# Companies you thought would have gone belly-up by now... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686 "2012-08-07T02:28:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bartleby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bartleby/32/10491_2.png) [@bartleby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bartleby)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/41 "2012-08-07T21:19:47Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > K-Mart. The own Sears and Land’s End. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/42 "2012-08-07T21:25:32Z")
Burger King. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/43 "2012-08-07T21:27:44Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I have to pipe up again for Radio Shack. How they do it I honestly cannot say. It’s the absolute premiere example of a business that should be as dead as Dillinger. There always seems to be some weird annual emergency situation, where it’s 9:03pm, I need a really esoteric adapter _right now,_ that Walmart wouldn’t have and Best Buy is closed, so I’ll run up to RadioShack, hoping against hope they’ll have what I need, and I’ll be damned, they do. And it costs triple what I could’ve gotten it for online or at BB. And they all look and smell the same. My impression is always a long, narrow corridor of beige plastic, black cords, chrome plugs and jacks, and a sea of off-brand crap, with just a hint of ozone and… sadness. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/44 "2012-08-07T21:32:41Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I read someone on Slashdot so confident that Apple will crash into 1990’s level brokenness within three years that he wants to put money into the stock market betting on it. > > No, I don’t know why; I think it has something to do with his opinion of their products, product policies, and such. Well, that’s stupid. He thinks they’re going to lose their product line and their $100+ billion in cash in merely three years? I’ll take that action. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/45 "2012-08-07T21:35:08Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I have to pipe up again for Radio Shack. How they do it I honestly cannot say. It’s the absolute premiere example of a business that should be as dead as Dillinger. True. As an electronic hobbyist, I often discourage people from buying parts from RadioShack, because you can get them way cheaper (sometimes by an order of magnitude) elsewhere, plus a lot of their stuff isn’t stocked in stores anymore (online). That said, if they closed, I would have to find another source for perfboards, since they sell the cheapest perfboards ([these](http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103804&utm_campaign=Category_CMS&utm_source=CAT&utm_medium=RSCOM&utm_content=CT2032230)) I know of (which is important when you use as much as I do). And even for those, I buy them online, since they no longer have them in the nearest stores, for at least the past several years (plus I usually buy them 10-20 at a time). ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/46 "2012-08-07T21:45:52Z")
In no particular order: Yahoo! AOL Little Caesars U.S. Steel ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/47 "2012-08-07T21:50:49Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Well, that’s stupid. He thinks they’re going to lose their product line and their $100+ billion in cash in merely three years? I’ll take that action. 🙂 Totally. Jobs had almost 15 years to set up a solid business model for pros and consumers: iPhone iPad iPod iTunes Store App Store iOS OSX, Arguably one of the best OSs around, on top of being UNIX based. Their successful storefront locations. Their entire suite of solid portable and desktop hardware (MacPros need a huge injection of love though, and _soon_) Software properties that are industry standards (QuickTime, FinalCut Pro, Logic, etc.) All integrated seemlessly with each other, and most of the above is #1 in market share. And a lot of his hand picked team of executives, designers and project leads are still in play. I think it’s safe to say Apple will still be around for a long while (albeit, probably not as good an Apple it might’ve been had Steve stayed with us). ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/48 "2012-08-07T21:53:42Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Sharper Image. Brookstone. Skymall. Seems like a lot of overpriced “luxury” items, yet they are still around (or on the airplane). Well, Sharper Image, at least in the form of a retail mall store, is long gone. It’s my understanding that Radio Shack’s main business these days is selling phones and phone plans. It’s also my understanding that Kmart and particularly their Sears stores, is merely a real estate holding companies, which is trying to wait out the crash by barely keeping the lights on, and when the commercial real estate market picks up, they’ll sell their prime holdings and divide the profits between the investors. Or there’s _The Consumerist’s_ hypothesis that Sears is just a sophisticated anti-capitalist prank. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/49 "2012-08-07T22:05:34Z")
