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You Are a Snob
No one likes a snob. He lowers his salmon-colored Financial Times to register disgust with your every-colored USA Today. Picking up his detailed Maserati Quattroporte GTS (with sport package), he sighs as you bounce into the car wash with your 2008 Honda CR-V. He lives in a better neighborhood, his kids go to a better school, and his dog is a pure-bred shipped in from an artisanal kennel in Hungary.
Being called a snob is one of the worst insults you can offer to a class-denying American. That’s why CEOs brag to their employees about flying coach, celebs hang out with sick commoners at the local children’s hospital, and multimillionaire politicians suck down corn dogs like carny folk. (Note: None of these rules apply to The Donald, for he laughs at the iron laws of political physics.)
But the dirty little secret is that everyone is a snob. Hopefully not about many things, but always about something. Wherever you fall on the income scale, there is at least one area in which you will not skimp. The F-150 driver in rural Michigan who scoffs at the fools driving Chevy pickup trucks. A self-described redneck in Kentucky who only drinks Basil Hayden’s bourbon. The stoned surfer who wouldn’t be caught dead in a Quiksilver tee.
As for me, I’m a snob about a couple of things, but especially coffee. I might not live in a mansion or commute to Ricochet HQ on my Gulfstream, but I will delay paying my water bill in order to get beans shipped from Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago. And I wouldn’t think twice.
A book titled Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods — and How Companies Create Them discusses how the vast majority of Americans of all income levels will treat themselves to something special:
America’s middle-market consumers are trading up.
They are willing, even eager, to pay a premium price for remarkable kinds of goods that we call New Luxury — products and services that possess higher levels of quality, taste, and aspiration than other goods in the category but are not so expensive as to be out of reach.
Consider Jake, a 34-year-old construction worker earning about $50,000 a year, whose passion is golf. It took Jake a year to save enough money to buy a complete set of Callaway golf clubs — $3,000 worth of premium titanium-faced drivers, putters, and wedges — although he could have bought a decent set from a conventional producer for under $1,000.
As I said, my snobby vice is coffee. Even if I was living in a box under a freeway bridge, if a businessman walked by with a tankard full of 7-11 Hazelnut Blend, I would shake my head and think, “what a loser.”
How about you: what are the one or two areas in which you’re a complete snob?
Published in General
Alex Delaware lives!
I used to be a distance running snob, but then I got old and fat. Now I can’t stand distance running snobs.
Boots: Lucchese
Belt buckles and money clip: Matt Hackett
Power tools: John Deere tractors, Stihl chainsaws
Hand Tools: Gransfors Bruks and Wetterlings axes
Asian Hotels: Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Island Shangri-La and Peninsula Hong Kong, Dharmawangsa Jakarta
Beer: Karbach Hopadillo (Houston) and Great Lakes Brewing Commodore Perry (Cleveland)
That’s more than two isn’t it.
I am discerning.
You are opinionated.
That idiot over there is a snob.
It’s not always mere snobbery. Sometimes it’s a holy war.
Fender P-Bass and Michael Kelly Dragonfly Bass for me. I’m considering a Hofner Beatle Bass.
Millions of free sites but I pay for Ricochet. I’m a Ricosnob.
Toledo steel. Any other type of blade is for losers who wish to go six feet under.
The populist sentiment yet again?
1. Levi’s don’t fit women. 7 For All Mankind do.
2. BMW 4 series convertible all day long.
3. Would vote for sashimi over French so I can fit into my Sevens.
4. Butter? Extra virgin olive oil with a dash of citronello.
Most importantly, NO donuts unless they’re the ones that you deposit in the bank.
It all depends on where you live, too. I owned a Chevy Suburban many years ago, because we had five children to tote around, and it was my dream car. No one in the West even blinked at this vehicle. When I moved to the East Coast, near Washington D.C., it was made clear that in the “city” big old gas guzzlers like that wonderful machine were considered profligate, rude, and almost sinful. One was expected to use public transportation. A large personal ride like that was just not okay in the parking lots at groceries. What kind of horrible person even needed something that big?? Yeah…
Shhh. (We’re not supposed to say that outside the member’s area.)
It’s harder work being a snob since I joined Ricochet.
Damascus steel, varlet!
You’re all effete RINO squishes….
“Honey, did you do something with my Admiral’s Pennant beard oil?”
I used to be a snob about Danish furniture.
I am a snob about dry, sunny climes.
I guess I’m a snob about staying in shape mentally and physically.
1. Traditional Adams Peanut Butter – the kind you have to stir the oil back into. I can’t even eat other kinds of peanut butter.
2. Scotty Downriggers. I see those fishermen with their Canon down riggers and I think – they don’t know what they are missing.
Shout-out for three of the best hotels in the world! I would only add the Regent in Kowloon.
Amish furniture. My husband and I discovered the local Amish furniture store shortly after moving to Ohio, and have gradually added pieces to our home these last few years. It is amazing.
I’ll take your blades from each of you when you are done with them.
Eric Hines
I’m just wild about Harry.
I spent a lot of time in China and Hong Kong but never stayed at the Regent – I’m sure it is lovely. My family and I spent a New Year’s vacation at the Four Seasons Hong Kong and had a fantastic view of the fireworks over Victoria Harbot from the hotel balcony – a great memory. I’m retired now and will probably never get back there but have lots of great memories of being spoiled in those hotels.
The Regent bar has the best view and the most interesting clientele plus their main restaurant served a beggar’s chicken to die for. :)
The Peninsula was lovely and elegant as it was a bit less ostentatious.
I am a snob about water. I will only drink tap water.
Fly rods. Weapons.
Without a doubt I am a cookware and dinnerware snob. I won’t buy anything made in China.
Olive & Sinclair’s Mexican Style bean-to-bar chocolate. Hand made in small batches in Nashville. Tennessee I feel snobby just saying it! So good.
Ahh, I see you’re a “Throw nothing out until it dies” guy too. In my little lab at work, I have a couple of Pentium II’s running. No kiddin’.
Health concerns? Quality? Or just a general sense of “Efff China”?
For the record, I’ve tried to avoid PRC products increasingly as well.
American (U.S.A.) Football
Indiana High School Basketball
Catholic Primary Schools
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand stout.
Linux. Microservices architecture. Docker.
I look down at those who program in java and work under the waterfall methodology, even though most of them are probably smarter and more experienced than I am.