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Comment by snapcaster | Hacker News Reader

Is this fair? I mean, i'm not saying PE didn't accelerate demise or something but this business model is so doomed it doesn't seem fair to blame PE

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Every time PE wrecks a company their excuse is "it was doomed anyway." That's not a falsifiable statement, except then you look at competitors that weren't wrecked by PE and they're doing fine.

The entire original "retailpocalypse" was an orgy of PE in retail. If you wanted to know which retailers were going to survive all you had to do is look at the ownership.

If you are the kind of person who is entertained by making your own clothing, you're probably also entertained by seeing and selecting the materials that go into your projects.

It's no more an obsolete business model than something like a Bass Pro Shop. It's just a different hobby.

This is a good point, maybe i'm too pessimistic on these sorts of businesses

Well let's see, without PE they wouldn't have been loaded with absurd debt. So... Yeah, this bankruptcy is absolutely fair to blame pe on.

Yeah, selling goods at a store is so 2006. Everyone knows the only real businesses left are memecoins, SaaS, and consulting. Everyone else should get a real job.

I wasn't saying it was doomed because it's brick and mortar retail. I was saying it was doomed because 100% of the people i know who are into this stuff have shifted to buying online. Arts and crafts require a really long tail of different varieties of things it's a particularly hard retail business imo

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