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A cautionary tale maybe. Any company can fold rather quickly. Just some strife, some headwinds, etc... How stable is Boeing right now? "Internal struggles am

A cautionary tale maybe. Any company can fold rather quickly. Just some strife, some headwinds, etc... How stable is Boeing right now? "Internal struggles among the next generation of Larkin executives and the loss of key executives, precipitated the demise of the company. Sales fell from a high of $28.6 million in 1920 to $2 million by 1939.[2] The company was sold in 1941, liquidated in 1942,[6] and the new owners continued a mail-order business until 1962.[3]"

silisili 2y ago
What fascinated me was that a driver for their demise was the rise of the department store and automobile hurting their mail order business. Nearly 100 years later, the department store has demised because of the rise of a slightly faster form of mail order business.
- labster 2y ago
  Everything old is new again. Had Sears gone back to focus on mail order instead of spending their waning years trying to save retail, they could have got Amazon's business before it was started. But instead they killed the catalog in 1993, one year before Amazon was founded.
  - paulcole 2y ago
    > Had Sears gone back to focus on mail order instead of spending their waning years trying to save retail, they could have got Amazon's business before it was started I strongly disagree with this speculation. Amazon’s benefit wasn’t just being there first. It was being there first and being Amazon. Sears was fucked because they were 100+ years old and hadn’t innovated in decades and were entering a period that would be defined by innovation. They just didn’t have it in them. Sure maybe they stave off failure by a few more years and then maybe they get a series of increasingly lucky breaks afterwards and then they do keep Amazon from becoming Amazon. But it’s far far far far from a sure thing that would result from simply pivoting back to mail order.
    - bombcar 2y ago
      The “sears could have done it” story is much better realized by Walmart doing it right now. Amazon better keep on their toes.
      - paulcole 2y ago
        Isn’t Walmart's e-commerce revenue like 20% of Amazon’s? Are they actually cutting into Amazons lead or is the market just bigger?
        bombcar 2y ago
        Walmart's tiny for now - but their "in-store" is just massively huge. The key is they already have warehouses everywhere (the stores!) and they have a fleet of delivery people active and operating. Amazon's being attacked by Walmart on one side (same day in-store pickup and/or delivery of things you know) and Temu/Alibaba on the other. There's a reason they're sitting on AWS as a profit center.
        paulcole 2y ago
        Isn’t Walmart's e-commerce revenue like 20% of Amazon’s? Are they actually cutting into Amazons lead or is the market just bigger?
        bombcar 2y ago
        They're cutting in, considering Amazon was already a huge online presence when walmart had nothing. Target, Best Buy, Home Depot are also champing at the bit, each in their own way.
        paulcole 2y ago
        Really? I looked and in 2020, Amazons lead was like $160b and in 2023 it was like $200b.
      - 2y ago

silisili 2y ago

What fascinated me was that a driver for their demise was the rise of the department store and automobile hurting their mail order business. Nearly 100 years later, the department store has demised because of the rise of a slightly faster form of mail order business.

labster 2y ago
Everything old is new again. Had Sears gone back to focus on mail order instead of spending their waning years trying to save retail, they could have got Amazon's business before it was started. But instead they killed the catalog in 1993, one year before Amazon was founded.
- paulcole 2y ago
  > Had Sears gone back to focus on mail order instead of spending their waning years trying to save retail, they could have got Amazon's business before it was started I strongly disagree with this speculation. Amazon’s benefit wasn’t just being there first. It was being there first and being Amazon. Sears was fucked because they were 100+ years old and hadn’t innovated in decades and were entering a period that would be defined by innovation. They just didn’t have it in them. Sure maybe they stave off failure by a few more years and then maybe they get a series of increasingly lucky breaks afterwards and then they do keep Amazon from becoming Amazon. But it’s far far far far from a sure thing that would result from simply pivoting back to mail order.
  - bombcar 2y ago
    The “sears could have done it” story is much better realized by Walmart doing it right now. Amazon better keep on their toes.
    - paulcole 2y ago
      Isn’t Walmart's e-commerce revenue like 20% of Amazon’s? Are they actually cutting into Amazons lead or is the market just bigger?
      - bombcar 2y ago
        Walmart's tiny for now - but their "in-store" is just massively huge. The key is they already have warehouses everywhere (the stores!) and they have a fleet of delivery people active and operating. Amazon's being attacked by Walmart on one side (same day in-store pickup and/or delivery of things you know) and Temu/Alibaba on the other. There's a reason they're sitting on AWS as a profit center.
        paulcole 2y ago
        Isn’t Walmart's e-commerce revenue like 20% of Amazon’s? Are they actually cutting into Amazons lead or is the market just bigger?
        bombcar 2y ago
        They're cutting in, considering Amazon was already a huge online presence when walmart had nothing. Target, Best Buy, Home Depot are also champing at the bit, each in their own way.
        paulcole 2y ago
        Really? I looked and in 2020, Amazons lead was like $160b and in 2023 it was like $200b.
    - 2y ago