Everything is Shit: Tracking the Great Enshittening

[Chopper 17,228]

2 hours ago, Celery Man said:

I don’t subscribe to the Atlantic and can no longer read this full article, but I felt highly seen. About Wirecutter, it’s ubiquity as the millennial suggestion engine, and how it is not what it was

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/08/wirecutter-recommendations-worse-new-york-times/675075/

I've been wondering why wirecutter seems less reliable. The reason isn't as bad as I would've guessed.

 

Spoiler

What Happened to Wirecutter? Longtime fans have turned against the product-recommendation website. An evolving internet may be to blame.

By Charlie Warzel

Joe Casabona’s love affair with Wirecutter began in 2013, when the site recommended a pair of inductive winter gloves—the kind that let you interact with a touch screen while staying toasty. They worked well, so he kept going back; he appreciated the rigor of the site’s product reviews. An exhaustive, nearly comical amount of research went into every category: Toilet-paper recommendations were backed by 50 hours of testing. The reviewers were bona fide subject-matter experts or enterprising obsessives who approached finding the best dishwasher with the fervor of crime-scene investigators. This work was documented in the form of sprawling posts, many the length of a magazine feature. Casabona, an audio-gear specialist, remembers thinking he’d found his people. “I really felt I could trust them,” he told me, “and Wirecutter became my go-to.”

I have a similar story, and you might also. It’s why Wir

ecutter has evolved from a niche website into a cultural phenomenon over its 12 years. (It’s also why you’ll find the same stuff in so many Millennial kitchens.) Wirecutter helped popularize a genre of lucrative recommendation content—where the site gets a cut of every purchase you make after you click on “affiliate” links to Amazon or other partner sites—and spawned a series of copycats. If you’ve ever searched online for the “best” anything, there’s a good chance that Wirecutter’s DNA was in almost every single article you found.

To make money from its guides and keep readers coming back, the site fundamentally needs to offer persuasive arguments for each recommendation; it needs you to trust it. Wirecutter, which is clearly inspired by publications such as Consumer Reports, must make the case that Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Extra Soft & Strong Bath Tissue is in fact materially better than Cottonelle Ultra ComfortCare (which was once the site’s top pick but has now been dinged for being the “dustiest and lintiest” of all the options tested). The site has to be comprehensive and cater to the preferences of mercurial readers. And, for reasons big and small, that seems to have become an impossible task on today’s internet.

While scrolling through product reviews for microphones, his area of expertise, Casabona started to feel that Wirecutter’s recommendations were off—“too obvious,” he told me. Then, after a string of underwhelming purchases based on the site’s recommendations, he got fed up, tweeting in January 2022 that the site’s recommendations had gotten worse.

Similar gripes have become common across Reddit comments, message-board threads, and social media. The testing processes and articles, some people argue, seem less exhaustive; others contend that the recommended products are of a lower quality in recent years. Many point out a specific moment when things changed, as Casabona did in his tweet: in 2016, when The New York Times acquired the site for more than $30 million. But it’s not quite evidence; it’s a gut feeling, a vibe.

The claim is unsatisfying, lacking the meticulousness and precision of, well, a Wirecutter review.  Why do people insist that the site has declined since the Times took over? How would one measure such a thing? In the spirit of the site, I decided to do some research. I reached out to a group of subject-matter experts who have an uncanny and uncompromising ability to evaluate the product. Has Wirecutter changed meaningfully since its inception in 2011? The people who helped build the site and write its most popular articles certainly think so. But Wirecutter’s story is also about the evolution of the internet, the way we consume, and how products are made.

The Methodology:

I spoke for roughly eight hours with four former Wirecutter writers and editors, plus the site’s current editor in chief. Their tenures span nearly a decade and capture the periods before and after Wirecutter was acquired by the Times. (As a point of disclosure, I should note that I worked at the Times from 2019 to 2021, but never for Wirecutter.) I spent about 20 hours reading archived and current Wirecutter reviews, and pored over dozens of articles, posts, commentary, and interviews about the website published from 2013 to 2023.

