What does it mean to buy quality products and not just a label?

What does it mean to buy quality products and not just a label ? 🔖

I was hearing that as a suggestion on the video I posted earlier about rather than buying the cheapest products, buying things that are long lasting and will serve you for many years. Buy fewer things but of higher quality. But what does that mean, when so much of what we consume these days is defined by the chrome trim and brand name slapped on it, rather than real quality? Heck even Cahartt jackets are made in Mexico and aren’t the quality they once were.

I was fortunate to inherit a lot of my grandparents old furniture when I moved into my apartment. It has served me well. I rarely buy any kind of appliance or device, most of them are part of my apartment or I don’t have them. I don’t have internet or television so I’m not exposed to all that marketing crap.

I do buy a lot of my clothing at Walmart – wrangler shirts, jeans, etc. I guess their not super high quality but I get several years out of them. Work clothes I get at Sears and JC Pennies although recently I bought a dress shirt at Macy’s as the old stand buys are closing down. I’ve tried expensive and cheap boots and in my experience the cheap ones last basically as long. One of the best shirts I’ve ever owned was a blue denenium work shirt like mechanics wear – I finally tore it up for rags to use around the apartment after wearing it fifteen years. A blue dress shirt I got from Walmart years ago similarly lasted for seven or eight years. Good stuff can be sold at discounted retailers.

Honestly, I think many of the branded products that suburbanites talk about as being superior products are just labels and chrome covering up the crap underneath. It’s been at least since the 1950s that so much in our lives is cheap disposable shit, the higher end versions covered with lots of chrome to look more sophisticated. So much so called high quality stuff is just crap.