[kulahan]

$500 for something you might wear for a decade straight? A brand-new pair of Levis at JC Penny is gonna run you like $90 anyways. It's not that much more expensive.

But also, quality has diminishing returns in basically every category. At the low end, it's extremely efficient to improve the quality of your product and charge a bit more. At the high end, you can't make any more inexpensive moves to set yourself apart, so you use higher end materials, fabrication methods, and workers.

[embedding-shape]

> $500 for something [...] run you like $90 anyways. It's not that much more expensive.

To be honest, I did abandoned school as quickly as I could and my math skills aren't that of my peers, but 5x times as much is pretty "much more expensive" for most people out there, not sure how someone can say else with a straight face. $100 vs $500 would easily be a "Can I eat properly the entire month?" decision for a lot of the population.

[ethbr1]

Wrong comparison.

The right comparison is "For people who can spend $500 on a pair of pants, what is the financial difference between $100 and $500?"

For most of that subpopulation, not much.

[Brendinooo]

> A brand-new pair of Levis at JC Penny is gonna run you like $90 anyways

I'm seeing a range of around $33 to $60 at the moment, with other brands dipping under $30.

https://www.jcpenney.com/g/men/jeans?id=cat100250010

[mrguyorama]

When I go into the store four years ago, Levi jeans are $100. Yet even Macy's website shows them for $60 now?

Maybe there was some significant quality degradation. They recently added elastic fibers to like their entire khaki shorts line, which makes them dramatically less durable. I bet they did the same here.

[crowbahr]

There are cheaper and more expensive skus for Levi's.

If you're seeing 501s that are $30 and 501s that are $100 I can promise you there's $70 of difference between them, having shopped at WalMart and at flagship stores on 5th Ave - basically every "trusted" brand in a big box store is cutting every corner possible to be there and either the product suffers for it or the people are exploited in making it. Fast, cheap or good: pick 1 and a half.

[kulahan]

Every pair on that page is ~$70, but some are on sale. I overassumed a little on inflation for them, I guess.

[Brendinooo]

It's part of their pricing strategy. There's always a sale. Consumers think they're getting $70 pants for $40 instead of thinking they got $40 pants.

Ron Johnson of Apple Store fame famously tried to change this when he became JCP's CEO and...barely lasted a year!

[accrual]

Lenovo also strictly follows this strategy. All new laptops are marked up 200% on release date, but don't worry, code THINK_${CURRENT_MONTH} will reduce it down to market price. I think their goal is to make the user feel scarity/time pressure via the coupons.

[kulahan]

Right, but that's not available on every pair of pants 100% of the time, so the price is the price, not the sale price.

[stackskipton]

What in Silicon Valley salary is this statement?

Median weekly salary is 1159 according to BLS. That’s 7% of weekly salary vs 43% of weekly salary.

[BJones12]

I think it's implied that one would need to buy the cheap pants several times to match the lifespan of the expensive pants.

[kulahan]

It's a few hundred bucks. If you're in the category of buying luxury pants, this is not much money. I really do not care how affordable it is for people making minimum wage, and am obviously not talking about their perspective.

[sejje]

Yes you were, when you brought (fake) JC Penney prices in for comparison.

[kulahan]

Nope, I was pointing out that even the cheapo jeans are still pretty expensive.

Also, stop being weird and antagonistic - they weren't "fake", it's called a "mistake" you brick.

[walletdrainer]

HN is full of very wealthy people, I don’t think pointing this out is that useful. It’s pretty obvious who the target audience is there.

[hopelite]

I can wear a $40 pair of jeans that I really like and keep buying for its style and durability and invest the $460 remaining dollars and in 10 years I would have about $1200