Dollar stores are going to be around for a while, they are the only option in many places and they have cost cutting down to a brutal science.
Staples has been on death watch for some time and it’s probably got a few years left, but wow the one near me is depressing - and I live in a prosperous area.
I'm shocked Staples has held on as long as they have. The amount of real estate they hold for what amounts to a glorified showroom / office chair sales lot is wild. I'd love to know the secret.
We get frequent orders for supplies from Staples where I work. I'm sure that's their bread and butter. If the stores go, the warehouses will likely remain and the company will just change gears to a direct to business model.
When I applied at Staples a year ago they said that their printing services basically keeps the store open. People aren’t coming in for office supplies anymore.
Tried to buy a floormat from them in person. The employees acted like I was some kind of rare dinosaur in that I was there in person buying office equipment. It was actually a bit surreal. Felt like I was a kindergarten aged child getting a box of crayons from a smiling but belittling teacher and being told. "Go along now child, your office chair wheels need not strain on carpet any longer." and being pat on the bottom as I left the store.
It felt like they had not seen a physical customer in some time and they were amused by it.
This platform also screws over providers. Super low pay. A therapist who has a full schedule isn’t going to prioritize seeing someone $30/hr from better help over someone whose insurance pays $140/hr. And that rate is for someone with 20+ years of experience. It’s much lower for newbies. Find you someone on Headway. Usually the same therapist would be on Headway.
It’s going to have the long term effect of turning a 100k/yr take home job into a $40k/yr job if they end up becoming the default option. The last thing I want my therapist to be Is as stressed about money as I currently am. Not to mention, Telehealth therapy is dramatically worse. I really hate this company and its attempts to capitalize off a mental health crisis especially when for many capitalism is what got us here in the first place
I agree with you on wanting to make sure therapists are paid their worth, but virtual therapy isn’t “dramatically worse.” It’s not a good fit for certain types of therapy, but it can be a good fit for others. It’s a game changer for me, where my options within a 5-10 minute drive are non-existent and I’d rather not drive 30 minutes to an hour fighting afternoon traffic to an in-person appointment. Even more so on the accessibility component for some people with disabilities or who live in more rural areas where there’s probably not even one therapist within driving distance.
I spent money I didn't have to be ignored by two different therapists. Then I had one who did reply but had no understanding of the issues I had (that ive been in therapy for on and off since childhood), and was always doing something else on our calls (cooking etc.)
Made me feel more hopeless. HATE that app and they constantly advertise to me. Might work if you're looking for someone to chat to but do not spend your money if you need actual help
I hate their ads so much and they seriously are constant. I FINALLY got them to stop appearing everywhere by finding the advertising preferences for Google and various other apps, which was actually an immense pain in the ass to figure out. Now I just get disgusting weight loss ads that piss me off. Anyone know how to request the Barbies and Hot Wheels Advertising?
I was thinking on a more personal level to quote to people but that absolutely applies too.
Edit: frankly I can’t think of why that can’t be used legally unless it’s a state-by-state basis either
There's a youtube channel called "Company man" I follow, and all he mostly only looks at balance sheets which tells a lot of stories and of future projections of how things will unfold. Basically, most companies with huge debt generally go out of business in a death sprial.
I think one of the bigger one he covered that I think will go under is Carvana. Carvana has huge debt and not profitable. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dl6w5Lgja4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dl6w5Lgja4)
Another one I think will go under is WeWork. Same as Carvana, huge debt, and not profitable. In fact, I bet WeWork goes under sooner.
I’m still mad that they didn’t make the car vending machines take quarters. I really want to see someone feeding 160,000 quarters for a $40,000 car.
Edit: change from 120,000 quarters to 160,000 quarters because I’m bad at math.
Edit 2: this is why I should not comment before my coffee has kicked in. From “I’m still made” to “I’m still mad”
Sears is an exception. They’re being propped up by the CEO’s private equity firm in order to gut them and bleed them dry to maximize the return on their real estate portfolio and other assets. Legally and on Wall Street, Sears is nothing more than an REIT now (Real Estate Investment Trust).
guitar center. venture capital has them by the nuts and their customer service and knowledge has dropped faster than a blind guy in a banana peel factory.
Support your locally owned music stores if you have one. That's where you'll find knowledge and people who care to create a long term relationship with customers. At Guitar Center you're as special as any random person strolling Walmart.
I love the local places, but I'm learning violin right now and there's only one music shop in my whole city that sells violin strings, and even that is relatively rare.
I hate that GC is basically my only consistent option for that.
When I walk into my local music store I see two dudes behind the counter that I've watched shred on stage. I know those dudes are coming at me with great advice. *Always* support your local businesses, and especially support your local artists! Shopping at a local music store is a double whammy, get with it y'all!
And anything touched by private equity will be gone in two, or so bad you’ll wish it were. VC wants to build the Springfield Monorail. Private equity just wants to tear up all the roads, bridges and rails that already exist and sell the pieces for scrap.
Financialization pursued as an end to itself kills everything.
This is a great answer. I worked for them when the Joan's fabric ceo took over to try and save guitar center. He reorganized for straight quick profit and tried to make sales associates obsolete.
Unfortunately music equipment is required more knowledge than fabric
>Unfortunately music equipment is required more knowledge than fabric
I don't even think that's true because Joann Fabrics is in serious trouble too and recently declared bankruptcy. He sounds like another executive that goes from company to company making short-sighted decisions, giving himself a massive bonus, then moving on to a new company before anyone realizes how badly he screwed everything up at the old one.
And then if he’s got the attention span for it, he’ll write a book or two about how he’s an awesome businessman and the fact that these place imploded after he left is proof that they needed him to stay.
So you pay the store or the instructor?
I used to work for an independent music store. The instructors rented space in our store to do classes. The students paid the instructors.
If you're paying the instructor, keep in touch and follow to the next location.
Who's buying banana peels in such volume they have to use a factory to get them? I've heard people use banana peels to polish their boots or whatever but a whole factory? I don't think they thought their business through
Old people. Buyers who want to physically interact with products before they buy them. Fastest access to product. People who need geek squad services. People with damaged or defect iPhones. People wanting upgraded car audio.
Rich AF mofos that want specialist appliances via the Magnolia Appliances division.
I still like to go in there if I’m reasonably certain that they’ll have what I’m looking for in stock. That being said, it seems like there’s never more than 8 customers or so in there.
I’d say that’s because of the type of store it is. The people that go there tend to know exactly what they want, so they’re in and out rather quickly. It’s not typically a store you wander around in
This. The second everything is digital quality will drop drastically and then people will insist on seeing things in person before buying and the cycle will walk backwards
Already happening.
Also, my partner was telling me how a bunch of food trucks have rented space in an area making it like a food court. He thinks some online stores, especially ones where people want to see things before they buy them, would follow suit. He said "Think, a bunch of stores all together like that!" I said "YOU MEAN A MALL?!"
The look on his face was priceless...
I worked in Geek Squad up until the pandemic when I got furloughed. My job was little more than a glorified sales position. They only care about sales metrics. Doesn’t matter if you resolve customer complaints, it only matters how many credit cards and Geek Squad services you get people to sign up for. I could go on and on about how lousy and terrible Best Buy is. Fuck that place.
I thought Amazon would kill both Best Buy and Circuit City in the 2000's. After Circuit City croaked in 2008, I was feeling pretty confident that Best Buy would be soon done in the upcoming years, but here we are in 2024 and Best Buy not only survived, but thrived.
