Sounds like the "Sam Vimes 'Boots' theory of economic injustice", from the Discworld novels. https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Inj

Sounds like the "Sam Vimes 'Boots' theory of economic injustice", from the Discworld novels. https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Injustice https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Econom... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_socio-economic_unfairness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_soci... I don't knnow how accurate it is, but it does make sense for some things, such as shoes, and thinking about it, train tickets (season tickets are better value for money but very expensive), and essentially anything where bulk/long term is better value, but only being affordable to some people, and I think the space to store things comes into play as well...