Southwest for sure. They are being destroyed by private equity ever since their ancient software imploded during the 2022 winter storms, and they’ve gotten rid of free bags and unassigned seating. You know, the only things that differentiated them…
Old navy – have bought their stuff since I was a kid and shirts barely last a year now, usually much less. their jeans have gone way down in quality. Everything is just slowly becoming fast fashion
Burger King is on its way out. Their business model no longer works. Everytime I go now its like 2 teenagers who look depressed and no other enployees.
Dawn dish soap! Why the heck did they change their formula? The new formula smells weird and is way less effective. I’m almost out of my last bottle of the old stuff 🙁
My vote would be Whole Foods. The prices are lower (it hasn’t been “whole paycheck” in like a decade) but the quality is nowhere near what it used to be, which means it doesn’t have much to differentiate itself from other grocers anymore.
REI. It’s still a good brand but not faring especially well with online retailers who can offer better prices.
That’s starting to decline (and I hate to say this), but Apple. Software is going down the absolute drain. Hardware still great though. I would also say Honda is starting to decline, quality wise. Other brands that are deep into their decline : Nissan, Stellantis (Dodge Jeep Ram, etc)
As an art teacher crayola. They’ve long been a staple but I will not be purchasing their markers again this year. They’re just not what they used to be and other teachers are also saying the crayons are more waxy and less pigmented and shown proof. I had already stopped getting those ages ago because of budgets but they’re not wrong. And while we’re at it Ticonderoga pencils used to be the shit and the only ones many people I know would get for their classrooms. But now I’ve thrown away so many this past year because they will not sharpen correctly and suck. Amazon brand pre sharpened seems to be just fine and cheaper!
For printing, Staples. My wife owns and is the sole employee of her own print shop, the success of which is partially because of the decline of Staples. I mean, she’s also a brilliant artist, an incredibly kind soul, and an honest business owner, so there’s more to it than Staples decline for sure… but a lot of business that comes in shows up after a Google search for a print shop that isn’t Staples.
Brooks Brothers. Once a high end, high quality American clothier reduced to possibly being sold at JCPenney (which acquired them) later in the year.
Brooks Brothers basically dive bombed within 5 years. Absolute Terrible leadership.
Michael Kors also seems to be the same. The only people I know that wear MK are people that buy it on discount at TJX or Ross, and haven’t realized it’s not even at the level of D&B anymore.
The make up company E.L.F. (eyes, lips, face) just purchased Hailey Beiber’s makeup company Rhode. It cost them $1 billion. The very next day they posted they are raising prices due to tariffs.
Lululemon- they used to make top of the line quality clothing but ever since the company became publicly traded, the quality of the clothes that they make keeps going down and the prices keep going up. Most of their stuff is now made of rebranded polyester 🗑️🗑️🗑️
Harley Davidson. Huge demographic issue with people under 35 having almost no interest in the brand. It’s a known and talked about issue. They’ve been scrambling trying to attract the younger generation with their electric bike line.
20 years from now their demand will be a small fraction of today assuming they are still in business.
Hy-Vee if you’re in the Midwest US. I live a mile from one, and for years it was my main grocery store. Then they revamped, cut the selection down a lot, and changed a fourth of the store to bubble bath and scented soap, and a bunch of space to prepared food. The things I used to buy started to disappear. If I’m going to have less selection, I’ll start shopping at Aldi, I guess, and save money. If you compared my $ spent at Hy-Vee versus Aldi 5 years ago versus today, it’s a total flip from 90-10 to 10-90%.
I dont want to play gas point games, buy this get 10% off that, rewards, etc. I just want to buy groceries and get in and out. Maybe I’m in the minority.
Depends how you define by ‘decline’ and by under what context.
In the tech space, if we’re talking NVIDIA, they’re not declining, but in the eyes of a number gamers they are. Because of their focus on producing cards specifically for AI and how they’ve abandoned the users that built the brand. But leather man doesn’t seem to care.
Intel is probably the one that’s declining more these days, due to all the issues they’ve had in the last few years.
Cracker Barrel. Older folks who could appreciate the old country aesthetic are starting to die or are at least dining out less. The company is currently in a battle to attract the newer generations and it seems to be a lose/lose situation where remodeling stores could both alienate old customers while not attracting new ones.
Food quality has gone down as prep has been readjusted to save time. Last year, the entire Employee Training team was laid off, leaving already-exhausted managers to train new hires.