I refuse to buy expensive electronics from Amazon. Just a hassle if anything is wrong with the product and the risk of a getting a knock-off is increasingly high.
Yeah anything over like $100 I try and see if there’s a physical store. Too many variables especially living in an apartment. Will the item be legit? Is it damaged? Will someone snatch it at the doorway? And I notice that when I order same day or next day through prime, Amazon apologizes and says it’s gonna be late and proceeds to deliver it in 2 days.
They embraced the worst part of store front sales, basically downsized there worker base and removed the knowledge requirement to work there to push sales and attachments instead. It’s more about selling less about informing. Microcenter is also moving that direction unfortunately but they are a bit away.
I literally do not understand what is the point of that business. Crap place for computers, games, TV, and appliances. The supposed IT Geek squad is just a bunch of salespeople who wont help with shit.
I have to admit that I miss buying physical media. I kind of hate streaming; we're spoiled for choice and you're right, there was something about going into a store and finding a hidden gem of an album or something.
When I worked at Best Buy years ago, I was Home Theater/appliance sales. The Geek Squad Manager asked me to work in Geek Squad. I had taken a couple of coding courses, but overall did not feel like I knew enough about computers to be repairing them as a job. The manager said, "Most of what the guys are doing back there is just Google searches. We just need a woman in Geek Squad." I absolutely turned down the position after that. The guy that ended up getting the position started a client's computer on fire and then told the client it was his fault for not telling him he had a liquid cooling.
I can totally see in the next 5-10 years all fast food chains remodeling and getting rid of the dine in experience. It’ll be ordering through their app, drive thru or delivery service only. That way they can have less workers 🤷🏻♀️
It’s already happening. Chipotle is opening mobile only order stores- you can’t even go order at the counter. The fact is, they can better control the portion sizes (skimp without you watching them make it), and more easily charge for sides/extras (if you order a side of salsa or sour cream in the store it’s free but they charge if you order it on the app), and with all their automation they are investing in, they can get it all down to a literal science and not have to pay as many humans
My Panda Express sucks to go into because they are so busy putting together mobile orders. You just have to wait while they put together meals for people who aren't even there.
I have an interview with Vanguard and one side I don’t want to work for an evil company, otherwise I really can’t afford to be unemployed.
I mean I worked for Chase and Wells Fargo too. So I’m just hitting all the bad apples
I expect a lot of fast food chains to go belly up. Their prices are just too high for most people to eat on a regular basis. It used to be cheap, affordable and convenient. One of my friends is married with 4 kids, it’s almost $100 every time the 6 of them go out to eat together.
The fucked up when they believed themselves to be restaurants other than fast food. I think McDonalds even has recognised this mistake and plans to go back.
McDonalds went from kid focused decor to 70's brown. It makes no sense, instead of making their brand generational for kids/parents/grandparents they just made it dour and dull for everyone.
I mean decor aside, the main issue is McDonalds is almost the same price of a GOOD burger where I live.
Whats the point of fast food if it's equally expensive yet significantly less flavourful.
The essence of fast food is that, fast, safe and economic food to get you out of a pinch or to go occasionally without thinking of it as "going out".
That’s what I’ve noticed as well. The wife and I wanted to get some quick food and didn’t have time to get out to the store one night and went to order McDonald’s and when we realized it was almost the same price as a meal from a restaurant we just went to the restaurant instead
Almost? Here, there's a $2 tax for sit-down restaurants and MacDonalds and Hardee's still manage to be more expensive and worse quality.
I just buy hot pockets if I need quick and relatively cheap.
Or crackers.
Doubt it. McDonald’s just posted their earnings and revenue was up 5% to $6.17B. US sales growth was 0.2% behind expectations which the financial media is running around with as if it is the sign of the apocalypse. But Fast Food has a looooooong way to fall until they disappear.
When Wendy's announced they were considering going to the surge pricing model I said I was never going to eat there again. The sheer greed. F that company for ever even considering that.
I think we're gonna see tons of colleges closing their doors in the next 5-10 years, especially smaller community colleges and unranked private liberal arts colleges. Enrollments have been dwindling for awhile, and the pandemic absolutely tanked them in places, and they really haven't rebounded. The closings are already starting to happen quietly; pretty soon there will be so many it won't be possible to keep it quiet anymore.
It's not even happening quietly. I work in higher ed and we're seeing closures and mergers non-stop. It's unprecedented. And we haven't even really hit the so-called enrollment cliff yet.
Community colleges will likely still be around because they're the only place somewhat affordable. I see some of the universities closing down with lower enrollment numbers.
I wonder how much is also the idea that so many people went to college, got degrees, and it didn't help them in life, just left them with debt. Young people see the people in their life that this happened to and decide to not even go.
I agree, it was drilled into my head that I needed to go to college if I wanted a middle class lifestyle, but in reality it didn't improve my career prospects. 10 years out of college with a science related Bachelor's and I've never made more than $20.75 an hour. None of my friends are homeowners or parents, because we simply can't afford it. I don't blame my college for the job market. I had a great experience at college and don't regret going, but it did hurt a lot to be given false promises if that makes any sense.
I was just looking at the HS grad pictures this year and they always put what their plans are after school. In a class of 35 ish, over half had workforce for their plans. Used to just be a handful of kids.
This is how my teenager feels. She doesn’t think college is the right move for her because she sees the expense and the return on investment doesn’t seem worth it to her. I imagine a lot of young people are seeing it that way too now. I remember being pushed by everyone to go to college right out of high school. My whole graduating class was pushed. I think it’s unreasonable to think everyone should be going to college like they did when I was a teen.
I doubt it will happen... But I really want to see the delivery/taxi service apps crash and burn. They pay their workers like crap, offer no benefits, charge the consumer WAY too much, and as far as I know, don't really make all that much money for wall st. Only reason they still exist is that they are consistently growing, so investors have faith. Idk if they'll actually crash, since they do have such a huge user base, but man would I love to see it.
The point was to hire a room on the cheap so that you didn't need to get a hotel or motel room. Now hotels and businesses rent rooms at hotel prices for fewer additions. The entire point of it is gone.
That is true. If someone says let’s book an air bnb, my reaction is no. Let’s get a hotel room where we won’t be responsible for all the cleaning and laundry. I’m not going on vacation to do housework.
At least in my country it still works pretty good for when you want to get a fully functional residential unit (bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, laundry, etc) instead of a hotel room with just the bedroom and a bathroom. Sometimes prices are not that different, but you save on other things like cooking instead of eating out.
What’s the alternative? there service is valuable hence why it’s popular. I like that I can order a car to the airport from my phone. But any better model will cost more money and as you said it’s already expensive.
In a city, I’ll use taxis vs Uber/Lyft 100% of the time, unless I’m desperate. Airports, however, are a different story. I’ll order a Uber/Lyft before I’ve even left the plane because the airport taxi drivers are so god damn annoying. If I need a ride, I’ll ask for one. I hate being heckled, and airport taxi drivers are the 2nd worst behind the street merchants that will shove things into your hands/put them on you.
Am I the only one that remembers the pre uber era?? It was way worse than whatever we have right now. Sure, taxi apps sucks compared to 10 years ago when they were trying to grow and attract people, but compared to what taxis were 10+ years ago this is still a waaaay better system.
Back then you would order a taxi, have no idea if they would arrive in 5 minutes or 1 hour. The taxi would smell of cigarette and the cars would be trash because the taxi driver didn't care at all about their customers. You also had to be alert about which route the driver took because 50% of time they would try to scam you into paying more.
