[HN Gopher] Meditations on an inexpensive laundry basket
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Meditations on an inexpensive laundry basket
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 90 points
       Date   : 2022-12-08 14:45 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (onefoottsunami.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (onefoottsunami.com)
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | No piece of plastic forged in one pressing beats the Monobloc in
       | reputation.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc_(chair)
        
         | pvillano wrote:
         | > The chairs cost approximately $3.50 to produce
        
       | seltzered_ wrote:
       | Anyone else remember the Walmart checkout area lined up with
       | boxes of 'Yaffa Blocks' around the late 90s?
        
       | pydry wrote:
       | >Given all these bankruptcies, I'm beginning to think that even
       | back in 2001, this product was underpriced. $3.99 was simply too
       | low to charge for a product which would go on to serve me well
       | and faithfully for 20+ years and counting. In life, you have to
       | know your value, and charge accordingly.
       | 
       | He's mixing up use value and exchange value.
        
         | davio wrote:
         | Don't forget those ubiquitous 20% coupons (they also accepted
         | Bed Bath and Beyond's coupons)
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | Exactly. Many things cost substantially less than their "value"
         | because they're way too easy for someone else to make.
         | 
         | Vacuum molded plastics are often high on that list.
        
       | gidorah wrote:
       | I have a laundry basket that I've had since new in around 2005.
       | Though I'm not sure.
       | 
       | There is fluff in the handles that it probably older than my
       | children. We joke that the basket will always be a part of our
       | lives.
        
         | topspin wrote:
         | I have a couple Rubbermaid baskets from the early 90's. I've
         | wondered if they're still as well made now.
        
       | thenerdhead wrote:
       | > In life, you have to know your value, and charge accordingly.
       | 
       | Dollar stores existed that sold $1 laundry baskets. Is this
       | supposed to be satire?
        
         | thewebcount wrote:
         | That doesn't mean that the laundry baskets at the dollar store
         | didn't cost more than $1 to make. The inventory of dollar
         | stores sometimes comes from bartering rather than buying
         | inventory. My brother worked in this industry for a few years
         | and it was really bizarre. You'd have one company with several
         | thousand cell phones that didn't meet FCC standards, so they
         | couldn't sell them in the US, and they didn't have the
         | infrastructure to sell them overseas themselves. You'd have
         | another company that had several thousand packs of last year's
         | baseball cards, but that also has some overseas brands that
         | sell electronics. They'd come up with some sort of trade. The
         | baseball cards would end up in a dollar store, and the cell
         | phones would end up in Africa. Problem solved, no money changed
         | hands.
        
       | jstanley wrote:
       | If you want to prevent the crack from spreading, you can drill a
       | larger hole at the end of the crack, like this:
       | http://www.flight-mechanic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/7-...
       | 
       | Also, if you want to hold the crack together, you can drill holes
       | either side and "stitch" it together with cable ties, like this:
       | https://i2.wp.com/handycrowd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/...
       | 
       | May your inexpensive laundry basket continue to serve you for a
       | long time!
        
         | bufordtwain wrote:
         | Useful suggestions. I think that the crack allows the weight to
         | go onto the corner of the basket instead of being concentrated
         | on the little bump/foot. So it might be a self-limiting problem
         | where no action is needed (for a long time anyway). It would be
         | interesting if the OP would take no action and then report back
         | in 10 years to see what happened.
        
         | pvillano wrote:
         | "reduce, _repair_ , reuse, recycle"
         | 
         | Plastics are some of the most long-lasting materials. It's kind
         | of insane that we treat them as disposable.
        
         | hoseja wrote:
         | Couldn't he weld the, presumable, thermoplastic too?
        
           | jaclaz wrote:
           | Usually it won't last much unless you weld it with some added
           | material (that needs to be the same thermoplastic or it
           | likely won't stick).
           | 
           | What I found exceptional for this kind of small plastic
           | repair is one of those welding guns that can hot-staple,
           | originally a professional tool to repair plastic elements
           | like bumpers in car body shops, they are now available cheap
           | (from China, quality may vary), still makes no sense for just
           | one repair, but it is an useful tool to have if you happen to
           | do repairs often.
        