Why You Should Trust Me:

I’ve followed Wirecutter since its launch, when it was part of the Awl network of websites. And I’ve spent a not-insignificant portion of my disposable income on Wirecutter-recommended gadgets: air filters, water bottles, headphones, ring lights, stationary bikes, coffee makers, toasters, coffee grinders, utensils, mixing bowls, thermometers, monitors, printers, a kitchen scale, the OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Multi-Purpose Scraper & Chopper, socks. When I moved to Montana, in 2017, I bought a new Mazda CX-5 sight unseen after reading a Wirecutter recommendation. I am fond of the website—even as I’ve also felt, deep down, that it isn’t quite what it used to be.

The Research:

What you just read above is the bread and butter of Wirecutter’s format. Rather than evoke trustworthiness through sleek design, Wirecutter gleefully asserts it through its prose. The reviews can take the tone of an eccentric writing a letter to a dear friend. “It’s about understanding things on a deeper level and then using that to help people not feel so annoyed or stressed about getting or using the things they need,” Brian Lam, the site’s founder, told me. “Your pain as a reviewer translates into another person not having that pain.” When a particular product category was bad, the site refused to write about it or would explicitly tell readers to stay away. Lam was especially fond of reviews that employed a lateral mode of thinking—What’s the Best Cat? Well, Have You Considered a Dog?—and argued that this early approach set the site apart from other reviewers.

Once, Lam assigned a reporter to review bike locks by talking with prolific bike thieves; the writer ended up interviewing a man who’d very likely stolen his old bike. The piece was a hit. “Every extra hour we put into a piece, I still argue it added to the revenue a post would generate,” Lam told me. “The better it is, the more money it brings in over time.” Wirecutter paid freelancers hourly, often spending thousands of dollars on sprawling features that generated money through the site’s affiliate-link model—commonplace now, but a drastic departure from the banner advertising that was standard at the time. With this model, Wirecutter exploded and expanded, adding a companion site, The Sweethome, in 2013, which focused on home and lifestyle.

Read: America is drowning in packages

By 2015, the Wirecutter brand was popular and lucrative enough—in four years, it had generated a reported $150 million in online transactions—that potential buyers came calling. In 2016, the site sold to the Times, as a service-y complement to the newspaper’s own journalism. It didn’t take long for Wirecutter staffers to realize that the Times’ ambitions for the site far exceeded Wirecutter’s own expectations of moderate, steady growth. According to multiple former employees, whom I am keeping anonymous because they still work in the industry, the Times’ leadership wanted the site to double the amount of content it produced in order to juice revenue. Those employees said Wirecutter’s top editors argued that the site’s business would not scale directly, because a minority of articles, many of them for big-ticket items such as appliances, generated the bulk of the company’s revenues. But the mandate remained: Wirecutter would need to double its staff and double its output.

Asked about the strategic shift post-acquisition, a Times spokesperson connected me with Ben Frumin, Wirecutter’s current editor in chief, who told me that these changes had indeed been made, and that they were successful and for the better. He noted that the site has gotten substantially larger in recent years; according to Frumin, it has tripled the size of its audience and doubled its staff during his five-year tenure. The company has also expanded from a singular focus on product recommendations into broader areas of coverage such as digital privacy, environmental impact, and aging. “I see this growth as expanding our mission in order to serve a much larger and more diverse audience,” he said, adding that he’s proud of the site’s continued commitment to its early mission of journalistic rigor in testing and reporting. He argued that the site continues to employ the Wirecutter standard of product-category skepticism, pointing to a 2021 post titled “Why Your Toaster Will Eventually Fail You.”

