[lbo-talk] crazy saturday morning

W. Kiernan wkiernan at gmail.com
Sun Jun 29 15:03:21 PDT 2008


John Thornton wrote:

>

> The RDA Groups most recent survey listed Fords

> initial quality metric as equal to Toyota and

> just behind Honda in service issues per 1000

> vehicles. Their North American built cars scored

> slightly better than European or Mexican built

> vehicles too.

But the point I was trying to make is that, whether or not Toyotas actually are more reliable than Fords, consumers are willing to pay more for a Toyota than for a Ford with comparable specs because of their perception that they are getting a more reliable product. This indicates that consumers might willing to pay a higher price for telecom service they think is better, at least if they get a choice. I don't know how many places do have the choice, but most places here in Tampa Bay you can choose between at least two competing broadband internet services, Time-Warner Cable or Verizon DSL. Verizon also offers fiber-optic all the way to your house some places, but not to my block.

And regarding airline flights, you see all those people up in first-class willingly paying a huge premium for better service.

Well, actually though, I suspect that that's a lot of that selectivity is not for tangibly superior service so much as for visibly superior status, the same reason people buy M-Bs instead of Hondas at twice the price. If there were some way the recipient of a cell phone call had to know you were using the high-status, high-priced carrier then I'd bet you'd see customers lined up outside their door.

Andy F wrote:

>

> Maybe I'm not old enough, but I don't think I've

> ever went to the local book store with a question.

> I've done that with bike and hardware stores with

> varying success, and make a practice of buying from

> whomever gave me the help. But then with those

> local stores we're kind of back to niche markets,

> no? Are there any big chains with knowlegable

> staff?

I was talking once with a woman who works at Barnes and Noble and she told me that when you apply for a job there, they ask you if you like books, and if you tell them, "Oh, yeah, I'm an avid reader, I'm really into books," then they _won't_ hire you. Your job is to stock shelves with rectangular paper goods and to operate a cash register, not to indulge in literature.

Yours WDK



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