What are some examples of fancier, expensive, boutique versions of things that are worse than the mass market version?

For example, I noticed that a lot of the fancy-pants toothpastes are missing fluoride.

I much prefer cheap supermarket hummus to the proper fancy stuff.

I didn't know there was luxury hummus. I take it they use the fancy olive oil?

Boutique jeans seem worse to me than basic Levis, Wranglers, or Lees.

Are we talking about how Rolex watches aren't very good at keeping time?

There are some butt ugly expensive jeans out there, but the good ones are certainly better than Lee or Wrangler. Levi’s typically solid and affordable. In the states anyway.

not very fancy, but lindt chocolates are waxier than cheaper kids' chocolates.

pizza

i went to someone's house and they had this fancy wine bottle opener in this fancy case and i swear it took them 4 days to open a stupid bottle of wine and i wanted to grab the bottle and just pop it open in two seconds with a one dollar plastic corkscrew. but i didn't. instead i said: wow, that thing is...elaborate. it made me thirsty.

pizza is kind of a perfect one, yeah

xp

pizza for me is like the microbrew thing. can you make a tasty plain cheese pizza/decent drinkable ale or lager without 10 kinds of hops in it and nutmeg and pumpkin spice? you can? okay, NOW reinvent the wheel if that's what you feel like you need to do. but you probably don't need to.

Pens and stationary. My work supplies me with steno books and ball-points. I'm not going to write more meaningful shit or have better penmanship just because I have indie/small-batch writing implements!

Porsche Design Blackberries. Performance is no different to the regular ones.

Also in the same bracket, Vertu mobiles.

My dad had a couple of Montblanc pens when he died, they're kind of shitty to write with. The rollerball refills are fine, no better or worse than cheaper brands, but the pens themselves are not ergonomic.

Fancy watches - even if you want it to look classic a battery beats the hell out of hand-wound bullshit made by Swiss elves.

Computer keyboards. Partly because I've come to realize that I don't particularly like mechanical keyboards anymore, which are all the rage with the aficionados. Don't like Mac keyboards either.
Also, my expensive "Das Keyboard" broke twice in a year.

college

Tinned tomatoes probably, those Polpa brand ones might be the exception though or maybe I'm just dazzled by the *authentically* Italian graphic design on the tin. It has probably been mentioned one here before though, if your tomato game is good you don't really need pricey tinned tomatoes or passata for delicious sauce.

I'm struggling to think of an expensive brand of tinned tomatoes that aren't any good though.

corkscrews otm

cast iron skillets

xp to the op

The lack of fluoride is supposed to be a selling point.

Maybe that was supposed to be a funny.

well, we do have to protect our precious bodily fluids from communist fluoride infiltration.

Pizza and beer for sure, although I can't say with any certainty that the problem isn't my palate's lack of refinement.

I think probably any attempt to fancy up tried and true prole fare is going to be something of a lost cause.

'Artisinal funnel cakes!' GTFO

Totally agree on the fancy wine-opening gear. Dude I've got a pocketknife, don't come at me with that Rabbit or gas-injecting thingy or whatever.

In a pinch I've used a ball-point pen.

Hot sauce

wine openers otm, the basic steel ones with the two legs are the best by far.

Pretty sure I'd take the shittiest microbrew over Coors or Budweiser.

having had some really bad microbrews and having enjoyed a domestic tall boy with bbq, nah

^^^

Pho

Burgers

expensive niche house fragrances

Tea

Crisps

every time i eat a fancy taco it just makes me with i was at a cheap mexican restaurant instead

makes me wish

i think this applies in general to a trend over the last decade or so i've taken to calling "fancy junk food." but there are some isolated cases in which a 3 dollar donut really is pretty excellent.

oh mannn i have been burned several times by dry, airy, flavorless 3 dollar Dough-brand donuts when all i actually wanted was a krispy kreme or something to make drinking my coffee more interesting.

