Winsor,
Correct as usual. The world abounds with stories like this. Two which spring to
mind involve large pits and loads of concrete. These were: Jagual burying all
the manual gearboxes for V12 (XK)E - types, so that people wouldn't build
"bastard" cars with them in (Eg XJ12 manual saloons) and Citroen doing the same
with a large quantity of surplus, perfect and ready - to - fit Maserati V6s
which they didn't need when the SM failed to sell. There are plenty more. We
are not alone. How do the "warbird" community feel about those newsreels of
planes being pushed off aircraft carriers into the Pacific, for example? OK,
this is different from the consumer examples, but the effect on the
afficionados is the same.
Sometimes "collector / preserver" mentality goes a bit too far. There is a lot
of railway preservation happening in the UK at the moment. It's a bit "flavour
of the month" I think, and some people stand to lose big time cash, but
nonetheless; One class of diesel locomotives is represented in almost half it's
service numbers in the books of various preservation societies. How any of
these people hope to make an "attraction" of any of these exhibits is beyond
me. Anyway, rant over. I'm not a trainspotter really, but I do take an interest
in the business affairs of the railway.
This consumerism has worked to our extreme advantage, let's not forget. Look at
your collections of OM gear, and think how much it would have cost if you had
bought it new. Then *AT LEAST* double it to compensate for the fact that Oly
were able to produce to sell into a consumerist market, and without that, the
volumes they made would have been drastically reduced. Able to afford what you
have? Not me. What would you get rid of? Would you miss it if you'd never had
it?
Julian
> from: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 16:36:11
> to: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> subject: Re: [OM] Discontinued lenses
>
> Aside from spare parts I think that destruction of unsold merchandise
> is pretty routine in industrial societies. The discontinued stuff is
> competition for the new model. Destruction of spare parts has the
> same effect. If you make fairly reliable equipment the few customers
> who are really ticked by not being able to fix the old stuff are far
> outnumbered by the ones who replace it because they want the latest.
> --
> Winsor Crosby
> Long Beach, California
>
>
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