             | MisterBastahrd wrote:
             | There are tools specifically made to staple plastics
             | together. The end user has to decide whether spending $20
             | on a tool to repair a $4 bin that costs $12 to replace is
             | worth it or not.
        
             | moloch-hai wrote:
             | Adding material seems entirely permissible. A hot glue gun
             | does nothing but, with usually admirable result.
        
             | convolvatron wrote:
             | sometimes you can heat up some wire and push a couple
             | pieces through the break.
             | 
             | another approach I've had success with is using a little
             | aluminum sheet over the break and pop rivets on both sides
        
           | mhb wrote:
           | Maybe the old superglue and baking soda trick?
        
       | danielodievich wrote:
       | We bought a really large storage box with wheels to use as a
       | laundry basket, in dark green with red covers from The Container
       | Store a while ago, when we moved to a new house and our kids were
       | just toddlers. They were very curious about what that big thing
       | was and since it was right before holidays, we called the box
       | "Merry Christmas"! They rode around in it quite a bit, fun to be
       | on top of clothes and be pushed by your sibling.
       | 
       | It's been 13 years and it is still going strong, even after heavy
       | riding sessions of yesteryears.
       | 
       | And to put something in laundry in our house is pronounced as "go
       | put your dirty clothes into merry christmas"
        
       | smcl wrote:
       | > it's a vessel for transporting toasty warm clothes
       | approximately 50 feet
       | 
       | This is odd - surely a laundry basket is a vessel for heavy, damp
       | and lukewarm clothes
        
         | elliottkember wrote:
         | Not in my house. Dirty clothes go into a hamper, the bag comes
         | out of the hamper to the laundry, and then the basket is for
         | carrying them back to the bedroom to fold.
        
       | ollybee wrote:
       | I have a laundry basket I took form my parents, I think it's from
       | at least the 70's, it seems to be made of a thicker plastic,
       | that's a little rubbery and so does not crack. I've newer washing
       | baskets the plastic seems more brittle and has cracked over time.
       | I wondered if the 70's basket had some additive that is no longer
       | allowed, or that the economics if making a quality product dont
       | make sense, I've certainly no been able to find and that seem
       | robust like my 70's one in the UK.
        
         | jimmaswell wrote:
         | Did the floor of general product quality used to be higher, or
         | was there always an abundance of cheap crap that broke fast and
         | we just see the survivors?
        
           | tristor wrote:
           | Both. One thing most people discount is how much better
           | materials science has gotten since the 60s/70s. We now
           | understand the limitations and constraints of the materials
           | we are working with much better and can design in a cost-
           | optimized fashion for a targeted life span. Computers aid
           | this a lot with techniques like Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
           | and similar.
           | 
           | Things in the past were greatly overbuilt for their purpose
           | because we didn't fully understand the material properties.
           | We now have a lot of lighter, thinner, more functional
           | products and in a cost-optimized way.
        
             | jimmaswell wrote:
             | I often feel like we might have been better off as a
             | society with the overbuilt products that could take more
             | abuse and were more reusable and adaptable. Like a heavy
             | phone you could dramatically hang up or beat a robber with,
             | full of recyclable metal and reusable electronics.
        
               | tristor wrote:
               | I definitely feel this way about hand tools. There's
               | still a few good options left for new stuff, but most of
               | it is junk compared to tools from the 60s. Because hand
               | tools are pretty much all metals, it's simple to compare
               | weight. I have a new and vintage Snap-On 3/8" drive
               | ratchet that are of identical model numbers, new one is
               | 30% lighter.
               | 
               | Never broken either ratchet, but I have broken ratcheting
               | wrenches and many sockets. Vintage impact sockets are
               | much less likely to crack but sometimes won't fit in the
               | cut-outs for lug nuts on modern wheels, due to the
               | expectation of thinner walled sockets.
               | 
               | I definitely miss slamming a phone when you hang up after
               | a bad call, not quite the same tapping end on a
               | touchscreen.
        