The CEO got a lot of flack for saying the company wasn’t as relevant as it used to be, but as someone who works there, I appreciated her bluntness saying that we had a lot of work to do.
That said, I don’t see Cracker Barrel lasting another 10 years.
Hewlett-Packard. I grew up in the 70s and 80s with their calculators, lab equipment, and early laser printers, and they were among the best you could get. They haven’t produced anything new out of their calculator division in 25 years and their printers are hot garbage. I don’t even think they make test equipment any more.
A decade ago, I ate there multiple times per week. Haven’t eaten there in almost a year. I still miss it TBH, but whenever I eat there I leave disappointed.
Amazon. When they started they were all about customer service and the lowest possible prices. Now the customer service is extremely hit and miss and the prices are often nowhere near the lowest.
Not a brand but the internet as a whole. It’s accumulating more bloatware every day, it’s becoming hard to use with websites having 50 million pop up’s everywhere, and badly crafted ai responses from google. Things internet related are also becoming less reliable. could go on for hours but the internet is in decline as a whole and eventually something new will come out, don’t know what yet but one day they’ll shut off the internet as we know it today, just like how analog tv was shut down and people moved onto the solution of digital tv.
I know people who’ve had a pair of Dr Martens that have lasted 10/20 years.
I also know people who have recently bought a new pair and they haven’t lasted a year.
Since they were bought out by a private equity firm the quality of their stuff has drastically decreased! They just aren’t worth the money anymore.
Basically every big guitar company, but particularly Gibson.
They keep getting sold and resold, taken over by MBA’s who want to make them cool and hip, but they suffer from the rather unusual plight that buyers want the exact same things Gibson was selling in 1959. (A 1959 “sunburst” finish Les Paul with the correct pickups will net you over $200k if you find one in good condition in your grandpas attic.)
They (and Epiphone, a sort of subsidiary brand that makes lower cost versions) also managed to bungle the long awaited reissue of the Grabber/Ripper bass from the 70s. They ignored all of the classic features the originals had, and released something that isn’t really true to the originals in any way, which isn’t the first time they made this stupid mistake.
It’s a weird time to be a musician. I’ve been at the pro level since I was 19, in 2012, but we all still need gear. I’m still running a bass amp from 1979; nothing made today is even remotely similar to it. I’ve tried more modern stuff, but I don’t end up keeping any of it for long, it just doesn’t do “the thing.”
I honestly can’t think of a single music gear company that has been consistently listening to customers and making stuff people want them to make. Marshall (legendary amplifier company) have also been bought and sold a dozen times, and now appear to be more interested in making Bluetooth speakers and headphones than expanding the legacy of their fire-breathing classic amps. (We just want a reissue of the JMP Super Lead, guys.)
“Boutique” gear makers, super small companies sometimes consisting of only one mad genius in their apartment with a soldering iron, are hitting the industry hard, making great and desired stuff, but their prices are often out of reach for the average person.
I can’t imagine what it will be like in ten years. I foresee at least a few historic companies closing their doors.
Its beyond obvious that private equity firms are a cancer on this country. Obviously there are many other problems causing a company’s downfall being discussed here. But, private equity is the main problem that functionally isnt a problem in that its purpose is to wring out every last drop from that towel before its trashed.
Comments
Southwest for sure. They are being destroyed by private equity ever since their ancient software imploded during the 2022 winter storms, and they’ve gotten rid of free bags and unassigned seating. You know, the only things that differentiated them…
I feel like the list is much shorter of well known brands that haven’t declined
Ashley Furniture
Harley Davidson
Old navy – have bought their stuff since I was a kid and shirts barely last a year now, usually much less. their jeans have gone way down in quality. Everything is just slowly becoming fast fashion
Target
Jersey Mike’s just got bought by private equity. Shouldn’t be long.
Burger King is on its way out. Their business model no longer works. Everytime I go now its like 2 teenagers who look depressed and no other enployees.
Disney
Dawn dish soap! Why the heck did they change their formula? The new formula smells weird and is way less effective. I’m almost out of my last bottle of the old stuff 🙁
Jeep, or any stellantis product for that matter
Boeing
Wizards Of The Coast
They’re destroying D&D, Magic: The Gathering has been shit quality for years now, their executives refuse to listen to anyone but themselves ….
Lots of brands that have already declined listed.
My vote would be Whole Foods. The prices are lower (it hasn’t been “whole paycheck” in like a decade) but the quality is nowhere near what it used to be, which means it doesn’t have much to differentiate itself from other grocers anymore.