Blockbuster. I thought they were done for, for sure, a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/50 "2012-08-07T22:08:54Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > TriStar Vacuums. > > Amazing product, unfortunately it’s way overpriced and the company has (had?) very sketchy business practices. Looks like you have to contact them to locate a distributer now - not sure if they’re still doing the bullshit telemarking “free gift with demo” scam anymore. Same with Kirby vacuums. Any business now-a-days with a smarmy, pushy, door to door sales model. ::shivver:: ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/51 "2012-08-07T22:31:18Z")
[quote=“bup, post:22, topic:630686”] Pea Pod. In this economy? I thought it was wasteful and extravagant in 1996, but it’s been through two recessions. WTH? QUOTE] I haven’t used grocery delivery in awhile, but it’s cheaper than cab fare if you need to do a lot of shopping and don’t have access to a car. I got my groceries delivered from Safeway when my car was in the shop for a few weeks a few years back. My list of companies that i’m surprised are still in business; A&W: I like their fried cheese curds, but everything about their food seems so old-fashioned and generic, and not really worth the prices they charge. They might be on the way out, though - both their free-standing drive-in locations near me have closed in the past few years, and the only locations they still have in the area are cobranded with KFC. Kmart, Sears, Target, JC Penney, department stores in general: I haven’t shopped at one once since Wal-Mart came around, and i’m not sure what, if anything, they have that Wal-Mart doesn’t have cheaper. Taco Time: Their product is the blandest, least inspired version of “Mexican food” that i’ve ever tasted. It’s a product of a different era when Anglo people genuinely couldn’t be expected to know what Mexican food tasted like, and it’s overpriced. Taco Bell tastes like a Tijuana street food in comparison. Flintstone’s vitamins: It seems to me that the Flintstones aren’t even on TV anymore, and I just can’t imagine that they’re culturally relevant enough to today’s kids to make the license worth it. Photo booths at the mall. Who uses these things anymore when pretty much everyone has a quality camera in their pocket at all times? ---
**Author:** ![listedmia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@listedmia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/listedmia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/52 "2012-08-07T22:36:47Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > In no particular order: > > Yahoo! > AOL > Little Caesars > U.S. Steel Little Caesars seems to be doing quite well. They sell a large pizza, pepperoni or cheese only, for 5 dollars and a lot of them are located inside of Kmart. They’re the go-to pizza place for the broke and lazy! ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/53 "2012-08-07T23:37:18Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > I’ve posted before about Batteries Plus. I guess there’s more demand for specialty batteries than I’m aware of. Doesn’t seem the demand would be high enough to support a growing national chain. The one time I’ve been in one there were three employees but no other customers in the store on a Saturday afternoon, and I left without buying anything because they were asking $90 for a replacement battery for our old laptop. Batteries Plus makes most of their money selling large commercial orders. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/54 "2012-08-08T00:10:54Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Kmart, Sears, Target, JC Penney, department stores in general: I haven’t shopped at one once since Wal-Mart came around, and i’m not sure what, if anything, they have that Wal-Mart doesn’t have cheaper. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart; what are their clothing and furniture selections like? Those are the two stereotypical “department store” products for me (outside of appliances, but that’s only Sears, and that’s not so common these days). ---
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/55 "2012-08-08T00:19:51Z")