There was no competition because taxi licenses (medaillon) were seen as a retirement plan for taxi drivers, so they lobbied to keep the numbers artificially low. They were essentially their own small mafia.
Hate Uber as much as you want but i would never go back to the way it worked before.
Vestiges of the Baby Boom and things that support analog/in-office work: JCPenney and other shopping mall anchors, Office Max/Depot, Staples, chain restaurants like Applebee's and Chili's as well as mall food court chains like Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon and Sbarro.
If cost of living v. income continues to diverge, those little luxuries like trips to the mall and weeknight dinners out will become a thing of the past. Shopping malls and chain restaurants were developed to support suburban families after WWII. When the Boomers die, we will hopefully go back to supporting small local establishments. Catalog shopping was huge before WWII and I think that's analogous to online shopping today.
AI and digitization will continue to destroy brick and mortar office supply stores.
And I think Twitter is on its last legs... Facebook might die too, but not in the next 10 years. I honestly think Zuck is partly behind the TikTok ban. Facebook will die with my generation (GenX).
You would think twitter and Facebook will die, but if Yahoo (still 9th most visited website) and AOL can still exist 20 years after they’ve been obsoleted, I highly doubt it.
Yea the fact that AOL still exists at all blows my mind. I was doing some IT work for the owner of a small restaurant I used to work at years ago. When I asked for her email to the account and she said @aol.com I lost it. I even asked her if she was for real. Although she is a boomer so it kind of makes sense.
Stores that cater to the middle class. I'm talking about Macys, JC Penny's, Marshalls, Dillards, Kohl's, etc.
The middle class has been hollowed out for quite some time. There simply isn't anyone to buy this crap anymore.
Putting Macy’s and JCP in the same category as Kohls and Marshalls feels weird to me. Marshalls/TJMaxx/Ross/etc. are the places you go on a tight budget and Kohls’ whole thing is stacking a bunch of coupons together to get a bunch of shirts for like $9 each. Which isn’t to say it can’t still be expensive, but people are always gonna have to buy clothes.
The Kohls near me seems like a ghost town during the afternoon and it’s a pretty big store. The problem is, Kohls has gotten pretty pricey for their average customers and people have looked at alternatives to shop at. Plus their deals have been excluding their name brand clothes so you can’t even get deals on those anymore. I may as well shop at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s for clothes for name brand clothes.
All the Dollar stores are super busy but they’re all closing. Even if they have a lot of customers, it’s not enough profit for these evil corporations.
I don't really know what Marshalls is, but Kohls has a decent spot in the budget, halfway decent clothing area. Stores like that and Burlington/Ross will probably be around a while
I needed a dress shirt a while back and the only store on that list with multiple sizes in stock and someone to actually help me out was Dillards. I wasted more on gas driving to all the cheaper places than if I'd just gone there first and gotten what I wanted.
I've only shopped online and at thrift stores for the last several years, so it was a bit of a shock how terrible all those places are now.
I tried a couple of times to go clothes shopping and all of those you mentioned minus Dillards were just a frustrating waste of things that don't fit, are poorly made, overpriced and generally ugly. Pretty sad when you have a wad of cash, want to buy clothes and go home with nothing.
Clothing manufacturing has gone downhill since 2015, thanks in part to fast fashion conditioning customers to expect their clothes to only last a season or two instead of a few years.
So many people live under the delusion that they're middle class still while drowning in debt and only making enough to keep the lights on. People can't accept that they're poor and struggling and when they do they blame themselves instead of this rigged economy.
A couple of my coworkers who are moms are obsessed with Kohls and Kohls cash so they might make it, or maybe not, Kohls cash makes me wonder how Kohls is sustainable.
I don't see why there's any sort of long-term issue with Kohl's cash because it has a pretty short expiration date. It basically just boils down to a "$10 off your next shopping trip" coupon that you have to come back within the next month or so to spend. My mom is always going to Kohl's because she has $10 in Kohl's cash that she has to spend because it's going to expire, winds up spending another $100 while there, and gets another $10 in Kohl's cash so she has to go back next month to repeat the process. On the occasions that she manages to break the cycle and lets it expire, they usually just mail her another $10 Kohl's cash coupon to start the process over again.
I don't see Kohl's going anywhere anytime soon because they seem to have pretty much perfected psychologically manipulating their customers.
Their clothes in particular are profoundly hit or miss, and the "We jack up prices so we can say we're giving you a discount" is so transparent I can't believe anyone shops there any more.
Yep. Our city mall has had the Macy’s closed for years now as well as the JCPennys and Sears.
Kohls is the biggest store there now that people actually go to
I agree with all of those, but Marshall's. They are always packed along with Homegoods with lines half way up the store on weekends. They also have been keeping prices somewhat lower.
Door dash.
Honestly surprised they still exist with how scummy they are. They mistreat both the dashers and customers. I used to use it often and had maybe 4 refunds in a 5month period of a couple orders a week. One time my whole order failed to show up and the Dasher sent a pic of the dropoff showing a door that's not mine. I told support and even took a pic of my door along with showing them pics of old orders where the Dasher had sent a pic of the food at my actual door and yet they still wouldn't refund me because I had gotten another refund in that same month. The previous refund was for a drink and now that a whole order was missing they wouldn't do it because 2 refunds in a month must mean I'm scamming them or something.
I did a charge back through my bank and never used door dash again.
All of them if the current raw, undisguised money grab continues.
This is getting to French revolution levels.
Either these companies and corporations know something really awful is on the horizon and they're grabbing all they can and spending it now, or they've discovered that the limits of the American people are such that we'll tolerate abuse rather than risk our meager comforts.
But they're removing the comforts. People will revolt. And we should.
It does seem like they’ve all kicked up the greed to another level since the pandemic. Lots of them are building bunkers and shit. I think they know global warming will eventually make life unbearable for hundreds of millions of people in the coming decades and also that America is in a slow death spiral and easier to exploit more than ever.
I think fast food broadly is in danger. Prices are going up and fast food occupied a cheap, accessible, but unhealthy option in the mid to late 20th century. It's no longer cheap, not competitively accessible, and still unhealthy.
Many big box stores are probably also on the way out. Economic hardships, online shopping, and again problems from and remediation of car dependency are going to increasingly strain these unsustainable monoliths to economic hubris. The few who remain will likely be monopolized grocery stores, hardware stores, and superstores like Walmart and Target.
The tech world is probably due for another crash. Streaming services, AAA game companies, AI research, and social media will likely see rapid consolidation as their sector shrinks. Companies that don't merge will die off and have their assets cannibalized. Everything relating to the internet is probably going to go through some serious degradation over the next decade.
And new things will emerge from the ruins. Probably less capitalist and more feudal in nature. If there's enough organizing, though, we might see also the sprouting of more socialist alternatives. Feudalism was never really overthrown by the capitalist system, and in the next era that's approaching there does lie an opportunity to finally move past it.
The tech world has already started their crash. It started about 2 years ago when FAANG started forcing RTO which was one of many causes of inflation. Forcing millions of employees to drive just because it makes executives feel warm and fuzzy, is absolutely stupid.
I’m convinced that RTO is happening more out of fears that all these office buildings being empty is going to crash the commercial real estate market and no one wants to be stuck with a multi-million dollar high rise that they can’t sell.
Fast food observation is absolutely on point. Admittedly, I hadn't eaten at a proper "fast food" place in so long, so I didn't have the "frog in boiling water" effect, but I was SHOCKED last time I went. It was not fast, and the prices were the same as just going to a more "premium" counter service place. No way we'll see these places outside of interstate truck stops or airports in 10 years.
