[groovybits]

Spot on. Even at the 'nicer' grocery stores in the US, can openers are made of the cheapest materials I've ever seen. At the moment you pick it up, you just know its going to break before a year from now.

By now, you'd think we'd have reached a minimum viable quantity of products that have been ubiquitous for so long.

[eternityforest]

In store shopping seems to be a great way to pay more for worse stuff these days.

[jollyllama]

You get screwed either way. Buy something on amazon and it's quite likely to be just as bad, counterfeit, etc. - how many times have people complained about that?

[eternityforest]

It happens, but it's not common. Amazon lets you get stuff a generation ahead of what's in stores, which often uses better tech and fixes issues in the last generation.

When "Cheap crap" first became common 20 years ago stuff got a bit worse, but it seems to be improving.

[jollyllama]

I don't think the comment about generation ahead is relevant or true.

As a final thought, I'd say at least in a store, if you have the ability to determine if something is junk by looking and touching it, you can practice that.

[eternityforest]

I'm not sure how I would tell just by looking without reviews and specs, any more than I could tell from a picture, the differences are really subtle.

The plastic cover on a bad switch looks an awful lot like the one on a good switch.

Glass filled nylon seems to be somwhat reliable thought, not quite as much utter trash has a chassis made of that, at least for tools.

And sheet metal, I usually assume anyone who uses that is cutting corners or wants to appeal to old fashioned types who hate plastic no matter what.

[crystaln]

As you would expect. You’re paying to support an entire business including retail space rent and utilities, employees, and owners.