Kirby Vacuums: So they only sell vacuums. At over $1,000 bucks a pop. And I only ever here negative reviews about their product. Yet somehow this is a viable business model, even during a recession? Apple: Like a lot of people I thought this company was swirling the drain in the late 90s. And when they announced the Ipod I thought for sure it would be its death knell. A $300 MP3 player? What kind of idiot would buy that? Well, _lots_ apparently. Radio Shack: Also mystified how they stay in business. Last time I bought anything from them was when I bought a connector for an aerial antenna for $6 a few years ago. Blockbuster: How the mighty has fallen. Their nearest store to me disappeared years ago, but according to their website there’s still another five nearby. I still don’t see them lasting another 10 years. AOL: I can’t believe there’s still people using dialup in this day and age. Yahoo!: The MySpace of search engines. Dunno how they survive in the face of the juggernaut that is Google. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/56 "2012-08-08T00:29:20Z")
[quote=“Smapti, post:51, topic:630686”] > [@bup](#): > > Kmart, Sears, Target, JC Penney, department stores in general: I haven’t shopped at one once since Wal-Mart came around, and i’m not sure what, if anything, they have that Wal-Mart doesn’t have cheaper. Well, some people (like my mother) think that Wal-Mart is an evil monopoly trying to take over the world (well, not quite _that_ extreme, but you get the idea, and they have had some [shady business practices](http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/walmart_the_high_cost_of_low_prices.htm)), so I assume that there are enough people who would rather shop somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/57 "2012-08-08T01:15:25Z")
> [@Coustralee](#): > > shops in malls with high rents that sell scented candles… how often does one buy a candle? some people buy candles all the time. they’re a popular gift item, especially around the holidays. they’re also decorative and usually not crazy expensive, especially if you catch a sale. it may not be your thing, but that doesn’t make those shops in danger of going out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/58 "2012-08-08T01:20:44Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > There always seems to be some weird annual emergency situation, where it’s 9:03pm, I need a really esoteric adapter _right now,_ that Walmart wouldn’t have and Best Buy is closed, so I’ll run up to RadioShack, hoping against hope they’ll have what I need, and I’ll be damned, they do. > > And it costs triple what I could’ve gotten it for online or at BB. > > And they all look and smell the same. My impression is always a long, narrow corridor of beige plastic, black cords, chrome plugs and jacks, and a sea of off-brand crap, with just a hint of ozone and… sadness. This. Soemtimes I need a part and I just can’t wait. That said, I always feel violated walking out the door. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/59 "2012-08-08T01:26:12Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > It was the graphic arts/video industry and desktop publication that pretty much kept them in business through the 1990s, until Jobs returned (1998?) and re-forged the company into what it is today. > > They kept afloat just long enough, before they almost drowned. Perhaps from the Wallstreet perspective they were always a dog, but their OSs, hardware and integration wasn’t anything to sneeze at at the time, had a large cult base and certainly kept MS on their toes. their OS and integration was horrible up until OS X and the iDevices. Classic Mac OS was a house of cards; total shit and less stable than Windows-fucking-95. It had a friendlier user interface but underneath the surface it was sewage. ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686/60 "2012-08-08T01:36:47Z")
> [@Vicullum](#): > > Kirby Vacuums: So they only sell vacuums. At over $1,000 bucks a pop. And I only ever here negative reviews about their product. Yet somehow this is a viable business model, even during a recession? I don’t know about buying one of them new, but I have 3 that I bought at the Goodwill over the years, and I can attest that they are worth the $50.00 bucks I’ve spent on them, ($25 for the vac and $25 to have a certified shop tune them up.) They are all metal inside and just don’t wear out. Consumer Reports scores the actual Kirby product very highly for reliability. The hepa filter bags are not terribly expensive. It’s nice to have one in the basement, the main floor and in the upstairs bedroom so I don’t have to carry one up any stairs. So, as long as there are fools willing to buy them new and then pulling out all their carpet to put in hardwood or tile, there will be a secondary market for them. 2nd hand stores or on Craigslist. So much better than a plastic Dirt Devil or Hoover. I’ve even taken it into work where we were doing office “deep clean” projects and had a chance to compare it side-by-side to a coworkers Dyson. The consensus of everyone was that they were comparable, but the Dyson was “cheaper” brand new, so the Dyson was a better buy. They were floored when I told them what I paid for it used. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-you-thought-would-have-gone-belly-up-by-now/630686.md?page=4)