       | woodruffw wrote:
       | As a counterpoint: Sterilite has been going strong for decades
       | (while still manufacturing in the US), and I think I paid $3.99
       | for my laundry basket in 2021. It looks like it can be had online
       | (from Target) for about $5.
       | 
       | Plastic manufacturing is _shockingly_ cheap, especially when the
       | design never changes. Maybe it shouldn't be that cheap (since
       | it's probably being externalized somewhere), but lots of
       | companies are surviving (and thriving) at these price points.
        
         | tonyarkles wrote:
         | > Maybe it shouldn't be that cheap (since it's probably being
         | externalized somewhere)
         | 
         | I mean, there's four main pieces to this:
         | 
         | - Injection moulding machine
         | 
         | - Mould itself
         | 
         | - Raw materials
         | 
         | - Disposal
         | 
         | The moulding machine is quite expensive until you amortize
         | across the number of produced pieces. Most of the time these
         | aren't custom-built and can be used to make multiple patterns.
         | 
         | The mould is also quite expensive and is made for one specific
         | part. To your point, this is why things get cheap when the
         | design doesn't change. They will eventually wear out, but from
         | a high quality mould you should be able to get roughly a
         | bazillion of these consumer plastic parts.
         | 
         | The materials are ridiculously cheap. Polyethylene, as an
         | example, is $1200/metric ton:
         | https://www.statista.com/statistics/1171074/price-high-
         | densi.... I don't know exactly what a laundry basket weighs,
         | but I'd guess somewhere in the 500-1000g range, so somewhere
         | between $0.60-$1.20 worth of plastic.
         | 
         | The recycling at the end is the part that isn't really baked
         | into the price. A quick search didn't reveal much as far as the
         | costs for recycling/kg, but did suggest that recycled PET seems
         | to sell for more like $0.20-0.30/kg. This, to me, suggests that
         | either it needs a fair bit more processing to make it into
         | "useful PET" or that whatever recycling process they use
         | requires minimal energy & processing compared to the initial
         | chemical inputs that made the plastic in the first place.
        
           | neilv wrote:
           | The sometimes high cost of tooling and low cost of materials
           | is a boon for counterfeits...
           | 
           | When I worked on an anti-counterfeiting and supply chain
           | integrity startup, one of the kinds of counterfeits I heard
           | was of factories that make the legitimate product secretly
           | also make the counterfeits. (Sometimes called "third-shift
           | counterfeits".) They'd not only reuse the design and
           | processes, but also reuse the same tooling.
           | 
           | Corner-cutting the design/materials/QA is optional.
           | 
           | There's huge money in counterfeiting (hey, the brand hand
           | counterfeiters their IP and brand-building and even tooling;
           | and counterfeiters just pay materials, labor, and
           | distribution), and some other supply chain shenanigans.
           | 
           | My impression was that besides hurting many businesses large
           | and small (e.g., lost sales, price pressure, brand damage,
           | and support/returns costs), and consumers (e.g., substandard
           | product), it might also be concern for the relative economic
           | power of countries (e.g., interests in one country steal
           | profits from a major company, then that company sometimes
           | also gets bought out by interests in that same country).
           | (Though, bought-out companies still sometimes face supply
           | chain fraud problems, including originating in other
           | countries, so it's just not one single coherent national
           | entity that's the problem.)
           | 
           | Had Covid not hit _right_ after my startup 's successful
           | factory launch, and then the subsequent VC skittishness when
           | we really needed a round (to grow our big-ticket enterprise
           | sales/partnership and high-skilled engineering), we might've
           | made bigger dents in the problem.
        
             | akiselev wrote:
             | Third shift counterfeiting has been an endemic problem
             | since the invention of the Gutenberg press. I collect old
             | and rare books going back to the 1500s and printers have
             | been doing it for half a millennia. Once the type is set up
             | for a print run, there's nothing preventing the printer
             | from running a secret shift to print a bunch more copies
             | just for themselves. They'll usually use cheaper paper or
             | binding so they're just different enough from real first
             | editions to be worthless but you won't know it until it
             | gets to appraisal unless you physically inspect the book
             | yourself and know exactly what to look for.
        
