Quote:
Originally Posted by koland
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I ignore them completely and put them into the same category of Oprah Picks on books.
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Ack! That is low. I don't mean your comment, but your assessment of Oprah's picks.
For several years, I operated a couple of Internet-only book businesses. In a couple of categories, I knew the books that were in demand, would sell well, command a good price, etc., but I was just about totally in the dark about most others (almost all fiction, for example). When I saw "Oprah Book Club Pick," or whatever it said, on the cover, however, it was like the kiss of death to me. They were almost impossible to sell, and if I did, I basically had to give them away. I've got my theories as to why, but to go into them would get me way off topic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by koland
I've also found that if you read the actual reviews, they'll rave over one brand, but then label an inferior one their "pick" simply on the basis of price alone.
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I think that those are the ones that they label "best buys" or something to that effect. It is easy enough to ignore those and head straight for the top of the ratings, if that's what a person wants. But, usually those products were the most expensive, or close to being the most expensive, of the bunch. Neither my budget nor money-spending mentality allows me to go for those.
Interestingly, however, and perhaps you have noticed this, very often the more expensive items score lower than less expensive items. And, the opposite (or is it the converse? whatever) is true--less expensive items score better than the more expensive ones. Sometimes there is a huge disparity in prices, too. So, of course, it makes sense to buy the less expensive one (one exception that I can think of is if a person wants to impress other people, so they buy a model from a brand which is more highly regarded than a better, but less well regarded one--e.g., a Mercedes, instead of a better-rated Chevrolet). CR demonstrates that the adage, "you get what you pay for" is not always true, and helps people save a lot of money, IMHO.
So, I (still) appreciate CR because it can help me get better "bang for the buck"--things that I feel strike a good balance between price and performance/quality. IMHO, I haven't felt that that they label an inferior item their "pick" simply on the basis of price alone.
To make my comments above on topic, this is true of
grocery items that you use to cook with, just like the bigger-ticket, non-consumable items. ha