Stainless Steel Razor Blades
In 1965, Wilkinson Sword introduced stainless steel razor blades. The previous carbon steel razor blades rusted fast enough that many people used a new blade each day. Wilkinson Sword blades made rapid gains in the market, because one blade, though somewhat more expensive, could be used for a week. This very roughly cut the market for razor blades by a factor of seven. This introduction gave Wilkinson a substantive market share. Previous market leaders quickly responded by introducing their own stainless blades. The technology had been available for some time, but the market leaders like Gillette, which held a patent on stainless blades, presumably knew that any gain for them in market share would be overwhelmed by the dramatic reduction in the size of the market.
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Famous quotes containing the words stainless steel, stainless, steel, razor and/or blades:
“I stir my martinis with the screw,
four-inch and stainless steel,
and think of my hip where it lay
for four years like a darkness.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The American people is out to get the kaiser. We are bending every nerve and every energy towards that end; anybody who gets in the way of the great machine the energy and devotion of a hundred million patriots is building towards the stainless purpose of saving civilization from the Huns will be mashed like a fly. I’m surprised that a collegebred man like you hasn’t more sense. Don’t monkey with the buzzsaw.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“For when they meet, the tensile air
Like fine steel strains under the weight
Of messages that both hearts bear—
Pure passion once, now purest hate....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“The virtue of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before does not begin to be superhuman.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)