
Dollar Shave Club Lands $12 Million to Dramatically Expand Product Portfolio - jabo
http://allthingsd.com/20131008/dollar-shave-club-nabs-12-million-to-dramatically-expand-product-portfolio-and-create-lifestyle-content/
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dkhenry
I don't wish to lament anyone's success, but honestly why is anyone buying
blades from these people.

[http://www.amazon.com/Derby-Extra-Double-Razor-
Blades/dp/B00...](http://www.amazon.com/Derby-Extra-Double-Razor-
Blades/dp/B0032Q41LS/ref=pd_sbs_bt_23)

$13 dollars you have at least a years worth of blades for even the thickest
beards. Also you will get a shave that is worlds better then the one from DSC.

~~~
diminoten
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.

~~~
bhauer
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.

~~~
enobrev
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.

~~~
bhauer
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](http://tiamat.tsotech.com/amazon-
fresh)

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adrr
Wow quite surprised this made hacker news. Glad people find it newsworthy.
Want to mention that Dollar Shave Club is hiring for the following positions:

Senior Frontend Engineer

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Our tech stack: RoR, Node.js, Angularjs, Redis, Resque, MySQL, Python, NTLK,
AWS

Email todd@dollarshaveclub.com for more information and the full job
descriptions.

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padobson
I haven't thought about buying razors or blades since I became a DSC member.

Any service that frees my brain up to think about other things can count on me
as a subscriber. Here's to their success, and to the surplus brain power we'll
all enjoy because of it.

~~~
zippergz
I feel exactly the same way. Could I save a bit of money by buying somewhere
else? Sure. But it's not enough of a difference to matter in the scheme of
things, and it's one less thing to have to worry about.

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sdfjkl
I've spent some time researching shaving and tried out everything from
cutthroat razors to electric ones, and my conclusions are these: If you are
using cartridge razors, you are being ripped off. Learn to use a double edged
razor, shave at a cost of pennies per month (do get the platinum coated blades
though), get a better shave and produce so much less waste.

Pro tip: For most skin types, bar soap works equally well or better than any
shaving cream/butter. For the rest, shaving oil will do the trick.

~~~
auctiontheory
I went through a phase of thinking as you are. And then I realized that in the
big scheme of my life, I was spending way too much time focusing on a very
insignificant piece of my day. I could get much better return applying the
same time and energy to choices that have bigger impact. And ... did I really
want to shave with blades that could slice me up?

~~~
drunken_thor
I don't think you gave it enough practice, I have been using a double edge for
years and shave faster than I did with cartridge because I only need one pass.

Feather blades and olive oil are the only thing I use. Also double edges were
originally called safety razors for a reason.

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evo_9
I wish these guys offered a Safety Razor and/or blades but it's probably not
possible to make money off those. Which is too bad, I like the company, like
the service but at the end of the day you simply can't beat safety razors;
they are cheaper and they actually work better. That's the only reason I
stopped using this service.

~~~
wonderyak
FWIW - You can get safety razors from DSC's supplier -
[http://www.dorcousa.com/](http://www.dorcousa.com/)

I was looking at DSC for a long time and ended up trying Harry's. Was very
disappointed with Harry's blades. Next time I order anything it will be from
Dorco.

~~~
_JamesA_
I went down this road too. A long time Gillette Mach/Fusion/whatever is the
top end of the year.

I tried DSC and they were ok. I canceled and bought in bulk from Dorco. Exact
same shave. Not quite a Gillette but at 20% of the price I could live with
that.

As I was about to order another bulk set of blades I decided to try the old
fashioned double edge shaver for the hell of it. Amazon has a Merkur 180 for
less than $35 and a can of Barbasol is $1.25 at Target.

The DE shave is far better than the Gillette Fusion and much cheaper than DSC,
Dorco, etc.

Even as a complete novice I've had no issues with nicks or cuts and actually
look forward to shaving again.

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kilroy123
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only man in the world who uses an electric
shaver everyday. I don't think I know a single other guy.

~~~
avree
Electric shavers are awful for getting any sort of reasonable shave, which is
probably why they aren't used much.

~~~
pionar
Yeah, the few times I used one, I still had a 5 o'clock shadow.

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brianbreslin
I am a huge fan of DSC and their biz model. I'm a subscriber, their products
aren't anything amazing, but I think of it as foothold into first bathroom
products, later other consumables.

I bet they come out with a shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hair gel,
toothpaste/mouthwash, toothbrushes, moisturizer, deodorant(s). Think anything
axe/old-spice do now.

~~~
smacktoward
So the appeal of a service that provides admittedly mediocre products is that
someday they might provide even more types of mediocre products?

I don't get it. But then I've never really gotten the appeal of DSC, beyond
the well-done launch video.

~~~
diminoten
What's not appealing about no longer having to think about purchasing any of
these things? When you're low, new items appear magically on your doorstep.

Frankly, I wish most of my replenishables were like this.

~~~
smacktoward
I've just never had a moment where I felt it was a particular hassle to buy
razor blades. You're at the grocery store anyway, you buy a box of blades,
zero thought required. If you're worried about running out, buy three. Or if
you're picky about your shave, order in bulk online and you're set for years
with blades that are better quality for less money than the ones DSC sells
you.

If the pitch were that DSC blades were dramatically _better_ than the ones I'm
buying now, that might be interesting -- it'd save me the time of looking for
a better blade. But even DSC doesn't claim their blades are better, except for
silly marketing copy like "this blade comes from the future and lives in outer
space," which is more about setting an irreverent tone than about actually
arguing with a straight face that they're better than the competition.

~~~
wil421
You have never gone to shave and felt the pull and tug of an old razor? Then
you go to work only to forget that you need to buy new ones on the way home
and the process goes on again. This process happens to me because I am usually
focused on buying food and not non-perishable goods.

I switched to DSC recently because of this and I am tired of paying
Gillette/Schick $20-$30 on a pack of razors.

