My 2 pennys worth:
1. Companies, like KC, need to make money! They explore every possible avenue to do so; and make business decisions that hopefully are sound in the long run.
2. Sometimes in an effort to draw in "new" customers, "old or existing" ones are less than impressed. As production increases in order to ramp up sales; quality may decrease as a result, unless a substantial increase in investment is injected into it; but then the overall increase in revenue may not be seen as worthwhile from business point of view. Thus usually as production increases, quality decreases.
If a Savile Row bespoke tailor suddenly makes mass-produce suits, the bespoke clients will be unhappy (reasons 1. bespoke may now take longer to complete; 2. quality may not be same as less time spent on it in order to clear orders and keep waiting time low etc etc) but the less discerning ones are happy as suits are more affordable. Or shall he stay making a few bespoke and risk not making enough to make ends meet given the inflation etc etc? Existing customers were originally drawn to a company for a reason; and when the company changes with time, sometimes that reason is no longer valid.
A fine balance has to be found somewhere. If the number of new customers coming in are more than number of exisitng customers leaving, then they are winning!
3. UK customers are usually more unhappy because a 69 USD item will cost them 69 quid; 169 usd will be 169 quid!
This isnt just about toy soldier, its about other stuff too; cars, watches, food etc etc. We expect more and more, as price increases. Yet, the QC of a company may not increase in line with our expectations.
I am not targeting KC; this is just in general what I observe, thus personal opinion only, nothing more.
