Is everything ****, and is getting worse?

[Eunos_Cosmo]

As broad of a subject as this might be, particularly in this subforum, I am mainly talking about material goods. A huge driver of it is the absolute wild west of Amazon which has come to dominate consumer habits in the west. I have come to dread shopping for anything on Amazon because even after you've waded through the seemingly endless amount of exactly the same products with the exact same product photos sold by different alphabet soup brand names in a nearly incomprehensible and inconsistent web interface, what you get in the end is very likely to be total garbage, if not actually hazardous. But it's not just Amazon...I don't expect clothing items purchased from basically any retail chain to last more than a few wash cycles before being rendered unwearable.



The accelerating ****ness to me feels like it permeates every level of our consumer society. I have come to the point that, unless I go far out of my way to find some brand that has gone to great lengths to differentiate itself on quality in a way I find actually believable, I just assume whatever I'm buying will be ****. If I buy a powertool at home depot, I can only be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't fall apart within a few months. Light bulbs with "15 year" lifespans I typically get a year out of, etc I do feel like the Pandemic and resulting supply chain issues have made the ****ification more prevalant, but I would be curious to know other people's perspectives and/or experience.

(I was hesitant about titling the thread the way I did, but wanted to express/convey the bleakness of it all, mods feel free to change if you feel it's not appropriate)

 

[GranTurNismo]

As far as clothing goes, it seems to be a natural consequence of name brand clothing being too expensive for the average consumer. This gives way to lower quality, "fast fashion" alternatives like Shein, Wish.com, and the plethora of unknown brands on Amazon aforementioned. You're getting essentially the same general style as products offered by name brands but at a much lower price and material quality. It's no secret that all of these, as well as thrift shopping/vintage clothes, is ever-popular with people my age. Good new clothing is just not cheap.

 

[Joey D]

With clothes, one of the issues as to why stuff wears out so quickly is how we wash it. So many people just throw clothes in the wash and don't even bother to read the tag to see what they're supposed to do. You're also not supposed to wash certain things all that frequently, specifically jeans. And when you do wash certain things, sometimes you're not supposed to put them in the dryer. I mean I'm guilty of this because I don't want to spend all day doing laundry, but it does contribute to the break down of our fabrics.

In addition to the frequency of washing is also the chemicals we use during the washing process. Some of the detergents and soaps are tough on fabrics and will contribute to the breakdown of the fibers. Fabric softener is a big one for this and something you really shouldn't use.

There still are monumentally cheap things out there though, but in the case of clothes if you want them to last longer, read the tag and learn what the symbols mean.

 

[Exorcet]

As broad of a subject as this might be, particularly in this subforum, I am mainly talking about material goods. A huge driver of it is the absolute wild west of Amazon which has come to dominate consumer habits in the west.

This is something I've thought about discussing but never got around to posting, but I barely use Amazon. In fact I don't think very highly of online shopping. It's so much worse than visiting a physical store, mainly because you can't inspect the product. I don't care what advertising thinks it's trying to accomplish, nothing matters but the product itself, and a purchase made without being able to access the quality of the product will always seem dubious to me. Online buying has a few benefits in particular situations, but I can't see it ever being the primary method of shopping I use.

The accelerating *ness to me feels like it permeates every level of our consumer society. I have come to the point that, unless I go far out of my way to find some brand that has gone to great lengths to differentiate itself on quality in a way I find actually believable, I just assume whatever I'm buying will be *. If I buy a powertool at home depot, I can only be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't fall apart within a few months. Light bulbs with "15 year" lifespans I typically get a year out of, etc I do feel like the Pandemic and resulting supply chain issues have made the ****ification more prevalant, but I would be curious to know other people's perspectives and/or experience.

Moving on to the topic of this thread though, I don't feel like everything is terrible. I usually take a long time to buy anything. Even $5-$10 items that I don't plan to use often. I like to research and compare a lot, and if nothing meets my standards I don't part with my money. What I have noticed is that lower cost items tend to give me the most problems and as time has gone on I've been more and more willing to spend more to avoid the lowest quality products, although I'm well aware that price and quality are not the same and that price can be used as a trap to attract those seeking quality. The products that I buy that aren't lowest budget tend to last and work well. I can't even really recall anything in the past few years failing catastrophically on me if it wasn't already quite a few years old and heavily used.

With clothes, one of the issues as to why stuff wears out so quickly is how we wash it.

This reminds me of something else I do. Read the manual. For everything. Even if it means the first time I'm using a product I'm taking 10x as long to do a simple task, I'm going to make sure it's by the book.

 

[Blitz24]

With clothes, one of the issues as to why stuff wears out so quickly is how we wash it. So many people just throw clothes in the wash and don't even bother to read the tag to see what they're supposed to do. You're also not supposed to wash certain things all that frequently, specifically jeans. And when you do wash certain things, sometimes you're not supposed to put them in the dryer. I mean I'm guilty of this because I don't want to spend all day doing laundry, but it does contribute to the break down of our fabrics.

In addition to the frequency of washing is also the chemicals we use during the washing process. Some of the detergents and soaps are tough on fabrics and will contribute to the breakdown of the fibers. Fabric softener is a big one for this and something you really shouldn't use.

There still are monumentally cheap things out there though, but in the case of clothes if you want them to last longer, read the tag and learn what the symbols mean.

You have no idea how many times I've read the symbols and asked my family member if they are certain I should be putting this article of clothing in the washer/dryer. Then they get mad at me when the clothing isn't ready to be folded.

 

[GranTurNismo]

You have no idea how many times I've read the symbols and asked my family member if they are certain I should be putting this article of clothing in the washer/dryer. Then they get mad at me when the clothing isn't ready to be folded.

Reminds me of all the times as a kid I'd get yelled at by mom for just throwing my clothes in the "warsher" as she called it without looking to see what's what, yet I was still careless. She had a point it turns out.

 

[Blitz24]

Reminds me of all the times as a kid I'd get yelled at by mom for just throwing my clothes in the "warsher" as she called without looking to see what's what, yet I was still careless. She had a point it turns out.

Do not wash wool. That has to be dry cleaned.

Then again, as Mitch Hedberg put it, "that means it's dirty".