re: #471 jaunte

Some of the money they’re making is coming from re-engineering their companies’ products, so that less goes in to the same item than went into it a few years ago. By the time consumers notice, and the brand suffers a deterioration in its image, it’s the problem of the next CEO.

That sort of thing seemed to happened with Levi Strauss in the ’90s. I’ve worn Levi’s pretty much my whole life, and as a child putting them through some harsh treatment I tended to outgrow them before I wore them out. That’s why my folks bought them for me.

But in the early ’90s they started selling POS jeans for $50-$60 a pair that did not stand up to my casual, adult use. I swore off them until about five years ago I saw target selling ‘em for ~$25 a pair. I bought two, and they’re still in pretty good shape to this day.

No idea what happened within the company for them to change back and forth like that.