Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

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FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

TotalLossBrain posted:

The notion that the old stuff was made better and to last is probably an artifact of survivor syndrome.

To be fair, there's also the fact that plastics hadn't made their way too much into consumer goods so that laundry machine may have weighed 10 tons but it sure wasn't going to pop a plastic gear or warp or whatever the gently caress happens now.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 05:29

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 23:36

Haifisch: Nov 13, 2010; Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!; Taco Defender

FilthyImp posted:

To be fair, there's also the fact that plastics hadn't made their way too much into consumer goods so that laundry machine may have weighed 10 tons but it sure wasn't going to pop a plastic gear or warp or whatever the gently caress happens now.

Electronics, too. They have a nasty habit of being a big ol failure point and also making stuff less user serviceable. (and in the case of internet connectable stuff, sometimes makes basic functionality unusable unless the thing is able to call home to whatever bullshit the manufacturer may or may not still have up a year from now)

# ? Jan 18, 2023 05:34

Mustached Demon: Nov 12, 2016

Haifisch posted:

Electronics, too. They have a nasty habit of being a big ol failure point and also making stuff less user serviceable. (and in the case of internet connectable stuff, sometimes makes basic functionality unusable unless the thing is able to call home to whatever bullshit the manufacturer may or may not still have up a year from now)

A new Hondas "computer" will fail a decade before the drive train does.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 05:39

Zugzwang: Jan 2, 2005; You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.; Ramrod XTreme

When I was visiting my parents today, they had a repairman at their house to look at their malfunctioning fridge. He spent a decent amount of time ranting about how modern appliances break a lot faster than older ones. He said he regularly has to condemn fridges that are a year old or so.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 05:59

Anora: Feb 16, 2014; I fuckin suck!🪠

HelloIAmYourHeart posted:

Are we talking a HyVee in KC, and if so, which one?

(Also pour one out for McGonigle's Market, once a true independent grocery store, now part of the Fareway chain)

I know vaguely of where, but not sure of the details

# ? Jan 18, 2023 06:54

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Can't post for 18 hours!

Admiral Joeslop posted:

Cars and other complex machines were usually less complex than modern versions. The more complex something is, the more ways it can break down.

German engineering joke here.

Zugzwang posted:

When I was visiting my parents today, they had a repairman at their house to look at their malfunctioning fridge. He spent a decent amount of time ranting about how modern appliances break a lot faster than older ones. He said he regularly has to condemn fridges that are a year old or so.

It's probably because of how everything has electronics for some reason and usually bargain basement garbage on every level hardware and software.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 07:04

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

Bird in a Blender posted:

No one would say they made them better back in the day if they drove cars from back then. Getting to 100k miles in your car used to be a feat. Cars now make it twice that.

Yes, but also my desk fan is made of plastic instead of metal, so it's impossible to say if it's bad or not,

# ? Jan 18, 2023 07:15

MarcusSA: Sep 23, 2007

Washer and dryers are definitely worse now.

My 2 year old fridge had the ice maker just suddenly stop working. Googling it and it�s a very common thing with the model.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 07:50

rndmnmbr: Jul 3, 2012

SulfurMonoxideCute posted:

Stuff

Some observations:

I manage a pizza restaurant. In the height of COVID, we saw an increase in business far above our ability to reasonably cope with, both staff and infrastructure wise - suddenly we were doing Friday night sales on Tuesday, holiday and event sales every Friday, and just absolute bonkers numbers for holidays and events. Enough that I brought in a cook just to run my usual station, cut table, so I could move back to the carryout window just to personally handle upset customers.

I was sympathetic, I know everything in their expectation said they could pick up their order 15-20 minutes after they placed it... but I had both ovens running at maximum capacity, orders ready to throw in when we had space stacking up on the maketable, and still 10-20 orders deep on the screens and still coming in. The only solution was to gut and remodel my kitchen to fit either a larger or another oven, a capital investment my owner did not want to make. We have been pretty close to our capacity since I started there, but it went from situations like that 5-6 times per year to the same situation three days every weekend.

This on top of supply chain issues out the rear end. Do you know how absolutely furious your customers get when you literally have to shut down from 6 pm Saturday night to 11 am Monday morning because you are out of cheese and no more can be had for love, money, or violence?

Some of it was a transfer of dine-in sales to carryout and delivery sales. Some of it was customers suddenly having deep pockets thanks to stimulus money and a lack or entertainment to spend it on. But most of it, I think, was due to uncertainty, boredom, and stir-crazyness (and a certain amount of quickly getting sick of eating their own cooking) driving customers towards comfort food.

rndmnmbr has a new favorite as of 08:38 on Jan 18, 2023

# ? Jan 18, 2023 08:35

silence_kit: Jul 14, 2011; by the sex ghost

bob dobbs is dead posted:

they don't care about any of that poo poo they care about money

I think it is important for many posters' worldview ITT to believe that the people running corporations are malevolent villains who twirl their mustaches and constantly dream up ways to spite the American consumer.

