The Wall Street Journal reports that men are hoarding old-model razors, because they’re tired of the endless “upgrades” that don’t provide a better shave:
Steven Schimmel, owner of Pasteur Pharmacy in Manhattan, says he quadrupled sales in his shaving aisle by carrying hard-to-find products like British shave creams, badger-hair brushes and safety razors. He sells eight brands of double-edge blades, including Gillette’s 7 O’Clock blades, bought from a dealer in India.
While the latest advances in shaving remain big sellers on Drugstore.com Inc., unit sales of hard-to-find blades including the Schick Injector and Wilkinson Sword increased in 2009 over the year before. Drugstore.com regularly lobbies blade-makers to maintain their inventories.
Shaving is big business:
Gillette brings in more than $4 billion in annual sales; Schick sees sales of around $1 billion a year, according to analysts’ estimates. Though the recession hurt sales of blades and boosted sales of cheaper disposable razors, the two companies still have a lock on the U.S. market. Gillette commands 70% of the razors-and-blades category, and Schick holds about 10%, according to market-data firm Euromonitor International Inc.
New Wilkinson Sword safety razors are too good — they do not wear out. According to advertising on the box they have some ceramic layer or something. They are not as sharp after some time, so I kept changing them, but I keep the final one, and apparently you can shave with it forever.
Anyway, I do not know how they can remain in business with that product.