               | moloch-hai wrote:
               | They are also a sort of first edition, and equally old.
               | It is odd that they are worthless. There probably is an
               | opportunity awaiting the person who formalizes third-
               | shift first editions.
        
               | akiselev wrote:
               | I _think_ it mostly has to do with provenance. The third
               | shift prints usually don't make it into contemporary
               | bibliographies [1] and since the printer is
               | untrustworthy, you can't be sure if it's a real third
               | shift first edition or the tenth impression of some
               | typesetting that the printer forgot to recycle. If we
               | were talking about the Gutenberg Bible or say, Origin of
               | Species, it might be worth doing original research and
               | chemical analyses because even a third shift copy could
               | be worth more than its weight in gold, but for  >>99% of
               | books it'd be a losing proposition since few books are
               | worth tens of thousands of dollars.
               | 
               | That said, if the paper and binding quality are the same
               | between shifts and there's no identifying mark like
               | unique numbering on each copy, there's no telling how
               | many first editions in circulation are really third shift
               | printings. So few of the books survive the centuries that
               | I've never heard of more first editions showing up than
               | the publisher admits to printing to bibliographers.
               | 
               | Edit: They're not really "worthless" but old and rare
               | books might see one genuine first edition sold every few
               | years to some rich person with a hobby. Many if not most
               | of these books are bought and sold by knowledgeable
               | collectors so if a client is going to drop thousands on a
               | book, they're going to buy the copy that is most likely
               | to be genuine, making any also rans effectively worthless
               | because there's not enough of a demand to force buyers to
               | settle for riskier copies.
               | 
               | [1] because they're unauthorized and the publisher
               | doesn't talk about them to the bibliographers
        
               | WastingMyTime89 wrote:
               | To be fair, it's already odd that first editions are
               | worth something. Collectors are just weird persons who
               | will pay extraordinary sum for things of marginal
               | interest. From there, it's not surprising that the way
               | value is ascribed itself doesn't make much sense.
        
           | pvillano wrote:
           | If the laundry basket lasts forever there is no externalized
           | cost of disposal. Like you said, plastic is incredibly cheap,
           | but if it wasn't, we'd use it only for things that are
           | designed to last forever. Plastic is a miracle material. It's
           | a shame we treat it as disposable
        
           | jrochkind1 wrote:
           | Plastic recycling is basically more expensive than creating
           | new plastic, still. Very little plastic actually gets
           | recycled. (Most of what you put in your household bin does
           | not).
           | 
           | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/single-
           | use...
        
             | seventytwo wrote:
             | Because new plastic creation doesn't include the cost of
             | disposal, as the poster above mentioned.
             | 
             | In theory, the cost of manufacture a new piece of plastic
             | should pay for the recycling of that same piece of plastic.
        
               | philwelch wrote:
               | There is an entire waste disposal industry that can
               | economically bury your broken plastic stuff in landfills,
               | and which most people already pay for. This is a
               | perfectly fine solution; we're at no realistic risk of
               | running out of landfill space. If you live in a
               | particularly corrupt country where your waste disposal
               | industry is run by gangsters who dump your garbage off
               | the coast of Somalia, I would suggest solving the
               | gangster problem.
        
               | akiselev wrote:
               | It's not just the cost of disposal. Recycling aluminum or
               | steel works because the alloys can be separated into
               | their constituent parts and recombined into an alloy of
               | the same or higher quality. That recycling them is
               | cheaper than extracting it from ore is just a nice bonus
               | that obviates the need for political incentives.
               | 
               | Recycling plastics breaks down the polymers into smaller
               | ones which degrades the quality in almost every respect.
               | The cheapest way, for example, is literally just shred
               | the plastic into lower quality injection moulding
               | pellets.
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | On negative externalities - if we don't change our course,
         | practically every facet of our daily lives will continue to be
         | dependent on petrochemical solids for long after we switch
         | completely to electric vehicles and renewable energy.
         | 
         | Plastic in my eyes is basically petro byproducts 'blitzscaled'
         | to all layers of the economy, all the way down to the literal
         | bloodstreams of all living organisms.
        
