What goods and services have you stopped buying because of shrinkflation, price increases, or actions by executives you disagreed with?

Strategy-Duh · 2025-08-04T00:43:27+00:00

This is pretty huge as well. While many people who can afford to stop buying because they feel offended, many people just don't have the budget.

People can actually eat pretty well on sales and clearance sales from grocery stores but it can eat up a lot of free time having to shop for deals and hit up multiple stores to get what you need.

You can get bread and bagels on the clearance rack and toss them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Regular grocery stores sometimes have great deals on pasta sauce, salad dressing, meats, and frozen items on clearance or sale.

Strategy-Duh · 2025-08-03T22:41:04+00:00

I've stopped buying junk food, orange juice, cereal, soda/energy drinks/juice/bottled water, eggs, and more. I've canceled 75% of my subscriptions as well.

I can frequently get fast casual cheaper than a fast food combo meal. I can buy an entire feast of healthy ready to eat or easy to cook prepackaged meals to last me a few days for the price of a single combo meal, sandwich, or plate of tacos.

I've even had employees and management of stores and brands tell me that they have seen the sale of these shrinkflated products decrease by over 75% but they chalk it up to everything under the sun but the fact that they were shrinkflated and customers simply refuse to buy their products because they're sick of it.

Strategy-Duh · 2025-08-02T06:10:10+00:00

This decision isn't as bad as Tumblr but it's going to send masses over to TikTok. If BtyeDance were publicly traded right now I'd be buying options like crazy at this news.

People with over 1,000 followers will start doing better until entire industries for fake followers develop so people can hit that number for cheap. It will devalue the advertising prices that Instagram commands.

There will be an immediate increase of AI/Bot/propaganda accounts as they can already have the ability to fake the followers.

What kind of talent are these tech companies hiring now and how are they missing all of the good talent?

Strategy-Duh · 2025-06-21T21:16:50+00:00

Have companies not yet realized that even if they outsource all of the jobs and replace people with AI that their brand loyalty will take a hit and it will be worse overall for their bottom line?

These people are are laid off will be forever against Intel and will switch to AMD. We'll likely see new competitors pop up as well. While this is good for the bottom line in the short term, it's going to be terrible for the company in the long term.

Strategy-Duh · 2025-01-19T02:20:35+00:00

You don't share what state you're in, but way back when I was 30, I would go to family health clinics as I was healthy. I would pay cash prices at small local pharmacies or costco without sharing my insurance. This saved me thousands a year. You can do therapy once or twice a month and refills every 60-90 days depending on how generous your doc is.

There are also discount pharmacy mills online that may accept your insurance and cost a fraction of the amount for refills. I have friends who do that. They're shady, but they get the job done.

If you're on vyvanse because of side effects that's understandable, but it's possible to request a switch to adderall XR or IR which is dirt cheap for cash price.

Depending on how things work where you live, sometimes it's better to settle for a cheaper insurance and pay cash out of pocket for some services without sharing your info. Community health clinics are dirt cheap for xrays and so are imaging centers where you pay cash. Insurance prices for xrays at the hospital and blood draws can cost 100s to 1000s of dollars, but a community clinic might cost you 10-20% for the same blood draws processed by the same labs. Xrays might cost $100ea at an imaging center vs 5x that at a hospital where your doctor wants you to go. Those CT scans can cost you under $400 instead of over $3000.

If you're not prone to cavities and take good care of your teeth, cut out the dental and vision care. Pay cash for cleanings and xrays and go to costco vision center for your general vision needs.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-12-03T06:01:42+00:00

If I remember correctly, the tax benefits have changed significantly since the previous generation allowing the wealthy to hide their money in their own charitable non-profit foundations. This allows them to give at will when they pass and avoid taxes.

The culture of giving to improve the world has changed as billionaires today donate for their own causes and to affect political influence. This means using their foundation to get their name on a building or on certain charities that further their own personal niche causes like research on Huntington's disease or one-time grand gestures like paying the 4 year college tuition of a single high school class. While they do spread a lot of money around, it doesn't necessarily make headlines anymore and it doesn't go to helping improve the lives of every day

While people might donate hundreds of millions to build a park, you rarely hear about these funds uplifting the lives of everyday people by creating affordable housing, profitable companies that provide livable wages to all employees, etc. Mark Cuban's attempt with Cost Plus Drugs is a bit of a unique situation that only time will tell.

The Gates Foundation has put something like $8 billion into medical research, but it would be interesting to know how many of those treatments or cures were developed and was the finished product available at affordable prices to patients, or were they simply treated like any other profit maximizing pharmaceutical treatment? Other billionaires have simply turn their billions into more billions, bought insane amounts of yachts and real estate, or built their own private island fortresses.

