this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
113 points (95.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

30643 readers
1283 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Arizona iced tea is still 99 cents.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago

Saddleback Leather springs to mind. Their stuff is expensive but they have a 100 year warranty and their tag line is "They'll fight over it when you're dead". I have a couple of their bags, belts, and wallets. I don't expect to ever need to replace them.

First thing I bought from them was a briefcase back in 2011. About three years after I bought it one of the steel D-Rings for the strap failed and they paid courier fees for me to return the briefcase from the UK, replaced the part, cleaned the bag up, and sent it back, no questions asked.

Full disclosure: 1) they're an American company which might put some off buying in the current climate and 2) the founder is a devout Christian which might put others off but none of their products have ever tried to make me a believer so I'm ok with it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

Agreed with Costco… and used to agree with Bosch… until seeing this recent video.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

When I go into a Costco, I take a minute to look at the board showing the pictures names of long-time employees. At my local one, they have about 15 people who have been working there for over 30 years.

Met a woman who had been a Costco employee for 25 years. In addition to everything else, she got 6 weeks of paid holidays a year. How many other retail employers come anywhere close to that?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

The only quality Bosch product I've used is windscreen wipers. Every other tool or appliance has been pretty average in terms of quality.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

Dean's Beans coffee. The owner was an amazing guy, fair trade, all that. When he stepped down, he handed ownership to the employees.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Chapman's ice cream! They have continuously been in the best interest of their employees and local communities. During COVID, they made sure that all their employees kept their jobs and even raised their wages. The company even went as far as to buy several deep freezers to store to COVID vaccines, because the town where their factory is located has a lot of elderly people and wanted to ensure their protection from the virus.

They will always be one of the few brands that I am completely loyal to.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

They have also announced that if they have to reduce or stop production because of the current tariffs, they will continue to pay all of their employees.

All of their ice cream is also made in nut free factories, so that people with nut allergies can safely eat it. I'm not sure, but that may be the only ice cream that makes such a guarantee.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Seems like these guys: https://nubo.coop/en/

They provide email, calendar, contacts, and cloud storage.

On their mission statement page they explicitly have:

not seeking to enrich shareholders

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In France, we have this : https://cestquilepatron.com/

The concept is that customers are asked questions to make a new product that satisfies them. For example, they want to sell apples. They will ask in what country they should buy them, how well the farmer should be paid, what size… and you see in real time how it affects the price. Then, the product will be sold in supermarkets at that price

There is also mutual insurance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_insurance

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Where can you buy these products in France?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Is it in larger supermarkets like Intermarché/Leclerc? I'll look for it next time I'm over there

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes

You can see it at carrefour, monoprix, leclerc, intermarché...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Il look for that. Ty!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

I'm not sure if this is any longer the case but I've heard that Leatherman, despite "only" having a 25 year gurantee will pretty much repair/replace any of their multitools you send them no matter how old.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

When a friend broke the saw blade on my Leatherman (which was ~15 years old), I sent it back to them for repair. A short while later I received a brand new Leatherman with a letter saying they were so sorry, but they didn't have parts for my old model anymore, so they sent me a brand new, better model. The letter also said they understood people had emotional connections to their tools, so if I decided I wanted the old broken tool back instead, they would hold onto it for me for a few months, and all I'd need to do was email them asking to swap.

10/10 the best customer service I've ever received.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I bought the last one at my Costco for $30-$50. My wife kept asking me why would I need it when I already have all of the other tools it has. She didn't get it. Still doesn't. I'm so happy to have this thing at work. Comes in really handy. It's good to hear about Leatherman being a good company. What's that? Have I ever used it? Well... Not yet, but I know a situation will eventually arise and I will be glad to have it readily available.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

I use mine a lot, but it's even more frequent that I think "damn, my leatherman is in my backpack and I could really use it right now"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

It still is as far as I know

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Their tools though have gotten crazy expensive.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

Dischord Records.

dischord.com

Fugazi record label.

Record/CD prices are capped low to cover production and distribution costs.

Personal contact and service, with real people, when ordering.

Live show prices were capped at $5.

A focus on real connection between artists and fans, rather than extracting maximum profit using music as a vehicle.

Live shows were excellent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

All business have to care about profit or they won't be in business for long. Also if you want employees to get good pay/benefits and such they have to charge more and in turn you can't shop for the cheapest.

That said I think the concern comes when they start trying to squeeze every last cent out regardless of the customer relationship and long term image. As soon as a company goes public you now have a board that will get rid of you if you don't push stock values up another percent. Even if you want to have long term growth and goodwill the board is pushing for profit growth targets this quarter and they pay mostly in shares too. I find the best corporate customer/profit balance comes from private firms.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

All business have to care about profit or they won’t be in business for long

Businesses have always cared about profit; just reasonable profit. They would make a product, determine the cost of manufacture, apply a modest profit margin to it (usually about 30%) and factor in things like employee raises and benefits, expanding the business, and building up a financial safety net.

Businesses were run by humans, for humans.

Hedge fund managers and venture capitalists in the 80s changed that. Rather than assigning a fixed profit margin each year to try to maintain, the rule became "how much profit can we squeeze out by sales and (most damning) by systematically dismantling anything that we pay for that benefits our employees".

This is the end result of having taking human stakeholders out of the business decisions and replacing them with shareholders that are mostly other businesses, hedge funds, and venture capitalists. Profit becomes the ONLY motive, rather than one of many.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Yup. If you are bought by anything with "capital" or "equity" in its name you are fucked.

load more comments
view more: next ›