Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

boingboing.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 267 posts

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#11

Post by secretsatan »

carlmr wrote: post #10

>They tend to make above-average use of coupons, and the coupons they use have above-average values. Isn't this kind of expected? Companies will give out coupons for products that don't sell so well. The higher the coupon value, the more desperate the company to get rid of this stock. So if these households like to coupon a lot, that means they accept less than ideal market fit for a price reduction.

That's what I thought, I'm wondering if they really predict failing products, or if it was rather, companies already knew products were failing, and offloading onto these people through coupons.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#12

Post by layer8 »

ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

That happens to me all the time as well. I seem to have a particular knack for discovering products I like only shortly before they are discontinued.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#13

Post by rusticpenn »

ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Jacobs Millicano, you will be missed

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#14

Post by hinkley »

ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again.

I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.

And lets talk about ya'll motherfuckers wearing jeans that make your eyes pop out. Stores I used to shop at, some of them don't even have regular jeans anymore. I was the first person off the tight jeans bandwagon the last time that went around, and I'm not jumping on this one, even if that means I have to shop at thrift stores until you all wake up on your own, or until your doctor tells you to stop wearing those if you want kids.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#15

Post by etrautmann »

hinkley wrote: post #14
ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.…

Hmm? skinny jeans started again in 2000s, had a run for ~20 years, and have rapidly decreased in popularity already. In NYC, everyone is wearing 90's styles again, including flares and parachute capris, but none of those will prevent you from having children.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#16

Post by mwint »

torstenvl wrote: post #5
ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Nivea sensitive shaving cream? In the squeeze tube? I bought sooooo much of the back stock when they stopped making it. Also: 11" MacBook Air. Strawberry Shortcake SkinnyCow ice cream sandwiches. McCormick Perfect Pinch Tuscan Seasoning with Sun Dried Tomato.

> 11” MacBook Air

Here’s hoping for a revival of the 12” MacBook with an M series chip. That’d be so good.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#17

Post by ohCh6zos »

torstenvl wrote: post #5
ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Nivea sensitive shaving cream? In the squeeze tube? I bought sooooo much of the back stock when they stopped making it. Also: 11" MacBook Air. Strawberry Shortcake SkinnyCow ice cream sandwiches. McCormick Perfect Pinch Tuscan Seasoning with Sun Dried Tomato.

RIP 17" MacBook Pro too.

Actually come to think of it. If I love a product it's rare I can ever find it again.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#18

Post by oh_sigh »

benj111 wrote: post #7

Considering the number of times they used the word Harbinger, you would have thought they'd learn to spell it correctly, or at least consistently.

Where is it spelled incorrectly or inconsistently? I hate how much they used it in the article (20 times), already a kind of a funny word set up for semantic satiation - but I didn't notice those errors.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#19

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

ohCh6zos wrote: post #17
torstenvl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nivea sensitive shaving cream? In the squeeze tube? I bought sooooo much of the back stock when they stopped making it. Also: 11" MacBook Air. Strawberry Shortcake SkinnyCow ice cream sandwiches. McCormick Perfect Pinch Tuscan Seasoning with Sun Dried Tomato.

RIP 17" MacBook Pro too. Actually come to think of it. If I love a product it's rare I can ever find it again.

I mean, there’s a 16in mbp now that is almost identical.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#20

Post by beachy »

ggm wrote: post #2

This.Happens.To.Me.All.The.Time. All.The.Time. that Amazing Neutrogena conditioner, which was really good and lasted a year? Gone: if it lasts a year, its too good. that original low-sugar chex? gone. we invented three new flavours. that jam? gone. butter? gone. that cut of meat? gone. those pens? I mean pentel pens. How can pentel can an entire line of really good, fine writer ballpens? Gone. Sorry dude, it was you…

Is it possible that you are "laggards" as described in the seminal book "Chrossing the Chasm"?

Laggards: Laggards are consumers who avoid change and do not adopt new technologies until all traditional alternatives are no longer available. The group is mostly concerned with reliability, low cost, and easy to use.

As I remember the premise, vendors squeeze profit out of the earlier adopters, in particular the early majority and the late majority. By the time the laggards are buying, the vendor has lost interest in the product and all of the profit has already been extracted. Therefore they don't give a shit about you and are likely to discontinue the product or provide terrible support.

Post reply on HN