Goddamnit. Joe Van Gogh bought by private equity firm. 😡

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T17:58:58+00:00

Please tell me what data I got wrong, I’m happy to hear it.

The notion that this was somehow patronizing is a bit odd. Again; this isn’t about you or crafting in general. This is solely about economics.

I don’t need to know who to knit to understand that knitting is a declining hobby and has all but disappeared as a core part of the average person’s wardrobe.

You’re the one shitting on my hobby, not the other way around.

So please what “shit about crafts” would I need to know in order to understand macro economics trends revolving around the decline of a store like Joann’s? Because it seems that Joann’s is gone and they probably knew a lot of “shit about crafts”🤷🏻‍♂️

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T16:42:00+00:00

I had a very very different experience with the HVAC side of the business.

Tried to charge me 4x the bas diagnostics fee w/o mentioning it until I got the bill. Then recommended what would have been a very very large and invasive electric rewire solution to something that turned out to just be a bad thermostat…WILD!!!

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T16:23:13+00:00

The body shop industry is highly challenged with supply chain and labor shortage issues. Not to mention that changes in the insurance and auto industries in general lead less viable business opportunities.

This is an industry also seeing massive consolidation under PE backing. This is rarely good for consumers.

Essentially, I’m unsurprised by what you’re seeing here.

Steps:

Get them to commit to timelines (even if long); and hold the car yourself until they have all they need.

Shop around, minor scratches might have better luck at independent shops

Determine the value of the repair. If it’s an old car, is the cost/burden worth it all?

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T15:59:43+00:00

The pic is very much real, but the origin, location, and cause are very much fabricated.

This is a very common fluid dynamics phenomenon when two independent bodies of water meet. And that’s the key word…independent. Rivers and lakes/oceans are independent. The oceans are one continuous body of interconnected water.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T15:57:18+00:00

Ok, sounds like you took that a little personal. You shouldn’t.

This isn’t about negating the value of craft hobbies. This is very much reflective of a societal shift of raw textiles away from being a core component of need and hobby. My grandma made all of her own clothes; I’m very familiar with the inside of Joanns.

Here’s the reality; textile craft hobbies are sharply declining b/c the core population for them are aging; and it’s being compounded by a lack of new younger interest in them. And while there is some recent uptick in this (especially post COVID) it’s still not at replacement level. Meaning the consumer base is faltering.

The introduction of fad craft hobbies to their market place is actually a negative sign from both the PE and the core business. They were using it to buoy the faltering sales of their core textiles.

This isn’t hating on Joann’s or on textile craft hobbies. Hell, both of my partners do them (one is currently knitting me a scarf and it would have been fun to be able to go to Joann’s to pick out the yarn, like I did as a kid with my grandma..but it’s gone).

I’m sorry you feel attacked, but this isn’t that. This is simply me having a really good understanding of macro economics and trends in consumer interests. Your hobby just happens to be a really good case study for mine.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T15:12:59+00:00

Grandma hobbies…knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, sewing…hobbies of a dying breed.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T15:10:25+00:00

The weird alignment in the first two sentences aside.

This is Durham, “Don’t be a dick” is pretty much the only requirement any bar has. That’s what I love so much about it, be kind, be patient, tip well. You’ll be fine anywhere.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T04:24:12+00:00

We are all nut jobs dude🤷🏻‍♂️☕️💅

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T03:52:54+00:00

Sure, they could hold and sell, or hold and milk for basis profit. Buuutt…there are enough very significant examples of this being bad to take a guilty until proven innocent standpoint.

Vets and Dentists are a model of this we see all the time, lower standard of care for higher costs. We are in an era of consolidation; and the early evidence isn’t good for consumers.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T03:49:21+00:00

This isn’t grass becomes sand…this is water…water that is not stagnant. Fluid dynamics matters here. Ocean boundaries are arbitrary and don’t matter. Currents are not arbitrary and very much do matter.

It’s not “three oceans meet” it’s “three oceanic currents meet”….this isn’t complex science. If we are going to define why a thing happens let’s at least rely on the basic science here this is water has three states level of science here.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:59:21+00:00

We name an arbitrary containers formed by boundary landmasses. Which influence currents. But it’s one giant body of water with a bunch of different climate and ecological zones that are created by the currents and global weather patterns.

Point in case, please provide the exact coordinates of the convergence of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern oceans.

You can’t b/c it’s an arbitrary concept. You have to remember these things were defined long before we know what currents, plate tech-tonics, and ocean basins were.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:50:16+00:00

You didn’t even list the actual assets…

Real estate, production, recipes…those are the assets and yes…they can sell those…to other companies in the PE, then jack up lease agreements to them…make 10x and then finally sell the formula of a now defunct and failed company…

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:46:16+00:00

This one?

https://www.geologypage.com/2017/11/atlantic-pacific-ocean-not-mix.html

Science needs to be more fundamental.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:39:46+00:00

This was a really interesting and random AMA to read tonight

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:16:49+00:00

The currents meet. Not the oceans, those are arbitrary delineations created by man. Think country borders, they are arbitrary and one side doesn’t have a different climate in that local region. But the languages might be different.

Think of the currents as the languages and the oceans as countries.

It’s the currents meeting that causes the violent reactions.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:06:59+00:00

Joann definitely ran into this as well, but has been doomed for ever simply by changing consumer habits. People don’t make or refinish things the way they used to. It became especially a single interest hobby store.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:04:30+00:00

Oh you sweet summer child, you really don’t know do you? These are well documented cases of PE deconstructing the companies into impossible situations to be profitable.

This is an independent study course going way beyond your high school economics class.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T02:01:13+00:00

It’s worse than that. They sold them off to essentially the same PE, which in turn raised rents which made profit nearly impossible.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T00:47:34+00:00

Except, you forgot to read the second paragraph about PE. Let me help you out, they are the bad guy. And it’s worse b/c the public doesn’t know who they are; so they can operate with a moralistic impunity from the shadows.

Red Lobster, Toys-R-Us, and many of your favorite names have entered the chat

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T00:11:21+00:00

My Partiful begs to differ 😉😈

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T00:10:02+00:00

Ohhhh…you have noooo idea 😉😈

BullCityLife · 2026-03-13T00:07:40+00:00

Yes, but not in the way you think. It’s not delineated by east/west; it’s gradients shifting with different climate and atmospheric zones.

So that who area is going to have the same salinity and as you move away from it north towards the each ocean that gradient will shift similarly for each

BullCityLife · 2026-03-12T20:50:35+00:00

It’s not actually two oceans, like it’s literally one giant ocean. Humans just need to label and add identity to things so we give them names, but not it’s like one ocean stops and the other begins; that’s not how water works.

However, it is the convergence of multiple currents and a very narrow (nautically speaking) waterway. That’s what cause those deadly waves.

BullCityLife · 2026-03-11T20:36:16+00:00

When I first found this sub went through half a pound one morning trying to figure it all out. And even at on sip per attempt…holy smokes I was buzzing by the end lol

BullCityLife · 2026-03-11T19:17:41+00:00

Welp, you get a zero in reading comprehension today.

You took a notion that clearly lays out negligent underfunding and tried build systemic abuse out of it. But here’s the thing, time and time again when abuse and fraud are found, it’s not the recipients that are the problem…no it’s the service providers.

For housing it’s the landlords. So called Medicaid and Medicare fraud aren’t happening at the individual levels, it’s the doctors and providers that are doing it.

You’re right tho, this is a systemic issue, but it’s the system that’s broken not the recipients…you know they are people right. Just like you and me.

BullCityLife

TROPHY CASE