Which brands do actually care about a healthy customer relationship more than profit?

Arizona iced tea is still 99 cents.

Arizona Iced Tea
Dudes a multi-billionaire and doesn't understand how someone could want more.
That's why he puts the MSRP on the cans even tho he can't control store prices. Most stores still sell it at 99c, because they're still making profit on it.
He could sell them for 2x and barely lose any sales, but why?
- I heard this story before and it is truly amazing how the CEO still stands behinds his principles and values.
  
  It would be a lot more common if we had anti-monopoly laws still.
  There used to be a shit ton of regional stuff like this where one family owned everything, and 10 million a year was good enough instead of needing x% growth forever.
  If you're not cutting every corner to make the quarterly % increase constantly go up, workers aren't getting fucked over as much, at least not every time. So everyone losses when we have mega corps. And that's the natural result of unregulated capitalism

LEGO comes to mind. Not cheap, but definitely knows how to keep a healthy and active relationship with their customers.
- I’m a big Lego fan and I agree that they are one of the best in this regard. However, they’ve taken up some relatively new practices such as compromising mold and instruction quality in favor of faster production, conditioning kids to gamble with minifigure loot boxes, commandeering a cornerstone of the secondhand market (BrickLink), and gatekeeping certain themes or genres behind massive price tags, which are not in the favor of customers in general.
  Edit: There’s definitely been some price gouging with certain sets/themes too, ex. 76232 and 76292; and lazy designs and cheaping out on play/quality, ex. 76314. The Pharrell Williams movie and sets also don’t sit right with me because it feels like anybody can just buy their way into the medium/merchandise now. The Red Bull and Kick sponsors on the new F1 cars additionally are not true to how you’d want to think of the brand.
  
  I hate the loot boxes and I hate the priced out gatekeeping
  
  The minifig loot box thing bugs me
- @dominiquec@lemmy.world
  @MemmingenFan923@feddit.org can confirm. My son bought a set that was missing on of the bags. Filled out a form and uploaded a picture of the box + what he had built so far and the remaining bags. 48 hours later, we had the missing bag and he was back to building.
  So many other brands wouldn't even respond to something like that. You'd have to take it back to where you bought it for a refund, buy another set and start the build again.
  Lego customer service understands that their product is more than colored plastic.
- I second this one. LEGO is really well made, the sets are well designed, and the instructions are some of the best you’ll ever see in any build-it-yourself product of any kind.
- I loved them as a kid and just bought a 3 in 1 kit for my Granddaughters Easter basket. She is nutty balls over Legos. That company has secured multi-generational love.
- If you do the math as time has gone on the average set has gotten far more complex and used more pieces. If you look at the prices from a the perspective of price per individual Lego piece I am pretty sure they have pretty much stayed the same price the entire time. I watched a YouTube video essay about it like a year ago so it's probably still true today.
- Lego quality is still good but has noticeably degraded over the years.

Chewy dog food will send you flowers and a refund if you pet died.
- I called their customer support, and a person answered. Like, right away. I was caught completely off guard. They resolved my issue in under a minute.
- My sleepy brain was reading this as if your pet dies from eating their pet food.
  
  Still applies

Steam.
- Yup, Valve is still in it for the money of course, but the customer really does come first. I've used their support a few times and they've always been stellar. I will always buy Valve products.
  
  Yeah, shoulda said Valve, rather than Steam.
- Only partially and only to certain customers
- Meh, having experienced their deny and defend customer service, I’m not impressed. If there is no way to escalate an issue beyond someone who refuses to pull their head out of their own ass long enough to see an issue objectively, you’re stuck and there’s no recourse.
- You mean the company that makes money from getting children addicted to gambling?

Costco, Bosch
- When I go into a Costco, I take a minute to look at the board showing the pictures names of long-time employees. At my local one, they have about 15 people who have been working there for over 30 years.
  Met a woman who had been a Costco employee for 25 years. In addition to everything else, she got 6 weeks of paid holidays a year. How many other retail employers come anywhere close to that?
- Agreed with Costco… and used to agree with Bosch… until seeing this recent video.
- The only quality Bosch product I've used is windscreen wipers. Every other tool or appliance has been pretty average in terms of quality.

Saddleback Leather springs to mind. Their stuff is expensive but they have a 100 year warranty and their tag line is "They'll fight over it when you're dead". I have a couple of their bags, belts, and wallets. I don't expect to ever need to replace them.
First thing I bought from them was a briefcase back in 2011. About three years after I bought it one of the steel D-Rings for the strap failed and they paid courier fees for me to return the briefcase from the UK, replaced the part, cleaned the bag up, and sent it back, no questions asked.
Full disclosure: 1) they're an American company which might put some off buying in the current climate and 2) the founder is a devout Christian which might put others off but none of their products have ever tried to make me a believer so I'm ok with it.

