My thoughts on declining industries have changed a lot since listening to the Spectacular Failures podcast episode about Toys R Us and learning more about the vampiric practice of Private Equity, where firms like Bain acquire struggling businesses and win regardless of the output. Here's a similar story from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-...

I'm tired of people lamenting the loss of true retail and blaming disruption for any negative changes in the world. The fact is, entire industries outside of Bezos' world flourished from these failures and continue to thrive as long as Chapters doesn't use big data, Visa doesn't make an intuitive gift card option, and the family-owned grocery store doesn't have software to share inventory online.

Most of the zombie companies had excelled at some point in the past - even a joke company like Sears was once the pinnacle of innovation. At this point I'm just convinced companies that decided to "lie down and die" are cases of competing goals among the decision-makers. Some are too non-confrontational, some are egomaniacal, some stifle innovation, some are too audacious, and lots of executives, board members, and consultants flourish regardless of the result.

The result is an unhealthy economy that is constantly getting conned by those who know how to play the game. But maybe that has always been the case...

Sears just confuses the heck out of me. They had everything they needed to basically be what Amazon is now, before Amazon even existed. Heck they were basically Amazon before the web existed.

I suspect internal political dysfunction is likely to blame for that. Many would rather have their bonus, unchallenged fiefdom, or to not have to learn things rather than success so that is what they wind up with and afterwards rather than admit fault by changing their ways they double down.

An online store would "take away" business from their retail fronts and would face plentiful sabotage. It isn't like they had a frontier out west to ship to as the "new domain" that respected their nice little boundaries.

This is one of the most important roles of a strong leader: to swashbuckle through this kind of misalignment.

Organizations age poorly by default. People become motivated to climb the org chart--or, even easier, to stay in place while sprouting new branches under themselves. People become risk averse and unimaginative.

The only way to avoid that fate is with strong leadership. Starship will replace the Falcon 9, and I'm sure there are people on the Falcon team who are not thrilled about that, but the show goes on anyway. Everyone is on a shared mission. It's clear that SpaceX culturally doesn't tolerate people more concerned with internal politics than they are with going to space. Culture comes from the top--the founders, the CEO, and flows from there.

They were the Amazon of 1905

And 1950 and 1980.

They could be great again if they leveraged their old "good, better, best" strategy. Instead of trying to sell all the things like Amazon and Walmart do, they should be offering a broad, curated set of items that are reliable and binned by those three quality descriptors.

This specifically addresses the issues many people have with buying from Amazon.

They should mail out one last catalogue to drag everyone back in and then summon them to a well designed website.

You can of course find the final Sears catalog (1993) on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Sears-Catalog-Roebuck-Company/dp...

Related reading:

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vulture+capital

Never heard of 'Spectacular Failures', very excited to listen, thanks!

> Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations.

Why do you need the store to recommend to you what to buy from them next? Obviously the store is only going to recommend content which maximally increases its profits, regardless of whether that content is worth your time or really in tune with your most passionate interests. Buying the book from a shop is a necessary evil (unless you just want to read pirated ebooks from LibGen for free like many Kindle owners are doing now), but for getting recommendations on what to read next, why not look to the numerous internet communities of passionate readers who are not motivated by financial self-interest and may better serve your particular tastes?

I view it like browsing in a store. Sure I can go to the Django community and find books on that there (and I do), but Amazon recently recommended me a book on Microservices. They had been off my radar for a while, but I purchased it for later.

It is about uncovering things that are of value, but that I might not think of immediately.

so you literally bought something you didn't know existed, want, or need and might not ever get to reading?

This just reads like people who buy humble bundle games or steam sale games.

For generations people have bought books they hope to read but never do.

Or guitars they hope to play regularly :-)

The best guitar-purchasing advise I ever got was: Never buy your dream guitar because you'll never feel like you're good enough to play it.