REI. It’s still a good brand but not faring especially well with online retailers who can offer better prices.
Panera
Burberry
Starbucks
Ted Baker
What’s a well known brand that ISN’T in decline? (serious)
Man United.
Google
In Canada, the Bay(la baie d’Hudson). It has declared banckrupcy and closed down this year after 355 year of business.
Subway, they are struggling against competitors like Firebouse subs who decided “what if we sold subway sandwiches but made them…good?”
That’s starting to decline (and I hate to say this), but Apple. Software is going down the absolute drain. Hardware still great though. I would also say Honda is starting to decline, quality wise. Other brands that are deep into their decline : Nissan, Stellantis (Dodge Jeep Ram, etc)
As an art teacher crayola. They’ve long been a staple but I will not be purchasing their markers again this year. They’re just not what they used to be and other teachers are also saying the crayons are more waxy and less pigmented and shown proof. I had already stopped getting those ages ago because of budgets but they’re not wrong. And while we’re at it Ticonderoga pencils used to be the shit and the only ones many people I know would get for their classrooms. But now I’ve thrown away so many this past year because they will not sharpen correctly and suck. Amazon brand pre sharpened seems to be just fine and cheaper!
For printing, Staples. My wife owns and is the sole employee of her own print shop, the success of which is partially because of the decline of Staples. I mean, she’s also a brilliant artist, an incredibly kind soul, and an honest business owner, so there’s more to it than Staples decline for sure… but a lot of business that comes in shows up after a Google search for a print shop that isn’t Staples.
Brooks Brothers. Once a high end, high quality American clothier reduced to possibly being sold at JCPenney (which acquired them) later in the year.
Brooks Brothers basically dive bombed within 5 years. Absolute Terrible leadership.
Michael Kors also seems to be the same. The only people I know that wear MK are people that buy it on discount at TJX or Ross, and haven’t realized it’s not even at the level of D&B anymore.
The make up company E.L.F. (eyes, lips, face) just purchased Hailey Beiber’s makeup company Rhode. It cost them $1 billion. The very next day they posted they are raising prices due to tariffs.
Craftsman. They used to last a lifetime. Now they use inferior metal and break all the time.
Lululemon- they used to make top of the line quality clothing but ever since the company became publicly traded, the quality of the clothes that they make keeps going down and the prices keep going up. Most of their stuff is now made of rebranded polyester 🗑️🗑️🗑️
Dr. Martens and Toshiba.
PANERA FUCKING BREAD. As a longtime fan you can probably hear the disappointment coming through my comment. It’s trash now.
Macy’s. I just left there. The store was an absolute disaster area, the employees were cranky and overworked.
Is there a company out there that really cares about its customers these days?
HP printers? Back in the day they used to be built to last. Now you just throw them away when they break.
Harley Davidson. Huge demographic issue with people under 35 having almost no interest in the brand. It’s a known and talked about issue. They’ve been scrambling trying to attract the younger generation with their electric bike line.
20 years from now their demand will be a small fraction of today assuming they are still in business.
Hy-Vee if you’re in the Midwest US. I live a mile from one, and for years it was my main grocery store. Then they revamped, cut the selection down a lot, and changed a fourth of the store to bubble bath and scented soap, and a bunch of space to prepared food. The things I used to buy started to disappear. If I’m going to have less selection, I’ll start shopping at Aldi, I guess, and save money. If you compared my $ spent at Hy-Vee versus Aldi 5 years ago versus today, it’s a total flip from 90-10 to 10-90%.
I dont want to play gas point games, buy this get 10% off that, rewards, etc. I just want to buy groceries and get in and out. Maybe I’m in the minority.
Depends how you define by ‘decline’ and by under what context.
In the tech space, if we’re talking NVIDIA, they’re not declining, but in the eyes of a number gamers they are. Because of their focus on producing cards specifically for AI and how they’ve abandoned the users that built the brand. But leather man doesn’t seem to care.
Intel is probably the one that’s declining more these days, due to all the issues they’ve had in the last few years.
Jaguar. Wtf was that rebrand
Taco Bell used to be cheap and pretty decent. Now it’s expensive and not decent.
Hate to say it but the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They’ve just lost their mojo, nothing left in the tank
Edit: thought the post said “band” not “brand.” Whatever. I said what I said.
Cracker Barrel. Older folks who could appreciate the old country aesthetic are starting to die or are at least dining out less. The company is currently in a battle to attract the newer generations and it seems to be a lose/lose situation where remodeling stores could both alienate old customers while not attracting new ones.
