Consumables (also known as consumable goods, non-durable goods, or soft goods) are goods that are intended to be consumed. People have, for example, always consumed food and water. Consumables are in contrast to durable goods. Disposable products are a particular, extreme case of consumables, because their end-of-life is reached after a single use.
Consumables are products that consumers use recurrently, i.e., items which "get used up" or discarded. For example consumable office supplies are such products as paper, pens, file folders, Post-it notes, and toner or ink cartridges. This is in contrast to capital goods or durable goods in the office, such as computers, fax machines, and other business machines or office furniture. Sometimes a company sells a durable good at an attractively low price in the hopes that the consumer will then buy the consumables that go with it at a price providing a higher margin. Printers and ink cartridges are an example, as are Polaroid Land Camera and its film; and razors and blades, which gave this business model its usual name (the razor and blades model).
For arc welding one uses a consumable electrode. This is an electrode that conducts electricity to the arc but also melts into the weld as a filler metal.Consumable goods are often excluded from warranty policies, as it is considered that covering them would excessively increase the cost of the premium.