What are some examples of fancier, expensive, boutique versions of things that are worse than the mass market version?

The best cranberry sauce is the canned-shaped glop

Healthcare

Is there a flouride conspiracy? If so, I'm unaware. I thought it was well established and known that ingesting flouride is bad.

lol

I use charcoal to make draw murals of communist utopias, then brush my teeth with fluoride.

Shampoo, moisturizer, face cleansers, that kind of stuff

I like Bud and Coors but to say there aren't like hundreds of really good craft beers (most of which just have a couple completely different taste and purpose) is some contrarian bullshit

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, November 12, 2017 5:09 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh totally, but the worst craft beers are literally undrinkable results of production mistakes that bud and coors will never make, and they hit the market with a craft markup.

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

And lol paracetamol tbrr

lol

Fluoride is a known toxic substance, so, yes ingesting it is bad. If you look at the instructions for using fluoride toothpaste, they specifically tell you to spit it out and swallow as little as possible. Fluoride toothpaste is not recommended for children too young to understand how to spit it out.

As for fluoride in water, the theory is that the amounts of fluoride ingested via treated water are minimal enough to be harmless to one's system, or else the harm done is small enough that the benefits outweigh the harm. The same was once thought true of lead in gasoline and paint. That turned out to be wrong. Fluoride is still innocent until proved guilty, but this approach is not a guarantee of innocence.

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

And lol paracetamol tbrr

― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Sunday, November 12, 2017 5:45 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's just your mom

Big branded clothing obv

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

OK this one is just consumer dumbness. Theyre all paracetamol. The brand matters not. Doesnt stop some brands re-branding stuff though. In Aus recently some co got pulled up by the ACCC for selling all these differently boxed paracetamols for "arthritis", "period pain", "Migrane" and they were like $5 more than the regular one in the same brand. All of them were just regular old 500mg paracetmol tablets.

GENERICS ARE GOOD.

Have we said trainers/sneakers yet? As in the difference between these £400 designer trainers and a pair of Adidas

Well that applies I think to most clothing dunnit. Unless its like hand-tailored by tibetan monks or something.

I think I started a thread on that concept but I don't think it's quite what this thread is dl?

Ooh another one is fish and chips in the UK. Fancy places that charge for ketchup sachets and stuff give small portions and the food is no better than your local shop

toilet paper

"boutique" maybe no difference but there is a biiiig difference within the supermarket shelf offerings between the cheapest stuff and the priciest

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

I don't see a difference in this case but Advil and Tylenol are nothing if not mass-market.

And, like, with poutine, are you guys actually saying that A&W is better than chipwagons or casse-croutes or are we comparing to some sort of wacky $15 poutine with kale and lemongrass added? Because I'd probably be with you in the latter case but it's more a case of winning by default.

random late night poutine at la belle province > some fancy version at a restaurant with table service

i’ve never had canadian fast food poutine outside of quebec so this mcdonalds/a&w/whatever having poutine concept remains foreign to me

Oh yeah, totally. I thought "mass market" = New York Fries/A&W as opposed to La Belle Province but you're right that what I'm comparing it to is more small business/street food than 'fancy, expensive, boutique'. I do agree that fancied up expensive versions of things like poutine and tacos are wrong enough that the fast food version is preferable.
xp

You can get A&W poutine at ONRoute stops all over the 401!

Electric guitar.

Theyre all paracetamol.

Hate to quibble but this is not right. In the US, Advil is a brand of ibuprofen, Bayer is a brand of aspirin, and Tylenol is a brand of acetaminophen (paracetamol).

Those are all pain relievers, but they're different drugs, and they may have different uses, different warnings, different risks, and different levels of effectiveness for different sorts of pain.

I agree that there's no interesting difference between generic ibuprofen and brand-name ibuprofen. or generic and name-brand acetaminophen. But it doesn't follow from that that ibuprofen and acetaminophen are the same thing.

But! The drugs aren't the same. People who drink a lot should probably steer clear of acetaminophen because it has been said to cause liver damage in heavy drinkers. Low-dose aspirin, while useful for heart ailments, might not be great for someone with a fever, particularly a kid, because of a (probably very slight) risk of Reye's syndrome.

(Oh and while Advil, Motrin, and store-brand ibuprofen are identical chemically speaking, I still think the coating on Advil tablets is tastier.)

I feel like what we're doing here is mostly the markup on the boutique variety is unjustifiable and not the boutique variety is actually worse

don't some people claim this about coffee (correct or not)?

used to see some foodie blogs insist Dunkin Donuts coffee was the best ever

Thanks for the course correction, Tomboto, you're right; most of this is about whether the $200 (thing) is twice as good as the $100 (thing). It usually isn't, but that is a different question from whether it's worse.

in the case of the latter my experience is: t-shirts.

