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The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource
- hprotagonist 7y agoIn those days, anywhere you found a Payless, you found kids who knew they were getting subpar shoes, but also knew to appreciate them because they were better than not getting new shoes at all. Yup. That's exactly it. ( I wore my fair share of really crappy gym-class shoes, too.)
- tootie 7y agoMy FIL grew up dirt poor in a developing country and was frequently short of food and shoes to wear. His favorite things in America are fast food and Payless.
- themodelplumber 7y ago> we racked up hours roaming fluorescent lit aisles, inhaling the smell of off-gassing pleather. Funny. And if I had to bet on one term that could completely change the materials of which consumer products are made, possibly sparking a consumer materials revolution, "off-gassing" would be it. Once you learn about it, it's always there, nagging you to ventilate or throw out. In fact I'd say that along with terms like "gaslighting" and "toxic relationship" enjoying recent prominence, times have never been better for terms capturing the psychological rejection of toxins driving humans headlong toward life change.
- Animats 7y agoIt's "out-gassing", as the plasticizers leach out of the vinyl. The "new car smell".
- themodelplumber 7y agoAs an industrial specialist term, sure. I'm not sure if you've noticed but the term "off-gassing" now has a more general meaning & life of its own outside of that domain. I've heard people use it for situations up to and including stinky clothes and flatulence over the last few years.
- stevenhuang 7y agoThey mean the same. Aerospace commonly uses offgassing too: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/testing_and_analysis/materials_flight_acceptance/toxic_offgassing.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/testing_and_analysis/mater...
- Paperweight 7y agoLate capitalism. The gig economy. Deconstructivism. Planned obsolescence. Foreign ownership. Drone delivery. Fully automated manufacturing. High frequency trading. Cryptoassets. Targeted advertising. Filter bubbles. Population decline. Self driving cars. Microsuites. A boring dystopia.
- godzillabrennus 7y agoYou better own the robots or the land. It’s going to be bad news bears for people who don’t own either.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoOr plan on “borrowing” the plans and software for the robots. The story of Robin Hood never goes out of style. I propose Keanu Reeves plays the protagonist in the film adaption, a spiritual successor of Johnny Mnemonic.
- ransom1538 7y agoRad quote. BUT! Why is land going to be valuable? Robots will not use much land. People will lose salary over time as their skills are automated - which will lead to lower land prices.
- nordsieck 7y ago> Why is land going to be valuable? People need to live somewhere. The reason that cities exist is because people like to be around (certain) other people. Since teleportation isn't a thing, people need to live within a certain distance of each other in order to have an in person relationship. This isn't just about work, even in a "post scarcity" society, people will still want to interact with other people, face to face. Therefore land will always be valuable.
- ErotemeObelus 7y agoLabor is not zero-sum. This is a myth promoted by the upper class to scare workers away from unionizing.
- spsrich 7y agothey saved me a bunch of money when I had to buy dance shoes for my daughter. Sorry to see them go.
- dvduval 7y agoI got my dance shoes there too. It will be hard to find a shoe that is comparable.
- debatem1 7y agoThe point about both helping create the race to the bottom and also catering to those it leaves behind is, I think, an important and often overlooked one. It's why Walmart is beloved in many of the small southern towns where I grew up. Sure it relentlessly exploited poor people elsewhere, but when you're poor yourself you can't help but be grateful for its low prices. And the belief that finally, finally someone is giving you the good end of that deal is terribly reassuring-- like maybe, for once, someone has your back. This, of course, quickly assumes a political dimension. At the time conservatives (many of whom now back Trumpian protections, how times change) railed against the so-called "latte liberals" who supposedly fought Walmart from the comfort of their Mercedes-- not that anyone knew one of them personally, of course. And we, the rank and file, ate it up: we needed our cheap shoes, our cheap food, etc. Now, as a liberal, when I hear people advocating for the breakup of Amazon or Google, I can't help but think back to how I would have felt about that when I was poorer, and when I didn't have the option of simply paying more for a better cause. I think I would have fought quite hard to keep my costs low, possibly to the point of voting against many of my other interests or beliefs. And especially in this era of polarization and high-stakes politics, I'm not sure it's a good idea to bet on people in general viewing that differently.
- bdcravens 7y agoThis sums up well Trump's ascension: there are a lot of people who have real needs and real opinions, and whose votes count as much as someone's in California or New York. An environment where we insist on leaving those voices unheard is what enables someone to have extreme influence.
