I think the point was to undercut Gillette's cartridge prices, but since more than one company can do that, they have to compete with each other too.

And Gillette can lower its prices if the subscription services ever become a real threat.

Unlike taxis, there isn't a blitzscaling story here, either.

Double-edge safety razor blades undercut all of the fancy razor blades: 2¢ apiece or less!

Even a Rolls-Royce of a DE blade, like a Feather, is well under 50 cents.

Dollar Shave Club goes to show what you can do with a trivial idea and some very clever marketing.

Exactly. Or think Lululemon— “wow, clothing, no moat”. And look at them. 20bn company or something.

Lululemon was able to figure out how to market a premium product that can fetch far more profit margin than razors to wealthy clientele.

The opposite, marketing lower priced items because they have a lower price limits profit potential unless you have some technological advancement that really drives down cost.

Actually the model really doesn't make much sense in long run. You are essentially the one starting race to the bottom. And if others join in, you together end up at the bottom. Which I don't think is optimal for anyone participating.

> Which I don't think is optimal for anyone participating.

There are 'visionaries', who want 'to change the world' and there are people who knows what they can start a business, make it profitable and then move on with profits.

Hayley Barna moved on in 2015.

If your choice is to 'change the world' then of course it's not 'optimal'.

I kind of disagree there. Lululemon make high quality clothing and there’s a lot of quality differentiation in the fashion market. Razor blades on the other hand… meh.

Most businesses don't have moats other than execution/logistics/etc. That works out fine for them.

In a similar vein, buying an electric razor that is more functional (different lengths, can also be used for hair and other grooming) that lasts years. A razor subscription sounds extremely wasteful.

What do you groom with an electric razor that isn't hair? I am struggling to think of something...

I think they meant to differentiate hair on one's head and hair elsewhere on one's body.

That makes sense I guess.

Balls.

Usually it's called a trimmer around here. Because you use it to trim the bushes, hehe.

But stupid jokes aside, I used razors (for my face) only in my teens and early twenties, after that I moved to trimmers and occasional 'canadian lumberjack' look out. Trimmer are good enough for the face, armpits and most of the bush. At this rate I measure the lifetime of (disposable BIC) razors in years.

Or go to Costco

I thought the idea was great and I subscribed to Harry’s at one point. The premise was that I wouldn’t have to think about razors any more and would always have them. That seemed like a good deal to me.

The problem was the razors just sucked.

I bought 200 double edged safety razor blades for $15 three years ago, and I've only used up half of them.

Cartridge razors are such an enormous waste of money by comparison, and I can't even imagine needing a subscription for them.

There's a brand (can't remember the name) that sells for a similar price on Amazon Germany. I can't stand them. Switched to feather hi (more expensive, yet still cheap compared to multi blade razors) and am happy now.

The kind I got were Derby Extra [1], and it looks like I was wrong about using up half of them over 3 years. I only used 1/4 (one-half of two packs), which comes to only a little over $1 per year.

They've been great for me, and have been the first and only brand of double-edged safety razor blades I've tried, so I have no point of comparison with other brands.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0032Q41LS

Yeah, exactly that one. Hated them :D

I haven't spent a cent on razors in over 20 years and my beard is around 6 inches long.

I have switched to leaf since I wanted to use actual blades and not waste so much plastic. Works quite fine. Unfortunately we in EU pay almost double price compared to the US.