Products That Don't Really Work But People Still Buy For Some Reason
Reddit user NoBridge255 asked: 'Which product doesn't work as it should, but people still buy it?'
Sometimes we look at a product and think "who would buy that, and why?"
For me the "Flowbee" home haircutting tool comes to mind. If you're unfamiliar, it's a shaver you attached to your vacuum cleaner so you hair was pulled past cutting blades.
It was sold on late night infomercials in the 1990s.
Who wouldn't want to style their hair like this?
As fabulous as that looks, results did vary with most veering toward "yikes!" yet by 2000 the company reported 2 million were sold.
And *surprise* you can still buy one—for about $150.
It seems no matter how bad a product is, someone will buy it.
Reddit user NoBridge255 asked:
"Which product doesn't work as it should, but people still buy it?"
Unflushable Wipes
"Septic tank safe flushable toilet wipes."
"The gentleman that pumps our tank brought me outside to see the evidence when his hose clogged. Sorry about that, Clint."
~ TwinkleToesMamaFox
"Amen! I work water and sewer for the town I live in, 80-90 percent of the sewer issues are from a huge chunk of 'flushable wipes'. Yea, they went down the toilet then gathered up in the city's main!"
~ Uhhhhhhhhhusername
Don't Tear Here
"Any cardboard package with perforated 'Tear Here' lines."
"They never tear there."
~ nino2244
"As an engineer, one of my peeves is a product where the perforation is the structurally strongest part of the whole thing."
~ UlrichZauber
Useless Cleanse
"Anything that is supposed to cleanse, flush, or remove 'toxins' from one's body."
~ MR_NIKAPOPOLOS
"People forget that we have organs in our bodies that do this already."
~ augdog71
Brace Yourself
"Those silly copper bracelets that supposedly do everything from healing things to fixing your golf game."
~ cmparkerson
Printless
"Every printer I have ever purchased no matter how expensive is the flakiest of products I ever own. Wifi constantly disconnects, PC's constantly have connectivity problems with them no matter if it is USB, WIFI or ethernet or all three."
"When you finally connect to them unless you print on them every week they will no longer work, ink will leak, or be dry and the printer is destroyed."
"Get a laser printer? You now skip the ink drying issues but the other issues still remain. That device has dementia."
~ Slobbadobbavich
Lowest Bid
"Whenever something is marketed as 'military grade', I recall the DOD-procured wrench that broke on me right after I removed the tape from it."
~ QaPlaH1981
"Military grade simply means 'made within our generally vague specifications for the lowest price'."
~ richwarlockfinger
The Glitches
"The Sims 4 expansion packs."
~ imperialviolet
"I miss the days where games had to work out the box and didn't rely on day 1 patches or, hell, with The Sims it's like 6 months after they finally patch out 25% of the glitches."
~ McRibSucks
Bladder Uncontrolled
"Living with my mother who was incontinent near the end of her life….all 'medical supply' style adult disposable diapers. Depends and McKesson ought to be a shamed of themselves for putting out such godawful products."
"Thank God for the folks at Northshore Care. They actually made products that did what they were supposed to do."
"And it allowed my mother to sleep soundly at night and function throughout the day without having to worry about feeling embarrassed in front of others."
~ Flynn_lives
Ax The Axe
"Pretty sure no woman has smelled Axe body spray and thought ‘I really wanna have sex with him, he smells amazing!'."
~ frodosbitch
"As a woman I can confirm, I despise the scent of Axe body spray."
~ GirlMayXXXX
"Can confirm, makes me nauseous and want to run away."
~ Myhairison_fire
Can Mangler
"Every can opener ever purchased from a dollar store."
~ Theearthhasnoedges
"Man, it feels like every can opener these days. Growing up we had the same can opener for YEARS and now I feel like I need a new one every year."
~ dougielou
Fire Hazard
"Gas cans with their mandated safety spouts. It takes two hands to operate them."
"Very unwieldy, especially when filling small tools like chain saws. Often leads to spillage."
~ Fablabster
"The annoying irony is that they were created to stop spillage, yet they are so difficult to operate, that I have spilled far more fuel since the change than I EVER spill with a regular old funnel."
~ CivilRuin4111
Don't Tell Snuggle
"Fabric softener dryer sheets ruin the absorbency of your bath towels."
~ Other_Molasses2830
"Also ruins wicking fabrics—clothing that is designed to dry quickly"
"And ruins fleece—destroys the soft/fluffiness."
~ 0ttr
Viral Load
"Personal AntiVirus software. It all sucks and doesn’t effectively work."
"And even then, the most effective is actually Windows Defender which is built in and free."
~ pentesticals
Close Shave
"Disposable razors. Especially the 3-5 blade ones that cost a ton of money."
"I avoided shaving because anything other than a single pass from a trimmer would irritate the hell out of my skin."
