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Thread: Market Disruptions Thread (aka Millennials ruin EVERYTHING!)

  1. #11
    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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    Seamstress.

    When I want a nice shirt I'll order one and then take it to the tailor (or seamstress, actually) and have her tailor them to me. Runs about $20 per shirt, though.

  2. #12
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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  3. #13
    Junior Potato
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    The makers of GPS devices enjoyed only a decade of relevance. I was laughing only yesterday at Google's initial refusal to release a Google Maps iPhone app after Apple introduced their own maps service. Now look at the GPS market. If you haven't got an app for Android or iOS then you're not worth shit.

    And Kodak. Don't forget Kodak. They're the prime lesson at failing to keep up with technology, and they failed hard.

  4. #14
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    My tailored shirts are not cheap (well, some are cheaper than others) but they are AWESOME. Once you go tailored, you'll almost never go back, unless it's for a special fabric that your tailor doesn't have (like Ministry of Supply fabric) or for something other than a work shirt.

  5. #15
    Relaxing and enjoying life MR2 Fan's Avatar
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    found this today


  6. #16
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    I've never tailored anything so far! Nerdy engineers don't really need them I guess..., but now it's beginning to sound like I'm missing out...

    Is there a tailor-swift.com for cheap engineers like me?

  7. #17
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    Amazon's customer service is top-notch. Any time I've had an issue with an order they fix it immediately.

    Taxis in Chicago have info on the side of their cars refrencing their *new app!!!. One that will summon a taxi (from just that one company) as soon as you order it!!!

  8. #18
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FaultyMario View Post
    Stuff like this has me thinking about having shirts (and maybe pants) made by a tailor or [a seamstress ], of course we developing worldies have the luxury of cheap manual labor... how bad do you yanks have it?
    Yanks have it fine. But some of us (I, anyway) live in a fantasy world where we think everything should be inexpensive, good quality, and readily available. You can have any two of those, but all three at once is difficult to find.

    My biggest gripe about modern retail is that it can be tough to find something you like and want more of the same in different colors and patterns. Or, for things that aren't clothes, once something wears out and you need another, that kind isn't made any more and the replacement is cheap and flimsy compared to the one you used to have -- and more expensive, of course.

    I think modern retail works like this:

    Let's say "Famous Brand" shirts have been around forever. Your father wore them and his did too. But now, they're all made in China or wherever and there is no consistency of manufacture.

    You go down to the local department store and see a Famous Brand shirt you like. It has all the features you like -- reasonably priced, looks good, has your preferred fabric and features, and, best of all, it fits really well.

    You might take it home and wear it a couple times and wash it a couple times to make sure it doesn't shrink or anything. Great. Now you want several more in different colors and patterns.

    They no longer exist.

    That batch sold out at your favorite retailer weeks ago. No other stores nearby carries that exact style. However, right this minute there is a container ship crossing the Pacific with a thousands of new Famous Brand shirts. Hooray!

    Not so fast.

    This time around, a different overseas shirt factory bid a lowest price to Famous Brand headquarters in the USA than the factory that made the shirts the last time. So the new place got the order for a years' supply of mens' shirts to ship to the USA. FB sent them the specifications for the shirts, but the different factory made them slightly differently. No gauntlet buttons, to cut costs. Thinner material. A different collar. Different back darts. Averaged sleeve sizing instead of exact. New and improved (but actually awful) "wrinkle-free" fabric. DIFFERENT FIT. Whatever. They are not the same as before.

    So you learn to put up with the ones you like less than the old. Or you try a different brand and start the process over.

    That has been my story, anyway, for the last several years. It's hard to find shirts I like, and when I do, I can't find any more.

    "Buy online", you say? Well, I used to, until I couldn't trust Lands' End anymore. Read reviews of their Hyde Park shirts going back a couple years and you'll see what I mean. I had fifteen or twenty of their Hyde Park shirts that lasted through YEARS AND YEARS of commercial laundering and light starch. They were made in Hong Kong and lasted like redwood trees.