           | into_infinity wrote:
           | This laundry basket is an example of externalities being
           | quite reasonable, though. It lasted 20+ years and that's not
           | an outlier for items like this. I'd wager that making it out
           | of anything else would have a worse environmental impact.
           | Metal is far more energy-intensive. Fabric is far less
           | durable.
           | 
           | Throwaway plastics are far more of a problem, although the
           | scale of the problem is often overstated for ideological
           | reasons. For example, we're not at risk of running out of
           | landfill space; and while plastics in the ocean are worth
           | fixing, but there's little evidence that they're destroying
           | ecosystems or harming health.
           | 
           | Plastics are essentially a distraction. The vast majority of
           | emissions that actually harm the environment come from other
           | industries, but these problems are less tractable, so we get
           | preoccupied washing yogurt cups and banning plastic straws
           | instead.
        
             | blamazon wrote:
             | Fair point on the posted laundry basket being a win. But it
             | is undeniable that it's so inexpensive because of all the
             | plastic that was disposed. We also didn't see all the
             | identical laundry baskets that went straight into landfill.
             | I do understand real life landfills aren't like Wall-E, but
             | in that film they certainly didn't run out of landfill
             | space and it wasn't a utopia.
             | 
             | On the second point, I don't find it too convincing that I
             | don't have to worry about plastics in my blood, my
             | children's blood, their children's blood, because we don't
             | understand it very well yet. And on the ocean plastic,
             | that's just the tip of the iceberg that we can see and talk
             | about easily. The real thing that's killing ecosystems en
             | masse is not at the output end of the system, but on the
             | input end. Global reliance on petrochemicals, industrial
             | pesticides derived thereby, etc. I'm a scuba diver and I've
             | watched reefs die with my own eyes.
             | 
             | I just can't shake the feeling we are on course to strip
             | the planet of billions of years of biodiversity and in 1000
             | years whoever is left will regard the decisions of our time
             | w.r.t. resource extraction as catastrophically stupid. But
             | I do acknowledge how this is idealogical and emotionally
             | based as you point out, and I can agree to disagree. My
             | friends tell me: we won't be alive in 1000 years, so who
             | cares? That doesn't sit well with me, but I get it.
             | 
             | Edit: noticed your edit and agree a lot with that point!
        
               | Swizec wrote:
               | > to strip the planet of billions of years of
               | biodiversity and in 1000 years whoever is left will
               | regard the decisions of our time w.r.t. resource
               | extraction as catastrophically stupid
               | 
               | About 300 years ago Europe was mostly stripped bare of
               | forests. It helped us get to the point where we can say
               | "Wow that was stupid".
               | 
               | Now we use forests less (thanks to coal and later oil)
               | and Europe is regrowing most of them. Yes ecosystems were
               | impacted and biodiversity changed ... now it's slowly
               | coming back. On the scale of millions of years this event
               | is largely invisible.
               | 
               | > As a result, during the period 1750-1850 forests in
               | Central Europe had been decimated, causing a serious lack
               | of timber. Some contemporary reports even spoke partly of
               | desert-like landscapes at that time. During the late 19th
               | and 20th centuries a huge amount of artificial
               | reforestation was implemented.
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_forest_in_
               | Cen...
               | 
               | > The area of forest in the EU increased by almost 10 %
               | in 1990-2020; with the largest relative increase in
               | Ireland (by 69 %) and largest absolute increase in Spain
               | (by 4.7 million ha). Estimated 63 % of the net annual
               | increment of timber in EU forests was logged in 2019
               | 
               | https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-
               | explained/index.php...
        
             | bacon_waffle wrote:
             | > but there's little evidence that they're destroying
             | ecosystems
             | 
             | Plastic waste in the ocean is a major issue for seabirds
             | [1]
             | 
             | > or harming health
             | 
             | "The combined data, although fragmentary, indicate that
             | exposure to micro- and nanoplastics can induce oxidative
             | stress, potentially resulting in cellular damage and an
             | increased vulnerability to develop neuronal disorders." [2]
             | 
             | I do agree that single-use plastics are a much bigger issue
             | than less-durable plastic stuff like that laundry basket,
             | and that greenhouse gas emissions are a bigger issue than
             | waste disposal. That does not mean that plastic waste is
             | not a big problem.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5714369
             | /Film...
             | 
             | [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32513186/
        
           | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
           | I've had the fortune of working in industries that most
           | people don't see the back end of...
           | 
           | Like it or not; we will use every drop of oil there is, one
           | way or another. I wouldn't bet against oil companies even if
           | all cars were electric by means of a genie.
        