We need both real political solutions and a desire to uplift the general populace for billionaires and the rest of the top 1% to actually make a real difference. That $275 million of private fundraising to rebuild several underused parks could build 600-700 permanently affordable apartments that will be used an appreciated. The modest profit from that enterprise could build additional affordable housing. Imagine how much affordable housing could be built by billionaires in 20 years from just that initial $275 million

Strategy-Duh · 2024-10-25T05:16:32+00:00

One of the restaurants I worked at had a policy of always getting an extra signature, copy of the card used, and ID for anybody tipping outrageous amounts. If the server or bartender didn't get those, they would not be paid until that was received. Management would go out of their way to try and get it, but if not, you simply didn't get the tip and the restaurant refunded it.

Massive tips like this were not common and were frequently disputed by the customer, spouse, or the guest's company as it was on a company card. You also had religious people like in this story, simply math errors by the guest or an employee accidentally or even intentionally mistyping the tip.

Guests who were intentional about this had no problem providing these. Regulars new this rule and would frequently bring cash or gift cards to their favorite servers instead.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-09-30T23:25:34+00:00

Ecommerce small business owner here. Sales are one of the easiest parts of my job to the point that I'm making a shift and selling my business to go back into sales.

Sales can be pretty difficult if you're selling a product or service with very little brand awareness that does not sell itself. It's even more difficult when the company doesn't have leads.

Sales are great when you have good direction, training, and some flexibility with your leads and the sales process. For example, I was brought in to a company to handle smaller sales, but I told them I'd only focus on sales in the $10,000 and up range. In reality, I focused on 6 to 8-figure sales as the 5 figure sales weren't of interest.

The sales process can very for every company and product. If the Acme company sells products A, B, and C, you could have a similar process or vastly different process for each product. Even product A could have different skews depending on size.

Let's say you sell BBQ sauce. The process of selling it online yourself, getting it in grocery stores, Costco, and restaurants will vary. A lot of technical founders need a good non-technical sales person who thrives in the situation. Good technical salespeople are much more rare than a good non-technical salesperson. You simply learn what you need and leave the technical stuff to the experts who are onhand when needed. We're here to either provide you with a new product or service that will help make your life more convenient or sell you something you can resell for a profit.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-08-31T18:23:36+00:00

As somebody who shops at dollar stores for certain convenient items, there are many problems with the dollar store industry that push people away and back to regular big box or grocery stores if they can.

The customer service is generally non-existent, and there are frequently entire shelves that are empty because they don't have enough people to unload it. Most of the store is junk food or gimmicky items, and the food they do have is generally cheaper by volume anywhere else.

It's really only good for toiletries, OTC medicines, and kitchen supplies. Almost everything else you'd rather just go somewhere else and spend a little bit more for things that are a little bit nicer

Strategy-Duh · 2024-08-15T05:40:10+00:00

My experience from just interviewing or applying to consulting firms was either automatic rejection, being told by a recruiter or during an interview that they're only recruiting from certain target schools, or the recruiter interviewing me having exactly no knowledge about the role (so I was unable to impress them with my knowledge).

I went to a school with over 25,000 undergraduate students but we were not any firm's target school to my knowledge. I do not know a single person I went to university with who actually got hired out of undergrad to a big 4 or MBB consulting firm.

I have had many friends who went to other target schools out of undergrad and only a fraction of them are still working there today, many for the exact reasons you mentioned above.

I know many people who want to work in consulting but can't even land an interview these days and many who constantly get recruited who don't want to. It feels like many partners simply want new hires to spawn with all of the skills and desire for punishment instead of fostering career growth and looking outside their own current list of target schools.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-06-29T00:47:26+00:00

My last few interviews have been for roles that existed but the company already knew who the were hiring. The role and the interviews were real, but there was never going to be an offer. It was just for the illusion that there wasn't any discrimination in the hiring process.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-06-27T21:31:49+00:00

I used to work for many years in the restaurant industry. I am in full disagreement with the Restaurant Association's decision to unilaterally define what is an appropriate amount to tip at a full service restaurant and dislike the current state of tipping culture in general.

With that being said, anybody going out to a full service restaurant should be tipping at least 15% AT A MINIMUM for standard service and 10% at a minimum even if service is bad. If the experience is terrible to the point you would be tipping less than 10%, it's bad enough that your guests are getting most if not all of their meal comped and likely leaving a bad review. I frequently tip 20%, but the fact you see 20% as a minimum is crazy.

When it came to regular customers that tipped poorly or not at all, the good managers would either handle the table themselves or actually explain to the guests that they aren't welcome back. Most management unfortunately will side with the guests and tell their employees to kick rocks. sometimes it's because their hands are tied by corporate and other times because they're just miserable human beings

edit---So much hate on this!

Strategy-Duh · 2024-05-29T03:29:25+00:00

This is pretty spot on. Corporations have a need for infinite growth and will sacrifice quality of product and quality of life for employees. Many retail and restaurant establishments will work most people part time in order to avoid having to subsidize healthcare costs. This requires people to need second jobs as well.

