The Poor Man Buys Twice – Why More Expensive is Oftentimes Cheaper

One of my old co-workers Val had a great Russian saying that was translated as: “the poor man buys twice”.  It means that when you buy something cheap, it will not last as long as the more expensive option and often times costs you more in the long run (since you have to buy it twice).  We live in a society where so many things are now throw-away items.  I am finding more often than not that cheaper options are generally more expensive in the long run for all kinds of things.

Here is an example of this old saying proving true for me this weekend.  Below is a photo that shows my rusty old shower caddy $19.99 and my new simplehuman shower caddy $103.99 after coupon.

This is the third time that I replaced my old shower caddy in three years.  Each one really should have been replaced after 6 months because they rusted that fast!  Now, if you look at just the prices, an argument could be made that the cheaper shower caddy is still cheaper pricewise even after replacing it. But, that does not take into account the cost of my time.  As a successful computer consultant the extra 2.5 hours of my time to take this stupid shower caddy project on each time that it rusts, far outweighs the dollar value of the more expensive caddy that I put in.

It also does not take into account that the more expensive product has a better design.  It has easily adjustable shelves, better spring mounting for positioning the caddy and looks so much better.  Not to mention the intangible of “wow I have a nice shower” every time that I take a shower.

Not only did the old shower caddy look bad after a few months from rust, it also had me pay a “death tax” for its inevitable rusting together.  That is, it was rusted together which made getting this long thing almost impossible to remove from my shower!  Here is a video of the trouble that I had just taking the old shower caddy out.

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Now here is the new shower caddy.

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In this situation the “more expensive” shower caddy is actually cheaper for me when weighing eventual cost ($19.99 * N Years vs $103.99 * 1), cost of my time, and quality of life.  In software development this topic often comes up with consulting and/or the price of an employee.  It is hard to generalize every situation of value because I have seen cheap and expensive consultants produce equally bad results. So I will not say that more expensive equals better.

I will however say that this shower caddy situation resembles certain hiring decisions I have seen organizations face.  Since I am a consultant I have had an opportunity to see how different organizations approach hiring.  From my experience, the organizations who value the best talent and are willing to pay for it, end up spending less and getting further ahead in the long run.  The key is finding and keeping the talent that is actually worth the extra upfront investment.