“America is crazy”: Walmart customer discovers it’s cheaper to buy a whole new printer with ink in it than ink refills
A long time ago I worked at one of the big office supply stores and this was “true” back then too. The caveat was that the ink that came in the printer was usually only half full. The printers themselves were sold at a loss and the companies made their money on selling the ink.
I thought that’s always been the business model for inkjets since they were invented. Same as game consoles and Gillette razors. Vendor lockin is very lucrative since people are lazy and don’t understand sunk cost.
Cory Doctorow said in a recent essay that at this point, it would be cheaper to print something using Kentucky-Derby-winning stallion semen than HP ink.
Y’all need to switch to laser printers.
inktoner lasts forever and is dirt cheap.If you need high quality color prints, have them done at Walgreens or something.
Also the laser jet toner doesn’t dry out.
I had a inkjet printer and wasted a lot of money on ink. And if I tried to save it to only use it when I really needed it, I would often find it was dried out by the time I used it.
LaserJet printers cost more. But they make that cost back on 1 drum toner refill.
Last time I bought laser jet
inktoner for my little brother black and white printer, I paid $15 for 2 drums.Each toner drum lasted me almost 3 years of casual printing.
(I’m a grad student and mostly used it to print research papers cause I’m old fashioned and like to read paper and write on it. ).
I definitely spend way more on paper than ink.
Get a laser printer. (Used, On Facebook marketplace; if you are poor like me).
She shouldn’t have made it a national news story. She should have just swapped the ink cartridges and returned the printer lol.
