Klarinet Archive - Posting 000170.txt from 2003/03

From: b1rite@-----. Rite)
Subj: Re: [kl] More corporate shenanigans in the instrument
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 16:49:33 -0500

<><> Rebecca=A0Brennan wrote:
I have a feeling that I didn't understand what I read very well.

IMO< you *did* understand, Rebecca. But one concept needs addressing:

Mergers and acquisitions sometimes do have a negative effect on quality;
but in our society, people still decide which products to purchase.
There is a trade-off in many cases between price and quality, and if a
certain number of people are willing to pay for a particular level of
quality ('quality' as the customer perceives it, that is), then someone
(in our society, at least) will produce it --- eventually.

To use clarinets as an example, you *can* still ask someone like Steve
Fox or Luis Rossi or Mr. Chadash to produce you a totally custom,
hand-made clarinet (or even something unusual such as a spherical bell)
clarinet for $3000-$4000. But if you are the parent of a grade school
student, will you be thankful for mass-produced $400 clarinets that will
be sitting on a retailer's shelf ready to carry home at the exact moment
that you want it? Probably you will.

Cheers,
Bill

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