TotalLossBrain posted:

The notion that the old stuff was made better and to last is probably an artifact of survivor syndrome. The only examples of 50's manufacturing we still have are doing great! This must mean that everything was made better and to last.
They don't make em like they used to!

Yeah this effect is definitely true I think.

However, I do tend to agree that some modern consumer products might not have the same reliability as older ones. If something is expensive (old consumer products often used to be way more expensive than they are now) and is a big purchase for somebody, then there is more of an obligation to make it last, to protect the 'investment'. If you make something cheaper and easier to purchase, then there isn't as much of an obligation to make sure that it lasts as long.

In some instances, you can make a case that this trend is a good thing--e.g. in clothing, it's important to a lot of Americans to be able to continually update their wardrobes to reflect the latest fashions. In fact, a lot of Americans have as a hobby the process of shopping for and purchasing clothing. This is 'retail therapy'! Talk about a group of people who totally disagree with a popular narrative ITT, which is that retail is brutal and cruel to the American consumer!

In this case, it isn't the worst thing in the world to the consumer to make the clothing durability lower in order to reduce the clothing price. In fact you could say that designing clothes to be cheaper but less durable better reflects how American consumers like to purchase and wear clothing.

Bird in a Blender posted:

No one would say they made them better back in the day if they drove cars from back then. Getting to 100k miles in your car used to be a feat. Cars now make it twice that.

Yeah this totally contradicts the 'Evil KKKorporations set out to spite the American consumer' narrative. Cars ABSOLUTELY are much better products in almost every way (including reliability) than they used to be in the past.

The reason for this is 1) government regulations on cars 2) the fact that the car market is incredibly competitive and 3) cars, owing to their size and complexity, are necessarily kind of just barely inexpensive enough for most Americans to own. A car purchase is a major purchase for most Americans. Since cars are so expensive, more attention is paid to their durability than e.g. a $20 item of clothing.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

silence_kit has a new favorite as of 12:53 on Jan 18, 2023

# ? Jan 18, 2023 12:41

Pope Corky the IX: Dec 18, 2006; What are you looking at?

silence_kit posted:

This may just be a me thing, but I�d be far more likely to read your posts if you didn�t begin with insults and sweeping generalizations because we�re all just too stupid to understand what you�ve been trying to explain for pages and days.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 13:34

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

Haifisch posted:

Electronics, too. They have a nasty habit of being a big ol failure point and also making stuff less user serviceable.

That's a good point.
Also, kind of dumb aside but when I switched out my thermostat 5ish years ago I was pretty impressed by the mechanical engineering behind it. Just really simple layout for the switch and how it routed a signal without, like, a board or chipset involved.

I know all that's done by other forms of engineering that's harder to see now, though.

Pope Corky the IX posted:

I’d be far more likely to read your posts if

Solution, don't read their posts. :colbert:

# ? Jan 18, 2023 13:37

Biplane: Jul 18, 2005

silence_kit posted:

I think it is important for many posters' worldview ITT to believe that the people running corporations are malevolent villains who twirl their mustaches and constantly dream up ways to spite the American consumer.

Yeah this effect is definitely true I think.

However, I do tend to agree that some modern consumer products might not have the same reliability as older ones. If something is expensive (old consumer products often used to be way more expensive than they are now) and is a big purchase for somebody, then there is more of an obligation to make it last, to protect the 'investment'. If you make something cheaper and easier to purchase, then there isn't as much of an obligation to make sure that it lasts as long.

In some instances, you can make a case that this trend is a good thing--e.g. in clothing, it's important to a lot of Americans to be able to continually update their wardrobes to reflect the latest fashions. In fact, a lot of Americans have as a hobby the process of shopping for and purchasing clothing. This is 'retail therapy'! Talk about a group of people who totally disagree with a popular narrative ITT, which is that retail is brutal and cruel to the American consumer!

In this case, it isn't the worst thing in the world to the consumer to make the clothing durability lower in order to reduce the clothing price. In fact you could say that designing clothes to be cheaper but less durable better reflects how American consumers like to purchase and wear clothing.

Yeah this totally contradicts the 'Evil KKKorporations set out to spite the American consumer' narrative. Cars ABSOLUTELY are much better products in almost every way (including reliability) than they used to be in the past.