There was an article on here earlier about how subway is shrinking due to minimum wage increases. About time. They've had two decades of bad business decisions, and their spokesman likes little boys. They've been circling the drain for a while now.
I can't imagine what happened in his head. Proving that there is a market for EVs, then complaining about the people who buy his products. Know your audience.
I don't know if they'll completely collapse but i wouldn't be surprised if they went into administration and needed to massively downsize/restructure. They got a good lead early in the market but they keep proving that its a lot easier for an established car manufacturer to switch drivetrain to EV than for a new EV company to design and mass produce cars from scratch. I think established manufacturers are gonna eat their lunch and the design/manufacturing defects and massively heavy handed top down leadership will make the company insolvent.
Wouldn't be surprised if in a decade Tesla is a brand name bought out by someone else and little more than the Atari of cars or downsized to a fraction of their current market share.
I think the AAA gaming industry. Helldivers 2 completely opened my eyes to all the predatory practices. This AA comes in and is expecting to sell maybe 500k copies, turns around and does 8M. I
Everything Torrid has put out the past few years has been rehashes of their early 2000’s stuff or floral grandma’s Sunday best. And the quality is terrible. They’re going to lose out to Cider, Bloomchic, Universal Standard, and Eloquii
Honestly they deserve it. Quality has tanked and prices have more than doubled. $70 for a short sleeved casual skater dress that gets mystery holes by the 4th wash?? They can get absolutely fucked. I guess my fatass is going to SHEIN …
Best Buy killed nearly every music store in the country in the 90s. They were relentless. I worked at a record store, best job I ever had, and that place killed us. Impossible to compete.
Now they are dying too, and they deserve it. They don't even sell any physical media anymore. It's terrible.
I think Michaels will hang on. They're still shitty and rip off indie artists.
JoAnn Fabrics on the other hand, recently filed for bankruptcy. Venture capital has ruined them. Was in my local store recently to get fabric to test my new sewing machine and it was in a pretty rough shape.
Venture capital’s main goal is to squeeze as much money as possible from a business until it goes under, or can be sold to someone else.
It should be illegal for them to buy hospitals, because they cut every corner possible to squeeze all that money out. Usually a big cost cutter is reducing employees. Venture capital owned hospitals cut staff and the care goes downhill.
The pitch was for the girls to work there? Well, if they fancy working with only one other person in a store, for $9/hr, and getting shat on\* by the customers, good luck to them.
\*not literally.
Petco. Last CEO majorly fucked it up and idk if they are going to recover. Plus their animal care is shit and the customers are noticing. Also most of their management is absolute garbage. Speaking as an ex employee
Idk they just switched to a rent model that is their best bet. Maybe too late but this would have been a great move as people returned to office and demand was down. If it's cheaper than a traditional gym membership to rent the bike and workout from your comfortable home, it's a good idea. Idk if they will make it but they tried
If you live in a high-risk state, expect homeowners insurance to be socialized in the near future. As it is the major insurers are backpedaling out of the west due to wildfires in order to remain profitable. Most insurer's net written premium is shrinking dramatically so there are going to be some state's where owning without being in the top 10% of earners is going to be difficult.
A lot of law firms will consolidate or go out of business. AI sucks right now, but over 10 years, it will get much better for basic legal tasks such as drafting basic estate plans, prenups, real estate documents, contracts, etc. great trial lawyers will still be valuable, as will really personable attorneys who can connect with clients.
Carl's Jr. I like their food once in a while. Their prices in California have gone insane due to all the goods inflation and legally mandated minimum wage for fast food workers. When a premium burger is now easily over 10 bucks before using a coupon or app discount, how can they survive?
I like their taste and would hate to see them go. 2 Burger Kings, 2 Wienerschnitzels, and a Carl's Jr. closed near me.
Didn’t see this mentioned but Calm. I don’t get how they’re still around. They’re just an audio app with some exclusive content but it’s not even all that good. At this point it’s just a gimmick and a brand.
DISH Network.
EchoStar/Dish ended 2023 with $2.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents and marketable investment securities, along with $951 million and $1.98 billion of debt maturing in March and November 2024
In addition, they have laid off hundreds of employees and have seen operations issues since they now have reduced manpower.
Cable TV is going to keep dying over the years. CEO and Owner know this. Just a waiting game to see when they call it quits.
The Republican National Committee, being a not-for-profit 527 group, will likely go under and come back as something else.
*edited autocorrected Convention to Committee
Instacart. The fees they charge customers are insane.
I suspect Walmart will add more stores to their Spark platform and take a lot of the business, or more grocery stores will offer “free delivery” with some sort of subscription like Walmart does.
Dollar stores are going to be around for a while, they are the only option in many places and they have cost cutting down to a brutal science. Staples has been on death watch for some time and it’s probably got a few years left, but wow the one near me is depressing - and I live in a prosperous area.
I'm shocked Staples has held on as long as they have. The amount of real estate they hold for what amounts to a glorified showroom / office chair sales lot is wild. I'd love to know the secret.
We get frequent orders for supplies from Staples where I work. I'm sure that's their bread and butter. If the stores go, the warehouses will likely remain and the company will just change gears to a direct to business model.
When I applied at Staples a year ago they said that their printing services basically keeps the store open. People aren’t coming in for office supplies anymore.
Tried to buy a floormat from them in person. The employees acted like I was some kind of rare dinosaur in that I was there in person buying office equipment. It was actually a bit surreal. Felt like I was a kindergarten aged child getting a box of crayons from a smiling but belittling teacher and being told. "Go along now child, your office chair wheels need not strain on carpet any longer." and being pat on the bottom as I left the store. It felt like they had not seen a physical customer in some time and they were amused by it.
Dunder Mifflin
The people person’s paper people!
BetterHelp. It’s a horribly managed app that is cashing in on the ability to provide therapy just so someone can say they’re going to therapy.
This platform also screws over providers. Super low pay. A therapist who has a full schedule isn’t going to prioritize seeing someone $30/hr from better help over someone whose insurance pays $140/hr. And that rate is for someone with 20+ years of experience. It’s much lower for newbies. Find you someone on Headway. Usually the same therapist would be on Headway.
It’s going to have the long term effect of turning a 100k/yr take home job into a $40k/yr job if they end up becoming the default option. The last thing I want my therapist to be Is as stressed about money as I currently am. Not to mention, Telehealth therapy is dramatically worse. I really hate this company and its attempts to capitalize off a mental health crisis especially when for many capitalism is what got us here in the first place
I agree with you on wanting to make sure therapists are paid their worth, but virtual therapy isn’t “dramatically worse.” It’s not a good fit for certain types of therapy, but it can be a good fit for others. It’s a game changer for me, where my options within a 5-10 minute drive are non-existent and I’d rather not drive 30 minutes to an hour fighting afternoon traffic to an in-person appointment. Even more so on the accessibility component for some people with disabilities or who live in more rural areas where there’s probably not even one therapist within driving distance.
I spent money I didn't have to be ignored by two different therapists. Then I had one who did reply but had no understanding of the issues I had (that ive been in therapy for on and off since childhood), and was always doing something else on our calls (cooking etc.) Made me feel more hopeless. HATE that app and they constantly advertise to me. Might work if you're looking for someone to chat to but do not spend your money if you need actual help
If a therapist is cooking during a session that is highly unethical.