Haven't done extensive research on it, but the lifetime guarantee on Darn Tough socks has made me their loyal fan and I recommend them to others too. I feel like they stand behind their product I stead of trying to constantly find new ways to nickel and dime me.
Another one is an Italian winemaker, Podere Pradarolo (https://www.poderepradarolo.com/). They make table wines, are not ashamed of it, don't try to position themselves as premium wine producers, and the owner refuses to raise the prices beyond the bare minimum that allows him to keep operating. They're not in it for profit, and it shows in their wines - they are fantastic for what they are and I always have a couple bottles at home.
- They are great socks, my favorites. I can't wear the things out. They are an example of paying up front to save in the long run.
- Sounds awesome. Can that be purchased in the states?
  
  The wine? No idea since I'm in Japan, but they do export uite a lot, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least one or two importers in the US. Not sure about the price though, with all the psychotic tariffs being applied and taken back and reapplied seemingly every week...
- I wish Darn Tough accommodate international markets more readily. I had 1 imported years ago via proxy and it was honestly magical. Not swelteringly warm at all in a tropical country. For refer6im used to wearing jeans in this climate so it's nothing out of the ordinary for me. Too bad I blew a hole at one of the toe area and never really bothered to try for their warranty after reading their policy back then.

There is a local employee owned hardware store near me that will go out of their way to make you a deal. No idea how they do it, plenty of employees around to ask questions and some of the best prices around.

Dean's Beans coffee. The owner was an amazing guy, fair trade, all that. When he stepped down, he handed ownership to the employees.

Patagonia is solid. Osprey (packs) recently sold to a conglomerate but I have an old pack I can send in soon to test their "we will repair it no matter what" guarantee.
- That Osprey news is new to me. That's a shame. Hopefully they don't go to shit fast.
- I love Patagonia. They'll repair anything even if you're not the original owner., they use sustainable and recycled materials and they've used their profits to protect huge areas of land.
  
  Too bad they are so expensive though. Out of my budget.

Chapman's ice cream! They have continuously been in the best interest of their employees and local communities. During COVID, they made sure that all their employees kept their jobs and even raised their wages. The company even went as far as to buy several deep freezers to store to COVID vaccines, because the town where their factory is located has a lot of elderly people and wanted to ensure their protection from the virus.
They will always be one of the few brands that I am completely loyal to.
- They have also announced that if they have to reduce or stop production because of the current tariffs, they will continue to pay all of their employees.
  All of their ice cream is also made in nut free factories, so that people with nut allergies can safely eat it. I'm not sure, but that may be the only ice cream that makes such a guarantee.

Seems like these guys: https://nubo.coop/en/
They provide email, calendar, contacts, and cloud storage.
On their mission statement page they explicitly have:
not seeking to enrich shareholders

In France, we have this : https://cestquilepatron.com/
The concept is that customers are asked questions to make a new product that satisfies them. For example, they want to sell apples. They will ask in what country they should buy them, how well the farmer should be paid, what size… and you see in real time how it affects the price. Then, the product will be sold in supermarkets at that price
There is also mutual insurance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_insurance
- Where can you buy these products in France?
  
  In grocery stores

I'm not sure if this is any longer the case but I've heard that Leatherman, despite "only" having a 25 year gurantee will pretty much repair/replace any of their multitools you send them no matter how old.
- When a friend broke the saw blade on my Leatherman (which was ~15 years old), I sent it back to them for repair. A short while later I received a brand new Leatherman with a letter saying they were so sorry, but they didn't have parts for my old model anymore, so they sent me a brand new, better model. The letter also said they understood people had emotional connections to their tools, so if I decided I wanted the old broken tool back instead, they would hold onto it for me for a few months, and all I'd need to do was email them asking to swap.
  10/10 the best customer service I've ever received.
- I bought the last one at my Costco for $30-$50. My wife kept asking me why would I need it when I already have all of the other tools it has. She didn't get it. Still doesn't. I'm so happy to have this thing at work. Comes in really handy. It's good to hear about Leatherman being a good company. What's that? Have I ever used it? Well... Not yet, but I know a situation will eventually arise and I will be glad to have it readily available.
  
  I use mine a lot, but it's even more frequent that I think "damn, my leatherman is in my backpack and I could really use it right now"
- It still is as far as I know
- Their tools though have gotten crazy expensive.

