justanotherbot

While I agree DSC seems insane, you are looking at it from the wrong end: most customers were used to paying crazy prices at the grocery store. DSC is cheap by comparison, even if you can get the same blades for less elsewhere. Dorco could have run the same business, but DSC figured out how to market it.

I'm not an economist, but I'll give it a shot: the vast influx of VC money allows for the creation of unsustainable businesses designed to "disrupt" (read: eliminate) traditional players. Buyers are happy to participate because they are getting a "deal" in the short term. Those who have been "disrupted" out of a job are often left to work for those same companies.

Meanwhile, the startup is trying to capture enough market share so that it can then raise rates and lower wages with less competition down the road. In other words, the traditional free trade model can be distorted by the effects of VCs who can operate with extraordinary scale of time and geography.