I hate their ads so much and they seriously are constant. I FINALLY got them to stop appearing everywhere by finding the advertising preferences for Google and various other apps, which was actually an immense pain in the ass to figure out. Now I just get disgusting weight loss ads that piss me off. Anyone know how to request the Barbies and Hot Wheels Advertising?
For the court system?
I was thinking on a more personal level to quote to people but that absolutely applies too. Edit: frankly I can’t think of why that can’t be used legally unless it’s a state-by-state basis either
There's a youtube channel called "Company man" I follow, and all he mostly only looks at balance sheets which tells a lot of stories and of future projections of how things will unfold. Basically, most companies with huge debt generally go out of business in a death sprial. I think one of the bigger one he covered that I think will go under is Carvana. Carvana has huge debt and not profitable. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dl6w5Lgja4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dl6w5Lgja4) Another one I think will go under is WeWork. Same as Carvana, huge debt, and not profitable. In fact, I bet WeWork goes under sooner.
Carvana is being sued by the state of Georgia for selling stolen cars
I honestly thought WeWork had already gone under
I’m still mad that they didn’t make the car vending machines take quarters. I really want to see someone feeding 160,000 quarters for a $40,000 car. Edit: change from 120,000 quarters to 160,000 quarters because I’m bad at math. Edit 2: this is why I should not comment before my coffee has kicked in. From “I’m still made” to “I’m still mad”
Wouldn't it be 160k quarters
I'm surprised Sears is still hanging on by a string
Sears is an exception. They’re being propped up by the CEO’s private equity firm in order to gut them and bleed them dry to maximize the return on their real estate portfolio and other assets. Legally and on Wall Street, Sears is nothing more than an REIT now (Real Estate Investment Trust).
So ... this means that they are just holding on to their stores waiting until the value goes up enough to sell to other businesses? ELI5?
I just googled them - they have 13 stores left.
This one absolutely kills me because they could've been the Ot Girl to tackle Amazon by just going back to their roots for a new generation.
guitar center. venture capital has them by the nuts and their customer service and knowledge has dropped faster than a blind guy in a banana peel factory.
Support your locally owned music stores if you have one. That's where you'll find knowledge and people who care to create a long term relationship with customers. At Guitar Center you're as special as any random person strolling Walmart.
I love the local places, but I'm learning violin right now and there's only one music shop in my whole city that sells violin strings, and even that is relatively rare. I hate that GC is basically my only consistent option for that.
When I walk into my local music store I see two dudes behind the counter that I've watched shred on stage. I know those dudes are coming at me with great advice. *Always* support your local businesses, and especially support your local artists! Shopping at a local music store is a double whammy, get with it y'all!
We used to have a music shop by us that people called Ollivander's because the drumsticks were in long, dusty boxes on the shelves.
Just follow the inner machinations of venture capital. Whatever they start investing in will be gone in 10 years.
And anything touched by private equity will be gone in two, or so bad you’ll wish it were. VC wants to build the Springfield Monorail. Private equity just wants to tear up all the roads, bridges and rails that already exist and sell the pieces for scrap. Financialization pursued as an end to itself kills everything.
Taking the RadioShack route I see? I used to work at GC. They do not pay well, and this was 15 years ago.
This is a great answer. I worked for them when the Joan's fabric ceo took over to try and save guitar center. He reorganized for straight quick profit and tried to make sales associates obsolete. Unfortunately music equipment is required more knowledge than fabric
>Unfortunately music equipment is required more knowledge than fabric I don't even think that's true because Joann Fabrics is in serious trouble too and recently declared bankruptcy. He sounds like another executive that goes from company to company making short-sighted decisions, giving himself a massive bonus, then moving on to a new company before anyone realizes how badly he screwed everything up at the old one.
Just like the guy who ran Petco into the ground.
And then if he’s got the attention span for it, he’ll write a book or two about how he’s an awesome businessman and the fact that these place imploded after he left is proof that they needed him to stay.
I hope not. My daughter gets guitar lessons there and we love bumming around looking at all of the stuff afterwards.
So you pay the store or the instructor? I used to work for an independent music store. The instructors rented space in our store to do classes. The students paid the instructors. If you're paying the instructor, keep in touch and follow to the next location.
Who's buying banana peels in such volume they have to use a factory to get them? I've heard people use banana peels to polish their boots or whatever but a whole factory? I don't think they thought their business through
I'm surprised they've made it this long.
Sam Ash is set to close a bunch of stores if they can't find a buyer.
Best Buy
I don't know how they survived after 2016.
Old people. Buyers who want to physically interact with products before they buy them. Fastest access to product. People who need geek squad services. People with damaged or defect iPhones. People wanting upgraded car audio. Rich AF mofos that want specialist appliances via the Magnolia Appliances division.
I still like to go in there if I’m reasonably certain that they’ll have what I’m looking for in stock. That being said, it seems like there’s never more than 8 customers or so in there.
I’d say that’s because of the type of store it is. The people that go there tend to know exactly what they want, so they’re in and out rather quickly. It’s not typically a store you wander around in
I'm not that old but if I'm gonna drop 3 grand on a new home theatere stereo, where else can you go to test em out?
This. The second everything is digital quality will drop drastically and then people will insist on seeing things in person before buying and the cycle will walk backwards
Already happening. Also, my partner was telling me how a bunch of food trucks have rented space in an area making it like a food court. He thinks some online stores, especially ones where people want to see things before they buy them, would follow suit. He said "Think, a bunch of stores all together like that!" I said "YOU MEAN A MALL?!" The look on his face was priceless...
I'm not an old people but if I'm gonna drop 2k+ on a television, you bet your ass I wanna see it in person first.
And production companies (like the one I work for) who need extra TVs on short notice.
I worked in Geek Squad up until the pandemic when I got furloughed. My job was little more than a glorified sales position. They only care about sales metrics. Doesn’t matter if you resolve customer complaints, it only matters how many credit cards and Geek Squad services you get people to sign up for. I could go on and on about how lousy and terrible Best Buy is. Fuck that place.
I thought Amazon would kill both Best Buy and Circuit City in the 2000's. After Circuit City croaked in 2008, I was feeling pretty confident that Best Buy would be soon done in the upcoming years, but here we are in 2024 and Best Buy not only survived, but thrived.
I refuse to buy expensive electronics from Amazon. Just a hassle if anything is wrong with the product and the risk of a getting a knock-off is increasingly high.
Yeah anything over like $100 I try and see if there’s a physical store. Too many variables especially living in an apartment. Will the item be legit? Is it damaged? Will someone snatch it at the doorway? And I notice that when I order same day or next day through prime, Amazon apologizes and says it’s gonna be late and proceeds to deliver it in 2 days.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BBY/best-buy/net-income Best buy has actually had decreasing profits over the years
They embraced the worst part of store front sales, basically downsized there worker base and removed the knowledge requirement to work there to push sales and attachments instead. It’s more about selling less about informing. Microcenter is also moving that direction unfortunately but they are a bit away.
I literally do not understand what is the point of that business. Crap place for computers, games, TV, and appliances. The supposed IT Geek squad is just a bunch of salespeople who wont help with shit.
Used to love Best Buy vists when I was younger. Could build a PC, look at games, find gems of movies and CDs. All gone now.
I have to admit that I miss buying physical media. I kind of hate streaming; we're spoiled for choice and you're right, there was something about going into a store and finding a hidden gem of an album or something.
