You get what you Pay for?

Give some examples you feel related to this!

Almost everything cheap imported from China. It's cheap but it's also rubbish that rarely fails "quality control" until it suddenly fails in use.

Tires

Sometimes it's wrong though. Lidl and Aldi have very decent own label products, which are as good as over priced branded products.

Cars

The opposite, insurance company's , you often don't get what you have paid for

Coffee

Meat

Internet speed

And tobacco

Since March 1 here in USA food prices have increased considerably.

That's probably because your normal supply chains are collapsing due to everything being shut down and some profiteering.

yes when you feel beautiful from some one

That's exactly right!

The only identifiable profiteering I've seen so far, was when some of the people who rushed to buy all the medical equipment, tried to sell it online at ten times their retail cost.

I know what's happening with most of the rising grocery prices and the like. That's not profiteering, that's suppliers trying to stay in business, with falling resources and fewer customers, but with basic costs of doing business remaining the same.

If you can make a decent living, and pay your rent, selling a thousand of something, and suddenly purchases fall to only five hundred of those things, if you don't raise your prices, you'll be tossed out of your apartment.

Anyway, that's a sidetrack.

Ever since I was a professional salesman (long ago, thankfully), I've come to think the saying needs to be a bit different. Perhaps to "you aren't likely to get what you DON'T pay for."

I'm in the repair/service business now, and I constantly run into customers who are angry that the $2000 thing they bought, doesn't perform at the same level as the $5000 version they passed up.

Yes. And I've said it too.
It always makes me laugh.
Do you understand it?

People have an implicit bias where they see a direct relationship between price and quality (fulfillment).

It's rarely true.
Although it would be more accurate to say "people don't really understand exactly what it is they are really paying for."

Which makes this: "insurance company's , you often don't get what you have paid for" pretty funny. Especially because a lot to maybe most people don't really understand insurance.
Insurance is one of the few things where you are pretty much getting exactly what you've paid for. "Insurance" is a heavily regulated and enforced industry based on legally defined terms and contracts.
I mean there were court cases to determine at what exact time contracts actually ended.
11:59:59? 12 midnight? 12:01 of the day following the end of the policy? 12:10? End of business of the insurer? Whose time zone? Insured or insurer?
What happens if your policy "runs out" while you're sitting in the waiting room of a hospital or at the scene of a car accident, your insurance company received your renewal check 3 days ago, but the check won't actually clear for 2 days? People have sued trying to figure these things out.

Insurance is the closest you will ever get to getting exactly what you paid for (outside of other regulated industries like garbage collection, sewage treatment, public water, electricity), no more, no less, as it's stipulated in the contract and there have been innumerable court cases figuring out exactly what things mean, when, and why.



The saying "you get what you pay for" how it's generally used is perpetuating a bias, socialized training, for people to assume and keep behaving like there is an organic relationship between price and quality. An attempt to control reality.

People don't really want to "get what they pay for."
People want to get more than they paid for.

The arbitrage determining emotional "satisfaction."

Look at "black friday sales."
Look at the box stores in malls having "memorial day sales," or, "white sales," or "bogo!"
Look at discount stores like wally world where they may lower the prices on some goods, meanwhile adding a couple of pennies to other items that are "essential," which most people are going to buy anyway, especially if they buy the "sale" product.
Look at dollar stores that sell their dollar goods, along with "normal" (actually higher) priced goods like laundry soap, toilet paper, and makeup.
Transference of assumption "I'm paying less for (x), that must mean (y) is a deal too!"
Look at electronics stores that sell older models and their store "5 year extended warranties" where you only really get 3 years of coverage because the thing you bought is two years old.

Look at furniture stores, especially the "going out of business!" ones, where they put the MSRP next to their "sale" price which in most cases is higher than you'd pay somewhere else (or that store 1 week earlier) that conformed more to fulfilling the bias equation.
Read about what happened with JCPenney when they hired that guy from Apple to change their stores, stopped having "sales," normalized prices, carrying more "brands," basically attempting to shift the equation from lower price for same quality to higher price for increased quality, all while competing with those that offered the same thing.
Look at all the "as seen on t.v." products, or watch the home shopping channels (200 knifes for only $20! It can cut a can and a tomato!).

Almost everything is based on manipulating perceptions of the false equation or perceived desired direct relationship "price = quality."

If they can make you believe you're paying "less" for the same quality, you "feel" you are getting a deal.
If they can make you believe you're getting higher "quality," then you may be willing to pay a higher price.

It's never really about "getting what you pay for."
At best that's a minimum metric justifying the amount of pleasure button pushing.

I believe that the Quality of merchandise has deteriorated over the Years.

I totally agree with the merchandise being lower quality. Sometimes you can tell by looking, but I like to feel/touch items before i buy them. See if they are sturdy or soft, etc. I do not buy online.

I do find that odd though.
I assume the US produces most of its own food? We do too and trucks and plants just continued to work to supply supermarkets. We haven't had shortages in shops, just the first week with a few items because people were panicking, but not after that.

I'm not sure if prices have gone up here. I did see a particular meat being more expensive which I figures was odd. But not sure if that's due to the pandemic.