Tuesday 3 January 2017

Market forces, differential pricing, general hilarity

From the BBC:

Supermarket chain Tesco has cut the price of women's disposable razors to match that of a similar product for men. The move is a victory for campaigners who demanded an end to what they saw as sexist pricing on the high street.

Last year campaigners highlighted the higher price of many toiletries marketed at women compared to the lower price of similar goods for men. All of the big four supermarkets were criticised.


The mind boggles.

Do people genuinely not know that all disposable razors are more or less exactly the same (the only real difference is the number of blades), it's just that razors marketed at women are made with pink plastic rather than boring white? If some people are prepared to pay extra for the ones with pink handles, then why shouldn't retailers charge more them? If I were a woman unhappy with paying over the odds for the pink ones, I'd just buy the white ones instead rather than mounting some campaign.


8 comments:

PJH said...

Does this mean they're going to equalise the pricing between men's and women's tampons as well?

Context: Brown University Plans to Put Menstrual Products in the Men’s Bathrooms, Too


:D

Mark Wadsworth said...

PJH, that's more mind boggling stuff!

My daughter says that when men are sulking it is referred to as "manstruating", but the only products you need for that are a sports car or alcohol.

A K Haart said...

Do women's razors last longer because they have less work to do? We should be told.

Kj said...

From PJH's link: "It’s also important to draw the distinction that periods shouldn’t inherently be linked with womanhood. Many women do not have periods for any number of reasons, so linking periods to womanhood only increases misinformation and encourages exclusionary misunderstandings about human biology."

The world is officially turning into Sweden.

Curtis said...

Honestly, why not just make all their toilets non-gendered in the first place. This is the case in several real UK universities I have visited; there are only individual stalls.

There could also be an adjoining room with urinals, open to those with and without a micturating appendage. If SJWs complain about there being "special provision for men" just say that men tend to piss all over the toilet seat/bowl (and sometimes in the sink, since it's at waist level) so it's actually providing for women.

Lola said...

The whole idea that these pricings need an intervention is beyond me. Why? Just why? If a girly wants to pay a premium for a pink handle, that's her choice. It is absolutely correct that the seller should seek the maximum price he can. If the girly wants cheap she can buy the same blokey item in grey.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, that's an equation which cancels out. if a "man's" razor does less work it would also last longer.

Kj, the world has gone mad.

C, more good points. Women also complain that queues outside ladies' toilets are longer i.e. they are not given enough cubicles, despite the fact that ladies' toilets usually have more cubicles than mens (with the mens having a few urinals to compensate). Truth is women spend far too long in there. Men go in, take a piss and are out again within a minute.

As you say, have unisex toilets and the problem sorts itself, to make the equality point, have some ground level urinals like in France which women can use, problem solved :-)

L, why? I am as baffled as you are. Hence the post label "stupidity".

Bayard said...

C, many, many years ago, whilst on holiday in Switzerland, I noticed that there were just "Toilets", not "Hommes" and "Dames". There was a row of cubicles and, beyond them and round a corner, a row of urinals. Presumably the local women knew not to go beyond the cubicles to avoid embarrassment. I remember thinking "why can't they do this at home?" at the time.