August 24, 2016 ·
Since old fashioned razors are being pushed let me write a brief note about how business works.
When I was young Gillette pretty much had the razor market sewn up. (There was one other less popular brand.) There were Gillette Red Blades meant to be used once and discarded (though you could get a few shaves from one) and Blue Blades that promised a longer life, maybe a week. Then Gillette came up with the Super Blue Blade which they said was better though I don’t recall them saying why.
Meanwhile in the back pages of men’s magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics (not the mags you’re thinking of) there were very small ads (the smallest possible) advertising stainless steel blades imported from Europe. Most everyone ignored these as probably not what they were cracked up to be. Then Wilkinson came into the US market with a stainless steel blade and a massive advertising campaign. Within weeks Gillette “discovered” stainless steel and was marketing its own stainless blade.
Trouble was they lasted too long. Gillette wanted to sell a lot of blades. Soooo, enter the throw away razor to be followed by the two bladed throwaway and the three bladed. Now we’re supposed to go back to replaceable blade razors as if that were something brilliant.
Don’t get me started on Virginia Slims’ taking advantage of the women’s lib movement. …Now women could have their very own coffin nails. I never expected that to work but it did.