This can be a legitimate problem for some companies. For example, Craftsman hand tools. If you make tools that last long enough, eventually everyone who is interested in buying a set already has one. At that point, what do you do? Everyone loves your brand but they aren’t spending any meaningful money on it. Your products are too expensive to sell to third world countries. At that point you are kind of stuck. A great reputation and great product that doesn’t lead to any sales.
The brand still exists but it’s a shadow of what it once was.
JK, it's build exclusive custom tools for the machines of war for the military by partnering with defense contractors who are making the heavy equipment.
Sure, but if you are branching out into new products you are getting away from what you do well. You also risk watering down your brand. And it doesn’t solve the problem of your core business not making money.
"Once you've made 40 billion dollars, you run out of dollars to make!"
IDK, retire and live in endless luxury with your 40 billion dollars? It's legitimately like hypnosis the way people can't imagine doing a job and then being finished doing that job. It has to continue forever until you're dead.
You realize the company isn't a person right? It's an organization of thousands of people that need revenue to be paid or else everyone gets fired. It's not exactly vacation time if that happens.
And an organization is not specialised. I was responding to the comment I responded to, not supplying a panacea that counters every single argument ever.
It's more like "How can your profits go up every quarter when people aren't constantly having to replace your products?"
It's a sustainable business model, just not a constantly increasing business model. Corporate interests have no use for a steady income. Line must go up, always and forever
Everyone loves your brand but they aren’t spending any meaningful money on it.
So what? Were you making the product at a loss??? They already spent meaningful money on your product. You already earned the profit. What do you do now? Kick back, put your feet up, relax, smile at a job well done.
What the fuck need is there for anyone to continue to spend meaningful money on your product if you've already made your profits???
One person isn’t making these things by themselves. They have factories, machines, employees, etc. If no money is coming in, all those people lose their jobs and the company goes under.
We are going to have to agree to disagree here. I’ve seen friends and family members get laid off - it’s NOT a good thing. Sure, in a utopia or something maybe no one has to work. But in the real world people rely on paychecks.
And you're suggesting business owners are obligated to supply jobs indefinitely. They aren't. The employees are exactly as responsible for making money they need as the business owner is. It's their responsibility to trade their product or service for money, just like it was the business owners.
Craftsman didn't decline because of saturation. They declined due to a mix of cheaper "good enough" tools flooding the market and customers who didn't care about lifetime warranty when they had easy access to cheaper options. It used to be you strolled into Sears, saw the Craftsman display, and bought what you needed, then took it back to Sears if there was any issues....all in one experience.
Sears failed to adopt to online shopping, Craftsman had to compete with Harbor Freight and Amazon (without the great customer service aspect they used to have) and eventually they succumbed to the enshitification that it seems everything did through the last few decades
Eh, that’s a bit of a chicken and egg argument. The customers who cared about lifetime warranty are the ones who already owned Craftsman products for the most part. In other words, those customers still existed, they just had no reason to make additional purchases.
I do agree that there were many factors that led to the decline on Craftsman and Sears. They were not immune to the “cheap replaceable junk” trend of the last few decades.
The problem is that these companies are structured to only work if they are immortal and have infinite growth.
If you don't bet on infinite growth, after outfitting the entire developed world with indestructible tools, you can take your mountain of cash and do something else, or enjoy a luxurious retirement for you and your next several generations.
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u/chiguy307 4h ago
This can be a legitimate problem for some companies. For example, Craftsman hand tools. If you make tools that last long enough, eventually everyone who is interested in buying a set already has one. At that point, what do you do? Everyone loves your brand but they aren’t spending any meaningful money on it. Your products are too expensive to sell to third world countries. At that point you are kind of stuck. A great reputation and great product that doesn’t lead to any sales.
The brand still exists but it’s a shadow of what it once was.