"I tried out a unbranded basic safety razor, and the difference is unbelievable. Far less irritating that an electric razor and the disposable razors. Takes fewer passes to actually get shaved. And the blades cost pennies, so you can literally use a fresh blade every time if you heart so desires."
"I have no idea how the advertising industry convinced us that modern 3+ blades nightmares are remotely good."
~ SelectCase
🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
"Memory soles. The ones you put into your shoes."
"I bought them, put them in my shoes, went upstairs and STILL forgot what I went up there for."
"Don't be fooled people. They do not work."
~ KittySpanKitty
I never bought a Flowbee, but I have fallen victim to can openers.
Many, many can openers. Pull-tops are my friend.
What products would you add to the list?
Advertising can be shockingly persuasive.
Be it a television commercial, a radio jingle, or merely a flier on the subway, effective advertising and marketing can make consumers buy things they otherwise have little to no interest in.
Often to the annoyance of others, who grow increasingly frustrated that some products continue to sell when there are much better variations of the same thing available.
But even if these less well-known variants are superior in every way, their lack of a savvy marketing team results in their coming up short in sales.
With consumers having no idea that they are missing out on a much better option.
"What’s something extremely overrated that people buy anyways?"
The Mermaid Draws Them In...
"My boyfriend might kill me for this because he's a fanatic, but...Starbucks coffee."
"Overrated but extremely successful."
"Probably the factor of convenience and now sentiment with holiday traditions but....I've found many other places where the coffee is just genuinely so much better."- AriesRN
"Starbucks."- NCBadAsp
Loop Starbucks GIF by FrappuccinoGiphyAll Shoes Wear Out Eventually...
"Those new release Nikes."
"They’ve never been all that to me."- TraditionalLet3934
"Shoes."
"Sneaker-heads baffle me, who is spending $150+ on shoes you won’t even wear outside?"
"Makes no sense."- bbbhhioiii
"Yeezys (was the answer several months ago) and Jordans."- Particular-Topic-445
shoes destroy GIF by MuchGiphyHow Often Do You Actually Wear Them?
"Expensive diamonds and jewelry."- Back2Bach
Bad For You AND Expensive...
"As a smoker trying to quit, cigarettes."
"Yes, I know they're awful. I am trying."
"But srsly, Marlboros are near $10 a pack."
"There are people smoking 3, 4 packs a day."
"$40 x 7 = $280 a week."
"That's $14,560 a year."
"On smokes."
"Vaping is just as bad."- Expensive_Rhubarb_87
Ultimately Can't Fill The Void
"Subscriptions to twitch girls."- Few-Illustrator-5333
If You Need To Get Them Insured, Best To Look For Other Hobbies...
"Video game insurance."- DarkMagician-999
You Can Get It From A Tap, For Free...
"Bottle water."- MathCrank
Ultimately, It's One Person's Opinion...
"Self-help books written by people who have only had success by writing self-help books."- Longbowed
It's How They Draw You In...
"Anything in a free-to-play game."
"Looking at you fornite people."- TheSuperDK
Some Traditions Need To Die...
"Husbands."
"In India."
"With dowry."- Gloomy_Tangerine3123
It's easy to jump on the bandwagon and buy something because "everyone else is buying it."
But just because something is popular doesn't always make it good, forcing you to decide which is more important: fitting in or standing out?
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.
Consumers these days are required to do some research before making a purchase on something they don't necessarily need.
But advertisers have upped their marketing strategies to persuade customers that they need certain products and that they are being offered them at a competitive rate.
Don't be fooled. There's a reason why the Latin phrase "caveat emptor" –Let the buyer beware– is commonly thrown around.
Not every product out there is life-changing.
Instead, they are nothing but a tactic to manipulate consumers to fork over their hard-earned cash willingly.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor Leather-College2557 asked:
"What's a famous product that is a complete scam?"
There is no shortcut to losing weight. But you'll never hear that from companies trying to sell you snake oil.
Fat Zapper
"Anything that claims to target the loss of fat from a specific area of your body."
– DarthDregan
They Just Promote Waste
"All of those weight loss teas influencers promoted a few years ago. They’re just laxatives."
– the-cosmic-kraken
Ad-dress-ing The Solution
"They pretty much have exactly one good use, emergency weight loss. Need to fit into your bridesmaid dress this weekend and the zipper won't close? Sh*t your brains out until it does. You're going to feel like sh*t and that weight is coming straight back as soon as you eat something, but hey at least you didn't have to get emergency dress alterations I guess?"
– JMEEKER86
Instruction materials for college have always been a rip-off.
Text Book Example
"Single-use access codes for college textbooks is pretty much racketeering."
– colonelsmoothie
Workarounds
"I stopped buying books. Anyone that says to buy them early is lying to you. No the store never runs out of books. If it’s one with a code you can literally just buy it online whenever you want and get full access with the code if those are needed."
