[Sohcahtoa82]

> I’m pretty skeptical that almost any “race to the bottom” scenarios are easily attributed to consumer behavior

I'm not.

Most consumers are fickle, irrational, and often price-sensitive. They buy the $20 blender from Walmart that has a motor that will release the blue smoke in 6 months rather than the $50 blender that will last 5 years of frequent usage. Sometimes this is because of the whole "being poor is expensive" thing, but many times it's not.

> except perhaps in cases of commoditization where consumers reject attempts to differentiate products based on things like branding.

I think this applies to airlines.

I roll my eyes when someone says "I will never fly Delta/United/Alaska/etc again" because if you joined in every person's boycott because of one or two bad experiences they had, you'd never fly. They all will have delays, cancellations, and lost luggage.

I have absolutely zero loyalty or avoidance to any airline. I just go to Google Flights and pick who has the cheapest itinerary that doesn't suck too bad.

[tshaddox]

> They buy the $20 blender from Walmart that has a motor that will release the blue smoke in 6 months rather than the $50 blender that will last 5 years of frequent usage.

Ah, but that’s actually a great example. The $50 blender is probably just as crappy but with a slightly more recognizable brand (that used to make quality blenders until they were bought by a PE firm 10 years ago so they could milk the last bit of value from the trademark). You actually have to pay like $400 to get a blender that is substantially higher quality and even then you have to diligently find up to date honest reviews to make sure that brand hasn’t recently sold out.

> I have absolutely zero loyalty or avoidance to any airline. I just go to Google Flights and pick who has the cheapest itinerary that doesn't suck too bad.

Me too, much of the time. We’re not disagreeing about consumer behavior, we’re disagreeing about who to blame. The reason I do that is because there is simply no way to pay slightly more money for a slightly better flight. The only option is the cheapest possible flight, or one literally twice as expensive or more.

[tw98521358]

That’s my problem too that damn 400$ blender ends up costing me 800$ after I’ve done them due diligence of research it and burned the better half of an evening looking up reviews.

Very rarely is there a mid tier product unless it’s a Chinese brand that’s trying to establish

[anonymouskimmer]

Walmart could stock two or three price-differentiated models. With internet shopping available now (and catalog shopping in the last century and a half) Hobson's choice is less of a factor, but it's still a factor.