lpm wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:27 pmThis is more than "a few pence extra" though. It's not paying 3p per tea bag instead of 2p. There are teas in the supermarket where people are paying 20p or 30p.
Ostentatious displays of status symbols accounts for people paying premium prices for cars, clothes and smartphones. But does anyone buy Teapigs tea bags for display reasons? Keep them in the cupboard and dig them out when the neighbour pops round, like our grandparents did with the best china? While casually leaving the top brand dishwasher tablets visible?
The vastly higher costs can not be coming anywhere near reflecting higher environmental or ethical standards.
For Teapig? Maybe not. For some small estate loose leaf tea hand harvested and sold without the benefits of economies of scale, maybe so. I would ask for data to support your assertion, but I doubt either of us has the time or resources or contacts to actually get hold of industrially secretive accounts. This is part of the problem, we just don't and can't know. The invisible hand is assumed to work with perfect knowledge. We as customers are being, in part deliberately, prevented from making those kinds of choices.