"If it’s a class without a code I wouldn’t get the book till absolutely necessary and when I did it was an Amazon online rental. I’m not spending $200 on a book when I can spend $15 for 5 months of access to the book through the kindle app."
"Some classes you can get buy without even buying the book."
– micheal213
Exorbitant Prices
"Years ago, when I was in college, I spent like some insane amount of money on my books. Like over $1000 or something nuts. I had to walk to my car on the entire other side of campus. So I asked for a bag. Then they tried to charge me 10 dollars for a bag. I was so annoyed."
– BeerNcheesePlz
Online security can cost you. Is it worth it? These Redditors didn't think so.
No Protection For Being Fooled
"McAffee and Norton antivirus software."
– FriendlyFloyd7
Preying On The Elderly
"It didn't used to be, but now windows has built in software that is just as good."
"The real crime is Norton, scamming old folks into paying a yearly fee smh"
– Superb_Extension1751
They say these products are beneficial to your life. Don't fall for it.
Spill The Tea
"Herbalife... the shakes and 'teas' which aren't actually teas at all.. It's processed garbage that just so happens to have vitamins and protein added to it. Fake sweeteners, artificial dyes, yeah no thanks."
– cardinalcandy
Hear This
"Ear wax candles. Burn one not in an ear, and it still fills up with wax."
– JustSoHappy
I always thought nature was the biggest scammer of all.
Those huge bags of spinach leaves at the grocery store gives the illusion that you're set for your intake of vegetables if good for at least a couple of weeks.
But as soon as those spinach leaves–which actually retain lots of water–hit the pan when cooking, you'll find that the portion has dramatically reduced to a hundredth of its size.
I see you, spinach, and I don't like you for pulling a fast one on me.
When shopping for a product, consumers have a wide range of options to choose from.
Headphones, for example, are offered for sale in various forms, including for those who prefer in-ear-buds or over the hear headsets.
Of course, good quality is something that costs them more, and figures into the purchasing decisions.
But there are certain things many consumers just don't understand about others' buying choices.
Curious to explore this, Redditor Don_Tommasino_5687 asked:
"What product can you not understand people buying high end versions of?"
There's a certain demographic for which many people don't think spending a lot of money is rational.
Not Made For Walkin'
"Baby shoes. They can’t walk."
– A_Cat12886475
Infantile Fashion
"Clothes for infant/toddler range. They're just going to get ruined or outgrown."
– markphil4580
Wasted Shades
"My idiot dad bought Ray-Bans for 4 and 5 year old kids and yelled at them when they used them as shovels at the beach."
– AR713
Brand names are pricey. Is it really that worth it? Some consumers think so.
Luxury In Protection
"When I was in San Francisco last year, I saw people with Gucci face masks."
"Really? Really?"
– BakedTatter
Pharma Preferences
"Ibuprofen/paracetamol costs 10-20 pence for supermarkets own brand in the UK. Compared to like £5 for branded that does exactly the same, plus a bit of caffeine or something. Just have a cup of tea for crying out loud."
– IJHaile
Sounds Like A Waste Of $$$
"Beats by Dre. Sh*t is overpriced garbage. There are many options that far outperform for less than half the price."
– BehindBlueEyes5001
Goop It
"Celebrity brand items. I'm sure there are some good ones, but usually it's stuff like the first generation Beats by Dre that were performing around the same level as off-brand headphones that cost 90% less."
– Grievuuz
Statement Of Success
"Most of the things mentioned here are not bought because of its main function but as a status symbol to signal others that you are well to do and hip."
"Watches, purses, cars, clothes all fill that criteria."
"The real thing I cannot understand are things that are 1. Unnecessarily expensive and 2. No one gives a sh*t about, like luxury bottled water."
– jorsiem
There are those who can't speak for themselves that could care less about brands.
Where The Kitty Lies
"Luxury pet bed. Lots of cats love boxes and will be happy with a shoe box more than a $100 cat bed. And get soft fabric and do a rough sew job for a soft blanket. Been able to do that for less the $10 and the kitties still have and use them years later."
– wiccacat18
Now, Catch This
"My dog loved footballs, loved playing with them, loved chasing them, loved playing a tenacious defender when I'd try to dribble one past her, loved killing them. Left alone with one she'd put in a solid afternoon's work ripping that f'ker to shreds and then proudly come trotting up to me with the ragged rubber inside bit. And I'm like 'Great, but now you no longer have a ball.' I started buying solid plastic ones, they survived longer. I guess everyone needs a hobby."
– ButterflyAttack
The Exception
"The most I spent on a dog bed is $80 AUD, which is a fair amount. But I have an old girl who is 15 and needed support for her old lady bones, so she has a very nice full-on orthopedic, pocket spring and memory foam mattress-bed."