I don't love paying 10€+ for a burger but when I've done it they've been the best burgers I've ever had

but I'll add: potato chips

I'm having trouble finding an example of this. Mass-market stuff is generally bland and mediocre at best, and I consume enough of it. Like, I'd easily take the three tacos made by Mexican people that I can get for $5 down the street over some weird $10 paleo vegan hipster taco place but fuck Taco Bell.

That's what I meant by "crisps" ftr xp

Lots of drip coffees!

Movie theater popcorn

like fancy theatres versus cineplex, or cineplex versus microwave/pre-made bags or what? this one's weird because the cineplex version is SUPPOSED to be the mass-market everyperson's food but nowadays it costs an absolute fortune.

bottomless popcorn night and “bring your own popcorn container” night beg to differ

ah yes "crisps" sorry mate ;)

staples like butter differ from place to place; in the usa yr land o'lakes is pretty bland but the store brands in france uk etc. are totally good imo. I still buy hipster butter from time to time but it's not like the leap from supermarket cheese or w/o

ah

all bond movies are bad, there isn't a framing that gets you out of this

in terms of electric guitars, hard to find better at good prices than the big brands

in terms of acoustic/classical, it's definitely better and cheaper to have a luthier build yr guitar than to get a martin/ramirez/cordoba/etc

just buy the fancy salt that comes in a grinder. than you don't have to worry about any finger pinching.

i like the finger pinching. i was pleased to read an article recently where a chef talked about teaching it to his recruits. i don't care about it that much but it's nicer than grinding.

unconvinced that dysons are any more or less "mass market" than other kinds of hand dryer

More the marketing of them - the usual sciencey/innovation bullshit

you people must spend a lot of time drying your hands to be such experts!

workplaces with hand driers, scott

i did really hate those dyson ads when they were on t.v.

the king of suck.

i just figure if my hands are dry when it stops making that racket that it is a successful machine.

that's the gold standard right there

The ones where you have to gently raise your hands higher through a metallic wet germ valley are the ones that never work for me

What are some examples of fancier, expensive, boutique versions of things that are worse than the mass market version? [Started by Philip Nunez in November 2017, last updated seven minutes ago by Chuck_Tatum] 249 new answers
Just when you thought it was safe - OK CUPID PART 3: The Return of the WOO! [Started by dog latin (dog latin) in July 2004, last updated eight minutes ago by Doctor Casino] 8 new answers

that is an actual example of this I think

Hotels, when it comes to certain amenities: getting a cup of coffee in the morning, ease of use, consistency.

I love boutique hotels. They have hipsterish in-room amenities and shared bathrooms!

ice cream is the opposite for me. totally not nostalgic for the cheap bricks of supermarket ice milk of my youth. i'll buy every overpriced pint known to man.

also a reverse case: i think its kinda cool when foodie snobs get stoned and make "small batch" ice cream flavors that are over the top. go for it, stoner hipster dudes with trust funds burning a hole in your pockets!

also, it seems like lots of towns/cities have their own local ice cream company now - greenfield does and its great - and this is cool. big cream can bite it.

When I think fancy boutique guitars, I think of something like this or this. I have no idea if these are worth it tbh but there are better guitarists than myself who seem to like them.

lol re: okcupid. i guess they are going for a kind of boutique niche. but the main service is free and they sort of backed into their niche just by sticking around forever (founded 2004!) so that other services that are faster and easier to use became more "mass."

back when their selling point was that they were more algorithmic dating based around fun questions that people would compulsively answer, it was kind of boutique (the fine-tuned, better-matching website) but definitely not worse than match dot com or whatever. nowadays it's the camera thing: for a great number of users and purposes, tinder is clearly better. tinder with just a pinch of okcupid, to help filter out the overwhelming hordes of people you have zero interest in, would be better for everybody though - there's a missing middle.

don't get me started on boutique hotels and my hotel spending

never ended up in one of the shared bathroom sitches though

yeah never knew a boutique hotel with shared bathrooms.

i love hotels - i guess by nature of how they're priced there are lots of times when a hotel is not worth the money - or when an expensive hotel is barely different from a cheaper one, but a good hotel is a nice refuge from the world.