    When my supply started running low, Sears had bought Lands' End and the reviews online at that time were HORRIBLE. Guys were yelling about how they'd worn those shirts for twenty years but now the sizing was different and the new collars were too low to get a necktie completely under in the back.

    Right now I have a few LL Bean shirts that seem okay, but I'm frustrated with them for opening a retail store near me and filling it mens' dress shirts with exact sizing - not just S, M, L, and XL. Patterns straight out of The Preppy Handbook. They also had polo shirts and nice trousers. when they opened near me, I thought I was set for life!

    BUT THEN, they removed anything even remotely appropriate for a professional office job in favor of canoes, hiking gear, camping gear, and wrinkly adventure shirts with epaulets and pleated pockets that would look fine on safari but not at work. Damn.

    Yes, I can call them or order through their website, but I can't try them on first that way, and I'm not one to pack up stuff and ship it back. I don't have the time or interest in doing business that way. I want to buy in person, at least until I know what I like. Then I'm happy to re-order online, until they change their specifications without telling anyone. Lands' End did this with "my" shirts, and apparently LL Bean did it with their Double L Polo shirts, which got scathing reviews online for changing to a new "slim fit" without telling anyone, just after I bought a couple and decided I liked them.

    So then I found some Arrow button-down shirts I liked at Sears (go figure). The material is a little thin, but otherwise the shirts look good and fit well. I bought two. Went back to get more. All gone. Thinking I'd give Amazon a shot for once, I searched all the different numbers in the shirt - the one on the main label and also the ones on the tag sewn in near the bottom with laundering instructions. I couldn't find any that seem to be the same "model" of shirt online ANYWHERE - not at Amazon, not at various department stores' websites, and not at Arrow's own website.

    So, the next time I need a couple new shirts, I'll wander into some random department store and roll the dice. Again.

    First-world problems, I know. And this post is way too long. But it's fun to have a new topic to discuss here at the GTXF to distract from the same tired old threads.
    Last edited by George; August 23rd, 2017 at 09:11 AM.

  9. #19
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MR2 Fan View Post
    found this today

    Point/counterpoint:

    Netflix did not kill Blockbuster due to late fees alone. Once Netflix went online instead of (or in addition to?) mailing out DVDs, people could watch a movie online without having to get off their fat arses to schlep movies home from the Blockbuster store, and then have to return them later on.

    Shopping from home on a computer also gave Amazon the edge over having to physically go buy something in a store. Only damn fools do that anymore. Why not stay home and eat pizza and drink beer while shopping?

    Apple did not kill the music industry. Cassette tapes did. Once we could make copies of friends' vinyl albums and tape songs from the radio, it became easy to find "alternative sources" of music instead of paying for it. Anyone remember when radio stations would play full albums, or album sides? I've always thought there was a lot of nudge, nudge, wink wink going on there, as in "time to get your tape recorders ready, people!" when they'd announce they would play Dark Side Of The Moon starting at midnight, for example.

    Then came Napster, the first time around. Boom. The cat was out of the bag. How are you gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Europe?

    Just an opinion from a "full-length album" fan.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    So, the next time I need a couple new shirts, I'll wander into some random department store and roll the dice. Again.
    Totally understand and agree with your pain.

    But perhaps this is also the result of companies being too customer-centric... most people wants new cheap stuffs... and that's what we have!

    If you want something really good, higher quality material & craftsmenship, then you'll have to pay extra for it! 1st world problems can always be solved with extra money!

    In the future, I'm sure technology will be able to solve this problem. You can probably go to a store or online... scan in your measurements, pick the material and style you want... and robots will be able to tailor make the stuff for you and have Amazon drones deliver it to your closet directly... you should be able to save a copy of your purchase and should you wish to order another color of the same shirt, surely a robot will be able to reproduce one exactly!

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