All of homeopathetic medicine.
Didn’t hear so much about homeopathy during Covid. The YouTube classic on the homeopathic ER is excellent.
Bottled water.
In homeopathy, even the molecules stay six feet apart.
The high-fashion industry.
There’s no difference between a Prada purse sold on Rodeo Drive and a purse from Nordstrom or Macy’s in your local mall.
Industry? OK, service industry or selling an actual product?
Services? I’ll choose consulting, except for engineering. Pretty much everything to do with the sale of art. And the management of artists (actors, singers, etc,) or sportspeople. And what about financial traders? Black magic or bull$hit?
Industries? Fashion and cosmetics, and following on from the latter, health supplements and miracle cures. That includes homeopathetic medicine; basically, you’re buying water.
Anything that suddenly becomes a fad or a trend. Alcoholic drinks are prone to that. And, what is a Cabbage Patch doll worth? Now, and then?
Where’s that LIKE button? Oh, here ya go: 
Top end bicycles. Well, I suppose you do get something for your money, but we’re way past the point of diminishing returns. I still remember the feeling of disbelief when, killing time in a bike shop while an order was being filled, nosing around the expensive stuff, I realised what a high-end spoke was. I’ll tell you what it ain’t - in cross-section, it ain’t round. Its flattened to make it more areodynamic - like this.
I think the basic point is, a couple of decades ago bikes got really pretty arerodynamically efficient. You can buy one now for a thousand dollars or so. Problem is, how do you now sell someone a bike for $4000? That’s when things start getting silly. Then the justifications/promotion gets absurd. It’s not just aerodynamics - how about wireless electronic gear shifters. Cable? That’s so passé!
And so on.
j
Anything labeled as a “cleanse” or “detox”.
If you truly need an external detox, what you need is a new liver.
mmm
Yes, one thing to watch out for is when they attack Annuities- Annuities can be solid investments, but of course investment companies dont make $$ off them.
Yep, anything more expensive than Smirnoff is a waste.
Grey Goose especially since it isnt even as good as Smirnoff.
Naw, probiotics are good for your gut.
Several years ago, there was also an “artisanal” craze.
Anybody remember Cap-Pistols? A kind of toy gun, circa 1948, with a firing pin and a feeder gear. You had to buy, sold separately, a roll of 50 co-dependent paper Caps, little dots of gunpowder that detonated on inpact, advancing and repeating with trigger pulls.
Not sure I agree with this one. If you are drinking vodka neat, then just like whisky, there is a difference between dirt cheap and mid range. High end stuff is always gumph I agree.
I certainly do. Blew up a lot of caps over the years. But how they relate to this thread is a total mystery to me.
Ah - it’s not just me. Good.
j
I agree. So many of the ‘artisanal’ (or whatever term they use) vodkas these days are nothing more than Archer Daniels Midland bulk grain neutral spirits that they redistill and filter to make it smoother, and then market heavily as being somehow special. Once I saw a brand touting the diamonds in their filtration system, I knew it was all bullshit from there on out with vodkas.
To a large extent, the whiskey business in the US is like that too, with a LOT of brands aging MGP (Midwest Grain Products) distillates as if they’d produced it themselves.
Basically a lot (not all though) of the small producer vodka and spirits markets are infested with people who are just aging or finishing someone else’s distillates. While not illegal or even unethical per se, it’s definitely on the shady side, as the general consumer assumes that they’re mashing their own grains and then fermenting, distilling and aging the resulting product. In fact, they’re just doing the last step of all that. I imagine it must really frustrate the real-deal small producers to no end.
Sure, there’s a lower threshold to get above but it’s pretty low. Smirnoff is, to me, fine and should be under $20 a fifth and probably about $25 a handle.
I like the idea of a potato-based vodka, mashed by elderly artisans in the old country but damned if I can taste it.
Munster Cable. Works best on audio feeds for 1960s horror-themed sitcoms.
The ultimate in niche marketing.