But growth brought with it other adjustments. Times management also adjusted the freelance pay structure from an hourly rate to a flat fee per article, which two former staffers argue likely contributed to less time spent on researching and writing product recommendations. Frumin strongly rejected the notion that the flat-fee pay structure has contributed to a decline in quality and argued that the site now relies less on freelance labor, opting to hire more paid staffers for this very reason. A former staffer alleged that in 2019, an employee on the Times business side changed the copy of a post in the Money vertical without telling the editorial team—a major ethical breach in an industry where the separation of Church and state, so to speak, is sacrosanct. I asked several former staffers about the nature of the tweak, but no one was able to share specific details. Nor did a spokesperson for the Times, who told me, “The employee was immediately told that he had committed a serious ethics breach, and he subsequently left the company.”

To hear former staffers tell it, Wirecutter’s founding spirit was diluted over time as a result of the Times’ effort to chase scale: Doubling the site’s staff and content goals so quickly naturally led to a quality drop, they reasoned. But the people I spoke with were hesitant to pin the blame solely on the acquisition. That’s because although Wirecutter changed, everything else did too: The internet of 2023 is not the internet of 2011, nor are the products, nor are the consumers.

Since Wirecutter launched in 2011, many of the tech items the site specialized in (such as televisions) have simply gotten better; it’s harder, in many cases, to make a compelling claim about what’s actually the “best.” At the same time, Amazon-ification has meant that many product categories are bloated with functionally identical items, most of which are good enough. On top of all that, the web has evolved, in part because of Wirecutter’s success: Competing sites such as New York’s The Strategist and scores of other, less reliable knockoffs have emerged. Frumin himself told me that “the internet is so awash with reviews now that it can make the genre feel like a commodity.” Wirecutter readers started using the site differently too; die-hard users like Casabona said they trusted the site so much that they stopped reading the reviews and merely clicked the top links, ignoring some of the painstaking caveats that might dissuade a person from buying a product.

Read: The death of the smart shopper

And many people are now inclined to “do their own research.” Multiple former Wirecutter employees told me that they see a broad shift, with people migrating to trust influencers and people they know (or feel that they know) over institutions. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become reliable destinations for product reviews in video formats, which appeal to younger generations of consumers.

Ultimately, Wirecutter’s mission to “tell you what the best particular product in a category is at any given moment” has become a herculean, if not impossible, task; the internet is too big, and it’s filled with too much stuff. And, as many online shoppers learned during the height of the pandemic, purchases don’t always follow the cold, rational logic of a Wirecutter recommendation. We panic-buy; we impulse-buy; we buy to fill a hole in our lives. “The ideal review is that you test everything and then there’s one product that works well for most people,” a former Wirecutter editor, who asked to speak anonymously because they still work in media, told me. “But who is ‘most people’?”

Every former Wirecutter employee I spoke with recounted stories of their teams wrestling with this exact question. Reviewers told me that their work evolved and broadened when they moved or had children: The best washer and dryer, for example, is different depending on whether you’re a bachelor, an ultramarathoner, or a homemaker.

Today, defining most people is an existential question for recommendation sites like Wirecutter, which does not ruthlessly harvest user data or offer targeted personal recommendations the way larger retailers such as Amazon do. It’s unclear what role a site like Wirecutter might play in one possible version of the future internet, where generative-AI assistants sift through information from recommendation sites and tailor them to their user’s detailed interests. For now, the site is doing an internal review to see if there are more effective ways to format reviews—Frumin cited Wirecutter’s “22,000-word” air-purifier review as a triumph of the form and a work of great journalism, but he also noted that it’s not a style that all readers might prefer.

The mere existence of a novella-length air-purifier review helps illustrate what may be the truth about Wirecutter, which is that it is a victim of its own, very real success. Wirecutter’s trajectory is the story of what the internet does to most great ideas: It forces them to scale, and then others replicate the concepts at varying levels of quality until, eventually, an economic, algorithmic wildfire is burning. The original is consumed and left in a scarred landscape. Has Wirecutter become less reliable? Or did the world and everyone around it change? Is there a place on an ever more commercialized web for long, obsessive letters from an anti-consumerist, gadget-loving friend? Or is the craft and care of the meticulous product review now a digital antique? The answer, like any good Wirecutter review, is full of contradictions: Yes.

