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Comment by diminoten | Hacker News Reader

Because it's not about the blades, it's about the stream of blades.

Consider the same question for basically every nonperishable you purchase - why are you not buying in large bulk and saving? I can think of a dozen items I could buy in bulk and save money on that I currently don't.

Actually, now that I think about it, why don't I buy in bulk? I totally could. Why don't people in general buy in bulk?

Anyway, it's the same answer for your toilet paper as it is for your razors, or your shampoo, or your paper towels. I don't apparently know that answer, but I assume that's why people don't do what you're saying.

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Amazon offers their "Subscribe and Save" service on many products (not the one linked above, however). Amazon's subscription service provides a continuous stream of many staples such as paper products, toothpaste, tooth brushes, cat food, etc. to my household. It works great.

Aside: I live in Los Angeles and am trying out Amazon Fresh. If anything, Amazon now offers me an almost-confusing multitude of ways to have products delivered to my house. I can Prime things for receipt in two days. I can subscribe and forget. I can Fresh things for next-day delivery. I'm not an Amazon fan boy—many of their services frustrate me in a variety of ways—but they have delivery pretty much mastered versus everyone else.

I moved to Seattle a little over a year ago and was pleased to find out about Amazon Fresh. It's a great service overall, and beats the pants off of FreshDirect in NYC (Though, I personally preferred yummy.com in Venice, CA, who were offering same-day delivery back in '06).

At any rate, I was truly sold on Amazon Fresh the day I started having some issues with my PC. I logged on in hope and ended up ordering a CPU and a Motherboard to be dropped off at my door with my milk and eggs before dawn the next day. Incredible.

Apologies for the tangent, but I wanted to share my review of Fresh [1]. It's a mixed-bag, pun intended.

I laughed at your mix of computer equipment and groceries, but that's exactly it: you can have a wild variety of things delivered as if they were groceries. I was most amused/bemused by the weapons selection.

[1] http://tiamat.tsotech.com/amazon-fresh

Razor blades are very compact, though, not like a year's worth of paper towels.

And what if you decide one day to switch to electric?

Go ahead and switch! The razor blades are a sunk cost.

Then you can sell the unused packages of blades on Amazon.

The reason I don't use this is because the "stream" of blades isn't saving me any money, it's costing me more than what a trip to Walmart or Costco will cost (in Canada, at least). For me, this is entirely a cost-based decision. I don't see blades being delivered on a continual basis as a benefit, just puts more pressure on me to use up my existing blades fast (and that's weird).

To each his own, I think this is the ultimate lazy man's service. Get your ass out to the store and when you're back, mow the lawn.

Stream of blades? Maybe if you work at a barbershop. Even if you only get one shave out of a blade (I think most guys will get 3-5), a hundred pack is tiny and will last 1/3 year. For most people, that's at least a year supply.

Unlike shampoo and other bulky disposable products, razors are quite tiny.

> why are you not buying in large bulk and saving?

Although I'm probably not thinking of a few things, I do buy basically every nonperishable in bulk. I buy paper towels, toilet paper, double-edged razor blades, toothpaste, laundry supplies, and shower supplies at most twice a year. It's not that hard as long as you find SKUs that you like and have somewhere to store them (and I live in a tiny San Francisco studio, so most people should have plenty of room).

people don't buy in bulk because then they are stuck with that one product for a long time. I mean really, am I supposed to use last years outdated butt wipes when I know there is a better way to wipe my ass?

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