TY - JOUR T1 - ‘Give ‘em the vape, sell ‘em the pods’: razor-and-blades methods of pod e-cigarette pricing JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056354 SP - tobaccocontrol-2020-056354 AU - Harry Tattan-Birch AU - Jamie Brown AU - Sarah E Jackson Y1 - 2021/03/25 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2021/03/24/tobaccocontrol-2020-056354.abstract N2 - The razor-and-blades model is a pricing strategy of selling base products, like razor handles, at a loss but making profits on repeated sales of complementary goods, like blades (reflected by the proverb ‘Give ‘em the razor, sell ‘em the blades’, widely misattributed to King C. Gillette).1 This strategy has been used across a myriad of industries, from games consoles to inkjet printers.1 More recently, it has been adopted by pod electronic cigarette (‘e-cigarette’) manufacturers.Pod e-cigarettes like JUUL, Vuse, blu, and Logic use disposable cartridges (‘pods‘) that are pre-filled with e-liquid. On average, these cartridges cost four times the price of the same amount of bottled e-liquid, making them more expensive in North America than the equivalent number of combustible cigarettes.2 So how do pod e-cigarette manufacturers overcome this price differential? Across North America and Europe, some have begun using razor-and-blades pricing models — providing a base e-cigarette device (‘vape’) cheaply or for free (figure 1) but making large profits on disposable device-specific pods.1 3Figure 1 (Top) New customer deal on the blu US online store, offering an e-cigarette and six pods for only US$9.99. (Middle-left) Alto pod e-cigarette priced at US$0.99 on the Vuse US online store. (Middle-centre) Point-of-sale advertisement for the Logic Compact, available for £4 (US$5.5) … ER -