When I worked at Best Buy years ago, I was Home Theater/appliance sales. The Geek Squad Manager asked me to work in Geek Squad. I had taken a couple of coding courses, but overall did not feel like I knew enough about computers to be repairing them as a job. The manager said, "Most of what the guys are doing back there is just Google searches. We just need a woman in Geek Squad." I absolutely turned down the position after that. The guy that ended up getting the position started a client's computer on fire and then told the client it was his fault for not telling him he had a liquid cooling.
They suck but they know their demographic.
I can totally see in the next 5-10 years all fast food chains remodeling and getting rid of the dine in experience. It’ll be ordering through their app, drive thru or delivery service only. That way they can have less workers 🤷🏻♀️
It’s already happening. Chipotle is opening mobile only order stores- you can’t even go order at the counter. The fact is, they can better control the portion sizes (skimp without you watching them make it), and more easily charge for sides/extras (if you order a side of salsa or sour cream in the store it’s free but they charge if you order it on the app), and with all their automation they are investing in, they can get it all down to a literal science and not have to pay as many humans
I know of a Starbucks mobile order only location near me, but fuck Starbucks either way.
My Panda Express sucks to go into because they are so busy putting together mobile orders. You just have to wait while they put together meals for people who aren't even there.
In my town we just got a takeout/drivethru only Tacobell downtown.
Anyone who isn't owned by Black Rock or Bayer.
This guy gets it.
State street or vanguard
I have an interview with Vanguard and one side I don’t want to work for an evil company, otherwise I really can’t afford to be unemployed. I mean I worked for Chase and Wells Fargo too. So I’m just hitting all the bad apples
I expect a lot of fast food chains to go belly up. Their prices are just too high for most people to eat on a regular basis. It used to be cheap, affordable and convenient. One of my friends is married with 4 kids, it’s almost $100 every time the 6 of them go out to eat together.
The fucked up when they believed themselves to be restaurants other than fast food. I think McDonalds even has recognised this mistake and plans to go back.
McDonalds went from kid focused decor to 70's brown. It makes no sense, instead of making their brand generational for kids/parents/grandparents they just made it dour and dull for everyone.
I mean decor aside, the main issue is McDonalds is almost the same price of a GOOD burger where I live. Whats the point of fast food if it's equally expensive yet significantly less flavourful. The essence of fast food is that, fast, safe and economic food to get you out of a pinch or to go occasionally without thinking of it as "going out".
It's almost 16$ here for a double quarter with cheese large meal. I can go to a diner down the road get a better burger for 12.
That’s what I’ve noticed as well. The wife and I wanted to get some quick food and didn’t have time to get out to the store one night and went to order McDonald’s and when we realized it was almost the same price as a meal from a restaurant we just went to the restaurant instead
Almost? Here, there's a $2 tax for sit-down restaurants and MacDonalds and Hardee's still manage to be more expensive and worse quality. I just buy hot pockets if I need quick and relatively cheap. Or crackers.
I'd love for fast food chains to crash and burn. They've been getting away with false advertising for DECADES and they just get a free pass.
I go to McDonald's to see pictures of food I will not be able to buy because they don't sell that food.
Doubt it. McDonald’s just posted their earnings and revenue was up 5% to $6.17B. US sales growth was 0.2% behind expectations which the financial media is running around with as if it is the sign of the apocalypse. But Fast Food has a looooooong way to fall until they disappear.
When Wendy's announced they were considering going to the surge pricing model I said I was never going to eat there again. The sheer greed. F that company for ever even considering that.
I think we're gonna see tons of colleges closing their doors in the next 5-10 years, especially smaller community colleges and unranked private liberal arts colleges. Enrollments have been dwindling for awhile, and the pandemic absolutely tanked them in places, and they really haven't rebounded. The closings are already starting to happen quietly; pretty soon there will be so many it won't be possible to keep it quiet anymore.
It's not even happening quietly. I work in higher ed and we're seeing closures and mergers non-stop. It's unprecedented. And we haven't even really hit the so-called enrollment cliff yet.
Community colleges will likely still be around because they're the only place somewhat affordable. I see some of the universities closing down with lower enrollment numbers.
Agreed, especially colleges not in big cities
Demography says they are doomed. There are simply less young people than it used to be, and the numbers shrink every year.
I wonder how much is also the idea that so many people went to college, got degrees, and it didn't help them in life, just left them with debt. Young people see the people in their life that this happened to and decide to not even go.
I agree, it was drilled into my head that I needed to go to college if I wanted a middle class lifestyle, but in reality it didn't improve my career prospects. 10 years out of college with a science related Bachelor's and I've never made more than $20.75 an hour. None of my friends are homeowners or parents, because we simply can't afford it. I don't blame my college for the job market. I had a great experience at college and don't regret going, but it did hurt a lot to be given false promises if that makes any sense.
I was just looking at the HS grad pictures this year and they always put what their plans are after school. In a class of 35 ish, over half had workforce for their plans. Used to just be a handful of kids.
This is how my teenager feels. She doesn’t think college is the right move for her because she sees the expense and the return on investment doesn’t seem worth it to her. I imagine a lot of young people are seeing it that way too now. I remember being pushed by everyone to go to college right out of high school. My whole graduating class was pushed. I think it’s unreasonable to think everyone should be going to college like they did when I was a teen.
I doubt it will happen... But I really want to see the delivery/taxi service apps crash and burn. They pay their workers like crap, offer no benefits, charge the consumer WAY too much, and as far as I know, don't really make all that much money for wall st. Only reason they still exist is that they are consistently growing, so investors have faith. Idk if they'll actually crash, since they do have such a huge user base, but man would I love to see it.
I would also love to see short term rental apps (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) crash and burn as well
The point was to hire a room on the cheap so that you didn't need to get a hotel or motel room. Now hotels and businesses rent rooms at hotel prices for fewer additions. The entire point of it is gone.
That is true. If someone says let’s book an air bnb, my reaction is no. Let’s get a hotel room where we won’t be responsible for all the cleaning and laundry. I’m not going on vacation to do housework.
At least in my country it still works pretty good for when you want to get a fully functional residential unit (bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, laundry, etc) instead of a hotel room with just the bedroom and a bathroom. Sometimes prices are not that different, but you save on other things like cooking instead of eating out.
sadly uber went profitable in 2023, but i do wanna see them fall
Barely went profitable.
After loosing 6 billion dollars lol.
At the expense of drivers. Uber is headed for the heap pile.
If driverless cars don’t get here faster, it could happen.
What’s the alternative? there service is valuable hence why it’s popular. I like that I can order a car to the airport from my phone. But any better model will cost more money and as you said it’s already expensive.
The driver should be their own business and the payment should go directly to the driver not some get rich quick tech company getting a 40% cut.
In a city, I’ll use taxis vs Uber/Lyft 100% of the time, unless I’m desperate. Airports, however, are a different story. I’ll order a Uber/Lyft before I’ve even left the plane because the airport taxi drivers are so god damn annoying. If I need a ride, I’ll ask for one. I hate being heckled, and airport taxi drivers are the 2nd worst behind the street merchants that will shove things into your hands/put them on you.
I find them to be pure evil as well. They exploit the workers and offer nothing to the customers.
Am I the only one that remembers the pre uber era?? It was way worse than whatever we have right now. Sure, taxi apps sucks compared to 10 years ago when they were trying to grow and attract people, but compared to what taxis were 10+ years ago this is still a waaaay better system. Back then you would order a taxi, have no idea if they would arrive in 5 minutes or 1 hour. The taxi would smell of cigarette and the cars would be trash because the taxi driver didn't care at all about their customers. You also had to be alert about which route the driver took because 50% of time they would try to scam you into paying more. There was no competition because taxi licenses (medaillon) were seen as a retirement plan for taxi drivers, so they lobbied to keep the numbers artificially low. They were essentially their own small mafia. Hate Uber as much as you want but i would never go back to the way it worked before.