I have two bikes, and moved recently. Only had room for one, so the other went to a storage locker. I kept my beater at home because of exactly this phenomenon... since I've moved I've gone on more rides and felt little or no guilt about the unused bike in storage

lol - there’s some truth to that, depending on the definition of dream guitar. In my case my dream guitar was somewhat more expensive than all of my other one’s and it became and still is my number one every day guitar. It just feels so right and sounds so good, it makes me feel like a better player. :-)

I appreciate that statement. But that doesn't mean we need to accept being marketing to in such a way that encourages impulse purchases.

Yes, as given the cost of learning about microservices I decided that it was worth it.

I think it's the same reason torrents didn't completely destroy the entertainment industry. Consumers want a fresh new thing that seems to be made for them.

I have lists upon lists of of music, library ebooks (the free way to not pay!), and video games as well as multiple lifetimes worth of free content on the internet. What today's consumer craves is for anyone to reach in, show them the next perfect thing, and promise that the barrier to entry will be worthwhile. Some fans immediately know what they want next thanks to friends, critics, or their own insatiable research, but most people* desire a buzz of encouragement to get them started.

* I use the phrase "most people" very deliberately here. The Blue Ocean Strategy theorizes that there's always a new demographic to pursue. Reduce the barrier to entry and some increase in customer retention is almost guaranteed.

> Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations.

OTOH, I am still waiting for Amazon to make the ads which appear on my Kindle lock screen have even a modicum of relevance to my buying/reading habits.

As far as grocery stores are concerned, I find that their combination with Instacart does a great job on that front.

I learned last year, possibly here, that the reason you can make withdrawals from your credit union at virtually any other credit union’s ATM isn’t because of some cabal of credit unions so much as the fact they nearly all use the same vendor.

I don’t know if there’s a lesson here for grocers, or maybe Organic Valley (a farmer cooperative) is a closer model.

If you are not clear on what your secret sauce is, or what your competitors think theirs is, it’s hard to be open about commodifying things that aren’t critical to you but are to your customers. Shared logistics systems? Probably trade secrets there. Other things? Maybe not so much.

But on the flip-side, I have so little trust that Amazon will actually send me exactly what I ordered that I'll look to direct sellers whenever possible when the details matter. Just last week I didn't do this when ordering 4 identical wrought iron brackets to mount bird feeders around the yard. I received 4 separate shipments -- 2 FBA, 2 from sellers directly -- container 3 of the item I wanted and 1 of a similar but different item.

I can also order groceries online from Safeway and either get it delivered or do curb-side pickup from my local store.

There's also a limit on the number of marketplaces I'm comfortable sharing my credit card with. Out of all the market places online I'm more comfortable sharing my card with Amazon and I've a higher trust on things arriving in time.

PayPal solves that problem does it not?

Paypal has its own issues. Such as disputes, its easier to dispute with my bank than to dispute with Paypal.

My Twitch account was accessed and the person made a whole bunch of purchases on my account. Twitch customer service basically doesn't exist, so I went to paypal. Paypals system throttled me when I tried to report each action.

With my bank, I can call a number, say "These are all fake" they instantly cancel and refund my money, and I can file chargeback / fraud paper work.

Paypal has a long ways to go customer service and customer experience wise still.

> Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die.

Everyone but Trader Joe’s delivers where I love (SF). I don’t think this is true.

> I'm trying to think of any industry Amazon took out when even tried to fight back. Most just whined their way into oblivion.

Remember the Fire Phone? Amazon doesn’t always hit home runs, they have a ton of money so they can afford to fail fast and reinvest elsewhere.

> where I love (SF). I don’t think this is true.

So... the most technically forward city in North America? I'm in Calgary, which is not a tech hub.

> Remember the Fire Phone? Amazon doesn’t always hit home runs, they have a ton of money so they can afford to fail fast and reinvest elsewhere.

And these companies start as the incumbents, which gives them time to at least copy and respond. Amazon had to steal every customer from them.

Most of the majors do have online pickup now, no? At least by me, it would be weird to see a grocery store lot that doesn't have a pickup spot by now. I've had enough mixed success with delivery groceries that I much prefer picking it up. At least my packages aren't getting stolen or left out in the sun.

> Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations.

Local bookstores are much better about this.