
How to make a corporate butt pucker - raganwald
http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2006/07/how_to_make_a_c.html
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gunderson
Big companies don't always do a good job of keeping up with the latest and
greatest ways to cut costs ... but overall big companies are more profitable
than startups and more efficient, so it's sort of tough to knock their
approach too much. After all, what is a startup but an early stage burocracy?

~~~
omouse
More efficient? Citation needed...

~~~
ajross
Find me a family-run retail store that can get the prices that Walmart gets
from its suppliers. It's not even close.

Large corporations are big and slow. They make poor decisions a lot. But they
got big by doing at least one thing right. Sometimes it's just an efficiency
of scale, but it's an efficency nonetheless. In software specifically, it is
_sometimes_ possible for a startup to outcompete an established competitor,
but certainly not always.

And outside of software it's almost unheard of: try to displace Exxon/Mobil by
being "smart" and "agile", for example.

~~~
ardit33
I can give you countless of examples in San Francisco. My local grocery shop,
run by a greek man, has always prices about %50 cheaper, than the big corp
grocery store few blocks down. And more selection. Sometimes I can't believe
how cheap (and good) things are.

Go anywhere in china town, and you will see rock bottom prices, on everything,
grocery store, clothing, nick nacks, you name it. Even in the Mission in sf,
there are plenty of cheap small grocery stores, run by family.

Go to the next door calmart, and you paying almost twice as much for the same
stuff.

~~~
menloparkbum
I've lived in SF for a long time, and I don't believe this, either. The prices
might be 50% cheaper than Whole Foods, but not 50% cheaper than Safeway. If
Cala Foods is what is meant by "calmart" the description could be accurate -
Cala Foods is overpriced. But they are like a slightly bigger, semi-franchised
mom and pop shop, not a big corporate chain.

~~~
ardit33
You should check out geary and fourth market:

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/4th-ave-and-geary-farmers-market-
san...](http://www.yelp.com/biz/4th-ave-and-geary-farmers-market-san-
francisco#hrid:vEZ-fKCJFPj4ovSOdIFwYA/query:geary%20farmers%20market)

Yelp reviews: "I love this family owned Produce market. The vegetables & fruit
are always seasonal and fresh. The prices are ridiculously cheap you almost
feel like your steeling."

....

So long, Sucky's!

Hellooooooo hella cheap produce.

"Not always the freshest, and not quite the liveliness of a legit outdoor
Farmer's Market, but for the convenient location AND all the money I'm saving,
do I even really care?"

And, I now several other small grocery stores, just as cheap.

Go to lucky's, or safeway, and you are paying almost twice for the same stuff.
Guys you have to digg around for the good stuff. If you live something like
Marina, or Fidi, or Soma, you probably don't have choice but big stores, but
if you live in the Inner Richmond, China Town, Mission, there are plenty of
family run cheap grocery store.

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giardini
I don't buy the story: it sounds like a fabrication.

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raganwald
The punch line:

 _The split second you get any traction, any success at all? Look over
shoulder, they’re coming. You are already ‘the old way to do it.’_

~~~
icky
> _The split second you get any traction, any success at all? Look over
> shoulder, they’re coming. You are already ‘the old way to do it.’_

Yeesh. I already misread the headline; this just reinforces it. :(

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aasarava
Granted, the large corporation in question may truly have inefficiencies and
other problems. But let's be fair: A prototype is not equal to a multi-million
dollar corporation. That's like comparing a seed to an orange.

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snowmaker
"...you should prevent your beliefs about how things are from being
contaminated by how you wish they were. Most people let them mix pretty
promiscuously." -PG

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Tichy
I suppose he wasn't talking to Google.

Anyway, not everything can be solved in 90 days.