Inherently all brands care about profit as they need money to function but I get what you mean.
I'm generally not one for brand loyalty but if you need a motorcycle you really can't go wrong with any Yamaha and if you need a knife Benchmade has been unbelievably good to me even when I send it ones with snapped off tips years after purchase to get repaired/replaced.
- Needing money to function isn't profit, those are operating costs... Profit is the money leftover after all costs to make and manufacture something has been paid.
- For the prices Benchmade is asking for their wares they better damn well have a great after sales lol
  I'm not in the US though so paying that much extra for a warranty that they'll most likely not cover is moot personally
  Agree on Yamaha bikes though. They are aplenty here in my country along with Honda. Can go anywhere to get parts and repairs
  
  Yeah that's fair. Benchmade is definitely only worth it if you live in the US....
  I was gonna say all the Japanese bikes are worth it (and they mostly are) but I have ran into some stinkers from Kawasaki and Suzuki in my life very rarely though. Honda has never done anything wrong to me I just don't really care for red lol
- Inherently all brands
  All publicly traded brands...
  
  Believe it or not even private ones still need to to make money to keep working. Granted they aren't trying to also make extra money to keep investors happy.
  All brands and businesses are trying to make money. The question is are they also trying to buy a third yatch or are they just happy with being able to give all their employees a good raise and Christmas bonus every year.

Mailbox.org They could go all the way and become "cool and cloud" but decided not to.
Haix While their customer service is not what it used to be they are still more than decent to a point it hurts their sales.
With my last one I am not 100% convinced: Mikrotik. While their stuff I great and cheap for what it does, I also had one really lacking support experience with them (they forgot to pack the rack ears for a switch and neither the vendor nor they could somehow get me ones. Another premium partner of them helped me for free and since then will always get my business). But in total they are still the good guys I think.

Los Pollos Hermanos where customer satisfaction is guaranteed
- My second cousin's boyfriend worked for them doing overnight shipping. Loved the company so much, he started working at the main branch in Mexico. Left in the middle of the night though. Also left his kid and girlfriend. The owner was really cool though. Felt so bad he gave her $15k for the trouble.

Dischord Records.
dischord.com
Fugazi record label.
Record/CD prices are capped low to cover production and distribution costs.
Personal contact and service, with real people, when ordering.
Live show prices were capped at $5.
A focus on real connection between artists and fans, rather than extracting maximum profit using music as a vehicle.
Live shows were excellent.

Probably a very niche answer, but Korbel winery in California has gone above and beyond to help me out on several occasions, and real people actually answer the phone when you call customer service. I don’t know anything about their owner or politics, but I’ve had nothing but outstanding experiences with them.

I thought few minutes abou this question. And honestly were wasn't a brand that i can recommend without any reservations.
- Feddit.org technically meets the criteria. Along with many other Lemmy servers.
  But as far as brands that sell consumer goods, it's slim pickings. Most of them end up going out of business and/or getting bought up by investors/competitors.

-> more than profit
Literally none. Where they vary is in how maliciously they'll engage with consumers for a quick buck, and within that spectrum some are definitely better than others, but every single one of them draws the line at profit.
- The wording can be improved, I think “maximising profit” would fix it. Which is obviously what OP meant as we all understand it.
- Thinking of Paul Newman’s salad dressings and spaghetti sauces. The company donates all their profits to charity.
  I’m sure there are other companies/products like this. I’d love to know what they are.
- I would say any company that offers (and honors) a lifelong warranty defies this.
- Well yeah, without it there would be no business …
  
  That's the point. OP is chasing a unicorn.
- I agree but to me some brands cross a line making then especially horrible. I don't generally boycott products because I would never be able to buy anything if I tried to stick with GOOD companies. But some are so bad I do avoid them.
  Tesla Walmart Monsanto ( they were bought by Bayer) Just to name a few of the top of my head. Obviously there is no shortage of truly terrible companies.

Oddly, I got some of the best customer service in my life from Union Scale; the company who makes the office chair I bought from Staples.

All business have to care about profit or they won't be in business for long. Also if you want employees to get good pay/benefits and such they have to charge more and in turn you can't shop for the cheapest.
That said I think the concern comes when they start trying to squeeze every last cent out regardless of the customer relationship and long term image. As soon as a company goes public you now have a board that will get rid of you if you don't push stock values up another percent. Even if you want to have long term growth and goodwill the board is pushing for profit growth targets this quarter and they pay mostly in shares too. I find the best corporate customer/profit balance comes from private firms.
- All business have to care about profit or they won’t be in business for long
  Businesses have always cared about profit; just reasonable profit. They would make a product, determine the cost of manufacture, apply a modest profit margin to it (usually about 30%) and factor in things like employee raises and benefits, expanding the business, and building up a financial safety net.
  Businesses were run by humans, for humans.
  Hedge fund managers and venture capitalists in the 80s changed that. Rather than assigning a fixed profit margin each year to try to maintain, the rule became "how much profit can we squeeze out by sales and (most damning) by systematically dismantling anything that we pay for that benefits our employees".
  This is the end result of having taking human stakeholders out of the business decisions and replacing them with shareholders that are mostly other businesses, hedge funds, and venture capitalists. Profit becomes the ONLY motive, rather than one of many.
  
  Yup. If you are bought by anything with "capital" or "equity" in its name you are fucked.