             | Gare wrote:
             | It seems only 4% of the World oil/gas production is used
             | for plastics.
             | 
             | https://www.bpf.co.uk/press/Oil_Consumption.aspx
        
               | blamazon wrote:
               | Good lord, all the plastic in the world being _four
               | percent_ of oil and gas production is terrifying.
               | Implying the rest basically ends up combusted into the
               | atmosphere? The fact that increasing the percentage of
               | oil and gas used for plastic looks like a good option by
               | comparison turns my stomach.
        
               | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
               | The wonder composites that make electric cars possible
               | are all oil. Carbon fiber is hilariously not-green to
               | produce. Make a tube out of oil and burn it over and
               | over. Now make a car out of it with zero chance to
               | recycle and talk about how green it is.
               | 
               | Two things to your post though. Yes, making things out of
               | oil is probably better than burning it. But don't mistake
               | how much oil is used in the side-processes.
               | 
               | We will burn the oil one way or another. Until there is a
               | better source of energy with better safety and density
               | than hydrocarbons, we'll use it all. If not in cars, in
               | power plants, if not there in military, if not there in
               | 3rd world, etc.
        
               | omg_ponies wrote:
               | > The wonder composites that make electric cars possible
               | are all oil.
               | 
               | I'm sure composites make electric cars _better_ , but I
               | don't think electric cars are _impossible_ without
               | composites.
        
             | wizofaus wrote:
             | The same was likely said of whale blubber 150 years ago.
        
               | Tao3300 wrote:
               | And we almost used all of it then.
        
             | maxerickson wrote:
             | Synthesized replacements (starting from plant stocks or
             | whatever) will probably be cheaper at some point. Like some
             | point in the next several decades, not in the far flung
             | future.
        
               | fbdab103 wrote:
               | That feels like it might be possible, but we would have
               | to stop subsidizing corn in favor of plants with markedly
               | better yields (eg switchgrass). That will require
               | significant political capital.
        
           | Denvercoder9 wrote:
           | > will continue to be dependent on petrochemical solids for
           | long after we switch completely to electric vehicles and
           | renewable energy
           | 
           | Does anyone have insight in what the negative effects here
           | are, if any? It feels like this should be problematic, but I
           | just can't put my finger on what problems this is creating.
           | Like e.g. extracting oil to create single-use plastics that
           | get put in a landfill after usage: it sounds bad, but what's
           | actually the problem (assuming the whole process is done
           | without burning any of the oil - which afaik is possible)?
        
         | mjhay wrote:
         | Items that actually get reused a lot (e.g., not reusable
         | shopping bags) aren't as bad waste-wise, for the simple reason
         | less of them need to get made. Personally, I'd like to see
         | plastics restricted to areas where they have major advantages
         | over wood, steel, etc. Many consumer items like this would hold
         | up well enough using bioplastics.
        
           | PopAlongKid wrote:
           | > I'd like to see plastics restricted to areas where they
           | have major advantages over wood, steel, etc.
           | 
           | I suppose you could make a cheap laundry basket out of
           | chicken wire, but there would have to be some way to protect
           | from rust caused by damp clothes.
        
             | mjhay wrote:
             | Like I alluded to, some low-cost consumer products that
             | aren't really meant to last forever (like a laundry basket)
             | would be good candidates for bioplastics (some of which do
             | fine with water).
        
               | pvillano wrote:
               | Alternatively, make a laundry basket that is meant to
               | last forever.
        
