I agree that I think good design can make it to everyone. And that a lot of designers sometimes lose the big picture when finishing a project. However, working with mass merchants can be very, very stressful and demanding. For example, (hope this doesn’t get me in trouble) I have worked a lot with Target. They can be very set on their price for the products they are looking at. A lot of times you end up taking a lower margin on the product because the pricing is so demanding. It really puts a strain on us to do business, and it puts a strain on the factory.

This is why sometimes you see lower quality items in those stores. You have to hit a certain price but they still want it to look good. You just can’t hit that demand unless you make a cut somewhere, and a lot of times that results in cutting quality.

:)