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

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

#51

Post by Smoosh »

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…

In our household it's Fountain Mustard Sauce. Unexpectedly, it's the ideal sauce for home-made hamburgers. Allegedly still being made but never in stock anywhere.

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/37805/foun...

Now our burgers are flavoured with a tinge of sadness and regret.

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

#52

Post by Terry_Roll »

In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations "Harbinger Households" are called Laggards in scholarly circles.

So to use the word "Harbinger" which for most people will have greater negative connotations by virtue of the common phrase "harbinger of doom" in most English speaking people's lexicon, would suggest an element of psychological profiling is being carried out in plain site on ycombinator, although it can be played down as just a clickbait headline, no different to the techniques used by journalists and editors of "reputable" news outlets.

Either way, its getting even easier to identify the people who are worth manipulating to win elections in a country, rendering the election process not "free and fair process" so easily trumpeted out by Western democracies.

I might just place a bet on Trump winning the next US Presidential election because there are more Republicans owning and running a business than Democrats!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/201...

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

#53

Post by gfody »

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…

you can still find mentadent (that came in the pump dispenser) for like $300 a pack.. I think it's just how the market works - if anything is so good that people will much more than market then somehow the market adapts

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

#54

Post by lh7777 »

oh_sigh wrote: post #18
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.

Also, the slug is "harbringer-of-doom.html".

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

#55

Post by tick_tock_tick »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #33
mhb wrote: post #21

So everyone who lives in the vicinity of a Trader Joe's?

I have a lot of choice words for whoever decided to discontinue the red TJ’s jalapeño hot sauce. https://www.traderjoesgroceryreviews.com/trader-joes-hot-sau...

Wait that's gone? Are you 100% sure? I literally just grabbed a bottle of it out of my fridge and I swear I bought only a few months ago; San Francisco TJs on 9th street.

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

#56

Post by brtkdotse »

tempestn wrote: post #39
hinkley wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

The shoes thing is so true. Especially runners, or any kind of athletic shoe really, where they feel the need to update not just the styling but the whole construction of the shoes every year. So when you need a replacement you basically have to start from scratch every time, because there's no guarantee even buying the new shoe in the same line will be a remotely similar experience.

I have really finicky feet and cried tears of joy when I found ASICS GT-4000 only to cry tears of sorrow when I wanted to buy a new pair and found out they only made one run of them.

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

#57

Post by cma »

Terry_Roll wrote: post #52

In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations "Harbinger Households" are called Laggards in scholarly circles. So to use the word "Harbinger" which for most people will have greater negative connotations by virtue of the common phrase "harbinger of doom" in most English speaking people's lexicon, would suggest an element of psychological profiling is being carried out in plain site on ycombinator, althoug…

The article is using the term companies use, because: customers buying their products are harbingers of doom for the product (unless they got causation wrong on the coupon use for heavily discoubted possibly discontinued goods...)

The last half of you comment seems completely unrelated to the article?

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

#58

Post by braingenious »

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…

What cut of meat got discontinued?

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

#60

Post by coldtea »

>The researchers don't claim a causal relationship between these different factors — donating to losing political candidates doesn't make you prefer Crystal Pepsi, for example — but rather speculate that there is an "unobserved intervening variable" that explains both factors.

Being older, poorer, and "out of touch" with what's fashionable, politically, culturally, and market wise -- because you have other problems and you're at the very far side demographically of anybody marketeers, press, etc. attempts to even influence...

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