[c4mpute]

Stainless steel is expensive, roughly a factor of 10 compared to plain steel. The reason is that Chromium is expensive. You can use low-chromium not-so-stainless steel if you then coat it with transparent paint containing among other things, PFAS, and save a ton of money on the material.

Edit: the prototypical stainless steel is Cr/Ni 18/10 with 18% chromium and 10% nickel, aka V2A or 1.4301

[PeterisP]

Straws require ridiculously small amounts of raw materials though, if you choose a material that increases the steel price by $1000/ton, then that adds a single extra cent to the costs of a 10g metal straw which then retails for a dollar a piece.

[hirsin]

So you're saying you can cut it out and increase profit by a percentage point? That's pretty huge.

I recall finance going ballistic on my division at one point because our profit margin dropped by a tenth of a percentage point (and yet was still well above fifty)

[ryanwaggoner]

99.999% of corporations are way too wasteful to be complaining about a tenth of a percent on 50%+ margin.

Think of the savings of slashing that finance department staff :)

[hirsin]

With 8 billion in revenue it hit differently I guess, yeah.

[ThunderSizzle]

Sounds about right. Most grills out here are $200-400, but will rust and fall apart within a couple years in my climate (humidity is insane here).

For $2000-4000, you can buy real stainless steel grills that are warrantied to last 15+ years, not 1 year.

[Forgeties79]

Hard to sell people on spending 10x the cost when they can just buy, abuse, replace after 3-5 years what they already have.

[ThunderSizzle]

Certainly. Especially when they load the cheap stuff with all the useless Bluetooth/wireless smart phone app crap. I guess people think a crappy grill with flashy widgets and an app is the next best thing. Or maybe it's what companies think people want.

[Forgeties79]

I mean I have a pretty standard $250 or so Weber. No bells and whistles, no apps. It takes propane and has enough surface for me to do 8 patties comfortably and has a small rack above it for things that just need to be warmed up more or less. I like having things that last but it's going on idk...year 4 now? And I just need to replace grates at this point. I just can't see myself buying a $1000+ grill because I don't grill every day/week and the $250 has done perfectly well for me. I don't think it's safe to assume tons of folks want bluetooth for their grill and that's what drives them to go cheap.

[kyleyeats]

I don't think this really happens.