 

[Guadaloopy 10,954]

On 12/28/2023 at 4:19 PM, 'stache said:

The local AMC has the saddest looking little bar at the entrance. It's like a tiny liquor closet and they even put four bar stools there, like someone might just mosey up and sip some Jack Daniels at the AMC.  I still can't get over how dumb and pointless it was. If I had the seed money or net worth I'd press hard to open an Alamo Drafthouse in Tulsa. I think it would crush. It's the only movie theater experience that I would enjoy. 

Regal Warren in BA.  Go to the 21+ theaters upstairs.  $18.99 unlimited monthly membership has no upcharge for the 21+ theaters.    Pays for itself with just one movie per month. 

[dogbreath 434]

Warren Zevon tells it like it is. 

[Homercles 10,205]

On 12/28/2023 at 7:59 PM, Macanudo said:

This kind of encapsulates how I feel about American life.   We are all just consumsers.   Corporations don't give a fuck about their employees.   If a few pennies can be saved today by paring down the workforce in order to prop up the share price then they do it.  Regardless of whether they are forgoing real growth 2 or 3 years down the road that returns a significant amount more than was saved.   We have to drive that share prices up now! 

Christmas is a great example of this.   It's an economic event wrapped in "the reason for the season" bullshit.   It's understandable when smaller businesses dorve the economy but with the emergene of the monopolies and oligarchies, only a few really benefit.  

We're fucked as consumers and employees.  Corporations have had undue influence on politics for a long time but within the last 15-20 years they have gained such a huge advantage that average people don't matter.  With politicians doing corporate bidding over citizens, we're just fucked.

Thought not fully in line with the intent of this thread…I had one of my patented ‘rants to sef while driving’ yesterday.  

I accidentally broke our Christmas tree, bought at Costco a decade ago, by storing it in the bag, upside down.  Ran to Costco and bought another one.  Returned the tree yesterday, they took it with a smile and gave me $400 back.  

The conundrum is the lady didn’t ask if it was the old $300 tree or the new $400 tree that broke.  She actually thanked me for ‘being the reason I have a great job’ after I apologized for hauling in a huge box on a cart.  

Costco is one the least-shitified companies I use on a regular basis and try to reward them with my business when feasible.  They have a great return policy, pay their folks well, and don’t seem hell bent on screwing me over for a buck.  

Thus I felt guilty for sorta gaming the system…but then again, large companies consistently used PPP loans to buyback stock, layoffs happen without remorse, Covid was an excuse to jack up prices long after supply chain issues, and my employer is insistent I waste gas to sit in an empty office to keep tax breaks.  

The proverbial ‘They’ will take whatever they can get. If I have a loophole available, so be it.  Use ad blockers, VPNs, etc.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Homercles said:

I accidentally broke our Christmas tree, bought at Costco a decade ago, by storing it in the bag, upside down.  Ran to Costco and bought another one.  Returned the tree yesterday, they took it with a smile and gave me $400 back.  

That's just straight up bullshit.

That's not having one go your way or getting lucky.  You are deliberately fucking over the retailer.

Edited December 31, 2023 by slorch

[Helobious 9,457]

Costco will never financially recover from that $100 loss.

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Costco will never financially recover from that $100 loss.

They have money.  why shouldn't we just take it?

What the fuck is wrong with you people?  

[Helobious 9,457]

5 minutes ago, slorch said:

They have money.  why shouldn't we just take it?

What the fuck is wrong with you people?  

Homercles outlined all the reasons the average person gets fucked over by corporations every day. You’re not up in arms over any of it. So I’m not going to lose sleep over Costco losing $100 on something they could’ve easily prevented

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Homercles outlined all the reasons the average person gets fucked over by corporations every day. You’re not up in arms over any of it. So I’m not going to lose sleep over Costco losing $100 on something they could’ve easily prevented

Deliberate theft ( rental if you want to do the gymnastics) is bullshit.

He actually described how they are better than most with their policies.

Fuck em.   Just take what you want.

 

"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it."

