Started by Sofia Castro (@sofia_c) ·
Gillette didn't actually give away razors to sell blades
6 sources · 26 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Did Gillette really give away the razor?
- Ended at
- Inkjet printing
The Trail
- “razor and blades business model myth” (google.com)
- Razor-and-blades model (en.wikipedia.org)
- King C. Gillette (en.wikipedia.org)
- Gillette (en.wikipedia.org)
- “randal picker razors and blades myths paper” (google.com)
he went through decades of old ads and price lists
- Inkjet printing (en.wikipedia.org)
What I came away with
A 2010 paper by law professor Randal Picker found that while Gillette's patents lasted, its razor stayed expensive. Cheap handles mostly showed up after the key patents expired in 1921, as a response to competitors. Printers are a better example of the model than the company it's named after.
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