At the margin there are people who don't eat the cheese today because it is too expensive for them. Those people are the ones who benefit from slightly cheaper cheese.
On the other side you have those wealthy enough to enjoy as much as the want out of it at its current price. Those would be the losers if quality were to deteriorate.
Re:Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?
by awesome_dude on Thursday April 10, 2025 @06:02PM
(#43648462)
Hmm, quality only deteriorates in the "premium" section if those wealthy enough to buy that version demand that it cheapens itself - by no longer buying the premium version
Edit: I can point to cases of that happening
Ferrari, who couldn't turn a profit so sold to another car manufacturer that created a "profitable" version that, quite frankly, is a shadow on its former glory
Re:Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?
by QuercusMax on Thursday April 10, 2025 @07:19PM
(#43648861)
Happens to musical instrument manufacturers all the time, too. I used to have a Chickering piano from around 1915; a lovely instrument with a good reputation. At some point that company was sold, and they continued to produce pianos under that name, but they were nothing like the original.
The cheap bad cheese wouldn't last a second in the market if we didn't all rush to buy it, accepting it's failings, but rejoicing in how close it is to the "real" thing and, of course, deriding the original as being "so expensive"