Disposable Razor Blades

One of my favorite strategies for saving money involves going to the grocery store and comparing the prices of similar/identical products and dissecting how manufacturers take advantage of the psychology of consumers.  Many things that would seem obvious and intuitive are not even close to being that.

As an example, let’s compare the prices of two fairly identical products that are used on a day to day basis and are packaged in different manners: razors.  As a consumer, I have realized that there is always a price for convenience.  The more effort you have to put into some activity, as a rule of thumb, is usually cheaper.  Although that is usually the case, it is not so with razors.  Before continuing, what do you think is cheaper: disposable razors or a razor with interchangeable cartridges?  You may be inclined to say disposable razors because there is an initial upfront cost for the interchangeable razor.  But if we were to take that out of the equation, would that be so?  Think about it, what is cheaper: continually stocking your kitchen with paper plates and cups, or buying a set of glass plates and cups?  Obviously the glass plates are much more expensive upfront, but as time goes on, paper plates and cups becomes much more expensive.

Paper plates and cups are much more convenient because you never have to wash anything, but you pay a huge fee for the convenience.  Disposable razor blades are much more convenient than an interchangeable razor and cartridges because you don’t have to worry about losing the razor and having to pay an extra $10 for a new one.  If you lose a disposable razor blade, oh well, it’s not that expensive.  So by the same logic, disposable razor blades should be much more expensive.  Not so!

To convince you, let’s look at the cost of purchasing six Mach 3 razor blades, which are available as disposable razors and interchangeable ones.  Six disposable razor blades costs roughly $16.  One interchangeable Mach 3 razor (which includes one cartridge), and a pack of 5 cartridges totals $23.  Now let’s take the interchangeable razor out of the equation and let’s compare the price of one cartridge to one disposable razor.  One disposable razor costs roughly $2.66 while one interchangeable cartridge comes to be about $2.80.  There you have it: disposable razors are cheaper and much more convenient.

Happy disposable razor shaving!