Food quality has gone down as prep has been readjusted to save time. Last year, the entire Employee Training team was laid off, leaving already-exhausted managers to train new hires.
The CEO got a lot of flack for saying the company wasn’t as relevant as it used to be, but as someone who works there, I appreciated her bluntness saying that we had a lot of work to do.
That said, I don’t see Cracker Barrel lasting another 10 years.
Um, literally can’t name one that isn’t in decline.
Arby’s. Bought by private equity and down the drain.
Hewlett-Packard. I grew up in the 70s and 80s with their calculators, lab equipment, and early laser printers, and they were among the best you could get. They haven’t produced anything new out of their calculator division in 25 years and their printers are hot garbage. I don’t even think they make test equipment any more.
Dyson Vacuums. Poor build quality, even worse customer service.
Chipotle 🌶️
A decade ago, I ate there multiple times per week. Haven’t eaten there in almost a year. I still miss it TBH, but whenever I eat there I leave disappointed.
Netflix (or any streaming service). There’s too many of them and they’re also running ads whilst making us pay for it.
The benefits that helped bring piracy down, are diminishing.
Amazon. When they started they were all about customer service and the lowest possible prices. Now the customer service is extremely hit and miss and the prices are often nowhere near the lowest.
Name a surf brand from 10 years ago.., they all gone
Not a brand but the internet as a whole. It’s accumulating more bloatware every day, it’s becoming hard to use with websites having 50 million pop up’s everywhere, and badly crafted ai responses from google. Things internet related are also becoming less reliable. could go on for hours but the internet is in decline as a whole and eventually something new will come out, don’t know what yet but one day they’ll shut off the internet as we know it today, just like how analog tv was shut down and people moved onto the solution of digital tv.
Dr Martens.
I know people who’ve had a pair of Dr Martens that have lasted 10/20 years.
I also know people who have recently bought a new pair and they haven’t lasted a year.
Since they were bought out by a private equity firm the quality of their stuff has drastically decreased! They just aren’t worth the money anymore.
Any company bought up by private equity.
Amazon.
You could find easily what you were looking for.
Now a days , it’s like using Google, so difficult to find anything that isn’t an AliExpress drop ship brand.
AirBNB
McDonald’s
Prices surge, portion sizes shrunk significantly, quality is down…
Facebook and Instagram (Meta). They have allowed fake AI content and scam ads. Garbage.
Basically every big guitar company, but particularly Gibson.
They keep getting sold and resold, taken over by MBA’s who want to make them cool and hip, but they suffer from the rather unusual plight that buyers want the exact same things Gibson was selling in 1959. (A 1959 “sunburst” finish Les Paul with the correct pickups will net you over $200k if you find one in good condition in your grandpas attic.)
They (and Epiphone, a sort of subsidiary brand that makes lower cost versions) also managed to bungle the long awaited reissue of the Grabber/Ripper bass from the 70s. They ignored all of the classic features the originals had, and released something that isn’t really true to the originals in any way, which isn’t the first time they made this stupid mistake.
It’s a weird time to be a musician. I’ve been at the pro level since I was 19, in 2012, but we all still need gear. I’m still running a bass amp from 1979; nothing made today is even remotely similar to it. I’ve tried more modern stuff, but I don’t end up keeping any of it for long, it just doesn’t do “the thing.”
I honestly can’t think of a single music gear company that has been consistently listening to customers and making stuff people want them to make. Marshall (legendary amplifier company) have also been bought and sold a dozen times, and now appear to be more interested in making Bluetooth speakers and headphones than expanding the legacy of their fire-breathing classic amps. (We just want a reissue of the JMP Super Lead, guys.)
“Boutique” gear makers, super small companies sometimes consisting of only one mad genius in their apartment with a soldering iron, are hitting the industry hard, making great and desired stuff, but their prices are often out of reach for the average person.
I can’t imagine what it will be like in ten years. I foresee at least a few historic companies closing their doors.
Its beyond obvious that private equity firms are a cancer on this country. Obviously there are many other problems causing a company’s downfall being discussed here. But, private equity is the main problem that functionally isnt a problem in that its purpose is to wring out every last drop from that towel before its trashed.
PE should be illegal.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this that I’ve seen of: Etsy.
When you could actually find makers on there it was a brilliant site. Now it’s flooded with Temu and Shein quality crap.
Facebook. It’s all adds and garbage. Fake sales pages and giveaways. It’s a wasteland nowadays.