Yesterday, I replaced my electric toothbrush with an Oral-B Pulsar - a high quality electric toothbrush that is completely disposable. It is sleek, compact and could easily pass for a regular toothbrush. On the back of the box it clearly states: “Fully disposable - no need to change parts.” And if that isn’t clear enough, it goes on to reinforce its disposability: “Includes 1 non-replaceable Duracell battery. Product is not designed to be opened.” Oral B doesn’t want you to change the battery or the brush - they want you to use it like you do a regular toothbrush and throw it away when it’s time to replace it. I used it this morning and experienced the best brush of my life - no exaggeration - and all for $5.99.
I bring this up because auction culture will necessarily cause consumers to choose between buying something that has resale value and something that they will eventually just throw away. There will be a flight to quality on one end of the consumer spectrum and a flight to disposability on the other end. This phenomenon will cause two things to happen. It will squeeze manufacturers that produce lower quality, non-branded and non-disposable products. Additionally, as the quality of disposable versions get better, manufacturers of non-disposable versions will have to offer more in their products to stay in the game.
We have been making the choice between permanent and disposable products in our everyday lives for years. Do you use a fancy, gold plated razor or a Gillette? A Bic Pen or a Montblanc? A Dunhill Lighter or a .99 cent special? Can you remember when disposable diapers didn’t exist? Twenty years ago you might not have believed that cameras would be available in a disposable version. And while the economics of an inexpensive cell phone makes it technically disposable, we haven’t officially embraced cell phones that way yet. What happens when the economics of buying something used makes an otherwise permanent acquisition technically disposable - will you treat the product that way?
The disposable electric toothbrush has officially arrived. The cell phone is just around the corner. The computer is close behind. What’s next?
And how will the permanent versions of these products evolve to compete?
3 Responses to “The Disposable Consumer”
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January 24th, 2006 at 10:08 am
First, the disposable computer has arrived….it just takes 2 or 3 years before we toss them out.
On as far as disposable products are concerned, the environmental lobby just cringes everytime we toss out a one-time-use product…. there are all sorts of political implications (recycling, etc) that will eventually raise the overall cost of “cheap” throw away products
January 25th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Well experinced & well said. In fact today’s era is like that. Take it from things to culture . Computer to music to education. Everywhere this culture has evloved that no body is talking long term it’s short term with striving efforts to keep balance between time ,cost & effeciency.Of course every system has it’s pros & cons & I do not mean to say this is the best model. As long as pros are more ( than cons ) model is good & it will re-adjust itself with expereicne of consumers & feedback .
January 31st, 2006 at 4:52 pm
As long as there is a responsible effort to encourage proper disposal and recycling, I can understand the rationale for some types of products being disposable. However, I think much of this trend is based, as usual, on corporate profits, which are enhanced by planned obsolescence and demand for newer products only slightly better than their predecessors. Flashy ads promote conspicuous consumption and materialism, but the new products do not really add much to our true quality of life.