"It's so good. I needed one thick enough that her weight didn't make its stuffing compress down so she could feel the hard tiles under it. This one doesn't at all, I a full-grown human can lay on it and be supported. It'll be the only time I spend that much on a dog bed. Old doggies deserve the best."
– ErinnShannon
There was a time when I didn't bat an eye for spending over $350 for a pair of Diesel jeans just because "all the kids were wearing them."
The cut of the pair I settled on didn't quite fit me or look flattering from behind, but I wore it with pride, flaunting the brand name while I wore them out.
Looking back on my buying choices, I roll my eyes as I sit here comfortably in my $29.99 pair of jeans I found at Target.
Designer jeans...pffft. Maybe it's an "getting older" thing, but comfort will always determine what buy and don't buy.
The cheapest, simplest things can be the most enduring.
Items we use every day that are made by the millions can last an eternity.
That is a miracle in this day and age, honestly.
Of course back in the day that was the point of manufacturing.
Stoves and refrigerators were used by actual dinosaurs and our grandparents.
But we expect everything to break down sooner than later.
However, there are still things being mass-produced that last.
Redditor Gourmet-Guy wanted everyone to discuss the items still successful in bulk and asked the online community:
"Which cheap and mass-produced item is stupendously well engineered?"
Sometimes the assembly line does its job.
Cheap things can work.
Free
Whistle Whistling GIFGiphy"Whistle. For a few cents, you can be heard in the middle of nowhere for nearly a mile. Much louder than your voice. Great if you are lost."
ckellingc
INKED
"I really like BIC products. Lighters, ballpoint pens, razor blades etc. They're all very robust despite being cheap mass-produced plastic items."
LeZarathustra
"Until this moment, I had never connected that these BIC products were all from the same company. Amazing that they’ve produced a variety of incredibly cheap but still reasonable quality items."
SupremeDictatorPaul
"I’ve moved away from box lighters in favor of refillable or electric lighters. Those cheap tiny lighters add up as thrown away and I’d think it very good for environment. Not to take away from the smart design. There may be a way to refill Bic lighters I’m unsure."
jwright24153
Stacked
"The intermodal shipping container, a/k/a the Connex box. There are millions of the damned things all over the world, in use every single day. They are stackable, can be locked together, attach readily to ships, truck trailer frames, and rail cars, and can bear enormous loads."
"The cost of their manufacture compared to their economic use value over their useful lives is next to nothing."
MrBarraclough
"I was on a vessel a few weeks back when they were doing the lashing on the containers and being in between containers stacked about 20 high would have been so much more terrifying if they hadn’t all fit together so nicely."
jenangeles
so versatile...
"Zip ties - such a simple piece of plastic but so versatile. I have one of the old fashioned chain link fences, some of the fasteners on the middle poles broke and in high winds the fence was swaying like crazy. A half dozen zip ties on the three posts and it doesn’t budge and nobody even knows they’re there."
larryb78
Flushed
toilet GIFGiphy"Toilets. I've been a plumber 20 years and very little has changed, or needed to. Minimal up keep, cheap and easy repair, very long life."
RPO1728
God Bless the toilet. God did good.
Build It
robot laying GIFGiphy"The Brick. Made out of mud and lasts for centuries and the way it can distribute load for large buildings."
Awayze
"Clay, not mud! There's a huge difference. Mud bricks don't turn into bisque but clay bricks do."
ThisIsCovidThrowway8
The Design
"Soda/beer cans. The design has existed for decades with few changes. It’s a way of using a relatively small amount of cheap metal to withstand the pressure of carbonated beverages with a reliable opening mechanism."
"During pandemic I also noticed that some companies stopped using thicker material on the upper ‘ridge’ of the can, probably due to supply shortages. They instead used a sort of stepped system that appeared to be almost as strong."
Die_woofer
Shipping Tools
"The humble corrugated cardboard box."
"It's lightweight, strong, splash resistant, somewhat padded, doesn't break down in heat/cold, scratch resistant, recyclable, biodegradeable and able to be assembled cheaply into any size."
"The basic design has existed for over 150 years. The retail shipping industry runs on cardboard boxes."
throwaway-boxer
FIRE!
"The lighter. Spontaneously ignite fire basically whenever you want."
LefterisLegend
"Specifically, BIC lighters are incredibly reliable. You can find one on the ground that's been outside for months and they still work. Cheaper disposables break in a million ways and more expensive refillable lighters will leave you disappointed if you store them, but you can always keep a BIC handy and know it'll work when you need it."
raitalinCool me Down
Hang In There Cat GIF by jjjjjohnGiphy"Not exactly cheap, but I'm impressed that I can have a ceiling fan run on high for 15 years straight and not have it explode on me."
FadeToOne
So not everything being super expensive is the only way to go.