Consumer groups have run the comparison for years, and it always lands the same way: measured per millilitre, branded inkjet ink comfortably out-prices champagne, vintage whisky and most perfumes. The liquid itself isn’t exotic. The price is doing a different job.
Razors and blades, printers and ink
The printer industry runs on the classic razor-and-blades model: sell the machine at or near a loss, then earn for years on the consumables it’s locked to. A £40 printer is not a £40 printer — it’s the entry fee to a subscription you didn’t know you’d taken out. This is also why cartridges ship partially filled, why “starter” cartridges run dry so fast, and why a new printer is sometimes genuinely cheaper than a full set of replacement inks — an absurdity with real environmental consequences.
How the lock-in is enforced
Because the profit lives in the cartridge, manufacturers work hard to keep third-party refills out. Cartridges carry chips that authenticate them to the printer; firmware updates have, at times, stopped previously working third-party cartridges — HP’s “Dynamic Security” system became the most famous example, triggering complaints from digital-rights groups and class-action lawsuits that HP paid settlements to resolve, while the practice largely continued. Add region-locking, “expiry” dates on unopened ink, and colour cartridges that refuse to print black-and-white documents when one colour runs low, and the pattern is clear: the product is engineered around the revenue, not the reverse.
Your actual options
- Ink-tank printers. The single biggest fix. Epson’s EcoTank, Canon’s MegaTank and similar lines cost more upfront but refill from cheap bottles — running costs drop by an order of magnitude for anyone who prints regularly.
- A mono laser for documents. If you mostly print text, a basic laser printer’s toner works out at a fraction of a penny per page and never dries out from disuse — the inkjet’s other hidden tax.
- Do the per-page maths before buying. The printer’s price tells you nothing; cartridge price divided by its stated page yield tells you everything.
- Ink subscriptions — read the terms. Plans like HP’s Instant Ink can genuinely suit steady, predictable printing, but you’re renting pages, and in some schemes cartridges stop working if you cancel. Know what you’re signing.
The champagne comparison is a joke with a serious point: you’d never accept this pricing structure if it were visible at the till. It survives because the cost hides in refills, one small outrage at a time. Buy the boring tank printer. Toast the savings with the actual champagne.
