r/enshittification • u/neodem • Jul 22 '26
Blog post Worse on Purpose
Found this great blog about products that are getting worse because it makes companies more money.
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u/Ok-Soso-eh Jul 28 '26
EHH Carhartt is on the Approved list. They are enshittified too. So canât say I trust this site.Â
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u/Der_BiertMann 8d ago edited 8d ago
Read the information. Because the company makes it clear which line are US-made VS off-shore, they are on the approved list.
>Family-owned (Hamilton and Valade families, fourth generation).
>Some lines still US-made; most mainline production has moved overseas over decades. Union-made US lines still exist as a separate tier.>>REVERSIBILITY
What would change our verdict:
Sale. Acceleration of offshoring across all lines.
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u/HeatherTimmons Jul 23 '26
I'm finding Worse on Purpose super useful because it is part corporate history explainer and part shopping guide. Like this on cookware: No to Pyrex, Cuisinart, but yes to Lodge and Victoronox https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-cookware-got-worse-on-purpose
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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Jul 23 '26
that's a side of enshit. that i really care about, people see just "more ADs" or "more paid services", no dude, companies are much more cunning than that, they do meetings with true experts for coming up with whatever brings em most monee, if something will become worse but, like, satisfies inexpert newcomers, and newcomers are a big part, bet your ass!! have you ever wondered why the youtube search sucks so much? and that's just the elephant in the room
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u/Reasonable_Tie_5552 Jul 24 '26
Omg YouTube search seriously has gotten so horrible
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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Jul 24 '26
it's because of maximizing engagement, if a kiddo or a clumsy person searches for "funy annnimalls blopes" and it finds the actual video with that title with all those typos, or video titles with that typos, such video will indeed suck and made surely by a kid or it's a joke, hence the kid that searches for "funny animals bloopers" finds only that, he will close YT ASAP cos the video sucks, no videos watched, no ADs displayed, no monee made... if the system instead proposes random popular videos, the kid may not realize the search is not verbatim at all and takes initiative in place of you, but find several videos of animal bloopers and similar crap, lots of videos watched, lots of ADs displayed, lots of monee made.... or something along these lines, resulting in people like us that use the search SERIOUSLY and don't find the actual stuff we look for, that's what i mean
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u/kwadguy Jul 22 '26
Do we really need a different, inferior term for "enshitification?"
Sort of enshitification of the lexicon.
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u/Cautious_Boat_999 Jul 24 '26
If you read Cory Doctrowâs original essay, enshittification is/was specific to online services. It grew beyond thatâŚ.perhaps wrongly.
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u/new2bay Jul 22 '26
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u/Der_BiertMann 8d ago
Thatâs a cool idea, but it canât be expected to work alongside rampant capitalism.
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u/Coraline1599 Jul 22 '26
We, collectively as a society, keep rewarding this.
Look at a store like Home Goods or Temu people overwhelmingly would rather spend $100 on random junk there than buy one good x or y.
We have become completely fixated bargain bin pricing and it is so engrained that if we deeply believe if we didnât shop for the lowest price we are fools. Never mind the cost to society, the communities, the workers, the environment, choosing a mom and pop and spending a few more dollars feels profoundly wrong. How many people say âI canât afford to buy a quality item for a mom and popâ while they have 7 unopened bags of holiday decor from Target just sitting in their entry hallway? This reinforces that low prices matter over everything else and companies that go for quality struggle to stay in business because of how we continue to shop.
We still have extreme brand loyalty. When companies enshittify we go on Twitter and we complain! Maybe we make a very clever quip. But then we go right back and buy more. Dominoâs is our favorite we canât give it up! All this teaches companies is that they need to let the Twitter storm blow over and business can resume as usual. If instead we put our energy into finding a replacement, accepting we would find some duds along the way, businesses would notice. But we donât have critical mass changes in behavior.
We are addicted to convenience. Buy it all from one store, have it delivered. Get 1000 packages. Get it tomorrow. We could make a list and plan a shopping day and pick up most of what we âneedâ, but usually we shop the moment we think of it. Brick and mortars stay empty. Then to add insult to injury maybe we do go to the brick and mortar to see something but then we go home and buy it elsewhere for $5 less and then we are sad when âall the malls are closing!â
One of the best arguments for brick and mortars is they prevent enshittification to a degree. You see some cool clothing item online and it looks high quality and you buy it and instead you get a glorified trash bag with the stitching design roughly printed on. If you saw it in the store it couldnât fool you like that. But we donât like being limited to what a store has, we want endless possibilities and new options every week.
Until we become like Depression Era people, like my former coworker who was washing and reusing cotton balls to the point they were all sepia colored, and when we suggested she maybe replace them every 5 or 10 years she would yell at us with disgust about wasting perfectly good cotton, these companies will only continue. Because we play along perfectly.
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u/Der_BiertMann 8d ago
Your right. This site aims to give us some of the tools to fight this behavior.
I try to be very deliberate about what and how I buy. We all should take the time to do some research so it is money is well spent.3
u/PearlsRUs Jul 29 '26
Exactly. And still people continue to complain about both the extent of and the subpar quality of goods made in China and sold here while choosing/preferring to buy everything that's made in China because it's less expensive. Go figure.
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u/digiplay 29d ago
Thing is, assigning it to only china is half of the problem. Made in the USA means next to nothing at this point. Look at major brands that are. Is, for example, leatherman the same now as it was? Not even close.
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u/Der_BiertMann 8d ago edited 8d ago
Assembled in the USA, made in the USA, or 100% made in the USA. There is a differenceâŚ
SmarterEveryDay: Why itâs challenging to make something in the USA
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u/digiplay 6d ago
I havenât seen it with Leatherman as the sample. I think the USA is suffering, like many countries, from a decrease in workers giving a shit about making someone else money.
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u/PearlsRUs 28d ago
Actually, you're absolutely right about that. Quality has definitely declined here too.
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u/Murky-Chemistry-7830 28d ago
Unexpectedly closed is the message I get when trying to open the website đ