The sad thing is it's not inefficiency relative comparable things. But anyone that has worked at these places or sold B2B to them just knows it on intuitive level that they are garbage, and need a heavy sedative to think there are no alternative.
> not a predictive theory nor a powerful explanatory theory
It's not. It's about letting go of some efficient market ideal and then finding new ideas.
We can look at Fortune 500 case-by-case to learn new things
> Cola cola
Sugar drug cartel. Despicable business with very stable revenue despite being a net drag on society. (At least "regular" drugs have a lot more upside!)
> Proctor and Gamble
Just as restaurants are reaching down market, and the inefficiency of everyone cooking and cleaning is starting to have market implications, we should see their reign finally dwindle. Wash-and-Fold should follow laundromats. The specialization means that stupid differentiation between products for uninformative consumers (c.f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition) should go away and restaurants and laundromats optimize.
Personal soaps and cosmetics (of course many soaps are cosmetics) however will stay as cultural reasons ensure people will continue to clean themselves and not contract that out for the foreseeable future.
It might be interesting to define a systematic and testable definition of organizational efficiency relative to an ideal market. Just like combustion engines can be compared to their theoretical maximum efficiency, it would be interesting to compare a particular organization against its maximum potential.
Here is another angle on the topic of relative efficiency. Consider a particular organization. Coca Cola will do as an example. Given its environment (financial incentives, regulations, cultural norms, etc), are we surprised by its behavior? This raises the question of how much an organization's particulars (e.g. leadership, history) affect its efficiency.
I suppose I take a systems view of it. Many deplorable businesses survive in niches. But can you "blame" them? It is a matter of perspective: organizations, like life, adapt to their environment and modify it to their liking. Such organizations can stretch the environment to or past its breaking point for a relative long period of time before having to deal with the downstream consequences.
Elaborate on your reasoning here? While I can maybe imagine a more centralized food preparation system being more efficient, the currently growing market solutions (DoorDash, etc.) are certainly not, and I can't think of a system in which transporting clothing somewhere for someone else to clean would be more efficient than an in-home washing machine. The wasted energy alone would be colossal.
Second, inefficient relative to what?
Third, so far, what you've written here looks like a rant, not a predictive theory nor a powerful explanatory theory.
Would you like to quantify your claim? Or at least make it more precise? As it is, I don't think it advances your argument.
I'm interested in strong logic, data, explanations, and persuasion. I see none yet.