5 ms·

Everything is marketing bullshit - I spent a decade running an ecommerce agency and got to see the bellies of many beasts. For instance, there's a pig related

Everything is marketing bullshit - I spent a decade running an ecommerce agency and got to see the bellies of many beasts. For instance, there's a pig related tea brand in the UK which is universally seen as funky and independent and all that shite. They're owned by tetley, who are in turn owned by tata. The ownership structure is sufficiently complex to make them look independent - but they aren't. It's just good marketing. Either way, this is just one of many examples that spring to mind - oh, also, call centres - in the U.K. you can call pretty much any large business you like and you'll be talking to one of two huge call centre operators. Then... where do you draw the line? Is private equity backing problematic when its obfuscated? Or just contract primacy?

fennecfoxen 10y ago
Oh, TeaPigs? With the dachshund mascot on the Darjeeling Earl Grey, and the brown-paper boxes, and the overpriced wares? Yeah, you can get those everywhere; they're clearly _way_ too mass-market to be properly independent. If you're spending cash money the on indie feel of things, you'll be buying BigCorp sooner or later. Better to just buy quality. > Then... where do you draw the line? Is private equity backing problematic when its obfuscated? Or just contract primacy? Well, we're taught that the free market is efficient only when you have property rights, low barriers to entry, and low transaction costs. While monopoly issues get most of the antitrust press, I suspect that a lot of the other things people don't like about BigCorp world and the gig economy is the way that high transaction costs around hiring, firing, and most especially, contracts of all sorts. Any time these issues are complex and involve expensive lawyers, BigCorp tends to win. It's at the roots of a lot of problems these days.
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  Yeah, them - they're essentially an independent business unit of Tata global. One thing that I found consistently interesting was that more often than not, their employees thought they were working for a small, independent business - and the principles would often use "we're only little" in negotiations. When you manufacture a reality for long enough it becomes real - at least, real enough in the minds of beholders that any opposing reality is dismissed as priggish or jealous.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  > If you're spending cash money the on indie feel of things, you'll be buying BigCorp sooner or later. Better to just buy quality. Most of these start out as quality. Then what happens is that during some survey BigCorp finds out that SmallQualityCorp is nibbling away at their sales & profits and then the next thing you know SmallQualityCorp has been acquired by BigCorp.
  - Neliquat 10y ago
    See: Snapple
  - madaxe_again 10y ago
    Although what you find frequently is that SmallQualityCorp was started by BigCorp at arms length with a view to bringing them under the umbrella once they have traction. "Sports nutrition" (the "what the hell do we do with all this cheese making byproduct industry") is rife with this - there are only two suppliers, and many, many brands and offshoots. It happens in retail, too - you see a single entity pushing multiple seemingly independent brands to target different market segments.
    - viridian 10y ago
      Then how is MyProtein so much cheaper than like everyone else?
      - madaxe_again 10y ago
        Volume over per-sale margin. It's the exact same stuff from the same suppliers as you'd get buying a premium brand like Sci-MX etc.
jacquesm 10y ago
> in the U.K. you can call pretty much any large business you like and you'll be talking to one of two huge call centre operators. And whose employees aren't even near the UK. Call centers are some of the most easily outsourced jobs. And what with the UK having exported the ability to communicate fluently in English through its many years of empire building they've only themselves to blame for that one.
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  Actually, over the past few years you've probably found more British accents than not - because they are using domestic prison labour at an increasing rate. Oh, for added gags, one of the massive call centre operators (Serco) also operates prisons, which have quietly gone private over the last decades.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    Wow. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-ca... > Oh, for added gags, one of the massive call centre operators (Serco) also operates prisons, which have quietly gone private over the last decades. That's disgusting and ought to be illegal.

fennecfoxen 10y ago

Oh, TeaPigs? With the dachshund mascot on the Darjeeling Earl Grey, and the brown-paper boxes, and the overpriced wares? Yeah, you can get those everywhere; they're clearly _way_ too mass-market to be properly independent. If you're spending cash money the on indie feel of things, you'll be buying BigCorp sooner or later. Better to just buy quality. > Then... where do you draw the line? Is private equity backing problematic when its obfuscated? Or just contract primacy? Well, we're taught that the free market is efficient only when you have property rights, low barriers to entry, and low transaction costs. While monopoly issues get most of the antitrust press, I suspect that a lot of the other things people don't like about BigCorp world and the gig economy is the way that high transaction costs around hiring, firing, and most especially, contracts of all sorts. Any time these issues are complex and involve expensive lawyers, BigCorp tends to win. It's at the roots of a lot of problems these days.

madaxe_again 10y ago
Yeah, them - they're essentially an independent business unit of Tata global. One thing that I found consistently interesting was that more often than not, their employees thought they were working for a small, independent business - and the principles would often use "we're only little" in negotiations. When you manufacture a reality for long enough it becomes real - at least, real enough in the minds of beholders that any opposing reality is dismissed as priggish or jealous.
jacquesm 10y ago
> If you're spending cash money the on indie feel of things, you'll be buying BigCorp sooner or later. Better to just buy quality. Most of these start out as quality. Then what happens is that during some survey BigCorp finds out that SmallQualityCorp is nibbling away at their sales & profits and then the next thing you know SmallQualityCorp has been acquired by BigCorp.
- Neliquat 10y ago
  See: Snapple
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  Although what you find frequently is that SmallQualityCorp was started by BigCorp at arms length with a view to bringing them under the umbrella once they have traction. "Sports nutrition" (the "what the hell do we do with all this cheese making byproduct industry") is rife with this - there are only two suppliers, and many, many brands and offshoots. It happens in retail, too - you see a single entity pushing multiple seemingly independent brands to target different market segments.
  - viridian 10y ago
    Then how is MyProtein so much cheaper than like everyone else?
    - madaxe_again 10y ago
      Volume over per-sale margin. It's the exact same stuff from the same suppliers as you'd get buying a premium brand like Sci-MX etc.

jacquesm 10y ago

> in the U.K. you can call pretty much any large business you like and you'll be talking to one of two huge call centre operators. And whose employees aren't even near the UK. Call centers are some of the most easily outsourced jobs. And what with the UK having exported the ability to communicate fluently in English through its many years of empire building they've only themselves to blame for that one.

madaxe_again 10y ago
Actually, over the past few years you've probably found more British accents than not - because they are using domestic prison labour at an increasing rate. Oh, for added gags, one of the massive call centre operators (Serco) also operates prisons, which have quietly gone private over the last decades.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  Wow. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-ca... > Oh, for added gags, one of the massive call centre operators (Serco) also operates prisons, which have quietly gone private over the last decades. That's disgusting and ought to be illegal.