- some dude named Leo

Edited December 31, 2023 by slorch

[Newdoc 3,439]

Lulz. Stick it to the “man” bc somewhere, somehow, a corporation screwed someone. Greed abounds but I’m not purposefully deceiving a retailer to bring justice to the retail universe. 

Theft doesn’t live in a vacuum and the corporations will find someway to make the rest of us pay for your bullshit. 

The irony of this involving a Christmas tree shouldn’t be lost in all of this. 

[Captainant 27,619]

4 hours ago, Homercles said:

Thought not fully in line with the intent of this thread…I had one of my patented ‘rants to sef while driving’ yesterday.  

I accidentally broke our Christmas tree, bought at Costco a decade ago, by storing it in the bag, upside down.  Ran to Costco and bought another one.  Returned the tree yesterday, they took it with a smile and gave me $400 back.  

The conundrum is the lady didn’t ask if it was the old $300 tree or the new $400 tree that broke.  She actually thanked me for ‘being the reason I have a great job’ after I apologized for hauling in a huge box on a cart.  

Costco is one the least-shitified companies I use on a regular basis and try to reward them with my business when feasible.  They have a great return policy, pay their folks well, and don’t seem hell bent on screwing me over for a buck.  

Thus I felt guilty for sorta gaming the system…but then again, large companies consistently used PPP loans to buyback stock, layoffs happen without remorse, Covid was an excuse to jack up prices long after supply chain issues, and my employer is insistent I waste gas to sit in an empty office to keep tax breaks.  

The proverbial ‘They’ will take whatever they can get. If I have a loophole available, so be it.  Use ad blockers, VPNs, etc.  

Costco is that way because they've built their business model to align their incentives with their customers. They don't really make much on retail sales, almost everything sold is with only enough margin to cover overhead. Where they make their real money is on memberships and services and product warranties, and customers will only keep buying them if they trust the business they're working with. 

[Guest]

What about Christmas tree warrantees?

[Guest]

Lolz, so the coverup eliminates a crime…nice gymnastics.

 

and I don’t work retail. 

Edited January 2 by slorch

[Guest]

I’m Just put out with the bullshit. I’m far from perfect, but Be fucking honest and don’t hose people.

Not saying he should be executed, but this shit seems like it’s celebrated now.  It did not stop being wrong because people like it.

[Wally Fairway 5,539]

On 12/30/2023 at 11:11 AM, BrazilHorn said:

The UX changes to Prime both via their streaming site and the Kindle store are awful. 
The rebranding of Max from the HBO/Max also awful. 
Needlessly complicated and annoying to use. 

Prime music went to hell about 6 months ago - they took play lists and basically made them into suggestions. You cannot play the music you want to listen to without some algo playing something that is in your "liking". 
I didn't cancel prime, but I did start useing Spotify (because my daughter - lol, no pics - pays for the family plan, so now she can monitor what I listen to ). And I could get the same service as in the past for something like $9.99/month or maybe it was more. So I just quit using it.

And about Kindle - look into a free book app. I use both Libby and Hoopla; Hoopla limits you to 7 items a month. Libby is unlimited, but seems to be a slimmer selection. Both are free, but you have to link the app to the Library where you are a member (oh btw, most of those are free).

[Homercles 10,205]

Uh oh I’ve got Slorch wound up

 

Edited January 2 by Homercles

[Captainant 27,619]

It's funny, the things that slorch chooses to take a moral stance on - I would not have guessed that a consumer getting one over on a retailer would be such a pearl clutching event for him

[Guest]

LOL as if there is a debate in the morality.

It is straight up fucking wrong.

The attempt to justify it because those guys have money is just laughable.

[HornOnTheBayou 8,904]

2 hours ago, BeardIP said:

Not to speak for Homercles but this is probably a credit in his mental ledger for Costco where 10x debits will flow, making it a great investment in the lifetime value of Homer as a customer. To say nothing of the positive press and word of mouth Homer will give them by telling this story to his network.

