Consumer Musings

  • Southwest Airlines: Just a little worse every year

    Southwest Airlines: Just a little worse every year

    Southwest recently announced the retirement of “bags fly free”.  But in my view the news isn’t just about baggage fees. While legacy carriers pursued byzantine fare structures and nickel-and-diming, Southwest won customers with its refreshing simplicity: low fares, simple fare structure, open seating, no change fees, and “bags fly free.”…

  • Self-checkout is dead. Yay! Boo!

    Self-checkout is dead. Yay! Boo!

    There have been many articles recently about the end of self-checkout at supermarkets and other retail. Naturally, Self-checkout of course was meant to be a way to reduce labor costs, but this would only make sense if losses from “errors” were manageable. (I’m giving shoppers the benefit of the doubt…

  • Your wait is now personalized

    Your wait is now personalized

    I recently visited Panera in the middle of the lunch rush. Though I had ordered ahead, the order was not ready yet. Along with a dozen other hungry folks, I stood impatiently by the pick-up counter for them to call out my name. Then I noticed a screen above the…

  • ’til next year, Staples

    ’til next year, Staples

    Every year, around back-to-school time, I wonder how Staples is still in business. The pandemic gave them a brief boost as WFH took over. But the long-term trend is undeniable — both consumer and businesses prefer to buy online, and that means mostly on Amazon. But for this short period…

  • XTwitterX

    XTwitterX

    Wow. It’s not that changing the brand from Twitter (and “tweets”) to X (and “x’s”) is a bad business decision. In fact, I doubt it will have any impact at all on both users as well as their business. The business is driven after all by network effects that are…

  • $tarbuck$

    $tarbuck$

    The Starbucks experience has gone downhill, especially since the Pandemic. No more self-serve. Starbucks popularized the ability to customize your coffee the way you wanted it that day. During the pandemic, they removed the cream/milk and sugars from the self-serve station for safety. And it seems that these have yet…

  • Liquid confusion

    Liquid confusion

    I had my first Liquid Death yesterday. I’d walked past their product in Whole Foods for months, but never tried it. On the one hand, I had certainly noticed the drink with that unique label and name. On the other hand, the name, the gothic font, the aggressive design, the…

  • Ugh UHaul

    Ugh UHaul

    “So you know how to take the reservation. You just don’t know how to hold. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation. The holding anybody can just take.” I went to the local UHaul today to get the wiring for a trailer installed. I called last week…