I'm in the market for a new pair of slippers. The pair I have is still good, but getting to the point that it needs to be replaced. I really love this particular style of slippers; stretchy, satiny material with a nice terrycloth lining and soft, indoor only, suede soles. They fit my slipper needs perfectly. The pair I have I bought in or before 2004, so they have served a long, useful life as far as slippers go.
My first stop on my hunt for new slippers was the website of the manufacturer of this pair. And there I found that particular style of slippers is on sale for ⅓ off the normal manufacturer's suggested retail selling price. That's a pretty good deal. But that got me thinking, and looking around. My web-based research led to the sad conclusion that the style of slippers is on sale because it's being discontinued.
What???? How can they do this to me???? This style of slippers has been around for at least 10 years, by my own evidence, and for a good deal longer than that, as the pair I am looking to replace was not the first pair of this style I have worn out. So, let's say, just for the purposes of this argument that this style of slippers has been around at least 15 years, and probably closer to 20.
Why would the company decide that after 20 years, the time has come to discontinue such a popular and enduring style of slippers? Why do companies of all types of products get the consumer to purchase, and continue purchasing a product only to stop making it? It really is a form of corporate-forced consumer withdrawal.
This phenomenon happens all the time in my life. I am unfortunate enough to suffer from very sensitive skin, and many products make me break out in hives; itchy, painful, annoying, hives. Most often this reaction is due to the product I have been using safely for years, all of a sudden changing its formulation. I innocently buy the product only to break out in hives upon using it. That's usually when I find the manufacturers have arbitrarily changed the formulation just enough to cause the adverse reaction. So I have search out a new product that does the same job, and usually this means trying out a good number of products until I can find one that will not cause me to have an allergic reaction. Most high-end personal goods companies are very good about accepting returns on products to which customers have had allergic reactions. Products sold at mass retailers are far less likely to be able to be returned because of allergic reactions to them. I know this first hand, as I have had to return various products to many of those companies for just that reason. This can cause me to end up wasting a good deal of money on testing out products to find ones that work for me.
I wonder, in this era of litigiousness for anything and everything, why companies are discontinuing or changing their products so frequently and without warning to consumers. Had I known in advance that the company was discontinuing the deodorant that I could use without reaction, I would have stocked up, if only to have something to use while I was finding another product. As it was, I had no warning and the replacement suggested on the website (interestingly enough, a product designated for sensitive skin) made me break out in hives! Now I have to go through the trial and error process to find something else suitable, which with my luck will be discontinued just as soon as I discover it works.
Obviously the slippers are not serious as products that can potentially cause allergic reactions, but the disappointment brought by the discontinuation of them is just the same. The slippers have been in production for at least 20 years, with only slight aesthetic variations. Why would the company decide that a classic and well-selling product needs to be discontinued?
I know, I took marketing and economics in the pursuit of my Business degree, and I understand the theories about product life cycles and planned obsolescence. But as a consumer, the theory really only matters when it crashes into my life. And right now, having to find replacements for favorite products is really crashing my life.
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