4 ms·

The real tragedy was it didn't really do anything for Hoover, didn't promote their product, merely turned it into a tool to acquire something else of more value

The real tragedy was it didn't really do anything for Hoover, didn't promote their product, merely turned it into a tool to acquire something else of more value. Hoover was no longer selling their stuff to the consumer, the sale was guaranteed - whether they made a good product or not - it was selling airline tickets. I would think quality went down as manufacturing realized they could cut corners and no one would really notice. So they probably pushed out a lot of junkier vacuums. They lost their brand notoriety along with it, as people probably now thought of hoover as "the place where we could scam some cheap airline tickets" instead of where to go to get good appliances. This is where the (illusion of) profit became more important than the product for the board and that took the company down with it.

HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
Reminds me of Uber right now, who is trying to sell something for less than it's worth. Hopefully they get enough market share that they can actually switch around and make enough money to pay their drivers well.
- krisroadruck 7y ago
  Every time I see this I wonder why people never mention the obvious follow-up. Which to me at least, is will a version of Uber that charges enough to be profitable and pay their drivers well still be an attractive product? It may still well be for short trips of a few blocks downtown, but for things like taking an Uber from the outskirts of town to downtown to avoid having to drive your car into the thick of traffic, the prices are already close to what I'm willing to pay for that convenience. Datum point of one but at a current round trip cost of $60+, raise the prices 50% and I'll either drive myself or just not go downtown.