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

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    Relaxing and enjoying life MR2 Fan's Avatar
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    Market Disruptions Thread (aka Millennials ruin EVERYTHING!)

    I wanted to post a new thread regarding this topic, and you can feel free to just read along or add your own thoughts/info.

    As we've seen, many established markets recently are being disrupted by new technologies/companies.

    I figured I would make a list and my thoughts as I feel it is very important to recognize this paradigm shift and being able to predict what may come next.

    The markets that are either being changed massively right now or expected in the near future:

    Retail (Amazon and, well, Amazon)
    Music (first it was Napster, then Itunes, now Spotify, etc.)
    Movies & TV Shows (Netflix and other streaming services getting their own exclusive movies and awards)
    Cable/Satellite TV vs. Cord-Cutters (ESPN is losing out big time)
    Currency (Cryptocurrency, boom, bust?)
    Automotive (electric and auto-pilot changes specifically)
    Taxi Services (Uber and Lyft vs. existing Taxi companies with often violent consequences)
    Large Restaurant Chains losing ground to smaller, quick service restaurants and things like UberEats coming out now with delivery
    Grocery (not really a thing yet, but will be more common I think)


    Looking back, every industry has gone through major changes in the past century or so...but they were seemingly more gradual and not completely overhauled within a 5-10 year span.

    I do think Millennials are a major contributor to these changes, but as most of us know, just blaming them isn't the solution. The problem is the people who have been in business for a long time can't predict what they want very well.

    There's a youtube channel, L2Inc. about business disruptions and he discussed how brand names don't matter as much anymore in the era of Alexa and Google Home.




    Ironically, the small companies who were the upstarts challenging the big companies a few decades ago are becoming juggernauts in the new space.

    Consider Apple, Google (erm, "Alphabet"), Amazon....how much just these 3 companies control

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    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    Saw a comment on FB or reddit the gist of which was "all these so-called disruptions happened because of a failure of customer service."

    Commenter went on to list off a few of the obvious ones:
    Netflix: people were tired of late fees, etc from brick and mortar rentals
    Uber/Lyft: taxi pricing, taxi cars, taxi unions
    Streaming audio and mp3 services: high CD album prices, mailed-in recordings with only a couple good songs, etc.
    Streaming video: increasingly crappy television shows, industry resistance to DVRs, high cable/satellite rates

    Tesla's retail-store dealer model could be added to that list, probably.

    Interesting thought.
    Whoomah!

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    Relaxing and enjoying life MR2 Fan's Avatar
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    That and people want things instantly delivered...cheaper.

    When I think of customer service, I think of how friendly someone is, etc. but ironically that part is what will be mostly gone in a few years as most things get automated....which also needs to be considered of course. The market of automation and if socialism has to return in some form.

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    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    Sears and JCPenney should have been in a prime spot for instant delivery around the US--huge stores, sold everything, everywhere. Totally missed the boat, though.
    Whoomah!

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    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Random View Post
    Sears and JCPenney should have been in a prime spot for instant delivery around the US--huge stores, sold everything, everywhere. Totally missed the boat, though.
    Sears used to do that, minus the "instant" that we have come to expect today. When I was a kid, we had a Sears Catalog Store in our small town. It was a storefront that always had a washer & dryer on display in the window. You could also pick up the magical Sears Wish Book around Christmas. It was about four inches thick and had a huge toy section that I used to drool over.

    There wasn't much else in the store except a counter where you placed your order and a loading dock in the back where their truck dropped off those horrible Toughskins jeans a few days later.

    Then, as a teen and young adult living in a city with a large Sears store at the mall, I learned to buy tools there and ask advice from the older gentlemen working in the hardware department.

    One day I went in and all the old guys were gone, replaced by idiot teenagers who couldn't find their backsides with a mirror and a stick. I think that was the beginning of the end for Sears. It sure has been a long, slow death, however. I'm still mad at Sears for buying Lands' End. Suddenly the wonderful Hyde Park dress shirts I had been wearing for years got more expensive while also made of thinner material and a different cut. But I digress, as usual.

    Seems to me all this Amazon stuff isn't much different than in days gone by, where people placed their orders from a catalog (now the internet) and received their order in a week or so (now overnight, if not sooner).

    I sure wouldn't want to be in the big-box brick & mortar retail business right now. Just look at Colorado-based Sports Authority, formerly the #2 sporting goods retailer in the country with 425 stores around 2012. Now they don't exist.

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    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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    I used to get Sears and JCP catalogs. They were relevant until about 1998 in our house.

    Someone gave me a Sports Authority gift card last year. I used it immediately, online, before they could go out of business.

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    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Way to stick it to the man!

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    Ask me about my bottom br FaultyMario's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    I'm still mad at Sears for buying Lands' End. Suddenly the wonderful Hyde Park dress shirts I had been wearing for years got more expensive while also made of thinner material and a different cut. But I digress, as usual.
    Stuff like this has me thinking about having shirts (and maybe pants) made by a tailor or cuts-lady (whatever you call that in English), of course we developing worldies have the luxury of cheap manual labor... how bad do you yanks have it?
    acket.

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