This is terrible logic. It's the equivalent of, "Last week, the anti-theft alarms at HEB were broken, so I grabbed two twelve-packs of beer off the shelf and walked right out without paying. No one even tried to stop me! I'm now a loyal HEB customer for life!"

Damn all of you for making me agree with @slorch.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

Your analogy is broken. This wasn't a one-party event (e.g. Homercles acting without Costco's consent or knowledge). It was a two-party event. 

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Wanna know why customer service and return policies can be fucked up at many places?  Because of the idiots who take advantage of loop-holes/ exceptions.

Costco isn’t offering free tree rentals.  They aren’t a willing participant in this ‘ transaction.’  The example you are looking for might be HEB offering a free turkey with a purchase of a ham.

Edited January 2 by slorch

[HornOnTheBayou 8,904]

Wait, I need something clarified. @Homercles, did you return the $400 tree or the $300 one? If you returned the $400 tree and got $400 back, then that's cool. If Costco is OK with you returning it after Christmas, then that's on them. If you returned a $300 tree and got $400 back, then that's a problem.

[Homercles 10,205]

Yes I walked in intending to return my $300 tree for $300, but the lady in CS pulled up the more recent $400 purchase without asking me and refunded the new, $400 tree.  It happened quickly, there was a big line behind me, and I assuaged my guilt almost instantly.  This wasn’t Lucy In Disguise.

I adopt a Costco-first policy whenever possible…playgrounds, TVs, my outdoor fridge, etc in addition to the basics.  They’ve made thousands off me in profit, and their cheerful willingness to make a small mistake in my favor absolutely endears them to my future business.  

One time the ATM at a bank gave me an extra $20, off the dozens of times I’ve paid $3+ to use that machine.  I didn’t run back in, breathlessly, to alert them.  

Didn’t mean to thread derail, and I don’t make it a habit to game ‘the system’…my meandering point was it was gratifying to have ‘bank error in your favor’ for once as it feels corporate greed has reached intense levels, esp since Covid.  The famously slow government is looking into frequent flyer programs for fucks sake.  

[Zepol87 9,185]

I return shit to Costco all the time when I’m tired of using it. Need some new couches so I’m getting ready to return these ones also.  Fuck off 

[Incredulity 11,643]

Make no mistake those returns aren’t being borne by Costco or any other retailer.  Those costs are deducted from payments to the manufacturers.  Costco and Walmart are well known for bankrupting small unsophisticated manufacturers with the practice.

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,570]

1 hour ago, Homercles said:

Yes I walked in intending to return my $300 tree for $300, but the lady in CS pulled up the more recent $400 purchase without asking me and refunded the new, $400 tree.  It happened quickly, there was a big line behind me, and I assuaged my guilt almost instantly.  This wasn’t Lucy In Disguise.

I adopt a Costco-first policy whenever possible…playgrounds, TVs, my outdoor fridge, etc in addition to the basics.  They’ve made thousands off me in profit, and their cheerful willingness to make a small mistake in my favor absolutely endears them to my future business.  

One time the ATM at a bank gave me an extra $20, off the dozens of times I’ve paid $3+ to use that machine.  I didn’t run back in, breathlessly, to alert them.  

Didn’t mean to thread derail, and I don’t make it a habit to game ‘the system’…my meandering point was it was gratifying to have ‘bank error in your favor’ for once as it feels corporate greed has reached intense levels, esp since Covid.  The famously slow government is looking into frequent flyer programs for fucks sake.  

Slorch and others almost selectively and instantaneously aware of injustice to those who are impacted least. 

[CHAD BRISCOE 371]

On 12/30/2023 at 8:19 AM, troph said:

If been thinking about this more. I think the answer is reading books (real ones), going outside and art. Make art, experience art. Humans were made to create and experience art, being in nature has tremendous health benefits. I’m more and more convinced opting out is the right answer. 

