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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)

#251

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. 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!

You should send the hospital a bill. $5000 for a pair of shoes, discounted down 95% to $250 so it seems reasonable.

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

#252
post #156

I remember reading, a long time ago, that some fashion trend-follower said that it was impossible to determine what was cool soon enough to profit from it. By the time you figure it out, it's gone. But it IS possible to figure out who is cool: you can find the people who regularly jump on trends before anyone else, and see what they buy. But this! This is almost as good: you can figure who is NOT cool.

That's because stuff isn't cool. Stuff becomes desirable when rich / beautiful people promote it. It's informal brand merch.

I think rich/beautiful is an oversimplification of the types of people who are trendsetters. There may be a lot of overlap between the groups, but it is not a single group.

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

#253
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 t…

Small cans of shaving foam (we call it cream here) are still very easy to find in the US. Almost any sizable store with hygiene products is likely to have them. E.g. https://www.target.com/p/barbasol-soothing-aloe-shaving-crea...

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

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy stuff that's in fashion, you'll always have this problem, because fashion changes so quickly. If you just buy classic old-fashioned stuff, then you won't have this problem. I have a pair of old-fashioned leather boots, and when they were worn out after 5 years or so, I just bought exactly the same boots again. Those type of boots have been available for decades, and I really doubt they'll stop making them…

> If you just buy classic old-fashioned stuff, then you won't have this problem. I used old spice anti-perspiring deodorant for like 20 years. It had never changed. It was like $1-2 and I liked it fine. One day they started advertising and added like 20 new flavors and had super handsome spokesmodels. I couldn’t find my boring old flavor any more. So even old and boring things can get the ax

> "can get the ax"

We see what you did there.

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

#255
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are multiple uses of Habringer as the spelling

lol, thank you. I will admit my logic for searching for errors was to ctrl-f for "harb" and then see how many matches had "r" vs "i" as the next letter. I never really contemplated that someone would misspell it in that manner.

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

#256

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 share the same sentiment. With all the replies you're getting, it seems like there could be a market for a solution. Not sure what that would be. Maybe a shoe finder app similar to ammoseek? Maybe a crowdsourced database of which current shoe model is rhe closest replacement to an outgoing one (like a dependency tree but for next closest shoe)?

Not exactly what you are describing but there are some sites like runrepeat.com that are basically a database of running shoes that let you compare stats and check aggregated reviews on whether they fit true to size etc along with reviews for some of them. Before I found that site it's was basically a crap shoot to figure out the subtle differences between seemingly 50 different models of slightly different shoe from each manufacturer but that site really helps me narrow it down and find similar shoes to stuff I already like.

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

You should send the hospital a bill. $5000 for a pair of shoes, discounted down 95% to $250 so it seems reasonable.

Fortunately this was in the UK, while I am privately covered because the poor old NHS is too under-resourced at the moment to be much good for treating chronic diseases that won't kill you they're still second to none for emergency surgery. Efficiently in and out, doctors couldn't have been friendlier or more competent, and it didn't cost me a penny.

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

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should send the hospital a bill. $5000 for a pair of shoes, discounted down 95% to $250 so it seems reasonable.

Fortunately this was in the UK, while I am privately covered because the poor old NHS is too under-resourced at the moment to be much good for treating chronic diseases that won't kill you they're still second to none for emergency surgery. Efficiently in and out, doctors couldn't have been friendlier or more competent, and it didn't cost me a penny.

Did you go back and thank them?

And take a gander at the shoes they're wearing? ))

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

#259
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…

Buy crypto, end this nonsense please

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

#260
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.…

I’ve been waiting 18 years for the pre-ripped jeans meme to die. It was ridiculed when I was in middle school, and now as a 30-something boomer, I’m still struggling to find decent looking and fitting jeans that don’t have some stupid tear designed into them.

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