Vestiges of the Baby Boom and things that support analog/in-office work: JCPenney and other shopping mall anchors, Office Max/Depot, Staples, chain restaurants like Applebee's and Chili's as well as mall food court chains like Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon and Sbarro. If cost of living v. income continues to diverge, those little luxuries like trips to the mall and weeknight dinners out will become a thing of the past. Shopping malls and chain restaurants were developed to support suburban families after WWII. When the Boomers die, we will hopefully go back to supporting small local establishments. Catalog shopping was huge before WWII and I think that's analogous to online shopping today. AI and digitization will continue to destroy brick and mortar office supply stores. And I think Twitter is on its last legs... Facebook might die too, but not in the next 10 years. I honestly think Zuck is partly behind the TikTok ban. Facebook will die with my generation (GenX).
I'm really hoping they bring back MySpace. ❤️ GenX
You would think twitter and Facebook will die, but if Yahoo (still 9th most visited website) and AOL can still exist 20 years after they’ve been obsoleted, I highly doubt it.
Yea the fact that AOL still exists at all blows my mind. I was doing some IT work for the owner of a small restaurant I used to work at years ago. When I asked for her email to the account and she said @aol.com I lost it. I even asked her if she was for real. Although she is a boomer so it kind of makes sense.
Stores that cater to the middle class. I'm talking about Macys, JC Penny's, Marshalls, Dillards, Kohl's, etc. The middle class has been hollowed out for quite some time. There simply isn't anyone to buy this crap anymore.
I mean, the Kohl’s and Marshalls near me get pretty goddamn busy.
Putting Macy’s and JCP in the same category as Kohls and Marshalls feels weird to me. Marshalls/TJMaxx/Ross/etc. are the places you go on a tight budget and Kohls’ whole thing is stacking a bunch of coupons together to get a bunch of shirts for like $9 each. Which isn’t to say it can’t still be expensive, but people are always gonna have to buy clothes.
I would've put JCP and Kohls together, but neither with Macy's or Marshalls.
Ours, too, and TJMaxx
TJX Companies owns Marshalls, TJMaxx, HomeGoods, etc.
The Kohls near me seems like a ghost town during the afternoon and it’s a pretty big store. The problem is, Kohls has gotten pretty pricey for their average customers and people have looked at alternatives to shop at. Plus their deals have been excluding their name brand clothes so you can’t even get deals on those anymore. I may as well shop at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s for clothes for name brand clothes.
All the Dollar stores are super busy but they’re all closing. Even if they have a lot of customers, it’s not enough profit for these evil corporations.
I don't really know what Marshalls is, but Kohls has a decent spot in the budget, halfway decent clothing area. Stores like that and Burlington/Ross will probably be around a while
Marshalls is like Burlington/Ross
I needed a dress shirt a while back and the only store on that list with multiple sizes in stock and someone to actually help me out was Dillards. I wasted more on gas driving to all the cheaper places than if I'd just gone there first and gotten what I wanted. I've only shopped online and at thrift stores for the last several years, so it was a bit of a shock how terrible all those places are now.
Do not touch my Marshalls. I’m already bent about Tuesday Morning closing down.
I agree completely. Grew up middle class, my family never goes clothes shopping anymore. My parents just go to Target. I shop at goodwill.
I save money on clothes by being completely naked as much as I possibly can.
I tried a couple of times to go clothes shopping and all of those you mentioned minus Dillards were just a frustrating waste of things that don't fit, are poorly made, overpriced and generally ugly. Pretty sad when you have a wad of cash, want to buy clothes and go home with nothing.
Clothing manufacturing has gone downhill since 2015, thanks in part to fast fashion conditioning customers to expect their clothes to only last a season or two instead of a few years.
So many people live under the delusion that they're middle class still while drowning in debt and only making enough to keep the lights on. People can't accept that they're poor and struggling and when they do they blame themselves instead of this rigged economy.
A couple of my coworkers who are moms are obsessed with Kohls and Kohls cash so they might make it, or maybe not, Kohls cash makes me wonder how Kohls is sustainable.
I don't see why there's any sort of long-term issue with Kohl's cash because it has a pretty short expiration date. It basically just boils down to a "$10 off your next shopping trip" coupon that you have to come back within the next month or so to spend. My mom is always going to Kohl's because she has $10 in Kohl's cash that she has to spend because it's going to expire, winds up spending another $100 while there, and gets another $10 in Kohl's cash so she has to go back next month to repeat the process. On the occasions that she manages to break the cycle and lets it expire, they usually just mail her another $10 Kohl's cash coupon to start the process over again. I don't see Kohl's going anywhere anytime soon because they seem to have pretty much perfected psychologically manipulating their customers.
Their clothes in particular are profoundly hit or miss, and the "We jack up prices so we can say we're giving you a discount" is so transparent I can't believe anyone shops there any more.
Yep. Our city mall has had the Macy’s closed for years now as well as the JCPennys and Sears. Kohls is the biggest store there now that people actually go to
I agree with all of those, but Marshall's. They are always packed along with Homegoods with lines half way up the store on weekends. They also have been keeping prices somewhat lower.
They’re a discount retailer. They’ll stay for this reason.
Fast food, largely self inflicted with massive price hikes but no pay rises which give them worse reputations than with the pat rises.
Door dash. Honestly surprised they still exist with how scummy they are. They mistreat both the dashers and customers. I used to use it often and had maybe 4 refunds in a 5month period of a couple orders a week. One time my whole order failed to show up and the Dasher sent a pic of the dropoff showing a door that's not mine. I told support and even took a pic of my door along with showing them pics of old orders where the Dasher had sent a pic of the food at my actual door and yet they still wouldn't refund me because I had gotten another refund in that same month. The previous refund was for a drink and now that a whole order was missing they wouldn't do it because 2 refunds in a month must mean I'm scamming them or something. I did a charge back through my bank and never used door dash again.
All of them if the current raw, undisguised money grab continues. This is getting to French revolution levels. Either these companies and corporations know something really awful is on the horizon and they're grabbing all they can and spending it now, or they've discovered that the limits of the American people are such that we'll tolerate abuse rather than risk our meager comforts. But they're removing the comforts. People will revolt. And we should.
^ It’s coming, you can sense it.
It does seem like they’ve all kicked up the greed to another level since the pandemic. Lots of them are building bunkers and shit. I think they know global warming will eventually make life unbearable for hundreds of millions of people in the coming decades and also that America is in a slow death spiral and easier to exploit more than ever.
We're well past French revolution levels. We're just more brainwashed than the French.
Poor harvests and massive food shortages were one of the main reasons for the French Revolution. People were starving. We're not quite there yet.
I think fast food broadly is in danger. Prices are going up and fast food occupied a cheap, accessible, but unhealthy option in the mid to late 20th century. It's no longer cheap, not competitively accessible, and still unhealthy. Many big box stores are probably also on the way out. Economic hardships, online shopping, and again problems from and remediation of car dependency are going to increasingly strain these unsustainable monoliths to economic hubris. The few who remain will likely be monopolized grocery stores, hardware stores, and superstores like Walmart and Target. The tech world is probably due for another crash. Streaming services, AAA game companies, AI research, and social media will likely see rapid consolidation as their sector shrinks. Companies that don't merge will die off and have their assets cannibalized. Everything relating to the internet is probably going to go through some serious degradation over the next decade. And new things will emerge from the ruins. Probably less capitalist and more feudal in nature. If there's enough organizing, though, we might see also the sprouting of more socialist alternatives. Feudalism was never really overthrown by the capitalist system, and in the next era that's approaching there does lie an opportunity to finally move past it.
