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10 things that won't survive the recession

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OSUsushichic;1372678; said:
9. Half of all retail stores
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His point about malls is already starting to happen. The recession is merely going to speed up this process. Big box has already made it nearly impossible to compete in the landscape of dwindling margins and the good old days of customer loyalty is dwindling as well. Prosumers are becoming singularly focused on price and the service behind the sales industry is really taking a hit. I am sure you can make a connection to sales associates in general have taken a hit because of the latest generation of workers (of which I belong) dont quite have the same level of responsibility as their predecessors, but now I am going off on a separate yet connected tangent. The original point of prosumers simply seeking the lowest price is making it difficult for the smaller stores to compete when volume, not service is the name of the game.
 
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jwinslow;1372719; said:
the internet is killing brick and mortar sales as much as the recession. Agree with a lot of the prosumer comments above...
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To be honest, the internet (specifically in the wireless industry to which I work), is no longer the big competitor. 2 years ago, it was the devil and undercut everyone all the time. It is not as big a player as it was. Granted, the wireless game is a little more complicated than buying a book, CD, movie, video game etc., so I am sure that has some to do with it. But I can definitely see the impact in the rest of the normal retail world. The big competitor for us is the Walmart and Best Buy's of the world willing to make minimal margin on the individual sale because they have other products in the store as well as national volume drivers that give them that ability. On top of their name recognition which gives them contract negotiating power for additional income.
 
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To be honest, the internet (specifically in the wireless industry to which I work), is no longer the big competitor. 2 years ago, it was the devil and undercut everyone all the time. It is not as big a player as it was. Granted, the wireless game is a little more complicated than buying a book, CD, movie, video game etc., so I am sure that has some to do with it. But I can definitely see the impact in the rest of the normal retail world. The big competitor for us is the Walmart and Best Buy's of the world willing to make minimal margin on the individual sale because they have other products in the store as well as national volume drivers that give them that ability. On top of their name recognition which gives them contract negotiating power for additional income
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The sad thing is Best Buy is one of the worst places to buy nearly every product they sell, outside of market-priced gaming and computers (not the accessories, which are highway robbery). The only use I have for best buy is trying out equipment, or buying a TV/PC monitor at an absurd price (where I'm ensured no dead pixels).http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=1372728
 
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there is still customer loyalty, especially at the high end. personally, i would rather pay up a bit to get good service. these customers are also the highest margin customers. at best buy (i worked there in college) we used to have categories of consumers based on their buying habits. one group was the guy who wants good service and information and will pay whatever to get it done. that customer is very loyal even down to the specific salesman they will deal with every time they come in. then on the opposite we had the guy that would always buy scratch and dent stuff and hagle for every dollar and install everything himself. when someone comes into the store and we enter their info into the computer a colored box comes up and lets the salesperson know who they are dealing with.

on another note, i saw jwins comment on the accesories at bby. those things cost 2 bucks and they sell them for 30 (printer cord for instance). that's where all the margin is. the computer has little, if any, margin in it. we would sell a computer for 700 bucks and make 5 bucks on it. if you get them to buy all the accessories though you end up making a few hundred on the overall sale. the biggest offenders in the whole store though are monster cables for home theater.
 
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OSUsushichic;1372678; said:
1. Free tech support
2. Wi-Fi you have to pay for
3. Landline phones
4. Movie rental stores
5. Web 2.0 companies without a business plan
6. Most companies in Silicon Valley
7. Palm Inc.
8. Yahoo
9. Half of all retail stores
10. Satellite Radio

Elgan: 10 things that won't survive the recession
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1) Agree, a lot of free tech support is already vansihing in favor of a pay per call system, especially for higher end items. Dell stopped offering free tech support years ago and bundled it in with your pc for a year, but you find out you paid about 40 bux for that year of support.

2) with cell phone companies offering tethering, this is already vanishing. If I go someplace and I have my laptop, I just tether to my blackberry and connect anyways. With bluetooth technology where it's at I don't even have to take the phone out of my pocket,

3) If cable modem was a little nicer about supporting things like dynamic dns, vpn support and weren't getting all nazi about p2p sharing, I wouldn't have a phone line. I never receive calls on it, it's just there for my DSL.

4) Movie rental stores still exist? Huh, who knew.

5) Well, those companies shouldn't even be getting the opportunity to get off the ground without a solid business plan. The DotCom boom should have shown any investor that without a solid business plan these companies should never get a dime.

6) Same as #5.