- debatem1 7y agoI'm not sure where to go with this, honestly. From an electoral perspective it's counterfactual: my family in the midwest have roughly 1.5x the electoral power I do. Historically speaking this has led two democrats in my lifetime to win the popular vote but lose the presidential election. So I don't think there's an issue with those voices being unheard in elections-- quite the opposite in fact. On the other hand, I see where you're coming from. The loci of money and power in the United States speak loudly and listen poorly to the half of us that see stars at night. I think this has been to conservatives' advantage, although that seems to have more to do with preexisting cultural affinity than shared policy goals.
- writeslowly 7y agoThe article doesn't mention this, but it looks like this happened after a leveraged buyout by private equity firms in 2012 (similar to other big retail chains like Toys R Us or Sports Authority)
- homero 7y agoHere's a great video about Payless https://youtu.be/GJ35lCrOYC0 https://youtu.be/GJ35lCrOYC0
- pascalxus 7y agoShoes is one of those things I almost never need to buy, now that I'm an adult and fully grown. Even the very cheapest ones can last me 10 years or more without wearing out. Actually, it's the Nikes that wear out much faster, it seems. PS:(edit) I walk around a decent amount and even go running 6 to 9 miles per week. Even a super cheap pair of running shoes won't show any holes in it for 4+ years at least. The Nike ones I had started falling apart in just in less than 2 years. And yes, I do have about 10 pairs, but tend to stick to 4-5 pair at a time time. and I don't throw them away until the wear is so low that an actual hole forms or even multiple holes/rips form. most of time just get some plimsolls, those tend to last forever.
- acranox 7y ago10 years?! Do you ever walk anywhere?
- kristopolous 7y agoWhat brand are you wearing?
- pard68 7y agoNot OP but I got a pair of Clark's in 2010 that I still wear. Granted they are sandals, but of anything that is even more impressive, I used to go through sandals once a season. And don't get me started on the poor state of common flipflop
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Spooky23 7y agoThe missing factor is that when shoe production was completely sourced to a few companies in China (70% of US market), nearly all shoes turned to shit. So Payless wasn’t really differentiated itself from any other value brand. The end of Payless is just another private equity story, and poor kids will just get a smaller variety of shitty shoes from WalMart, TJMaxx, or Dollar General. The majority of us get screwed in other ways, as we pay more for increasingly lousy footwear.
- pard68 7y agoNever been to PayLess, is it any good, or rather was it? Also, should mention TJMaxx has decent stuff. Never bought shoes there but I get pants, shirts, and random stuff for the house. My wife gets plenty of clothes there though.
- op00to 7y agoEvery time I bought PayLess shoes, they were destroyed in weeks. I haven't been in 10 years, but fuck that place.
- starik36 7y agoMy were usually gone by 6 months to a year, which isn't great. But then they cost $20. I'd usually buy 2 pairs. I think they were worth their cost.
- flukus 7y ago6 months to a year is what I generally get out of "high quality" name brands like asics and nike, the only difference seems to be which part of the shoe goes first, with budget brands it's the sole, more expensive ones it tends to get holes around the top of the toe area.
- Washuu 7y agoI have the opposite problem. When I was a kid(very active, used 8+ hours a day) all I had were shoes from Payless and they lasted two years. Recently I have purchased different "high quality" brands in the $50+ range and each has worn through the soles in less than six months. I barely wear my shoes an hour each day.
- rchaud 7y ago> My middle school was a cruel place where girls would sneak up behind you and grab the collar of your shirt to see if it was a “real” Esprit, or if you’d just sewed a tag onto the pocket of a knock-off (which I totally did). I'm male, and an equivalent of this would happen in high school in my country as well (late '90s). What is it about human society that causes others to try to bully someone on the basis of their consumption choices? Kids have been brand-aware for generations now, but to use these arbitrary perceptions of brand value to shame someone who doesn't have access to them, is beyond grotesque.
- rchaud 7y agoI'm starting to notice that I need to replace shoes at a rate of nearly once every year. Granted, I buy cheap sneakers from Marshalls/TJ Maxx and spend 4 winter months walking across semi-icy rock salt laden streets. Part of me wants to buy walking shoes over the $75 mark to figure out if they last longer, but the other part feels that at that price point, they aren't designed to last any longer than the sub-$50 brands.
- jeff_fenz 7y agoI think a lot of companies has been pushed out of business because of Amazon. It's a repeat situation of Wal-Mart. This is what happens when there's a monopoly. Payless wasn't very good in the first place so I'm sure that attributed a large amount to their dissolution.