If you purchased your espresso accessories before the economic downturn, consider yourself lucky. Things I've had to replace: brushes, bean trays for cupping, cupping spoons, frothing pitchers, demitasse spoons, nearly every espresso accoutrement has dropped a few notches in quality.

The brushes are my biggest beef. They look identical to the ones they replaced, but they now leave hairs in the grinder and look scraggly after only a few uses.

Now that was one short rant!

It's all part of the race to the bottom. I think it is going on all over the retail consumer market and sellers of stuff such as us get caught up in it all the time. Sellers of XYZ get all cynical about the consumer and start to think they are a bunch of tightwads who do not base the purchase on quality issues but only on price. So you price out some really nice brushes, maybe China made but maybe not....some nice stencil brushes or even high quality long bristle pinstripe brushes and then you go look at amazon and find out that you are being undersold by about 300% and so you panic and get the cheap stuff like everyone else or just bag it and turn the whole thing over to Amazon.

We agree with you 100% but there is this continual price pressure, downward. And for small timers like us there are the free shipping and two pounds of stale coffee promotions to compete against. but American consumers make a big deal out of the power of competition to keep the prices down....free marketeers all. But what happens is that cynicism infects the market and the old quality counts adage gets replaced by the Walmart ethic. Hey, I use a lot of tools and I only buy the best hand tools....they cost a lot more than the cheapies but are worth it to me. But I can find the tools...lots harder to find a grinder brush that doesn't shed hairs in your coffee these days.

We have some of the best fitting tampers for the home machines that money can buy....a whopping 32.50, made in the USA by a machinist with bills to pay....some consider these too expensive....how does that figure? The little guys can get pessimistic and just cave in and push the crap like everyone else and the big guys just churn out some ad copy and keep bringing it down to the level that the consumer will see as a reasonable price. We tried that route and could not bear it.... So, say we bring some high quality brushes to the market and try to promote them and to the consumer is all sounds like a huck.....hollow promotion.....and everyone assumes that it is the same old crap that everyone else is pushing. It creates an endless downward spiral in quality. We say it to each other all the time..."NOBODY is going to pay 20 buck for a grinder brush !!" Maybe we are wrong and there is at least ONE person who would!

We agree Doug...it sucks.
Doug

I'm often wary of buying little accessories like brushes from coffee suppliers, because I have no idea if they're just selling some dodgy 50 cent POS at a huge mark-up. It's nice having places like OE where I know Doug has probably personally tried (or actually uses) every item he sells.

I'm almost always willing to pay more for a higher-quality product, but I know lots of people who are happy to use the cheapest crap they can get away with.

It is not a totally bad scene for those of us who enjoy a great brew at our beck and call espresso/instantly
Thank the "powers that be" at all levels for the relatively inexpensive coffee, of great quality, we enjoy. The "Mass Marketers" take the cheap stuff so we benefit from the ready availability of high quality beans. We are able to brew on the machines built when quality was king. Some of those machines which we saved from the trash are kept running better than new by the folks who are kind enough to find or source parts and keep their prices reasonable on the parts to repair them.

Yes, Doug/Fullsack, there are a lot of products cheapened in the last couple of years. Not always due to the manufacturer's fault. You are correct in thinking that there is a general downward spiral in all the marketplaces.

I buy materials with which I hope to make a outstanding crafted product at a fair price. The materials that started my business were a far better product than I can buy now. The specs are the same, but the metal mix is somehow missing something like an operation which made the alloy come together. The quality that I can achieve now takes more than double the time spent for finishing than I spent a couple short years ago. The parts I buy to modify for some of my products are giving me similar fits.

The quality of the woods I buy have gone down hill as the actual supply of some of them is dwindling. The ones available are being sold wet and require a long time to dry and stabilize. That may ruin about half of my purchased quantity due to cracking and checking. The end products we buy are not the only things that are of a lesser quality. Any person in a machining or material use business is hurting because they spend more time and have to hold a price line.

Add to this fact the problem that my and your dollar has about 60% of the buying power of just two years ago and we begin to see a problem. How can a manufacturer/retailer hold a price on a product that cost them more now than it did?? They now, more than ever, have to deal with huge quality control problems that can cost them more than the cost paid by the customer for the faulty item.

It would seem to me that if we frequent all quality vendors, those who give good value for the money, we may keep them in business to make our lives better. Yes, we may pay a bit more, but... they will be there if they can make a profit.
my1¢
-Richard

I consider a tamper a work of art...especially Richard's pieces. A brush, not so much. However, my everyday tamper is an inexpensive one. There will always be people who appreciate quality.

Scott, I understand holding a work of art dear...but isn't your everyday espresso? Why would you use something 'inexpensive' while you perform your art? Just a thought.