August 8, 2011 5:27 pm
(This really happened)
I was at the store a few weeks ago when something caught my eye. You see, we had lost our can-opener a while back and I kept forgetting to buy a new one. So there I was, in check-out lane 8, and saw a can-opener in the dollar section. It looked sharp, with a comfortable grip, and shiny surface. We could have selected a much higher-quality opener at a different store for a few dollars more, yet, the $1.00 price-tag was enticing… So I bought it.
I came home proudly displaying to my wife the new low-cost addition to our silver-ware drawer. We used it that evening to open up a can on some dynamite homemade tuna casserole! That’s when I realized my mistake. I began to crank the dial on the opener to get to the tuna. It made three full turns and stopped cutting into the can. I tried from the other end and I only made it ¼ of the way across. Ten minutes, sore hands, a sweaty forehead, and two broken steak knives later, I had my tuna! I rinsed off the opener, hoping for better results another day. Then next morning the opener was covered in rust. My wife and I had a good laugh and I threw the “opener” away shortly after.
So what happened there? I had to replace the knives, and buy a real opener. If I would have bought the better opener, I would have “lost” four to five more dollars, yet by going cheap, I paid three times as much after it was all said and done.
You see John Ruskin, an 18th century British Philosopher, said it best: “It is unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money . . . that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing that is was bought to do. The common Law of Business Balance prohibits paying little and getting a lot – it cannot be done! If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”
When people partner with Jericho, they can do so knowing that the focus is on quality; putting structures in place that are built to last. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Trust me, breaking knives and having tuna juice on me was no fun, especially when a simple change of perspective could have helped me avoid a hassle!
Edgar Gonzalez
Customer Care
Jericho Home Improvements