In the Olden Days they had all kind's of art and Nature and they all died of Diarrea 

[Homercles 10,205]

14 minutes ago, CHAD BRISCOE said:

In the Olden Days they had all kind's of art and Nature and they all died of Diarrea 

[B00M 6,413]

3 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

I return shit to Costco all the time when I’m tired of using it. Need some new couches so I’m getting ready to return these ones also.  Fuck off 

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,570]

Guaranteed!!!

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,974]

REI used to have a very liberal return policy, but folks abused it and they had to ditch it. So there is that. A select group of abusers ruined something for everyone who was responsible with it. 

[Captainant 27,619]

5 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

REI used to have a very liberal return policy, but folks abused it and they had to ditch it. So there is that. A select group of abusers ruined something for everyone who was responsible with it. 

REI's primary revenue in their business model doesn't come from membership fees, while Costco's membership program is the cornerstone of their business - they're hoping people keep coming in for returns because it means they're still paying for a membership

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,974]

Yeah, but if they sell their product at nearly zero margins, abusing the system has the same effect and increases their costs, which cuts into their main revenue.

[Guest]

nm

Edited January 3 by slorch

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

Prior to graduation I worked retail and there were certainly customers that did or attempted to return items under questionable circumstances. The owner had a small regional chain and the policy was essentially left up to each manager and that's who we (the floor staff) went to with issues and that person made the decision. I got a little disgusted with the parents who would bring in their sons' cleats at the end of football season--broken down and filthy and smelly, claim they were defective and then want to trade them in for basketball shoes (and after that season track or baseball spikes) or cash. That was usually met with the response of 'no cash, only trade in like for like i.e. another identical pair of football cleats.' If the owner knew the family then there were *cough* exceptions made but usually not because otherwise he was essentially outfitting half the region's teams for four years and multiple sports off a one-time purchase. If they were buying other goods, it might have worked but he didn't stock other merchandise the way a big outfit would. I have little idea how common that was/is elsewhere. It is my own admittedly limited anecdote. Some people would view the exchange one way and other people another way but when you're seventeen, eighteen working and standing across from guys your own age and their moms/dads doing that, you wonder how they (teen and parent) view it comparatively. At least I did.

[CooterBrown 18,001]

One thing I try to instill in my kids is that if you can't do the right thing when people are looking, how are you going to make the hard decision to do the right thing when no one is looking.  This was an easy case of doing to the right thing when people were looking and you failed.  I'd take away your electronics for a week and march you back to Costco and give them the $400 back.

 

[Incredulity 11,643]

11 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

REI used to have a very liberal return policy, but folks abused it and they had to ditch it. So there is that. A select group of abusers ruined something for everyone who was responsible with it. 

REI has a narrow supplier base and they all said, "we aren't taking this shit back". 

Costco and WalMart have extremely broad supplier bases and if Vendor A for fake Chinese Christmas trees won't eat the bag of shit on "defective" trees then Vendor B probably will.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,867]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:27 PM, Homercles said:

Thought not fully in line with the intent of this thread…I had one of my patented ‘rants to sef while driving’ yesterday.  

I accidentally broke our Christmas tree, bought at Costco a decade ago, by storing it in the bag, upside down.  Ran to Costco and bought another one.  Returned the tree yesterday, they took it with a smile and gave me $400 back.  

The conundrum is the lady didn’t ask if it was the old $300 tree or the new $400 tree that broke.  She actually thanked me for ‘being the reason I have a great job’ after I apologized for hauling in a huge box on a cart.  

Costco is one the least-shitified companies I use on a regular basis and try to reward them with my business when feasible.  They have a great return policy, pay their folks well, and don’t seem hell bent on screwing me over for a buck.  

Thus I felt guilty for sorta gaming the system…but then again, large companies consistently used PPP loans to buyback stock, layoffs happen without remorse, Covid was an excuse to jack up prices long after supply chain issues, and my employer is insistent I waste gas to sit in an empty office to keep tax breaks.  

The proverbial ‘They’ will take whatever they can get. If I have a loophole available, so be it.  Use ad blockers, VPNs, etc.  

Did you put the old tree in the new tree box?  If so, then I would venture that this was a deliberate deception on your part and you should feel guilty for theft.

