The New Age of Shoddy

[TheLurker]

About a month ago I finally binned(1) the Qualcast push mower.  Important parts(2) were made of plastic cheese and were no longer repairable.  I am now using the Ginge(3) push mower that my parents bought in 1968.  It was in weekly use for 20-22 years, and then had a further 10 years of occasional use before being moved to the reserve list. The only reason I didn't start using it again a few (4) years ago was that the Qualcast was still usable. I fully expect the machine to see me out.



(1) Waiting trip to tip
(2) Wheel bearing cages, ratchets & pawls
(3) https://www.vhgmc.co.uk/2017/11/ginge-mowers-and-tools/
     It may be a Prisma.
(4) Between 5 & 10.

[grams]

Survivorship bias means everything made in 1968 that fell to bits in a week is long since at the bottom of the landfill.

[Kim]

Yes.  There's also the dodge where a Chinese factory makes more than the quantity demanded by its Western client and flogs the surplus ones that fail quality control off cheaply under a different name.

FTFY

See half of the stuff on Aliexpress.

Sometimes it matters, much of the time it doesn't.  The trick is knowing the difference.

[rogerzilla]

Is the etymology of Aliexpress from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Carradices from the 70s are slightly better.  The buckles are stitched in, not riveted in, and there's no nylon drawstring "mouth" to fail, just a couple of cotton duck flaps and ties.  The reflective triangle (fluo orange by day, red by night) was also much better than today's Scotchlite patch.

They still use the fluoro-reflective material on some products, eg the Super C rack pack: https://www.carradice.co.uk/bags/rack-packs-stuff-sacks/super-c-rackbag
As they're happy to make one-off versions of their products (at least the cotton duck stuff) for a modest premium, they'd probably make a saddlebag or panniers with that material for you. It does fade though (I think it's an inevitable consequence of fluorescence).

[ian]

Survivorship bias means everything made in 1968 that fell to bits in a week is long since at the bottom of the landfill.

Indeed.

It's also true that while everyone says they want quality and will pay more for it, when it comes to paying, they don't.

[TheLurker]

Survivorship bias means everything made in 1968 that fell to bits in a week is long since at the bottom of the landfill.

Yup, but I think the OP's point is that it's very now difficult to buy anything other than instant-landfill tat and knowing how skint my parents were in 1968 they would *not* have bought the most expensive machine in the shop.

[T42]

Yes.  There's also the dodge where a Chinese factory makes more than the quantity demanded by its Western client and flogs the surplus ones that fail quality control off cheaply under a different name.

FTFY

Point.  A noticeable difference is that the cheap ones stink of something like creosote. Maybe it's the fag-smoke.