The reason for this is 1) government regulations on cars 2) the fact that the car market is incredibly competitive and 3) cars, owing to their size and complexity, are necessarily kind of just barely inexpensive enough for most Americans to own. A car purchase is a major purchase for most Americans. Since cars are so expensive, more attention is paid to their durability than e.g. a $20 item of clothing.

Lmfao

# ? Jan 18, 2023 13:39

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

silence kit's entire rap sheet is being probated over and over for spending all interactions in all threads going "many people in this thread are mentally ill and badwrong" so we shouldn't really expect them to do anything other than exactly what they do all the time

# ? Jan 18, 2023 13:58

Duckman2008: Jan 6, 2010; TFW you see Flyers goaltending.; Grimey Drawer

silence_kit posted:

I think it is important for many posters' worldview ITT to believe that the people running corporations are malevolent villains who twirl their mustaches and constantly dream up ways to spite the American consumer.

Yeah this effect is definitely true I think.

However, I do tend to agree that some modern consumer products might not have the same reliability as older ones. If something is expensive (old consumer products often used to be way more expensive than they are now) and is a big purchase for somebody, then there is more of an obligation to make it last, to protect the 'investment'. If you make something cheaper and easier to purchase, then there isn't as much of an obligation to make sure that it lasts as long.

In some instances, you can make a case that this trend is a good thing--e.g. in clothing, it's important to a lot of Americans to be able to continually update their wardrobes to reflect the latest fashions. In fact, a lot of Americans have as a hobby the process of shopping for and purchasing clothing. This is 'retail therapy'! Talk about a group of people who totally disagree with a popular narrative ITT, which is that retail is brutal and cruel to the American consumer!

In this case, it isn't the worst thing in the world to the consumer to make the clothing durability lower in order to reduce the clothing price. In fact you could say that designing clothes to be cheaper but less durable better reflects how American consumers like to purchase and wear clothing.

Yeah this totally contradicts the 'Evil KKKorporations set out to spite the American consumer' narrative. Cars ABSOLUTELY are much better products in almost every way (including reliability) than they used to be in the past.

The reason for this is 1) government regulations on cars 2) the fact that the car market is incredibly competitive and 3) cars, owing to their size and complexity, are necessarily kind of just barely inexpensive enough for most Americans to own. A car purchase is a major purchase for most Americans. Since cars are so expensive, more attention is paid to their durability than e.g. a $20 item of clothing.

Jesus Christ , are you using the clothing industry as an example of why American retail is good ? It�s one of the worst environmental impacts out there.

It took me 2 seconds to check it:

https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/sustainable-fashion/#scroll-nav__1

This detail sucks. Please let�s just stop.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:05

teen witch: Oct 9, 2012

Hold on let me screed my way through to a new topic

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:10

Lumbermouth: Mar 6, 2008; GREG IS BIG NOW

Duckman2008 posted:

Jesus Christ , are you using the clothing industry as an example of why American retail is good ? It�s one of the worst environmental impacts out there.

It took me 2 seconds to check it:

https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/sustainable-fashion/#scroll-nav__1

This detail sucks. Please let�s just stop.

But it saves people money so who can say it�s all that bad?

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:11

silence_kit: Jul 14, 2011; by the sex ghost

Duckman2008 posted:

Jesus Christ , are you using the clothing industry as an example of why American retail is good ?

I�m just making an argument that cheaper, less durable clothing better aligns with the preferences of American consumers who like to buy clothing, and in fact they like it so much that shopping for clothes isn�t the thread-believed brutal and cruel experience�it is a hobby for them.

I�m just making an argument that it is good for many American consumers. I make no judgment about overall whether it is good for broader society. Yes, obviously buying a lot of clothes vs. buying fewer clothes is worse for the environment, but having a lot of different clothes and buying new clothes to suit the new fashions and taste and getting rid of old ones is a part of the standard of living that most Americans have come to expect.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:25

hawowanlawow: Jul 27, 2009

I told y'all silence_kit was a

hawowanlawow posted:

gimmick

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:28

rydiafan: Mar 17, 2009

silence_kit posted:

I�m just making an argument that it is good for many American consumers. I make no judgment about overall whether it is good for broader society.

I'm just saying the Torment Nexus made hamburgers cheaper, so who can say if it's bad?

# ? Jan 18, 2023 14:46

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

My shirts from Forever 21 are roughly 4 microns thick and dissolve in a rough wind but...

