# Cheaper or better?

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2024-05-04

business, cheaper-or-better, food, japan, mango, mangoes, miyazaki, seth-godin

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One perfectly sound approach is to just be the cheapest. This often entails lower margins, but hopefully higher volumes. However, the problem with this approach is that it can become a race to the bottom. At some point, somebody will find a new corner to cut. [As Seth Godin says](https://seths.blog/2023/06/cheaper-than-that/), "the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win."

On the other end of the spectrum is this approach:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d3edcdc8b5e084cd5f3b918e85974a34.jpg)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2c191d6f3739b9a44eedb511290daf1d.jpg)

This is a pamphlet describing full ripeness mangoes from the [Miyazaki prefecture in Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyazaki_Prefecture). These are not the cheapest mangoes around. In fact, it's the opposite; they're generally known to be the world's most expensive. But they will almost certainly be the [best mangoes that you've ever tasted](https://www.miyazaki-city.tourism.or.jp/en/special/Rich_Miyazaki_Mangoes). And you'll only be able to get them between the months of April and August.

Sometimes it's possible to be both cheaper _and_ better. And that's obviously an ideal position to be in. But in many, or perhaps most cases, you'll need to choose. Cheaper, or _that_ much better.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/cheaper-or-better)*