41–50 of 95 posts
There were a lot of challenges and concerns described, but rather than attempting to surmount the challenge, the team decided to quit (of course, sometimes that's the best choice given the circumstances).
Very few people understand just how difficult it is to operate in the moving industry. Having worked with a lot of moving companies, here are just a few reasons: -In terms of stress, moving ranks just under death and divorce. Movers joke that half their job is carrying furniture, the other half is therapist. -1 in 5 moves involves some kind of claim. This isn't because movers are careless, it's just the nature of mov…
I moved several times in Japan. Extreme care was taken in each case to correctly estimate the work, itemize the inventory and note existing damage, to secure the home, elevator, and common areas against new damage, and to obtain necessary approvals from building and local officials. The price was quite low — about USD$1,500 to move a four bedroom household to a two bedroom penthouse condo in a city three hours’ drive…
It seems like they're also hurt by moving not being a repeat business. You have to rewin your entire book of business every year.
Perhaps a digression, but how does something like compare with individual movers like "Guy with a Van", "Girl with a Van", "Brothers with Van" type single person operation? Quite a few of them seem to be in business for many years and seemingly doing well enough to not close shop. What are they doing different to stay profitable? Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=guy+with+a+van
I am a Chinese so my family usually have some Chinese contractor do the moving. A couple years ago my family and I bought a home (finally!) and we hired a contractor to come in, after my family and I had packed up everything (since my dad is a jack-of-all-trade kind of a smart man). The contractor paid two Hispanic workers to do most of the heavy-lifting work, but we also helped anyway so we get the move done ASAP. T…
That's curious, one of the advantages of Uber for me is that I don't have to speak the local language, since I can preselect the destination on the app.
Coincidentally, TAL had a story on a car service from Chinatown on a recent episode: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/622/...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's several companies dedicated to moving ultra high net worth individuals. It's hard to believe there's no market between that and the cheapest options. Sounds like their marketing wasn't great or they ran out of runway.
He mentions that in the article. I'll quote the relavant section at the end, but my when money is no object, you usually go by recommendation of friends. At that high of a premium, would you go to a team with good marketing copy, or somebody who has already moved your equally rich friend with superlative service? FTA: We considered our second option more seriously. High-end customers understood our value proposition,…
So they wanted to claim to offer a high-quality product, but don't think they can actually do that.
Startup culture is so terrible.
Perhaps a digression, but how does something like compare with individual movers like "Guy with a Van", "Girl with a Van", "Brothers with Van" type single person operation? Quite a few of them seem to be in business for many years and seemingly doing well enough to not close shop. What are they doing different to stay profitable? Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=guy+with+a+van
Typically, they don't pack your items, either. They load, drive, and unload the truck. They may or may not disassemble furniture. For example, on several local moves, my dining room table was never disassembled; but, on a recent move of a couple of hundred miles, the legs were taken off.
Amazing write up, thanks for this. Question though - I always thought hiring movers was a higher-end service that targeted richer people? Most people I know rent a truck or U-haul and get their friends to help move for a case of beer...
I needed to move the contents of a three-bedroom house from Cambridge to Edinburgh, 400 miles, and my first quote was £4000! It was eventually done for £1000 by a firm who sent two guys and a massive lorry which took all day to fill. I don't think it could have been done with less than three trips of the largest available van to rent without a special license.
This was an interesting postmortem, but nearly the first thought that struck me as it proceeded into the closure reasons was that many of the factors (to be fair, not all) seem to be industry knowledge easily gained through the market research about the industry. This gives the appearance that Walnut founders either didn't perform this research (seems unlikely given the research-heavy approach they displayed) or had…
It kind of sounded as if they didn't like being movers once they got to know the business.
In short: “What we found was that while many people complain about their moving companies, even the highest income consumers would not pay for a better service. Our mistake was conflating desire for a better product with desire to pay more for a better product”
There's several companies dedicated to moving ultra high net worth individuals. It's hard to believe there's no market between that and the cheapest options. Sounds like their marketing wasn't great or they ran out of runway.
Unfortunately, they couldn't cover their labor costs this way. Movers who will show up, take good care of the customer's stuff, are courteous and don't take tips clearly cost more than typical movers who simply provide a pair of strong arms to lift stuff up and down stairs and onto trucks, but don't give a shit about your brand. Normal people use normal moving services who provide a so-so service not because they are stupid but because they don't have the money to spend on premium movers. Obviously customers who got a heavily discounted service gave them five stars and said they would recommend them.
Presumably they tried to interest investors in subsidizing their customers' moving to build a brand. However investors are more cautious now and have been burned on laundry apps and similar. They understand that real-world services don't scale or offer first-mover-advantage (npi) the same way search engines and social networks do.