Too many posters on wet shaving forums fall prey to "insular" thinking and cling to the belief that hordes of people are switching to traditional DE/SE shaving and I just don't see any concrete data to buttress that belief. Merkur plodded along for years selling to a small niche market as there were no other real makers of modern DE razors. Then came the artisans and then the Chinese. It was a double blow to them I'm sure. Why would someone buy a Zamak Merkur when they can get a Chinese clone for under $20 (and often under $10) that is essentially the same item sans name?



As I see it there are essentially three categories of DE shavers:



1. those who use a vintage razor like myself



2. those who buy cheap Chinese clones, Baili, RiMei, Weishi, etc.



3. those who buy hoidy toidy artisan razors and that is surely a very, very, very small percentage of an already microscopic market. I would lump those buying artisan SE razors into this group as well.



You just don't read of people buying Merkur like they were five or six years ago. They were IMO essentially doomed when the Chinese started making blatant copies as it's a Walmart world nowadays and price sells.