Superior Shave dropping Simpsons line

[Owen Bawn]

Looks like The Superior Shave is selling off all of their remaining stock of Simpsons at a loss. Looks like they're also discontinuing and dumping Merkur, GF Trumper, and other lines of products. I dare not say what I'm thinking this means. This is terrible news being sadly repeated all over the world right now.

 

[haggis]

Hopefully just discouraging and not dire.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1330868894333095939

 

[Owen Bawn]

Hopefully just discouraging and not dire.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1330868894333095939

Thank you for that. I was just posting that I thought Alrossa was taking a bath selling Simpsons on Amazon, but I hadn't seen the tweet you referenced. Perhaps it is Simpsons themselves who are slashing prices- at least for Alrossa and Amazon.

 

[mata_66]

Talking about the South American river, their new tactic seems to offer items at some very low prices disguised as "subscriptions".
I mean, who need to subscribe to have a new Simpson Polo 10 delivered every three months.
You can subscribe for a 25% discount (€132 Vs. €175) and unsubscribe as soon as you receive the brush.

 

[anoop]

The way the economy is structured, a brand has one of two options -- cheapen and appeal to masses (with ever lower purchasing power as wages don't keep up with inflation) OR move upscale and cater to the 0.1%. It's pretty clear the latter is a very risky move (a brand like Hermés comes to mind). So in order to survive most brands choose the former. They find ways to cut their costs and part of being able to do that involves scaling up production and sales. Otherwise they get put out of business. That's the reason why we also see brand consolidation.

This is happening in ALL areas of the economy. It's sad and short of protection by government there is no future for small businesses.

 

[Ad Astra]

Thanks for the info, Owen.

I'll post pix when the new brush arrives ...


AA

 

[old_school]

Looks like The Superior Shave is selling off all of their remaining stock of Simpsons...

Thanks Owen for the heads up. Never would have tried Super Badger if not for this closeout. Bought a few items from SS loved you could pick your brush. So I think the last little TL1 in SB is headed this away.

 

[Tomo]

As long as Simpson keeps selling Simpsons and I’m able to get a replacement once my current stash wears out, I’m happy. A bricks and mortar store with a decent selection in Australia would be nice too but I can’t see that happening in my life time. Still too many beards on the street.

 

[Owen Bawn]

This new pricing on Amazon is going to hurt guys attempting to sell Simpsons on BST. It was always said that it was OK to take a risk and buy a Chubby because the resale value was high. But good luck selling the Chubbies you already own for anything near what you paid when a new Chubby 3 in Best is less than $140 and Ch2 in Super is about $150.

 

[anoop]

As long as Simpson keeps selling Simpsons and I’m able to get a replacement once my current stash wears out, I’m happy.

The danger is that they engineer out the quality as they try to remain profitable with lower selling prices. Think back to the quality of everything from clothing to shoes to home goods. Everything is cheap but shoddy quality, even from brands that once built their reputation on quality.

 

[haggis]

There is danger in value engineering for sure. I wonder if Simpson will continue to limit 2-band and Manchurian to direct sales. (I think they do that, but not certain).

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

This is sad. I’ve seen this before where Walmart would contract with a small company and proceed to suck up everything they could make. Then once they had consumed 100% of production and the company had lost their ties with the other companies, Walmart would then dictate the price. The company either had to close up or cut costs. That usually ended up cutting quality. I see Amazon doing the same
thing.

Newell Brands - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I hope Simpson’s survives this.

 

[Tomo]

Better stock up now.

 

[sarimento1]

Looks like The Superior Shave is selling off all of their remaining stock of Simpsons at a loss. Looks like they're also discontinuing and dumping Merkur, GF Trumper, and other lines of products. I dare not say what I'm thinking this means. This is terrible news being sadly repeated all over the world right now.

thanks for the post!
just grabbed a merkur silvertip, at 65% discount!
rare deal!!
perhaps their last one.

 

[anoop]

Better stock up now.

I think this is the best advice, assuming you really like something they have.

 

[anoop]

This is sad. I’ve seen this before where Walmart would contract with a small company and proceed to suck up everything they could make. Then once they had consumed 100% of production and the company had lost their ties with the other companies, Walmart would then dictate the price. The company either had to close up or cut costs. That usually ended up cutting quality. I see Amazon doing the same
thing.

Newell Brands - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I hope Simpson’s survives this.

Another danger if the product does well on Amazon is that Amazon will come up with an "Amazon Basics" branded version that undercuts even that price.

 

[pdieten]

TBH, you know what's better than buying discounted Simpsons from Amazon, is buying TSS's house brand brushes. Whoever is making them for him does a hell of a nice job and the prices are very fair. I have three, all relative cheapies but I'd sooner use them than my Simpsons.

 

[bkatbamna]

He has some nice house brand brushes for really cheap.

 

[garyg]

Well, guess I'll disagree. While i despise Amazon's reach & what will result from that, try & make a claim when the brush sheds after the 30 days ..

Superior Shave always stood behind the product ,not that any of mine needed service.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I remember reading that the way Amazon became the juggernaut it is was by driving every small e-vendor out of business. It was explained to me (possibly in an article or forum post, many years back) using a baby supply e-retailer as an example. Apparently a decade or so ago, Amazon got sick of competing for price with other e-retailers on disposable diapers. So they just started selling them under cost... and did so long enough that literally every single e-retailer they had to compete with who focused on these products went out of business because a relatively high margin product they relied on had been made so they couldn't sell it any more. Then Amazon brought them under their platform, stopped undercutting them and started skimming their profits. And they have done so with every product under the sun... and will continue to do so until it's them and maybe Walmart and Costco left. Everything people accused Walmart of doing to B&M shops 20-30 years ago, Amazon does to online shops today... and they make no secret of it. It's literally the entire strategy of their e-commerce segment.


Amazon violates every principle of antitrust law out there... but the "must harm the consumer" caveat the court stuck in there has prevented them being prosecuted in the US (I think the EU is going after them though).