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

111–120 of 267 posts

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

#111

Post by catchclose8919 »

oasisbob wrote: post #84
andybak wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Among other problems, Botulism takes all the fun out of traditional pickling recipes.

eh, if it's salty + sour it's probably ok ;) nothing acidic enough is hospitable for botulism, afaik most traditional pickling recipes involve quite high acidity from high levels of lactic acid induced fermentation...

and in general, whatever bacteria can grow in a medum rich enough in salt + whatever acid (lactic if you're fermenting, citric or acetic otherwise) is probably not gonna hurt you too bad (salmonella and all the nasty stuff require protein + mostly towards neutral or alcaline environment).

sure, if you're into pickled eggs or weird stuff like that, watch out, but any sour pickled vegetables are safe and even if they go off will not make you seriously ill, they'll just start tasting like s and mess your stomach a tid bit.

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

#112

Post by thematrixturtle »

zelos wrote: post #97
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've just been through this with running shoes. I found some Asics that were light, comfortable and just firm enough. Now they're gone, split into multiple different variants, none of which is what I want.

Try Hoka. They specialize in very light shoes outside the regular spectrum: extra padded, extra firm, etc.

https://www.hoka.com/en/us/hoka-shoe-finder.html

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

#113

Post by foxes »

Lmao from reading the replies here, and from how many the article seems to apply to, I’m glad the average hn user doesn’t get to decide what the market likes

>enormous laptops with hot swappable bezels and deprecated ports

>small phones

>other outdated dead technologies

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

#114

Post by nerdponx »

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?

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

Their comment is implying that this research is part of a larger academic bias against and attempt to publicly disparage political conservatives, Republicans, and/or rural people.

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

#115

Post by dotancohen »

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.…

  > 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.
Timberland has terrific office-looking-from-the-top shoes, rugged gravel-traversing-and-non-slippery-from-the-bottom shoes circa 2016 when I bought a pair. What I wouldn't do to find another pair of shoes like this now.

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

#116

Post by jgrahamc »

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…

Wilkinson Sword made 30cl shaving foam cans, mostly supplied to the airline business for Business class passengers.

Because I travel a lot I favour carry-on only, which means small quantities of toiletries and I wet shave with foam. At one point it was easy to buy small shaving foam cans for travel and at some point they got replaced with gel. I dislike the gel.

One day in the Coop in Davos I saw a whole section of travel stuff and there they had Nivea Shaving Foam (https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Sensitive-shaving-practical-trave...). This seems to be available in German-speaking countries. That day I bought the entire stock on the shelf (something like 10 of them).

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

#117

Post by BoxOfRain »

dotancohen wrote: post #115
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.…

> 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. Timberland has terrific office-looking-from-the-top shoes, rugged gravel-traversing-and-non-slippery-from-the-bottom shoes circa 2016 when I bought a pair. What I wouldn't do to find another pair of shoes like this now.

I went into surgery a couple of months ago and it was such a hurry my Timberlands disappeared into the hospital along with my appendix. It'd be pretty churlish to hold a grudge over this given they literally saved my life but I do miss those shoes!

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

#118

Post by afandian »

JofArnold wrote: post #88

This is me and my mum. To the point where if I find something I really like which might not last more than a few years, I buy two. This occurs in many domains from breakfast cereals to shirts to bicycle tyres!

There’s a complex curve though. Clothes which you wear for a while, good idea. Cereal? If you stockpile medium term you’ll get more attached to it and fall harder when it’s withdrawn.

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

#119

Post by twic »

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…

Since we're talking about shaving, i have wound using something a bit weird - Epaderm emollient ointment:

https://www.epaderm.com/products/epaderm-ointment/

I initially got this as an eczema ointment - it's a thick, waxy ointment intended to treat dry and irritated skin. But somehow, you can mix it with a bit of water and form a rich lather (their "cleanser" use case). It doesn't form tall, stiff piles like canned shaving foam, but it's more than adequate to lather your face with. And it works fantastically: the razor glides over my skin, and there is absolutely no irritation. In fact, my skin is in better shape after i've shaved than before.

Post reply on HN