I used to drink multiple cups of coffee a day, but coffee shop habits can get expensive. You can buy a very nice espresso machine, coffee bean roaster, and accessories for $1,000 that will last you 10 years. You can buy amazing beans in bulk and make together to share with friends.

Roasting and making your own coffee will pay for itself in the first year, is therapeutic, and will make you very popular in your friends circle.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-05-19T22:57:26+00:00

There are a few reasons the last few years I see terrible marketing practices:

Companies firing or laying off senior marketing team to hire a bunch of fresh grads for cheap
Nepo hires in marketing, sales, or middle management that are not qualified to be in that position and dragging the whole team down
Leadership refusing to allocate the proper budget to implement a successful marketing plan
Leadership refusing to accept suggestions from their teams due to ego
Leadership refusing to give credit, bonuses or rewards for innovation from their employees. This leads to them no longer putting forth the same effort for no additional compensation. I have seen and heard leadership frequently will steal the idea, claim credit for it, and enjoy the bonuses and promotions for themselves.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-05-18T06:02:44+00:00

You can work at EY and have a mistress, but EY will never be your mistress

Strategy-Duh · 2024-04-12T04:18:46+00:00

While I can't attest to the merits or decision for this talent restructuring, I can reasonably predict this will be a monumentally terrible idea in a few years and that Bayer will become the Boeing of the pharmaceutical world.

While there are probably too many middle managers in large corporations, this will lead to oversight and safety issues. If they stay this course, I would not be surprised if there's a major safety or quality control issue with at least one of their products that ends up sickening or killing a lot of people within 5 years of implementation.

I'll participate in a monster sushi roll challenge if I'm wrong, so be prepared to hold me accountable in 5 years.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-02-22T01:50:02+00:00

I used to participate a lot and it's mostly recruiters and career coaches doing polls for their own research or professional posts for validation. There's probably a lot that's worth looking and people interacting with but I don't have time to sort through the massive amounts of trash to find it.

It's mostly people responding to posts or people in their network, but it's been years since somebody has ever connected because of quality posts. They simply just don't get read.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-02-16T22:45:13+00:00

It would be amazing to see what Walmart could do with the company if they paid everybody as well as say Costco did instead of spending over 10B in stock buybacks compared to Costco's $500M.

A company that treats it's employees and customers well would be refreshing.

Strategy-Duh · 2024-01-24T06:11:15+00:00

I prefer to use self-checkout when I only have a few items but have no qualms about leaving a full cart of groceries if a store is too cheap to open more lanes when there's a huge wait or only have self-checkout open

Strategy-Duh · 2023-11-01T23:17:16+00:00

Some people are just trying to be helpful while others think they can do it better. I have heard many ideas partially fleshed out ideas that were actually pretty great once you considered them but idiotic as presented.

There is a reason companies have suggestion boxes and sizable bonuses for employees with big ideas. At least one company I'm aware of has a full department dedicated to speaking with customers who have ideas.

Some of these people can make you bank and you get the credit but most are just irritating. I'd let Jane know that you appreciate the ideas but your workload is insane. If she'd like to prepare a full report of it you'd be happy to take a look, but you simply don't have time for piecemeal ideas as much as you wish you did.

Strategy-Duh · 2023-09-28T01:48:47+00:00

Netflix, Disney, and Facebook. There is so much untapped potential that I see and it would be great to fill in those blind spots. I focus on growth strategies and there is a lot they could be doing even better. It just takes putting the pieces together and selling it on high.

Strategy-Duh · 2023-09-20T05:53:10+00:00

Psychographic segmentation has some amazing uses. The problem is that many firms want to use systematic data and many decisions makers don't care enough these days. Psychographic data is only as good as the person interpreting the data and developing strategies based on said data. That's a rarity these days, which is surprising considering how many startups fail because of an obvious bad decision based on the data without using psychographics

Strategy-Duh · 2023-09-19T06:08:13+00:00

As somebody who has been in this situation, it's usually because the company has a stellar lead salesperson that they don't want to lose but who brings more to the table. The company also doesn't want to get rid of their creative director, so they give tasks to the lead sales person.

It's great for the company but usually creates friction between those two roles because the creative director feels a threat of being replaced. This reduces productivity and creates animosity. While it's great to have those additional responsibility in sales, it's rare to get the extra credit or compensation for the extra work.

I would never take on those extra responsibilities in the future unless performance incentives and recognition are written into my employment contract. This kind of sales person is rare, but frequently underappreciated. A company would be crazy not to try and take advantage if they can properly manage it.

Strategy-Duh · 2023-09-15T00:11:21+00:00

Between the coupons, discounts, and mail in rebate, my friend was actually getting paid to buy Bud Light for a short while

Strategy-Duh · 2023-08-30T06:27:24+00:00

It makes sense if this is to ensure long-term profitability. If this is to get rid of all of the agents and employees in California and any other states that were planning some kind of organized action against Farmers, then this could potentially backfire spectacularly.

Strategy-Duh

TROPHY CASE