$12 for a flashlight is too much!!!!!

[GrnXnham]

Today at Walmart I was looking at their flashlights. A middle-aged lady next to me was trying to find the correct bulbs to replace the ones in two of her burned out flashlights. Wanting to be helpful, I asked her what she had and then I pointed out the correct replacement bulbs for her lights. The bulbs were $2 for two bulbs.

Then I pointed out to her that if she purchased LED lights, she would not ever have to replace her bulbs again. She asked which ones were LED. I showed her one. It was $12. A look of horror came over her face. Then she said:

"For that price I might as well keep buying bulbs!"

So you wonder why it's taken Mag so long to go LED?

:)

 

[xdanx]

Good Observation.

 

[bruddamoke]

Sounds like MY girlfriend...:naughty:

 

[carrot]

Should have whipped out something really expensive... give her a heart attack. That... FLASHLIGHT cost $200!?

I don't understand why people aren't willing to pay for quality... $12 isn't a lot. It'll only get you 2 or 3 footlongs at Subway...

 

[eebowler]

bruddamoke, please accept my sympathies. :awman:

 

[InfidelCastro]

For people who don't make or have alot of money, $12 is alot of money. Especially for elderly folks. Wisdom or not? Who's to judge.

At my (current) income level I should be carrying a $1.19 plastic fantastic 2D value pack light with some $.88 for a dozen "heavy duty" batteries made from magnetic lumps of coal, but I carry $200 worth of lights every night.

 

[coldsolderjoint]

LOL,

at my job, (pizza delivery).. im kinda known as the mysterious flashlight guy.. anyways.. my boss wanted to see the new flashlight I was talking about (magcharger w/ 1160).. so I hand it to him.. and hes disapointed.. hes like... "oh.. its just a muglite".. and im like.. well.. yeah.. but its a rechargable version, thats what the rings are for and the bulb is a medical lamp.. turn it on.. so he lights up the inside of the oven from across the store (keep in mind with the florescents).. and hes like.. dayummm...

and then this other driver is like.. wow.. you know what i have? one of those shake lights (motions with hand up and down).. then the jokes about the similair "adult" situation start...

 

[fieldops]

Most people consider flashlights to be cheap tools, period. Kids grow up today with the same kind of .99 cent plastic D lights their fathers had. If you don't see anything else for lights, that's what your going to be used to. I suspect that eventually enough LED lights will be around that people will see them as a value. You know that's what M@G has in mind. They will probably be successful at it too. I'm no lover of M@G the company, but unfortunately one thing they're not, is stupid.

 

[RAF_Groundcrew]

What are the characteristics of a 'medical lamp'? Are you using it because of the colour balance, or is the output better?

Nigel.

 

[leukos]

Penny wise and pound foolish! No one stops to think how much time and money is wasted driving to Walmart to keep replacing these bulbs, plus batteries are depleted faster, etc. Cheaper is not always a cost savings.

 

[BatteryCharger]

She's nuts, I'd pay at least $15 for a good flashlight. :hahaha:

 

[TORCH_BOY]

$12 Is good for a LED light,

 

[ScottyJ]

$12 Is good for a LED light,

12 dollars was probably too much for that LED light from wal-mart (maybe that is what she meant).

 

[amv]

When we had the blackout here in NYC a couple of years ago I lent, and gave away several of my lights. One I lent was my Arc aaa premium, to a nice middle aged/older lady who lived down the hall from me. She obviously grew attached to it because when she returned it she told me she loved it and wanted to get one. She quickly changed her mind when I told her the price. I'll never forget the look of shock on her face!

 

[twentysixtwo]

I think we're all beating a dead horse, but my favorite story was one CPF'er whose father got all torques about how much his son had spent on flashlights saying "A flashlight is a $4 thing"

Meanwhile, said dad had some uber expensive tube amp stereo things. To me, a stereo is a $200 thing, not a $6000 thing. It's all in what you're in to. Dropping $150 on a bicycle helmet is no big deal. That's nuts to the sports guy who's happy to pay an extra $30 a month for the full ESPN Package but rides a 20 year old Schwinn.....

 

[coldsolderjoint]

What are the characteristics of a 'medical lamp'? Are you using it because of the colour balance, or is the output better?

Nigel.

It's just the WA 1160.. I just called it a medical lamp because welch allyen is known for making medical lights.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

Medical lamp - used for cauterizing wounds. (think USL?) :D

-LT

 

[tron3]

...
I don't understand why people aren't willing to pay for quality...

Oh, people are willing, they are just so uninformed about flashlights that they just don't care. "I only need something small that lights up." No flashlight is worth that much to them because, "I'll never need it."

There is a certain amount of "horse sense" to that. In pitch darkness, even a Mag Solitaire will let you see. But you better hope the battery isn't down to 250mA - it dies within seconds at that point.

:dedhorse:

 

[Solstice]

Sad to say, in normal city living, most people rarely NEED a light at all. There are very few situations I have been in (in South Jersey and Philadelphia) where there hasn't been enough ambient light to at least see for general navagation purposes. Perhaps it might make a situation a little easier, but it isn't absolutely necessary.

Because of this, some people may be willing to carry a free, or dollar squeeze keychain light with their keys, but if they don't have our unique interests, anything more would be overkill.

I guess we are a little weird when here we are WANTING it to be too dark to see, so that we'll have to use these expensive instruments of ours ;).

Similar to another CPFer's story I read a little while ago, I once showed my HDS Basic 60 to a girl who was really impressed with it. She was like "Woah, that must have been really expensive, what did it cost like $20?!"

It just shows how the perception is a wee bit different out in the "real world."

 

[PhotonWrangler]

If a $12 flashlight was truly out of her income range, then I feel badly for her.

However, if she left the store and got into her $60,000 SUV then that's another story.