bother to keep track of her socks. Regardless, Megan has none. So we went to Target and got her a bundle of adorably cute butterfly socks.
“For a low-low price, get five socks for the price of three!”
In truth, you don’t have the option to buy three socks. Target doesn’t offer this style of sock in bundles of three, so you have to buy five. And the price listed didn’t strike me as “low-low”, but this is Target, so I put the socks in my cart and headed to the check out.
As with most you-get-what-you-pay-for items, we didn’t notice the discrepancy until we got home. Struggling to remove the third plastic tie and fifth hidden uber-hold sticker, I noticed that two of the five socks had no butterflies. In fact, they were boring bland white socks with no design at all.
“For a low-low price, get five socks for the price of three!”
Yeah, yeah.. I can hear what you’re thinking. “You get what you pay for!” Why should I expect that the two socks that came free with the bundle would be cute? No. Of course not. I’ve shopped enough to realize that there is no such thing as “value” and “quality” in the same item. Yet every time we leave our houses we are tempted with the idea that there is hope for our almighty dollar.
“This time will be different.” We tell ourselves this because we work hard in our own jobs. We have to believe that there are others out there working hard to make good, solid products for an honest price. And, we want to believe that one day William can pass his quality action figures along to future generations.
I know why people say it. I even admit to saying it myself. What bothers me is that we accept it. We accept that we wasted our hard-earned money. We accept that we’ve been duped into buying something that is (for lack of a better word) crap.
I apologize for the rant, but it all started with socks. Megan loses her socks. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves, when in reality the daycare doesn’t bother to keep track of her socks. Regardless, Megan has none. So we went to Target and got her a bundle of adorably cute butterfly socks.
“For a low-low price, get five socks for the price of three!”
In truth, you don’t have the option to buy three socks. Target doesn’t offer this style of sock in bundles of three, so you have to buy five. And the price listed didn’t strike me as “low-low”, but this is Target, so I put the socks in my cart and headed to the check out.
As with most you-get-what-you-pay-for items, we didn’t notice the discrepancy until we got home. Struggling to remove the third plastic tie and fifth hidden uber-hold sticker, I noticed that two of the five socks had no butterflies. In fact, they were boring bland white socks with no design at all.
“For a low-low price, get five socks for the price of three!”
Yeah, yeah.. I can hear what you’re thinking. “You get what you pay for!” Why should I expect that the two socks that came free with the bundle would be cute? No. Of course not. I’ve shopped enough to realize that there is no such thing as “value” and “quality” in the same item. Yet every time we leave our houses we are tempted with the idea that there is hope for our almighty dollar.
“This time will be different.” We tell ourselves this because we work hard in our own jobs. We have to believe that there are others out there working hard to make good, solid products for an honest price. And, we want to believe that one day William can pass his quality action figures along to future generations.
