It’s probably the biggest lie of my education. It was really only late in grad school that what “imperfect information” means. Sometimes it’s being a racist dumbass, not “got less snow than usual so snow shoveling business had a hard time.”
Also, the idea that they will buy rolls of carpet and have them “custom cut and bound” to the customer’s specifications is something literally ANY local carpet store will do, no shipping required and probably a hell of a lot cheaper than CB2/West Elm pricing.
On a related note, if one is in the market for a rug, I highly suggest checking out local estate sales. I have found many high quality rugs for pennies on the dollar of what they are purchased new. High quality rugs can last for generations, if cared for correctly. I’m so disheartened by the “fast fashion” aspect of home goods.
YES! THIS IS TOTALLY TRUE! And such a good point! You can get rugs cut so many places. I love old rugs and have found some good ones at estate sales and on eBay too.
First of all, I like this: “But he’s a person in a system that benefits him. And I don’t like that system.” Secondly: “do none of these founders have access to Wikipedia?” lolol. I’m here for ALL the rug rants, ps. Why so expensive? Why as almost as expensive to buy a new one as to have your old one cleaned?? love the last line: “what else could fit inside our homes with the right investment?”
Rug cleaning is ended very expensive! I remember taking a rug to get cleaned when Riley and I were first married, and they person quoted the price? I had to walk back out of the store with the dirty rug, because there was no way I could afford it! I really should do a deep dive on rug economics. There's a lot there.
Carpet Exchange has many of the same rugs sold at CB2 and West Elm (speaking from experience) and sell them for a fraction of the price. I assume they are priced as loss leaders have not done any research. I would definitely read the piece on rug economics.
Oooh I would love that dive! Haha / so sorry for your skin you had to walk back out with that dirty rug :( Probably we should all just be taking things outside and beating them in the sun like old women in fairy tales, yeah?
Nov 14, 2022·edited Nov 14, 2022Liked by Meg Conley
This sounds like the kind of business plan my stoner friends in college used to come up with, right down to the Marley references. Hard to imagine anyone pitching this with a straight face...Ernesta sounds like a muppet character or a hormone therapy
I'm sitting here literally slapping my head when I got to the "Ernesta" named after Ernest Hemingway part. I mean...!!! I just. The number of (white) men who think that invoking "Hemingway" makes them sound literary, sensitive, and cultured. If you've read Hemingway recently, you know he's a raging misogynist (a glimpse at his bio will do the same). If you *have read Hemingway recently and didn't pick up on this, well....maybe reflect on that a bit. This is actually such a good litmus test on a date. If a guy mentions his love of Hemingway, I was always like, RUN. (He either doesn't read and pretends to, or he does and...)
Imagine having a chance to name a company after a great woman, but instead you think, "Nah, I'll name it after a MAN but make it sound like a woman's name." Like if you can't think of a name of any women that you admire--get some help. And don't ever sell products to women.
Lane, I am still dying over the Ernest thing too. And like, I am going to admit - I like Hemingway's style of writing! I do! But his work is profoundly impacted by his bigotry - to the point that I've read each book once, and not again. I cannot love Hemingway as a writer, or even a thinker. I can love him as a human - as I feel I am called to love all humans. But for him to be a favorite writer is just....like you said...it speaks volumes. I also think it is such an odd choice for a home company that is claiming to want to make soft, safe feeling spaces because Hemingway's life was not soft or safe. (Much of his trauma was self-inflicted, but I guess that's true of many of us.) He had at least nine concussions. They damaged his brain horribly. By the time he killed himself, he was unable to think, speak or work in any capacity close to his younger years. I'm no doctor but it seems impossible that he wasn't dealing with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. His life is all about how toxic masculinity destroys men! It's so sad on top of everything else. I need to finish watching the Burns documentary on him, but as I watched it I thought, "Oh! Ken Burns isn't a fan either."
Yes, to all this, and thanks for this nuanced addition. I think you're especially correct that Hemingway's life and work are about the ways that toxic masculinity is damaging--even when that message isn't intentional. It's more accurate probably to say that it's problematic to name such a company after someone who exemplified toxic masculinity more so than someone who was sexist, even. One of my favorite images that now leaps to my mind of Hemingway is from the film "Midnight in Paris" in which Hemingway's character is hilariously always popping into a scene and trying to get someone, anyone, to get into a fistfight. The portrayal of over-the-top maculinity is pitch-perfect. And the director of that film is...yet another problematic toxic male! So yes of course we can enjoy Hemingway's prose, and some films by problematic dudes (or maybe we can't). But your main point that rich white guys who are oblivioussss to all this are in charge of all the money and power is spot on.
" ... It transforms our inspiration, Hemingway’s legacy, by embracing a more-inclusive future.” Oh, this is a gem. This is priceless. Reminds me of the tiny-getaway-house-in-the-woods startup that was featured a few years back ... with actual screens in the windows. "Congrats, dude," the commenters wrote, "you invented the cabin." Same clueless energy, doubtless, same reward. Go to a local carpet store and tell them the size you want; they'll cut, trim and bind and you won't pay a Silicon tech bro for shipping.