# ? Jan 18, 2023 15:01

fartknocker: Oct 28, 2012; Damn it, this always happens. I think I'm gonna score, and then I never score. It's not fair.; Wedge Regret

Lol if you have anything other than overpriced concert tees that somehow hold up for 20+ years

# ? Jan 18, 2023 15:06

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

The Virgin Gouged Concert Buyer vs the Chad PennyPinching GoodWill Consumer

# ? Jan 18, 2023 15:12

ChickenOfTomorrow: Nov 11, 2012; god damn it, you've got to be kind

and that's why I only buy clothes in which someone has died

https://youtu.be/J1FDMCDs3Xs

# ? Jan 18, 2023 15:42

Zeniel: Oct 18, 2013

The triangle shirtwaist factory is a perfect example on why clothing companys are good for the consumer. Capitalism in this instance is simply a victim on its own success.

Amerikkka.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 16:34

Pope Corky the IX: Dec 18, 2006; What are you looking at?

Where do you think they got the term fire sale?

# ? Jan 18, 2023 17:03

GolfHole: Feb 26, 2004

Everything is getting more expensive and worse. If you have to buy anything, do it asap. Quality is dropping on pretty much every consumer good, and won't recover for years and years. The halcyon days are over.

The other thing nobody likes to talk about is that most businesses are now running on fumes. Enough people were laid off / quit / retired throughout the pandemic that it is exceptionally hard to backfill positions to the level of expertise they had been previously staffed. Your favourite company lost its best employees -- and the only thing left are processes which will slowly erode.

What's that quote? The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy? Except about private equity.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 17:14

Thomamelas: Mar 11, 2009

ultrafilter posted:

If you fall outside of the standard range of sizes at all your choices dry up pretty precipitously.

Yeah, I lost 70 lbs and weirdly enough it made it harder to buy clothing. My sizes for pants are a bit too small for stuff sold at big and tall stores, but a bit too big for regular clothing stores. Hopefully I'll get out of this gap soon but it's annoying as hell.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 17:45

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

I don�t really know why this company still exists

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1615739823083474950?s=46&t=LsBEKH_M07x-0kMLri6pGg

# ? Jan 18, 2023 18:03

MuscaDomestica: Apr 27, 2017

FlamingLiberal posted:

I don�t really know why this company still exists

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1615739823083474950?s=46&t=LsBEKH_M07x-0kMLri6pGg

I have a feeling the pandemic was much more of a cause then inflation.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 18:18

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

GolfHole posted:

Everything is getting more expensive and worse. If you have to buy anything, do it asap.

youre not wrong but this is funny advice im gonna start giving it to people. i bet theyll be grateful

# ? Jan 18, 2023 18:38

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

My guess is that some aspect of Party City's business must have been great because they are always one of the last stores to hit eject on a dying mall and somehow have made it this long with Amazon being a place you could get party supplies for like 15 years now.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 19:31

Icon Of Sin: Dec 26, 2008

FlamingLiberal posted:

I don�t really know why this company still exists

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1615739823083474950?s=46&t=LsBEKH_M07x-0kMLri6pGg

# ? Jan 18, 2023 19:51

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

FlamingLiberal posted:

I don�t really know why this company still exists

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1615739823083474950?s=46&t=LsBEKH_M07x-0kMLri6pGg

My mom was complaining about Party City just last year because she stopped in to get a birthday balloon for my grandma and "they only went up to 80!" and there was not a balloon that said "90" on it (purchasing a 9 and a 0 was not an option, apparently?)

all I'm saying is there are people that really, really enjoy having a place to go to get specifically party crap, and those people live in the suburbs, and they are very white

# ? Jan 18, 2023 21:11

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Soon every store will be a discount Halloween costume store and that�s all we will wear� AND THAT�S A GOOD THING, because it�s cheaper!

# ? Jan 18, 2023 21:12

rydiafan: Mar 17, 2009

Everyone always dressing like it's Halloween would absolutely rule.

# ? Jan 18, 2023 21:25

teen witch: Oct 9, 2012

rydiafan posted:

Everyone always dressing like it's Halloween would absolutely rule.

My pal in Christ you can do this now

Some will say that you look so absurd, you look so obscene

# ? Jan 18, 2023 21:28

Read After Burning: Feb 19, 2013; "All this, for me? 💃Ah, you didn't have to! 🥰"

Can't wait until the line at the DMV looks like

# ? Jan 18, 2023 21:33

Desert Bus: May 9, 2004; Take 1 tablet by mouth daily.

rydiafan posted:

Everyone always dressing like it's Halloween would absolutely rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPI9b9N6CQ

I missed this <3

teen witch posted:

My pal in Christ you can do this now

Some will say that you look so absurd, you look so obscene

# ? Jan 18, 2023 22:03

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 23:36

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Everyday all ready is Halloween in Amerikkka, it�s just the CEO�s wearing the masks! :supaburn:

# ? Jan 18, 2023 22:13

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

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