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Comment by hisnameismanuel | Hacker News Reader

My opinion is exactly the reverse. This is not the future. This is a story about a company whose time is highly limited.

I have a company - not a start-up, just a regular ol business- - that will do just under 7 figures of revenue in this, our very first year. 100% bootstrapped from savings.

In an industry which normally requires a high level of trust (think $4000+ upfront spend), we've signed up dozens of customers with ZERO reviews or prior reputation.

How?

We treat other people like humans - we talk to them like they're adults, treat them like they're adults, and have created a very special product that meets their needs as human beings.

Everything is designed from the ground up to be HUMAN FIRST, systems, policies and software be damned.

As long as human beings are the ones spending the money, companies like mine will own the future.

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I'm inclined to agree, I think (if I understand your point). this has less to do with "the future" or "computers" and more to do with a very low margin business (probably a large chain) that faces little incentive to go the extra mile.

it's like shopping for groceries at walmart vs the local grocery store. if I go to walmart, I can basically get the lowest prices on most items. but if I can't find something, it might take me five minutes to find a disinterested employee who may or may not know where to find the thing I want to buy. or I can go to the independent grocery store where someone will ask me if I need help if I so much as walk down the same aisle twice. of course, the exact same items will all be shifted up by a dollar or two.

in markets where customers are willing to pay more for good service, you typically see businesses at a bunch of different price points offering different levels of service. for the most part, movie theaters aren't this kind of market, except perhaps in very affluent areas. people already consider movie tickets to be expensive these days. as long as the experience goes right enough of the time, they're not gonna pay extra to see the same movie.

There is a theater in my area that prides itself on service, to the point that all screenings are ad free.

It's a bit far away of a drive, but saving 30 minutes of ads is kinda worth a few bucks.

Or show up about 20 minutes later than the stated movie time. Most theaters in my area has assigned seating so planning for skipping trailers isn’t too bad.

Companies like yours get acquired and inevitably are corrupted in the process.

Only if they value hypergrowth at cost of the customer.

Some companies are happy being small and personal. Maybe they won't become a billion dollar unicorn, but maybe they'll treat their customers better and be more in touch with the community instead.

Personal touch doesn't scale well. But that's why there will always be a niche for small and personal companies

Companies like GP's get acquired only if GP sells their share. If GP refuses, competition only has the alternative of either lowering their prices so far down and cross-financing this with more profitable other stuff that OP goes out of business or to provide actual human support.

In both cases the consumers win.

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