Home›Open Questions›What year, and by whom, did the razor-and-blades pricing model actually emerge?Open QuestionsWhat year, and by whom, did the razor-and-blades pricing model actually emerge?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextBusiness Atlas. "What year, and by whom, did the razor-and-blades pricing model actually emerge?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/razor-and-blades-origin-question.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextBusiness Atlas. (n.d.). What year, and by whom, did the razor-and-blades pricing model actually emerge?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/razor-and-blades-origin-questionCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{businessatlas-what-year-and-by-whom-did-the-razor-and, author = {Business Atlas}, title = {What year, and by whom, did the razor-and-blades pricing model actually emerge?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/razor-and-blades-origin-question}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionThe razor-and-blades model is popularly attributed to King Camp Gillette around the time he patented the safety razor, but Gillette's own razors were priced high when introduced and only came down after his patents expired in the 1920s. General encyclopedic sources credit the pricing pattern to his competitors rather than to Gillette himself, without naming a specific year or company for its first deliberate use.What would resolve this A business history source that names the specific competitor firm and year that first deliberately priced a durable good low to sell a proprietary consumable at a markup, rather than a general encyclopedia entry that only debunks the Gillette myth.OpenBusiness HistoryWikipedia, Razor and Blades Business ModelSourcesWikipedia, Razor and Blades Business Modeltier 2WikipediaHistory sectionQuote, History sectionGillette razors were expensive when they were first introduced, and the price only went down after his patents expired in the 1920s: it was his competitors who invented the razors-and-blades model.View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year