“The fact that Instant Pot is already being framed as a corporate cautionary tale—the company that went bankrupt bc they made a product so durable & versatile that its customers had little need to buy another one—instead of as a critique of capitalism is deeply, deeply depressing.”
First of all, don’t post random Twitter posts with no sources. Second of all, they are just reorganizing through bankruptcy. They will be back. Third, some private equity investors lost money. So what?
Fourth, they only lost money due to mismanagement. Products like Instant Pot don’t sell a million at once. They sell many millions over decades. They are perfect investments because they are predictable. But don’t expect to get all the money tomorrow.
Yeah go tell that bot what not to post!
Oh god it looks like it’s just a top post cross post bot from reddit? Yuck.
Just letting you know our beautiful admins banned the bot
They seem to sell like crazy every time theres some kind of sale, though.
But also the OPs article claiming that it went bankrupt because its too good is bull. Ive plenty of appliances that have lasted a long time. The bigger issue for Instant Pot is the lack of diversity and features on its core product that make it stand out. Plenty of companies make similar pressure cookers.
Also found this article https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instant-pot-bankrupt
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I’m 98% sure this is a marketing ploy. Company faces bankruptcy because one of it’s top products doesn’t sell. So it complains that the reason is that it’s product is too good? That’s advertising. The element that will be studied in future by business students is how the company got anti-capitalists to spread the advert. The contradiction in this ploy is they customers will now be asking: what if I buy one and it does break but the company has gone bankrupt and closed?
Maybe it’s stats show that it mainly has new customers rather than repeat customers. That’s a poor endorsement, not confirmation that it’s products aren’t breaking. It suggests that is products aren’t being used enough to stress test them. And it suggests it’s a saturated market and these devices aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Edit: still, I agree we should use this as an argument to leave capitalism in the dustbin of history.
I was thinking the same thing. I have one of these. I never use it. I don’t recommend it to people. It’s not a good product. The idea that crock pots make their money by breaking fast enough is ridiculous.
The problem wasn’t durability — it was supply chain constraints during Covid and private equity mismanagement.
I mean if you can’t make a success out of owning Pyrex, Corningware/Corelle, and Instant Pot — you’re doing something wrong.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/06/instant-pot-bankrupt-private-equity/674414/
Pyrex went rapidly downhill in recent years. It’s glass used to be tough af. Then they changed the recipe. I haven’t bothered with anything Pyrex for well over a decade because the last thing I bought inexplicably broke. There’s nothing to mark it against the competition nowadays. They’re just selling glass with a pyrex label.
I’ve heard the more expensive stuff with a blue tint is still good, the argument I heard was that they run two lines, secretly. But I’ve not come across any. Maybe I only shop in the shops made for poors. Or the urban myth that it still sells durable glass was another marketing scheme to trick customers into sticking with the company.
Given this anecdote, if the same company owns instant pot and pyrex, I can believe that the company partly believes that it’s instant pots aren’t profitable because they work. What a world.
The story with Pyrex is more nuanced than people think.
Yes, the type of glass was switched, but for safety reasons. The classic (all-caps, I believe) PYREX was able to handle the thermal shock of going straight from the freezer to the oven. When it did break, though, it broke into sharp splinters. Modern Pyrex needs to warm up some before being put into the oven, but when it breaks it does so in square chunks.
Like all glassware, scratches and chips seriously degrade the strength of the glass, even if those scratches aren’t visible. Failure can happen unexpectedly because of slight impacts to invisible microfractures. Don’t scrape your glass with metal utensils and be careful with secondhand Pyrex, because you don’t know if it’s been dropped before.
Ah, so it’s like when they introduced safety glass so that kids (mainly) don’t cut themselves on giant shards if they run into it and it smashes while they’re playing?
I’ll follow that advice. Thanks for explaining.
Instant pots absolutely break within a few years. Mine did at 4 years, after the second or third time I made bone broth in it.
It’s all about the leadership and direction. Shoot, I was just reading about that Old Navy CEO who completely turned the brand around. Someone will come in and save instant pot with the right strategies.
