Selling Lemons

Democratization and the Flood of “Lemons”

• Lower barriers in design, manufacturing, and distribution let almost anyone launch products, games, or brands.
• Many see this as leading to an overwhelming volume of low-quality offerings that bury “midrange” or genuinely good work.
• Others note this isn’t new: 90s shareware, cheap web design, and off-the-shelf assets already produced lots of junk.

Reviews, Algorithms, and Curation

• One camp argues reviews are the modern quality gate: good products can reach critical mass and ride recommendation algorithms.
• Gamedevs push back: review-based stores favor a small fraction of hits, leaving mid-tier work invisible.
• Skeptics say reviews and reviewers are increasingly gamed, desensitized, or blocked by platform moderation.
• Many advocate returning to trusted curators: specialty retailers, local shops, Wirecutter-style sites, festivals with vendor screening.

Amazon, “Anti-Brands,” and Policy-Driven Chaos

• The “alphabet soup” brands (MZOO, WAOAW, etc.) are traced to Amazon requiring trademarked brands and banning generics, prompting factories to mint countless disposable brand names.
• These are seen as “anti-brands”: labels designed to convey nothing, undermining brand as a quality signal.
• Some defend specific examples (e.g., certain sleep masks) as genuinely excellent finds, illustrating the core lemons problem: good and bad are hard to distinguish beforehand.
• Commenters note Amazon’s scale incentives, commingling/counterfeits, weak curation, and reliance on returns over quality control.

Brand Erosion and Arbitrage

• Several note once-respected brands quietly lowering quality while cashing in on residual reputation—a kind of short-term arbitrage that permanently damages the brand.
• Others cite retailers like Costco, certain department stores, or big-box private labels as modern examples where curated brands still mostly mean “decent value.”

Lemon Markets, Enshittification, and Taste

• Some stress that “market for lemons” has a specific information-asymmetry meaning and object to using it as a life-cycle stage.
• Others argue the internet does push many markets from trust-and-reputation phases into lemons equilibria as they mature.
• A counterview: the issue isn’t lemons but taste—high-quality options and reliable information exist, but most people prioritize low price and low effort, and won’t invest in discernment.