At Bison Mat, we like to say that you could always find a cheaper chair mat, but you could never find a better one. And that’s just it…that’s a philosophy in our business that we want to take into just about everything we do. At least…almost everything.
Sometimes, cheaper is just fine. You don’t really need the highest quality version of absolutely everything on the market. For instance…dog toys. Have you ever bought a dog toy from a pet store? It probably ran you about 8 bucks. And it took your dog just as long to tear into it and ingest that tiny little squeaker thing as any other toy. The dollar store is a perfectly reasonable source for dog toys.
Or what about mailboxes?
Have you ever seen someone with a really nice mailbox. Like...the fancy kind? Maybe it’s shaped like a semi-trailer or a fish? Or maybe it’s encased in brick or stone or lined with cedar pillars? And then have you looked at their neighbors with a brown mailbox on a metal stick? And then, did you think, “Those people with the nice mailbox are living the kind of life that I’m going for.”? Probably not. Because mailboxes aren’t really that big of a deal.
But other things are worth spending money on. The more experience you have with high quality, the more you realize how often “better” wins out to “cheaper.” Like shoes. Or gasoline. Or seatbelt manufacturers and sushi.
Why Spend the Money?
So when it comes to a chair mat, why spend the money? Couldn’t you just buy a $30 mat at a big box store and then buy another $30 mat when that one cracks? The short and obvious answer is "Yes." Of course you can. And many people have done it. But what you’re missing out on when you do that is the investment in your experience. The investment in quality. You’re assuming that cheaper is better. And sometimes, it’s simply not.
The money you invest in the space where you’ll be doing your best work requires the best you can give it. And that’s what we are about at Bison Mat. We want to build products, businesses, and experiences that show people that better is the better choice.
