How to counter enshittyfication in consumer products
The start: Knockoff browser extension
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the Knockoff browser extension which helps consumers to filter out cheap and bogus brands from the Amazon search results. Now I found two websites which help me even more in a) filtering out/recognising bad brands and b) find good brands that still produce quality products which are worth their price.
Discovering: Worse on Purpose.com
It all started when I noticed that the WMF Clip&Close ice cube box is similar to the one produced by EMSA. And both had the same worse reviews as the plastic doesn't seem to be made for storing in freezes as it breaks easily and constantly. Naturally I was curious why WMF sells such crappy products.
And I found the solution on a webpage called Worse on Purpose. In the article Your Cookware Got Worse On Purpose author Keyana Sapp writes in detail about how family-owned companies are bought by international conglomerates who just seek to own the established brand name known for it's high quality products, to sell their cheap & crappy stuff.
The solution to this curiosity was rather boring. Under the headline Six companies, eighty-one brands we learn that both companies are owned by Groupe SEB (Wikipedia) who bought WMF & EMSA in 2016 and is, according to Wikipedia, the world's largest manufacturer of cookware.
Great, that will definitely not have any impace on the quality of WMF products rights? Oh wait.. There have been numerous factories closed since 2025...
The Brand Legder
Worse on Purpose operates The Brand Ledge where you can search for brands and companies names to get a small overview and can now decided for yourself if you still trust that brand. Takes this example for WMF: https://ledger.worseonpurpose.com/brands/wmf
Neat! And very handy!
BuyItForLife.com, the Chef'n Juicer & WMF
I don't really know what to make out of buyitforlife.com. It's a website seemingly vetting products the website owner has used/is using himself.
He states and the frontpage:
Browse 500+ Buy It For Life products I've personally vetted for quality and longevity. Compare where they're made, warranty, category, and price in seconds.
Source: https://buyitforlife.com/
And on the about page:
This list isn't sponsored or biased. It's just me, someone who likes well-built products, going down a rabbit hole to find things that are actually built to last.
Source: https://buyitforlife.com/about
Why I am experiencing such an uneasy feeling when reading that site?
Well, I found the site today. I was search for a manually operated lemon/citrus squeezer/press. The WMF one looked nice at first for 38,99€ but luckily the Chef'n PalmZester (22,79€) was displayed right next to it.. And.. Well look for yourself:
First the Chef'n model in yellow, than the WMF one in black. They are exactly the same model, just different colours. And apparently black is 16€ more expensive.. Yeah, are you kidding me!?
Amazon reviews on both products state, that it breaks after just 1 year of regular usage. As apparently the plastic can't deal with the stress and breaks at some point. Wow.
What is even more interesting: Chef'n is owned by Lifetime Brands Inc.
And that is a totally different company which as nothing to do with Group SEB who owns WMF. This proves, again, that the brand WMF now stands for nothing. Just a shell used to sell cheap products for a higher price.
Good job capitalism!
BuyItForLife however has this product listed on it's site. Among many other products from companies which Worse on Purpose has on it's Watchlist or where people on Reddit say for years that the products became shittier over the time. I think this is my problem with that site. BuyItForLife is just a single person without any special knowledge. Just recommending products he finds useful. That's fair. Nothing against that, but it isn't as objective as it claims to be. It's just a single persons opinion - marketed as something more...
Nowhere on the site can I read a detailed review about a product. All links point directly to Amazon. No "This is why I recommend that item", nothing. For me, personally, this simply doesn't add up. So no, I'm not going to recommend that site.