T-shirts are always worse, in terms of fit, durability, and comfort, per each dollar you spend over $18 or so.

Hot sauce, too. I prefer Crystal (under $2 a bottle) to most probiotic, small batch, whatever artisan types.

― Yelploaf, Sunday, November 12, 2017 3:37 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hi 5. Crystal is great, most any mass market cayenne+vinegar+salt sauce is good. The spendier brands that have a lot of pulp and fruit and stuff mixed in can be good, it's just not enough of a return for the price. Hot sauce is v kechupesque in this regard.

Which is the best generic/cheap maple syrup? I can't fuck with that £5/6 a bottle stuff when I could get some terrible red wine for less than that.

Electric guitar.

Superhero comics! I never understand why anyone would rather read some back-breaking 1,500 page prestige hardback collection over a piece-of-shit badly-printed single issue.

Separating superhero comics from other stuff because there are lots of prestige books (e.g. the Fantagraphics Peanuts books) that are gorgeous (and also not prohibitively heavy).

if we're gonna try, for whatever reason, to stan for mass-produced beers than leave budweiser and coors well out if it ffs. gross.

a cold heineken or whatever, grand.

I feel like what we're doing here is mostly the markup on the boutique variety is unjustifiable and not the boutique variety is actually worse

― El Tomboto, Sunday, November 12, 2017 6:33 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heineken is not the same style, although I like that on occasion. it’s not even trying to be a better version

otoh I heard several Japanese beers described as “efforts to create a Japanese Budweiser” and I can totally taste it. Kirin and Sapporo for sure

the boutique colas and ketchups are worse, please fight me

I love heineken tbh, but i will also "happily" drink the cheaper brands stella and budweiser. budweiser is good for adding to beef stews as well, not so great for drinking.

idk if Stella is cheaper than Heineken in the US?

it is in the uk

actually I think most Asian export lagers are all efforts to create a <demonym> Carlsberg

I wish I could argue that flat-pack furniture that's more expensive than IKEA is always a rip-off but I remembered I have several things I put together myself that are way better than the IKEA particle board edition.

cheap/generic maple syrup is not actually maple syrup so that's a weird one

list junk food dressed up for yuppies who are too smart for junk food

coffins.

the flimsier the better imo

"cheap/generic maple syrup is not actually maple syrup so that's a weird one"

that's probably true, hence the requirement for shoplifting.

> Hot sauce is v kechupesque in this regard

I'd disagree with respect to many hot sauces are so distinct they don't really compete with each other. Louisiana style hot sauces (and Louisiana brand > Tabasco > Crystal), Sriracha style hot sauces, Mexican style hot sauces, Belizean style hot sauces all serve different purposes in my kitchen. Red beans and rice would be wrong with the cumin that a Mexican style hot sauce would add. But generally, cost is no indication of quality. In addition to Louisiana > Tabasco, Valentina's = Cholula, and Melinda's bought by the gallon = Marie Sharpe's.

Aside: if one isn't making a barrel aged hot sauce, they're really easy to prepare at home. I just made a batch of this recipe when a nephew gave me 3 dozen home-grown habaneros, and it stands up to Marie Sharpe's.

good maple syrup is still cheap if you don't mind going to farm country to buy it

one subcategory might be things like cameras, where the fancy/boutiquey stuff is also specialist stuff. so not "worse," but probably worse FOR most people - the fanciest camera won't be set up to let you take good everyday pics right out of the box, they assume you'll be futzing with settings and stuff, but lower tiers will be. audio equipment might be similar in some ways. most vinyl afficionados would acknowledge that it's a bad fit for most people's listening habits, and wildly more expensive and (these days) boutiquey than spotify. but we are very happy with our records!

a lot of boutiquey things are riding this edge by selling you on acquiring this expertise and connoisseurship, supported by irritating marketing moves and stupid lifestyle blogs and shit. for the uninitiated it can be hard to tell which upsells are hokum (gold speaker wires) and which genuinely reflect an improvement in your experience. i'm making the transition to shaving with double-edged razor blades in a safety razor rather than cartridges. in the long run it will save me a fortune on mass market cartridges, but upfront it was a marked-up boutiquey "starter set" of razor, mug and shaving soap (I know, I know, I'm a sucker but I just couldn't go one more shave with my neck all irritated). and until i master the techniques i am getting a worse shave more laboriously (albeit without the irritation).

back in the main thread topic: 3D movies.

this thread would be more useful if it named specific boutique brands that suck. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious that most things have good and bad examples at all price points.