More expensive doesn’t always mean better

This weekend the bf and I went shopping for hockey skates. He liked this one pair, which is called Brand X 700s for $150. They were out of his size and the sales person brought him the same brand 500s. The 500s were actually $20 less.

They looked exactly the same, so we asked what the difference was. There were some ums and ahs and he finally said the 700s have something called the ‘anti-microbio sheath’. Yep. I’m sure it would totally be worth an extra $20 (sarcasm here).

The bf had a look around the different stores some more and decided on the 500s. He went back to the store and asked for a pair in his size. He spent about an hour getting them sharpened and heat molded – free. When it came time to pay, it turned out the salesperson grabbed the wrong ones. Instead of the 500SC for $130, he grabbed the 500SD for $150. Honestly, we had no idea there was an SC and SD (actually I can’t remember what they are called so I made the brand, numbers, and letters up).

Whatever, he wasn’t going to waste another hour for $20 so the bf was willing to pay $150 for the SD he got. I wouldn’t have if I was there, because this was their mistake, but that’s another post. However, the store matched the price for $130. When the bf asked what the difference was between the SC and SD, they fessed up and said there isn’t any.
Lesson learned? More expensive doesn’t always mean better product. Of course in some cases it is. Like the $500 skates were made of more expensive material and gives better performance than $100 skates. But sometimes a $20 or $50 difference is arbitrarily put on for unnecessary features or no features at all.