[Captainant 27,619]

Can we talk about how Boeing has gone from a world class aviation company and world leader in the industry, to a negligent and dog shit company? The McD D MBA team has thoroughly fucked their shit up and killed the engineering culture in favor of outsourced work and pencil whipped inspections.

The MAX7 is requesting a cert exemption for busted deicing, the MAX8 had a real problem with killing hundreds of people at once, and the MAX9 has entire panels of the fuselage just flying the fuck off >10,000 feet. 

Boeing is such a tragic example of enshittification in the name of chasing quarterly profits by idiot MBA beancounters

[troph 24,781]

Not the same as airplanes falling out of the sky but private equity bought Torchys and they got rid of a bunch of tacos because the costs were too much for rapey profit levels. I know not the greatest tacos but whatever. Salmon, sausage and barbacoa taken off the menu because $$$$.

[safe sex 11,696]

9 hours ago, troph said:

Not the same as airplanes falling out of the sky but private equity bought Torchys and they got rid of a bunch of tacos because the costs were too much for rapey profit levels. I know not the greatest tacos but whatever. Salmon, sausage and barbacoa taken off the menu because $$$$.

I had their barbacoa two hours ago?

[troph 24,781]

58 minutes ago, safe sex said:

I had their barbacoa two hours ago?

They will be phasing it out. Our Torchys is their test kitchen. It’s going away, at least that’s what the bartender told us Saturday afternoon when I ordered the salmon taco and she said they don’t have it anymore, nor the sausage, barbacoa, and the other stores are next. Menu even still shows them available. Nope.

[gmr548 16,575]

On 12/31/2023 at 4:16 PM, slorch said:

Deliberate theft ( rental if you want to do the gymnastics) is bullshit.

He actually described how they are better than most with their policies.

Fuck em.   Just take what you want.

 

"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it."

- some dude named Leo

Do you think Costco is not aware that thing like this happen and has not deliberately decide to eat that small loss in order to maintain its strong reputation and brand loyalty?

[Captainant 27,619]

31 minutes ago, troph said:

They will be phasing it out. Our Torchys is their test kitchen. It’s going away, at least that’s what the bartender told us Saturday afternoon when I ordered the salmon taco and she said they don’t have it anymore, nor the sausage, barbacoa, and the other stores are next. Menu even still shows them available. Nope.

Both tacos?

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Do you think Costco is not aware that thing like this happen and has not deliberately decide to eat that small loss in order to maintain its strong reputation and brand loyalty?

Doesn’t matter. Again, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  There doesn’t have to be a law for every decent act.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

47 minutes ago, troph said:

They will be phasing it out. Our Torchys is their test kitchen. It’s going away, at least that’s what the bartender told us Saturday afternoon when I ordered the salmon taco and she said they don’t have it anymore, nor the sausage, barbacoa, and the other stores are next. Menu even still shows them available. Nope.

What???? I just had the Mr. Orange taco last week and I love that one. So much flavor.

[F250 28,761]

46 minutes ago, troph said:

They will be phasing it out. Our Torchys is their test kitchen. It’s going away, at least that’s what the bartender told us Saturday afternoon when I ordered the salmon taco and she said they don’t have it anymore, nor the sausage, barbacoa, and the other stores are next. Menu even still shows them available. Nope.

Mr. Orange is my go-to taco at Torchys. If they take it off the menu I doubt I will ever drop in at a Torchys again.

[troph 24,781]

That’s what they told me When I ordered it and they said no more, ever. Fuck private equity.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

11 minutes ago, F250 said:

Mr. Orange is my go-to taco at Torchys. If they take it off the menu I doubt I will ever drop in at a Torchys again.

Ditto. I do have other places to satisfy a taco crave, but that one was worth the visit.

[pacman 7,354]

Torchy's brick and mortar was never as good as their days in the trailer. Sounds like they will just be too bell now

[mdmost 42,997]

They can have my Brushfire when they take it out of my cold dead hands!