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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)

#61

Post by coldtea »

Quequau wrote: post #3
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…

This happens to me a lot too. The first one that really stuck in my mind is BetaMax and I suppose the collapse of Be, makers of the BeBox and BeOS, was the most discouraging... though I've seen a lot of other brands & companies I liked fail.

>The first one that really stuck in my mind is BetaMax and I suppose the collapse of Be, makers of the BeBox and BeOS,

Maybe your particular issue is with products starting with "be"

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

#62

Post by bostik »

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.

Clarks had an absolute killer product on their hands around 2007 or so.

Full leather sports sandals, with strong but easy-to-operate magnetic clasp, and no seams on inner surfaces. Joy to wear. Practically immune to chafing and blisters. Exceptionally good for walking (or cycling!) for even long periods of time.

Discontinued since ~2009 or so. While they've brought back some of their other pretty good sandals, the perfection reached more than 15 years ago is nowhere to be seen.

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

#63

Post by bigDinosaur »

Smoosh wrote: post #51
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.

Why don't you make it yourself? The ingredients are even given right there. It'll take some experimenting but that's fine, you might even hit on better flavours.

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

#64

Post by Terry_Roll »

cma wrote: post #57
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?

Actually these 3 are the one's who started to coin the phrase. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmr.13.0415

This is another attempt to run with the idea with some variation. https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty-research/sites/faculty...

Harbinger Customers is also a phrase coined.

Its out there, its just a question of time before someone picks up the ball and runs with it. You can track idea's snowballing online, like this one.

Research papers like this tend to have more gravity if they are focused at those with money to spend, so this latest twist will certainly get some attention from businesses.

Savvy Political Campaign organisers will also be aware of this development when targeting their efforts for future upcoming US Presidential elections with current legislation in place.

The Surveillance Capitalism that exists for businesses to identify and target individuals can equally be applied to political campaigns, helped along with favourable media coverage from political donors product or service advertising budget to sever the direct link to comply with legislation.

Its not a cynical take on the world, its the nuanced way the world works, something even the press dont like drawing attention to, so you dont ever see any decent investigative journalism now a days.

The world is all bought and paid for, as some would say!

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

#65

Post by jimnotgym »

b112 wrote: post #30
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.

Nivea sensitive shaving cream? In the squeeze tube? I used to care about such things. Then I just embraced the inescapable endless change, and started using soap. If you wet your hair first, then put on the soap, I find it not too bad. Just embrace it. Because they just keep changing stuff.

Proper shaving soap and a brush to apply it works better for me than the stuff in the tube. A refil lasts me a year

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

#68

Post by niemandhier »

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…

As an European 'Grape Nuts' are highly confusing to me, since the neither include grapes nor nuts.

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

#69

Post by andybak »

danuker wrote: post #48
lotsofpulp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Guess what I do: wash and slice up some peppers, stick them tightly in a jar, and fill with vinegar so that no air bubbles are left. Not quite a sauce, but it works for me. Stores for months in a fridge. Communist Romanian recipe.

How does that not just store forever? I thought that was the point of pickling.

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

#70

Post by dspillett »

brtkdotse wrote: post #56
tempestn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I used to run in Brooks Adrenaline, then they seemed to change and not work so well for me. So I tried Asics GT 2000 (also a short shoe) and found them better until they stiffened them up in one revision so I moved to GT 1000 though I'm thinking of trying other things as recent models seem to lose all cushioning sooner. When I first got into trail running I used ASICS models but they started either upsetting my heal or falling apart in the upper, so my main trail pairs are Hoka (along with a hybrid I'm experimenting with).

The struggle is real.

While part of it might be that my body and running style have changed slightly over time, most of it is that shoes change regularly. I experienced a first recently thought: my feet actually significantly prefer the newer SpeedGoat design to the previous revision (though I fear the heal design might encourage more little stones & bits into the shoe, it is more comfortable for me). Just watch them revert those changes, so in future when I need to replace this design will be hard or impossible to find at a good price...

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