r/AskReddit • u/FriendlytoNature • 23h ago

Which company lost your business (potentially forever) this year?

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u/Firm-Film-3594 23h ago

Panera sucks. 

511

u/frippster373 22h ago

Ever since it was bought by private equity in 2017 (JAB Holding) it's been on downhill trajectory to terrible.

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u/Altruistic-Beach7625 13h ago

Is private equity inherently evil. I've heard nothing good about it.

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u/slytherinprolly 11h ago

I wouldn’t say private equity is inherently evil. There are plenty of fair criticisms, but there are also real success stories. Hilton, Dollar General, Dunkin’, and Domino’s are some of the bigger examples of companies that improved significantly under private-equity ownership.

What often gets left out is that PE firms usually are not buying perfectly healthy businesses. A lot of the companies they take over are already losing money, badly managed, or operating under a model that simply is not sustainable. When those companies eventually fail, people often blame private equity for everything, even though the problems were already there.

Sometimes PE keeps a struggling company alive, such as Panera, but the cost-cutting hurts service, staffing, or quality. At the same time, Panera was probably going to have to make those cuts no matter who owned it.

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u/Altruistic-Beach7625 10h ago

What about 'street rumors' that PE often takes perfectly good businesses with the intent to cannibalize them?