# Doomed Companies & Brands **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979 "2010-06-21T14:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/21 "2010-06-21T18:19:58Z")
Wow, I guess Palm is \*really \*destined for failure. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/22 "2010-06-21T18:22:36Z")
Nobody likes Old Navy stuff anymore – it’s too popular. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/23 "2010-06-21T18:53:41Z")
T-Mobile, eh? That explains a lot. Called to see about lowering my rates to match the new [www.straighttalk.com](http://www.straighttalk.com) offer I read about. (Granted, it is a combo of Wallmart and Verizon, but still - sounds like a deal to me!) T-Mobile flat out said, “We can’t come near that offer.” Didn’t even try to bump up my minutes or anything. It was like they are just giving up. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/24 "2010-06-21T18:55:54Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Wow, I guess Palm is \*really \*destined for failure. 😃 Looks like it. Unfortunately, one of my in-laws works for Palm. She is quite worried about her job right now, and I can’t blame her. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/25 "2010-06-21T19:03:22Z")
Nobody even remembers MySpace anymore? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/26 "2010-06-21T19:03:51Z")
Hollywood Video went [Chapter 11](http://www.hollywoodvideo.com/pages-q10149-Restructure.aspx) in February. Many many stores are closed. I had $27 in fees there, glad I won’t be paying them! I think that’s part of the reason they went under, they had too many late fees when other places did away with them. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/27 "2010-06-21T19:18:47Z")
I am well and truly amazed that Rite Aid has made it as long as it has. It has been mismanaged since at least the mid 90s. It had a stock value as high as 52 at one time (maybe higher, but at least this high) and is now around a dollar. I have to believe their time is soon. (Although I have believed that for a long time.) ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/28 "2010-06-21T19:24:54Z")
I won’t be surprised but will be somewhat disappointed when **Reader’s Digest** shuts down. Even as I witnessed the decline into glurge, it was till a nice, pleasant read. ---
**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:** [June 21, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/29 "2010-06-21T19:29:48Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > **already dead** > … > US NEws & World Report (now a monthly) If being published monthly == dead, there’s an awful lot of dead publications out there. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/30 "2010-06-21T19:37:35Z")
How was it that it seemed like most US auto companies survived the Depression without dropping brands, and in some cases adding brands? What once-prominent brands didn’t survive the Depression? I’m under the impression that companies are faring much worse now, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/31 "2010-06-21T19:38:30Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > If being published monthly == dead, there’s an awful lot of dead publications out there. It isn’t a monthly, though, it’s an online-and-special-issue-only’ly. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/32 "2010-06-21T19:56:22Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Radio Shack defies logic year after year. I though they were very profitable. Read the history of W.T. Grant. They were a very profitable department store, like K-Mart. Except the profit was on the books and no where else 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/33 "2010-06-21T20:01:58Z")
If you think about it, brands have been dying off throughout history. When I was a kid poloroid was not only a brand name but a general noun for an instant picture. What happened to Standard Oil? (It’s BP well sort of it’s also a lot of other things) AT&T was the only phone company, then it was long distance and all the local phone companies were broken up. Now most of them are back together again. What about BankAmerica (Visa) and MasterCharge (MasterCard)? I recently did a thread on defunct department stores. What about them? Tons of businesses didn’t survive the Great Depression and the brands that hung around did so, because every other brand was also reduced by as much. So the playing field was still level. Once a blue chip always a blue chip is not a truism by any means. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/34 "2010-06-21T20:14:20Z")
Still waiting for Zellers in Canada to die. It seems to follow this pattern: Walmart is getting rid of all its mall anchor stores and building their own buildings, and once Walmart moves out of the mall, Zellers moves in. However, by this point, the mall is destined to death and the space Zellers vacated to move into Walmart stays empty forever. I know one mall that lived, but that’s because the city itself expanded enough to get a Best Buy which ripped out part of the mall so they could build their own building. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/35 "2010-06-21T21:35:28Z")
Most of the big-city papers in the USA are zombies-being kept alive by cash infusions from the conglomerates that own them. Nobody knows how to make them profitable-they haven’t figured out how to get people to pay for on-line access. Plus, they are facing the generation “Y”-that doesn’t read. If I had some cash, I’d short all of them. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/36 "2010-06-21T21:50:47Z")
Why take diet pills, when you can enjoy [AYDS](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkVuT5pw1g)! I know it’s not really what the OP is looking for, but it came to mind when I read the thread title and had to post. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/37 "2010-06-21T21:57:38Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Most of the big-city papers in the USA are zombies-being kept alive by cash infusions from the conglomerates that own them. Nobody knows how to make them profitable-they haven’t figured out how to get people to pay for on-line access. Plus, they are facing the generation “Y”-that doesn’t read. > If I had some cash, I’d short all of them. I read somewhere, but can’t remember where, that the only newspapers in trouble are those that had too much debt (like the Tribune Company) but that those that were more conservative are doing OK. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/38 "2010-06-21T22:17:24Z")
> [@Beerman1963](#): > > My wife manages or will until Thursday a Blockbuster at that time it will be the 3rd or 4th store in her area to close its doors in the last year. So put Blockbuster on the dead pool for 2011 It’s not going to make it that long in its current form. Expect a [bankruptcy filing](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/report-blockbuster-may-be-nearing-bankruptcy-2010-06-11?dist=countdown) in a month or so. There will still be a Blockbuster-named company under a different set of owners for a while after that, but will it last thru 2011? Outside of the brand name, I just don’t see any assets that are going to worth anything given its debt load. If I were the new owners I would just shut it all down, sell off what I could. No point in keeping the stores open any more. I think Redbox would buy it for a token just to kill the competition. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/39 "2010-06-21T22:18:12Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Looks like it. Unfortunately, one of my in-laws works for Palm. She is quite worried about her job right now, and I can’t blame her. My spouse works for Palm, and he had a few nervous hours last Friday when they told him he had an appointment with HR later that afternoon. Since he’d already found out some of his coworkers were getting laid off, we were afraid he’d be next. Fortunately he wasn’t–the meeting was to tell him he was being kept on. But they’re definitely doing at least some layoffs. I hope your in-law doesn’t get a notice. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979/40 "2010-06-21T22:25:52Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Last week, the New York Times had a great article about the number of blue-chip companies that are now floating tits up in the fish tank. That got my interest and I found a site that predicts companies and brands that are in real danger of going under. > > **already dead** > Mercury > Plymouth > Saturn > Sabb > Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (kept alive for the connivence of the government) > Gateway (no longer a consumer brand) > Merrill Lynch (the thundering herd!) > US NEws & World Report (now a monthly) Didn’t Hummer go under also? Killing Saturn was a HUGE mistake, IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomed-companies-brands/543979.md?page=3)