Things there isn't really a fancy version of

Cars are the kind of thing where there is a big difference in what is owned by an average vs. a rich person. Your average person might have a 7 year old Nissan Altima worth $4,000, and a rich person might have a $90,000 new Lexus SUV.

But I’m thinking of items where there isn’t really a luxury version. Toilet paper springs to mind. Once you’ve upgraded from Walmart brand to Cottonelle, is there anywhere else to go? I mean, I’m sure somebody somewhere is selling mink TP, but it’s not what most wealthy people use. Or toothpaste? If I sneak into Bill Gate’s bathroom, would I find something other than Colgate?

What else is there not really a fancy version of?

Straight peanut butter. Nothing added to make it “gourmet”.

Tacos

How about smartphones? Unless you put diamonds all over them, I expect Bill Gates and I have pretty much the same phone.

$90k Lexus?

When I travelled to Palo Alto for work, there was a McLaren dealership near the hotel. Dozens of $200k+ cars just sitting around the lot like they were Volvos or Fords.

Theodent 300 toothpaste

Lexus is more a mid range luxury car.

The truly rich have cars that cost six figures. Lexus maxes out at high five figures.

I’d say electric fans. I don’t think there’s a rich people version of one.

Electronics too. Yeah you can get a bigger TV but what can you do to upgrade a gaming console, DVD player, phone etc? Cover it in gold and diamonds? There isn’t some super fast PS4 out there you can buy for five figures.

My impression is some ‘rich people stuff’ is just the regular product with bling on it.

Some foods, but not others. There is rich people beef, seafood and alcohol. Not so much chicken, pork and soft drinks.

chitlins

Andy Warhol (in discussing his interest in mass-produced product labels like Campbell’s soup) pointed out that such products have a fascinatingly democratic quality to them. A billionaire, king, or president drinks the same quality of Coca-Cola as a hobo. This was less common before mass production came along.

If you want to see luxury car showrooms, go to Monaco. $200k is cheap there.

Ha. My wife managed to find some very expensive fans. Dyson I think.

They are trying. There’s the “all natural/no added sugar/no added salt/no added anything” brands. Also cashew butter, pecan butter, almond butter, pistachio butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.

any expensive matches? I know there are fancy lighters.

“All natural/no added sugar/no added salt/no added anything” shouldn’t drive up the price due to quality or scarcity.

There’s no super rare and expensive peanut to make PB from

If you’re really rich, though, you get your servants to wave palm fronds at you.

Or richer yet, then your slaves.

Mens Underwear
Adult Toys
Pho

Biscuits and gravy. You might get fancy with artisan buttermilk biscuits and high-end sausage gravy, but the basic combo doesn’t need improvement. (except for maybe adding ground pepper and some Tabasco sauce)

I can find 16 oz jars of “natural” peanut-only peanut butter for $2.99 sharing a shelf with
16oz (or less) jars of “natural” peanut-only peanut butter for $10+. Somebody buys the expensive stuff and probably with a belief that it (and perhaps they) are superior.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I was going to say salt, but there are people with extra-disposable income buying expensive Pink Crystal Non-GMO Himalayan Salt.

From an ad for one such product:

“Himalayan salt is hand-harvested from the Khewra Salt Mine in the Himalayan Mountains of Pakistan using time-honored methods, and is unrefined, unprocessed, and does not contain any additives…Because the salt was left untouched for years under the immense pressure of the mountain ranges, Himalayan salt remains one of the purest salts available. It is nutrient dense and contains 84 natural trace elements and minerals, including iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, which is where it gets its range of pink color from.”

See, it’s ultra-pure because of all those impurities! (hilariously, this product also carries a California Prop. 65 warning, apparently due to the lead content)

I don’t think there’s a Rich Person ground horseradish, but I could be wrong.

Lots of Southern dishes would come under that heading as well: chicken-fried steak, for example. You can make it poorly, you can make it well, but what you can’t do is use expensive meat. The fancy stuff can’t take the processing without falling apart.

Greens is greens. Serving them with Modeno balsamic vinegar will just make them taste bad.

Trying to fancy-up blondebear’s Biscuits & Gravy just yields a mess. The proper biscuit has to be just right, with enough heft to handle the gravy load. Get too “light and fluffy” with them and they collapse under the sausage-y flood. Like using brioche buns for a burger - just an excuse to charge more, because it certainly doesn’t work as a burger.

Soda was the first thing that spring to my mind. If there are luxury colas or cola snobs who prefer them, I’ve never encountered any. The most common, ubiquitous brands, like Coke and Pepsi, are the ones most people seem to prefer.