               | mjhay wrote:
               | That would be ideal, but a lot more difficult to market.
               | Most people just don't care enough when they buy items
               | like this, and/or they don't want to pay a premium
               | because they'll probably be moving soon/etc.
               | 
               | Crap, if people just spotaneously started buying qualty,
               | durable things, and companies actually made them, that
               | would go an enormous way to help the global environmental
               | collapse.
        
             | pvillano wrote:
             | A plastic laundry basket can be made to last forever.
             | That's the point of this post.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | But they aren't. This guy got very lucky. Mine never last
               | more than a few years. Most of them inevitably crack
               | somewhere in less than a year. They are made so that you
               | need to keep buying them. I probably buy 3 a year just to
               | replace the ones that break.
        
               | teg4n_ wrote:
               | what the heck are you doing to your laundry baskets that
               | you break 3 a year??? I don't think i've _ever_ broken a
               | laundry basket.
        
               | quesera wrote:
               | Avoid hard plastics and square edges/sharp corners.
               | 
               | Notice that the basket from the article has rounded
               | edges, and rounded cutouts. The plastic appears to be
               | thickish and should be _very_ slightly flexible /rubbery
               | (bending because the material is flexible, not merely
               | because it is thin).
               | 
               | These products should (and definitely can) last decades.
        
               | moloch-hai wrote:
               | You are failing to drill out the ends of the cracks, as
               | the author did, failing to glue, and failing to buy a
               | better quality product, slightly more expensive, that
               | would not demand you return to the dollar store so
               | frequently.
               | 
               | You have anyway lots of company. That should not be
               | reassuring.
               | 
               | (I use "you", here, to denote all readers in the same
               | boat, not any particular individual.)
        
             | jessaustin wrote:
             | Reed/grass baskets are _really_ old technology. Like,
             | prehistoric. There 's no need for newfangled materials
             | developed only in the last several thousand years.
        
             | 13of40 wrote:
             | You can actually just look to what people were using before
             | plastic became ubiquitous: wicker, cotton, burlap
             | 
             | Unfortunately if you live in the US you're starting out at
             | about $50 instead of $5. I think that's a little bit of a
             | HCOL price point, though. I picked up a burlap shopping bag
             | in India earlier this year for about the equivalent of five
             | cents, that any store here would have charged a couple of
             | bucks for.
        
               | convolvatron wrote:
               | I'm still using the reed clothes baskets I bought 30
               | years ago...then they were around $10-20 ea
        
       | ssivark wrote:
       | I know nothing about these companies, but it's worth keeping in
       | mind that this is the period after China joined the WTO and
       | integrated deeper into the global economy for manufacturing -- so
       | it's possible that these NJ manufacturers couldn't compete on
       | cost with the Chinese ones, or even that these bankruptcies might
       | have been part of an offshoring reorientation (either within the
       | organization, or in the sector at large, which happened to
       | asphyxiate certain suppliers). It's even possible that
       | bankruptcies were strategically engineered by private equity to
       | sequester profitable modules and discharge obligations,
       | opportunistically exploiting macro trends.
       | 
       | Ultimately, I think the takeaways might be far more nuanced and
       | interesting than "pricing by value" -- there's no reason
       | customers will pay more if your competition can make and sell
       | good products costing less :-)
        
       | JoeDaDude wrote:
       | As an aside, that's a way cool design! Love the bubbles pattern.
       | If I could get one today, I would.
        
       | pipeline_peak wrote:
       | What a weird, boring post, I swear half this site is on some LSD
       | flashback.
       | 
       | Go outside, get laid, stop writing musings of injection mould
       | baskets...
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | You are probably being rightfully downvoted (I'm only halfway
         | through my morning coffee) but I found your comment hilarious
         | and also relevant in a meta sort of way, and in my opinion
         | worth keeping around as a contrarian point of view
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | humanistbot wrote:
         | I can't believe this got to the front page and that you're
         | being downvoted.
        
           | pipeline_peak wrote:
           | The state of "Hacker" "News"
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | reilly3000 wrote:
       | Almost nobody who gets a business up and running will go out of
       | business by charging too much. The majority of businesses fail
       | because of cashflow and profit margin issues. Show your product's
       | worth and charge enough to be perpetually sustainable- or let it
       | die.
        
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