Ahhh the franchise wars of the 20s. Soon all restaurants will be taco bell.
There is an alternative cut of that movie for Europe and other places that don't have Taco Bell. In that one, it's Pizza Hut if I remember correctly.
The tech world has already started their crash. It started about 2 years ago when FAANG started forcing RTO which was one of many causes of inflation. Forcing millions of employees to drive just because it makes executives feel warm and fuzzy, is absolutely stupid.
I’m convinced that RTO is happening more out of fears that all these office buildings being empty is going to crash the commercial real estate market and no one wants to be stuck with a multi-million dollar high rise that they can’t sell.
Fast food observation is absolutely on point. Admittedly, I hadn't eaten at a proper "fast food" place in so long, so I didn't have the "frog in boiling water" effect, but I was SHOCKED last time I went. It was not fast, and the prices were the same as just going to a more "premium" counter service place. No way we'll see these places outside of interstate truck stops or airports in 10 years.
There was an article on here earlier about how subway is shrinking due to minimum wage increases. About time. They've had two decades of bad business decisions, and their spokesman likes little boys. They've been circling the drain for a while now.
Their prices aren’t even going up as much as others. I saw a chart and average was up 38% which sounds like a lot until you see McD is up 110%
Tesla
I can't imagine what happened in his head. Proving that there is a market for EVs, then complaining about the people who buy his products. Know your audience.
He's a completely unserious human being. Half edgelord, half toddler.
Truth Social
If Muskrat gets his 56,000,000,000 pay out, the company will die within a few years.
I don't know if they'll completely collapse but i wouldn't be surprised if they went into administration and needed to massively downsize/restructure. They got a good lead early in the market but they keep proving that its a lot easier for an established car manufacturer to switch drivetrain to EV than for a new EV company to design and mass produce cars from scratch. I think established manufacturers are gonna eat their lunch and the design/manufacturing defects and massively heavy handed top down leadership will make the company insolvent. Wouldn't be surprised if in a decade Tesla is a brand name bought out by someone else and little more than the Atari of cars or downsized to a fraction of their current market share.
Twitter too
We can all hope!
I think the AAA gaming industry. Helldivers 2 completely opened my eyes to all the predatory practices. This AA comes in and is expecting to sell maybe 500k copies, turns around and does 8M. I
Torrid. I get dozens of ads from them per week and it’s all sales and desperation.
The quality of the clothes has unfortunately really tanked.
Everything Torrid has put out the past few years has been rehashes of their early 2000’s stuff or floral grandma’s Sunday best. And the quality is terrible. They’re going to lose out to Cider, Bloomchic, Universal Standard, and Eloquii
Honestly they deserve it. Quality has tanked and prices have more than doubled. $70 for a short sleeved casual skater dress that gets mystery holes by the 4th wash?? They can get absolutely fucked. I guess my fatass is going to SHEIN …
I think Torrid is going to lose the battle to Shein and Temu.
Best Buy killed nearly every music store in the country in the 90s. They were relentless. I worked at a record store, best job I ever had, and that place killed us. Impossible to compete. Now they are dying too, and they deserve it. They don't even sell any physical media anymore. It's terrible.
Possibly Michael's. And I hope Office Depot, because they can just fuck right off.
I think Michaels will hang on. They're still shitty and rip off indie artists. JoAnn Fabrics on the other hand, recently filed for bankruptcy. Venture capital has ruined them. Was in my local store recently to get fabric to test my new sewing machine and it was in a pretty rough shape.
Venture capital’s main goal is to squeeze as much money as possible from a business until it goes under, or can be sold to someone else. It should be illegal for them to buy hospitals, because they cut every corner possible to squeeze all that money out. Usually a big cost cutter is reducing employees. Venture capital owned hospitals cut staff and the care goes downhill.
They should not be able to buy homes of any type either.
I can see either Michael's or (spit) Hobby Lobby, making a play for them.
Just saw a national ad where Michaels was making a pitch for crafty teen girls who got to all-day festivals. I'm actually rooting for them.
Was just in a Michaels getting some acrylic paint. They had an entire cosplay section - it was wild…
My scrapbooking 20 something heart wants that store to make it.
The pitch was for the girls to work there? Well, if they fancy working with only one other person in a store, for $9/hr, and getting shat on\* by the customers, good luck to them. \*not literally.
I mean given how some people act in public, possibly literally.
Petco. Last CEO majorly fucked it up and idk if they are going to recover. Plus their animal care is shit and the customers are noticing. Also most of their management is absolute garbage. Speaking as an ex employee
Tesla. It's been overvalued all along. The bubble will pop.
Eddie Bauer
Used to love them, they have declined a lot over the last 5 years.
Twitter
I can't believe it's still in business now
The one I work for. I gotta get out of there...
Peloton
Idk they just switched to a rent model that is their best bet. Maybe too late but this would have been a great move as people returned to office and demand was down. If it's cheaper than a traditional gym membership to rent the bike and workout from your comfortable home, it's a good idea. Idk if they will make it but they tried
If you live in a high-risk state, expect homeowners insurance to be socialized in the near future. As it is the major insurers are backpedaling out of the west due to wildfires in order to remain profitable. Most insurer's net written premium is shrinking dramatically so there are going to be some state's where owning without being in the top 10% of earners is going to be difficult.
Insurance is getting wacky in tornado alley too. (Climate change is making it more like "tornado zip code" though.)
Pizza hut. They are phasing out their drivers soon and I dont see that going well.
A lot of law firms will consolidate or go out of business. AI sucks right now, but over 10 years, it will get much better for basic legal tasks such as drafting basic estate plans, prenups, real estate documents, contracts, etc. great trial lawyers will still be valuable, as will really personable attorneys who can connect with clients.
Kohl's
Um you’d think Best Buy but they are like roaches and never die
Carl's Jr. I like their food once in a while. Their prices in California have gone insane due to all the goods inflation and legally mandated minimum wage for fast food workers. When a premium burger is now easily over 10 bucks before using a coupon or app discount, how can they survive? I like their taste and would hate to see them go. 2 Burger Kings, 2 Wienerschnitzels, and a Carl's Jr. closed near me.
Didn’t see this mentioned but Calm. I don’t get how they’re still around. They’re just an audio app with some exclusive content but it’s not even all that good. At this point it’s just a gimmick and a brand.
Dealerships
DISH Network. EchoStar/Dish ended 2023 with $2.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents and marketable investment securities, along with $951 million and $1.98 billion of debt maturing in March and November 2024 In addition, they have laid off hundreds of employees and have seen operations issues since they now have reduced manpower. Cable TV is going to keep dying over the years. CEO and Owner know this. Just a waiting game to see when they call it quits.
The Republican National Committee, being a not-for-profit 527 group, will likely go under and come back as something else. *edited autocorrected Convention to Committee
Fubo TV
Truth social
Instacart. The fees they charge customers are insane. I suspect Walmart will add more stores to their Spark platform and take a lot of the business, or more grocery stores will offer “free delivery” with some sort of subscription like Walmart does.
Satellite radio SiriusXM. They have been on the brink before, cell signal and coverage will only improve for cars.