I guess the flip side of this is that we can have access to so many things, so affordably. I don't need an industrial-grade waffle iron, but it's kind of fun to have for the occasional weekend if I've got space.
Having said that, I tend to avoid that side. If I have to buy something, I tend to do a buy-it-for-life type of purchase. This drives my fiancee crazy, as I spend 50% more money and 500% more time making my purchase. Most of the time it's not even about the money; I just get upset when I have tons of trash, so I try to avoid buying things that make or become trash.
and this is the niche manufacturing opportunity of the future.
I have a friend living it right now - he makes buy-it-for-your-grandkids-lives tools and sells direct via the internet to his end user. His end user is in a particular niche and my friend is an expert in it.
His stuff is expensive, niche, and his marketing consists of crappy phone videos on Facebook. He is authentic however, his stuff is super high quality, and he gives great customer service. His business has been growing at 30% a year thanks to the internet allowing him to reach the few people that care about his niche. He will surpass $1M in gross sales with a high net margin, and he has zero competitors in his micro niche - a million dollar micro niche.
And its truly micro - 200 units per year of the $800 piece of equipment, and the rest of the sales in the 14,000 accessories he has for the equipment. He is doing quite a bit better than a well paid SV engineer and is direct to 10,000 consumers. His moat is impenetrable.
Having said that, I tend to avoid that side. If I have to buy something, I tend to do a buy-it-for-life type of purchase. This drives my fiancee crazy, as I spend 50% more money and 500% more time making my purchase. Most of the time it's not even about the money; I just get upset when I have tons of trash, so I try to avoid buying things that make or become trash.