Here is a thread to post examples of private equity ruining things. To get us started: bowling. I am not a regular bowler but even I found some things in this video especially appalling. Pins on strings? This used to be a country.
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That’s how they used to do it in the REALLY old days
I get it’s hard but just say no on the sports shit. I promise your kid will get over it.
As if youth sports weren’t bad enough before private equity…
I have no idea how to solve for this, but I kinda think humans have underestimated how bad it is for our system to have the owners of businesses be completely removed from their customers, be that because of location or the quasi caste system we have created
Good thread.
Here’s one you might not expect - cheerleading!
Bain Capital rolled up a monopoly with it’s Varsity Brand and…
The company’s vertical integration of competitive cheerleading has faced criticism, including accusations of anti-competitive and monopolistic practices (such as opposition to cheerleading being sanctioned as a sport), conflicts of interest via control of governing bodies, and institutionalizing high financial costs for participation in competitive cheerleading.
Came across this site after my last visit to the vet
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My go-to spots to go clamming on the Washington coast have been bought by PE. They want copies of every guest’s ID when you reserve now and push upgrades like early check-in/late check-out, wine and cheese plates and shit like that, but there’s nowhere to hang a jacket or towel when you get there. We’re at the fucking beach ffs. No usb ports anywhere either. I went with my kids and sister in April and just gave my contact info and a photo of my drivers license for everyone and now they’re texting me trying to offer my daughter discounts. Going to try Airbnb or something next year.
The vet thing is a huge bummer because I like the specific vets at our practice and they have a history with my dog, but I would really prefer to take my business elsewhere.
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Oh damn didn’t realize my vet had sold out to PE.
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My dentists office got infected with PE a couple years ago. I used to not get charged for 6 month cleanings, or get a deeeep discount because the dentist was my neighbor when I was born and he always gave my family discounted care. His practice was always just him and one or two other dentists, and a handful of hygeniests. It’s now a ton of different dentists, 100 hygeniests, and walking through the hall feels like you’re in an Amazon warehouse of worker bees doing dental office shit. And I go and get a bill from some billing company for $186 after a cleaning now, so that’s fun.
PE also infected Walgreens last year. The customer experience as a pharmacy patient has taken a nosedive. Walgreens had been a public company for like 100 years.
Feels like basically every drs office is getting gobbled up by PE or massive hospital systems.
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We liked Banfield for years, but then they turned to shit.
For my nerds out there, shoutout to VMware getting Broadcommed into bolivia. One of the bits of tech that made magic and literally changed the world and now is actively being milked dry by the greedy overlords.
Those of us who watched Cheer on Netflix were probably unwittingly contributing to this
Yes. Add in everything is a chat bot / etc. and the consumer experience of just existing is absolutely terrible across the board.
More interesting is can anyone name a single example where it helped somebody? I can’t think of one.
It helps a lot of rich people get richer, does that count?
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