I guess I was treating "better" as "delivers a better shaving experience". That's subjective, but I don't know anyone who reports that DSC razors, even the top-tier ones, are more desirable than a decent line from Gillette. Pretty much across the board, the conclusion is "not enough worse to care about".
I do wonder how much Gillette oversold their innovation, or at least made advances that could be copied just by looking at their product. They certainly seem to have been throwing a lot of R&D at near-zero returns on actual quality.
Definitely worse enough for me to going back to buying Gillette blades at the drug store, after spending $9 a month for at least a year on DSC's best razor.
That was my experience too. I eventually traded for a good electric razor, and I'm considering a straight razor. But DSC's blades just weren't good enough to keep me as a customer - Gillette still has the market cornered for disposables that work for me.
Right. And I don't have the numbers at hand but I don't think I spend more than $15-20 every couple of months on blades, so I'm not really losing on price either.
I do wonder how much Gillette oversold their innovation, or at least made advances that could be copied just by looking at their product. They certainly seem to have been throwing a lot of R&D at near-zero returns on actual quality.