There's an exceptionally strong tendency, though there are factors which can temper it.
Luxury goods, Veblen goods, and virtue / honest signalling, generally, avoid rampant RttB effects -- Whole Foods itself would be an example, Apple another.
Untrammeled competition on the mass market of complex goods almost always tends toward RttB. It seems that there's an exceedingly strong and pervasive Gresham's Law dynamic across multiple domains, which I've been looking into.
What keeps this from becoming total seems to be a mix of factors. Apple, for example, as a small fraction of either mobile (15%) or desktop (5%) markets, by unit sales, but has profit margins at a level which make it the most highly-valued joint-stock corporation in the world. It achieves this through a focus on some elements of product quality -- I wouldn't call Apple hacker-friendly, in the same way Linux or FreeBSD are (despite similarities), but it's been far more user friendly than Microsoft in many regards, if you're willing to pay a premium.
And a certain portion of the market gets that.
(The dynamic in the case of mobile is similar: more expensive than Android, not hacker-friendly, but vastly less aggrevating to use for the somewhat-discerning user.)
Essentially, if you're going to move off the bottom, you may be able to, but you're going to be limited to a certain niche.
If there are very large scaling efficiencies to size, even that becomes a challenge.
You'll find similar stories across various products and services. Generally, the smaller the market (in terms of total buyers), and more discerning, the more likely a higher-quality product can survive. With market size (and non-discerning customers) comes worse product.
Also their Kirkland signature stuff is to die for. Just saying their in house products often out perform the name brand stuff. Yes it's cheaper and that's still a race to the bottom but they didn't sacrifice employees or quality.
That's not true. I'll buy things at Costco knowing full well that the item is cheaper elsewhere. Why? Because of their excellent customer service and return policy. I know that if that item breaks or has any sort of problem, I can return it no questions asked.
Also, their model is pretty good as far as membership goes -- if you spend enough at Costco, your membership is free, because you get cash back. And a little known fact, even if you don't spend enough to pay for your membership, if you ask them, they will increase your cash back reward to make up for it anyway.
Luxury goods, Veblen goods, and virtue / honest signalling, generally, avoid rampant RttB effects -- Whole Foods itself would be an example, Apple another.
Untrammeled competition on the mass market of complex goods almost always tends toward RttB. It seems that there's an exceedingly strong and pervasive Gresham's Law dynamic across multiple domains, which I've been looking into.
What keeps this from becoming total seems to be a mix of factors. Apple, for example, as a small fraction of either mobile (15%) or desktop (5%) markets, by unit sales, but has profit margins at a level which make it the most highly-valued joint-stock corporation in the world. It achieves this through a focus on some elements of product quality -- I wouldn't call Apple hacker-friendly, in the same way Linux or FreeBSD are (despite similarities), but it's been far more user friendly than Microsoft in many regards, if you're willing to pay a premium.
And a certain portion of the market gets that.
(The dynamic in the case of mobile is similar: more expensive than Android, not hacker-friendly, but vastly less aggrevating to use for the somewhat-discerning user.)
Essentially, if you're going to move off the bottom, you may be able to, but you're going to be limited to a certain niche.
If there are very large scaling efficiencies to size, even that becomes a challenge.
You'll find similar stories across various products and services. Generally, the smaller the market (in terms of total buyers), and more discerning, the more likely a higher-quality product can survive. With market size (and non-discerning customers) comes worse product.