Do you always get what you pay for? Sometimes.
When my favorite off-brand of fig bars was unavailable, my husband generously sprung for the significantly more expensive and familiar name brand. The texture was all wrong to my taste and they just didn’t cut it.
As to clothing, a hundred percent cotton is the same thing whether the label says Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, or no known name. Cashmere is cashmere whether you purchased it at Goodwill or Saks Fifth Avenue. In this instance you may have paid more than you received by buying a “name,” whether on a label or on a marquee.
Sometimes a generic or an “off-brand” is just right. But in some circumstances a brand name product is truly the better product. We all have our preferences, none is right nor wrong, just choices we make.
Whether it’s Heinz, Hunts, or Clover Valley, is ketchup, ketchup, or maybe catsup? Some would argue, not so much; others will go for whatever is cheapest; yet others will aim to impress you and me by paying more for the name.
One can buy Michael Kors clothing at one of his flagship stores in New York, London, Paris, or many other places in the world. Then again, you can buy his label in most department stores, outlets, Ross, T J Maxx, or find a gem at Goodwill.
Are you getting what you paid for? Perhaps it’s in the eye of the beholder.
What about services? Sometimes the tip for a restaurant server is automatically calculated in the bill. What if the server was disinterested, inefficient, rude, or subpar? In that case you didn’t get what you paid for.
I noticed recently with two different shipping companies that when there were “known issues” with their service, I didn’t get a break in the fees. I pay the same thing whether the service flows smoothly as advertised or if there are significant issues with the service.
I did not get what I paid for, and their trite, “we apologize for the inconvenience,” just didn’t relieve my headache or soothe my frayed nerves. I did get a laugh at their “workaround” which they sent to me while they continue to work on that “known issue.”
The problem, you see, was with a label receipt. In some cases, a receipt is important. But I was told in the workaround, to “just don’t print the receipt.” “Uh, the receipt is vital to our record-keeping, so I’ll just continue to hand write the number on it until you fix the glitch, sometime between tomorrow and the fifth of never.” “Okay.”
The other company’s workaround was also amusing. It resembled the universal, high-tech fix, which is, “unplug it and plug it back in.” I was told to enter a fake address at the beginning of the form, fill in the remainder of the form but before confirming the entry, go back and change the address to the International one where the shipment was to be sent.
It worked. Isn’t life crazy, fun, and occasionally mind-numbingly absurd?
Recently while cleaning up after a party, and having to throw out a few plastic bowls, my compatriot said, “well, I’ve found with Dollar Tree items, I usually use them two or three times before I have to throw them out.” I’d say for a dollar-twenty-five, a few good uses, and occasionally well beyond that, is getting what we paid for.
The grapes I paid two dollars a pound more for at one store than the cheaper ones at another store, turned out to be awful. As I dumped them into the compost, I muttered “there goes six dollars down the tubes.” I usually counter my negative thoughts with something like, “oh well, I’ve wasted six dollars on worse things.”
On the other hand, there have been times when I’ve paid a few dollars extra for something and it did not disappoint. But then we have watermelons and cantaloupe. Aren’t they just a crap-shoot?
We will think we purchased a gem that has the nice wide stripes, is round, not oblong, bears the brown/yellow stain from the ground where the vine laid its produce, and get it home, cut into it and it’s pithy, or anemic pink, or bright red close to rotten. Oh my, “that’s five dollars towards the wildlife fund.”
One time many years ago, my friend Barb and I drove across country on a youthful “walkabout” or discovery tour, whatever you want to call it. I recall that somewhere in the mountains out west, or was it the desert, anyway we had a lengthy conversation about the distinguishing merits of Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars, from the “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t” fame. Well, let me conclude this not so lengthy tome with a similar, “sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don’t.”