Man I spent an inordinate amount of my disposable income on good hotels and i begrudge not one cent

I don't (probably never will) earn enough that the cost of hotels is comfortable - even the "cheap" ones I'm like, it costs that to sleep?!

I won't argue it tbh I can't but there it is

I work in fancy / boutique hotels, so my POV comes from the consistency of service and details I've found in brand new, say, Courtyard Marriott hotels after being in the design-heavy one. Love the hotels I work with, though.

staying in hotels is one of the only things i like about traveling. it's definitely number one.

nice hotels are great and worth a splurge, but sucks to pay beaucoup bucks for a hotel that turns out to be middling. I get offended that they had the gall to charge as much as they did.

imo if you have a lot of obligations around home, or things you have to do to keep up your personal space, having a nice hotel gives you the ability to chill and read a book or w/e guilt-free and without being in a public space

also they have nice soap

Some nice grey Celtic/guerande sel gris is definitely worth it; It tastes like the sea and it takes a couple of months to go through a kilo. It is an order of magnitude more expensive than big standard salt but not much more in monetary terms, I guess.

also, how did I not know about Eazy's career and why am I not getting preferential treatment

"There's a time for Bud" is a different statement from "Bud is better," I will grant.

― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, November 13, 2017 8:41 AM (three hours ago)

that's how I feel about Taco Bell vis a vis Mexican Food. Taco Bell is it's own category. Taco Bell Pintos n Cheese is good in a different way than an artisanal taco or yucca fries.

one dollar plastic corkscrew

― scott seward, Saturday, November 11, 2017 11:29 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly i usually break or bend these

the same with ice scream scoops

same here

a $10 waiter's key is the sweet spot for corkscrews

This two-stage corkscrew design is the GOAT and well worth obtaining:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/810kU9UAGrL._SL1500_.jpg

Please note: it is not a one-dollar corkscrew.

http://www.vintageguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/01_TRAINWRECK.jpg

Please note: it is not a one-dollar corkscrew.

― A is for (Aimless), Monday, November 13, 2017 10:48 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're right, it's the $10 corkscrew i just posted about

I have several waiter's corkscrews. I think they are great. Most of them are a one-stage design. I posted a pic of a two-stage design that is even quicker and easier to use and more consistent in its results.

Have you ever actually handled a Dyson fan? They feel cheaper than a $2 clock radio and move less air and look ridiculous. Other than that, great product and investment.

For example, I noticed that a lot of the fancy-pants toothpastes are missing fluoride.

― Philip Nunez, Saturday, November 11, 2017 8:54 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting

re: philippe starck
https://www.stardust.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/alessi-juicy-salif-MAIN.jpg

maybe "fancy but worse" is all he makes?

I keep hearing that fancy cheese is worse than American cheese on a burger, but surely there must be some good fancy burger cheese?

yeah I feel like kraft american cheese slices are the most generic burger experience, it’s not optimal at all

really any good cheese slice is good on a burger, is the thing

it should be something that works good in slice form, some nice cheeses disintegrate in that form

blue cheese crumbles are ok on some fancy burgers but people tend to gild the lily and put carmelized shallots and eight other things on

either David Chang or J Kenji Lopez-Alt argues in favor of American cheese, based mostly on the way it melts

I'll take a slice of sharp cheddar on a burger every time.

The ultimate example of this is probably the smartphone -- there is simply no way that a phone aimed at a handful of ultra-rich customers will ever be as good as a mass-market smartphone, because the technology is so complex and pretty much relies on widespread use, and because it's not economical to produce a better phone for a far smaller market, even if they pay 10x as much.

This is a good one too:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/dining/raw-water-unfiltered.html

cream cheese

Coc... hey let's just pretend somebody said it and move on

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Philly_cream_cheese.jpg/1200px-Philly_cream_cheese.jpg