7) Palm has refused to change their OS for the most part, the most popular phone they have runs windows mobile. Blackberry constantly changes, updates, and tries new things, and with far superior email support. If they want to continue to exist they need to offer a product that can compete with the iphone or blackberry, but the current palm phones, with pop support, and the same old interface just doesn't work. I got rid of my palm phone for my blackberry and I will never look back.

8) Yahoo has been struggling for a while now, the partnership with SBC didn't really help them and it looks like ATT is trying to find a new system for thier users, I have been getting emails telling me about ATT's new interface is coming, will it continue to be yahoo is the question.

9) Retail stores need to go anyways, other than when I have a few bucks in my pocket and want to go to Frys for a new game, I rarely visit them. More and more people have grown to understand that it's not that unsafe to purchase stuff on the internet, and with companies like amazon having a free shipping option it's not even a question anymore. Lower prices, free shipping, bigger selection.

10) I hope not, since the Sirius/XM merger there's actually been some decent programming. However, a lot of people with wifi and all that have just started using streaming. There's a few beta applications for the blackberry that I have seen for streaming audio to the phone. Stuff like that is the worst nightmare for satellite radio.
 
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Won't

Customer Service is at an all time low. People who actually speak english, are knowledgeable about the service, who give a rat's ass, are not overwhelmed, and who are courteous are now a rarity.


Plus, quality service is costly.
 
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Apache;1375785; said:
Customer Service is at an all time low. People who actually speak english, are knowledgeable about the service, who give a rat's ass, are not overwhelmed, and who are courteous are now a rarity.


Plus, quality service is costly.
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Having worked in customer service recently, I would say it's not so much that good reps are rare, but they are hamstrung by meeting efficiency quotas, and other backwards managerial policies. The place I worked preached quality of service and customer satisfaction all thru the training process, but once you hit the phones, all they cared about was that each call was less then 4-1/2 minutes. Period. Someone decided that was the optimal call duration to maximize profits, and it took precedence over everything. The reps who rushed thru everything, causing more problems, and were even overtly rude to customers, got great evaluations, and moved up the ladder. The good reps, who took the time to make sure things were done correctly, and tried to ensure that the customers had a good experience, were constantly reprimanded, and generally grew frustrated and quit. The turnover at that place was absurd. I would estimate that the attrition rate for new hires over a 3-6 month period was around %75.
 
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OCBucksFan;1375626; said:
1) Agree, a lot of free tech support is already vansihing in favor of a pay per call system, especially for higher end items. Dell stopped offering free tech support years ago and bundled it in with your pc for a year, but you find out you paid about 40 bux for that year of support.

2) with cell phone companies offering tethering, this is already vanishing. If I go someplace and I have my laptop, I just tether to my blackberry and connect anyways. With bluetooth technology where it's at I don't even have to take the phone out of my pocket,

3) If cable modem was a little nicer about supporting things like dynamic dns, vpn support and weren't getting all nazi about p2p sharing, I wouldn't have a phone line. I never receive calls on it, it's just there for my DSL.

4) Movie rental stores still exist? Huh, who knew.

5) Well, those companies shouldn't even be getting the opportunity to get off the ground without a solid business plan. The DotCom boom should have shown any investor that without a solid business plan these companies should never get a dime.

6) Same as #5.

7) Palm has refused to change their OS for the most part, the most popular phone they have runs windows mobile. Blackberry constantly changes, updates, and tries new things, and with far superior email support. If they want to continue to exist they need to offer a product that can compete with the iphone or blackberry, but the current palm phones, with pop support, and the same old interface just doesn't work. I got rid of my palm phone for my blackberry and I will never look back.

8) Yahoo has been struggling for a while now, the partnership with SBC didn't really help them and it looks like ATT is trying to find a new system for thier users, I have been getting emails telling me about ATT's new interface is coming, will it continue to be yahoo is the question.

9) Retail stores need to go anyways, other than when I have a few bucks in my pocket and want to go to Frys for a new game, I rarely visit them. More and more people have grown to understand that it's not that unsafe to purchase stuff on the internet, and with companies like amazon having a free shipping option it's not even a question anymore. Lower prices, free shipping, bigger selection.

10) I hope not, since the Sirius/XM merger there's actually been some decent programming. However, a lot of people with wifi and all that have just started using streaming. There's a few beta applications for the blackberry that I have seen for streaming audio to the phone. Stuff like that is the worst nightmare for satellite radio.
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Agreed on all accounts. Many of these companies have been in trouble for a while. It's amazing to me how Amazon and Apple alone have affected the playing field.
 
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