| ▲ | chihuahua 4 hours ago |
| While there is no shortage of irrelevant details, the article is very light on relevant details. What prevents the factory from staying in business? Not enough orders? The French people supposedly love this glassware and orders pour in whenever the company is mentioned. They have the factory up and running, they have employees. The workers own the means of production, what could be better than that? Why do they need to expand into new product ranges, if the existing products are in such high demand? I'm not sure if the proposed pint glasses for British pubs are a sure winner. Why not stick with what already works? None of this is explained in the article. |
|
| ▲ | GuB-42 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| As a French, my guess is simply that the brand is not price competitive and up until now, they didn't have the right marketing to justify the higher prices. Duralex is a beloved brand, and the French wouldn't like to see it go, but not enough to have much of an influence in the shopping aisle. The nostalgia aspect is real (ask the French about the numbers at the bottom of the glass ;) ), but it may be a negative when looking for more "adult" glassware. Maybe you don't want your guests or yourself feel like your are in a school canteen. School canteens also don't have a reputation for being luxurious to say the least, which may be a problem if you want to charge a premium. It may be that's the idea behind the pint glasses by the way. Show that Duralex can make glassware for grownups too. |
| |
| ▲ | mrweasel 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | A Danish supermarket had a loyalty program where you'd collect point and could get Duralex drinking glasses for the points. We got probably 25 of them, I don't think I'd consider buying anything else going forward, the quality is absolutely worth the minimal extra cost. You can get six for around €25EUR that is basically free. I don't agree that they aren't price competitive, at least on normal drinking glasses. | |
| ▲ | enaaem 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Here you can buy 250 ml glasses for 1.39 Euro a piece. Even cheaper for sets. I’m not sure how cheap we need glasses to be? | | |
| ▲ | gniv 34 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yes, exactly. I think the problem is the opposite. They failed to market them correctly so that they can demand higher prices. |
| |
| ▲ | pavlov 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Create a separate high-end brand, Duralux. | |
| ▲ | INTPenis 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It is more expensive than for example IKEA glasses, but I swear by Duralex. Ever since an IKEA glass spontaneously exploded on my desk. I suddenly remembered we used Duralex at school in Sweden in the 90s, so I ordered brand new Duralex glasses and no explosions yet. I imagine if they were being used in schools, with 13-17 year olds, being washed every day for years until they were covered in scratches, they must be pretty tough. | | |
| ▲ | ornornor 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Duralex uses (used?) a special glass that made the glass bounce off the floor several times before breaking, and most times it didn’t break. That’s also why canteens loved it. | |
| ▲ | card_zero 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Buy Duralex — the glassware that won't explode soon. | | |
| |
| ▲ | griffzhowl 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yes, we had them in school in the UK too. Just had a flashback to the number at the bottom of the glass | |
| ▲ | mytailorisrich an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The issue is that it is difficult to find a marketing justification for high prices in everyday glassware... nothing more like a glass than another glass and people are obviously not prepared to pay a premium. |
|
|
| ▲ | tormeh an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Why not stick with what already works? Well, apparently it doesn't work. Personally I think almost all their glassware is either ugly or generic. |
|
| ▲ | jonathanstrange 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I guess they have the same problem that Superfest glass from the GDR had, the glasses just don't break often enough. |
| |
| ▲ | adrian_b 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Indeed. I use only borosilicate glass vessels for cooking, for storing food, for eating and for drinking (some from France, some from Czechia). I have replaced some of them in order to have more optimized sizes and shapes for the ways I use them (even if the replaced vessels were still perfectly good), and I have some extra vessels kept in reserve for the very unlikely case when I will break a vessel (which has not happened yet). I do not expect that I would need to buy any more such vessels during my lifetime, unless I will become bored of those that I have and I would want a change. So making money from selling high-quality glassware that can last forever is much more difficult than getting free money from a software subscription. | |
| ▲ | rcMgD2BwE72F 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Exactly. All my glassware are Duralex including coffe cups, and I haven't broken a single glass in 25+ years. Yet, they regularly fall on the ceramic kitchen floor from a hip level. |
|
|
| ▲ | catlikesshrimp 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Products which don't respect all the environment, the workers and the consumers are cheaper; much cheaper. You can't win when other players are playing a different game. This is another report from another French glass manufacturer. They couldn't meet their social responsibilty. Workers close the plant, and then the Mayor was pushing an unrelated company inthe viccinity, Nestle, to take over the failing glass plant https://www.glass-international.com/news/o-i-halts-french-gl... |
| |
| ▲ | lostlogin 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | That’s all true, but to be clear, the Mayor supported the workers and wanted Nestle to take over the failing plant. |
|