My heart broke at ‘a more-inclusive future’ being white men creating things for white women. Totally missing the point. And missing the breadth of inclusivity going all the way back to where your money came from. And then my eyes rolled out of my head and off the table. Working in tech for almost 15 years, this is so so common. And digging in behind the scenes, hearing some of those marketing conversations... it’s a wonder I haven’t retreated to the woods already. This was a perfectly articulated rant. 👏🏼
Great writing! People do seem to think rich people are smart and markets are rational. That’s definitely not always true.
Thank you so much for reading this! And yes, definitely not always true.
It’s probably the biggest lie of my education. It was really only late in grad school that what “imperfect information” means. Sometimes it’s being a racist dumbass, not “got less snow than usual so snow shoveling business had a hard time.”
Also, the idea that they will buy rolls of carpet and have them “custom cut and bound” to the customer’s specifications is something literally ANY local carpet store will do, no shipping required and probably a hell of a lot cheaper than CB2/West Elm pricing.
On a related note, if one is in the market for a rug, I highly suggest checking out local estate sales. I have found many high quality rugs for pennies on the dollar of what they are purchased new. High quality rugs can last for generations, if cared for correctly. I’m so disheartened by the “fast fashion” aspect of home goods.
YES! THIS IS TOTALLY TRUE! And such a good point! You can get rugs cut so many places. I love old rugs and have found some good ones at estate sales and on eBay too.
First of all, I like this: “But he’s a person in a system that benefits him. And I don’t like that system.” Secondly: “do none of these founders have access to Wikipedia?” lolol. I’m here for ALL the rug rants, ps. Why so expensive? Why as almost as expensive to buy a new one as to have your old one cleaned?? love the last line: “what else could fit inside our homes with the right investment?”
Rug cleaning is ended very expensive! I remember taking a rug to get cleaned when Riley and I were first married, and they person quoted the price? I had to walk back out of the store with the dirty rug, because there was no way I could afford it! I really should do a deep dive on rug economics. There's a lot there.
Carpet Exchange has many of the same rugs sold at CB2 and West Elm (speaking from experience) and sell them for a fraction of the price. I assume they are priced as loss leaders have not done any research. I would definitely read the piece on rug economics.
Oooh I would love that dive! Haha / so sorry for your skin you had to walk back out with that dirty rug :( Probably we should all just be taking things outside and beating them in the sun like old women in fairy tales, yeah?
Just no with the white men and Ernest Hemingway.
This sounds like the kind of business plan my stoner friends in college used to come up with, right down to the Marley references. Hard to imagine anyone pitching this with a straight face...Ernesta sounds like a muppet character or a hormone therapy
A hormone therapy 😂😂
“Ask your doctor if Ernesta is right for you.”
Riley said Ernesta sounded like a prescription laxative and I can't stop thinking about that, honestly.
Yeah, I think that's the correct answer 😂
I'm sitting here literally slapping my head when I got to the "Ernesta" named after Ernest Hemingway part. I mean...!!! I just. The number of (white) men who think that invoking "Hemingway" makes them sound literary, sensitive, and cultured. If you've read Hemingway recently, you know he's a raging misogynist (a glimpse at his bio will do the same). If you *have read Hemingway recently and didn't pick up on this, well....maybe reflect on that a bit. This is actually such a good litmus test on a date. If a guy mentions his love of Hemingway, I was always like, RUN. (He either doesn't read and pretends to, or he does and...)
Imagine having a chance to name a company after a great woman, but instead you think, "Nah, I'll name it after a MAN but make it sound like a woman's name." Like if you can't think of a name of any women that you admire--get some help. And don't ever sell products to women.
Lane, I am still dying over the Ernest thing too. And like, I am going to admit - I like Hemingway's style of writing! I do! But his work is profoundly impacted by his bigotry - to the point that I've read each book once, and not again. I cannot love Hemingway as a writer, or even a thinker. I can love him as a human - as I feel I am called to love all humans. But for him to be a favorite writer is just....like you said...it speaks volumes. I also think it is such an odd choice for a home company that is claiming to want to make soft, safe feeling spaces because Hemingway's life was not soft or safe. (Much of his trauma was self-inflicted, but I guess that's true of many of us.) He had at least nine concussions. They damaged his brain horribly. By the time he killed himself, he was unable to think, speak or work in any capacity close to his younger years. I'm no doctor but it seems impossible that he wasn't dealing with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. His life is all about how toxic masculinity destroys men! It's so sad on top of everything else. I need to finish watching the Burns documentary on him, but as I watched it I thought, "Oh! Ken Burns isn't a fan either."
Yes, to all this, and thanks for this nuanced addition. I think you're especially correct that Hemingway's life and work are about the ways that toxic masculinity is damaging--even when that message isn't intentional. It's more accurate probably to say that it's problematic to name such a company after someone who exemplified toxic masculinity more so than someone who was sexist, even. One of my favorite images that now leaps to my mind of Hemingway is from the film "Midnight in Paris" in which Hemingway's character is hilariously always popping into a scene and trying to get someone, anyone, to get into a fistfight. The portrayal of over-the-top maculinity is pitch-perfect. And the director of that film is...yet another problematic toxic male! So yes of course we can enjoy Hemingway's prose, and some films by problematic dudes (or maybe we can't). But your main point that rich white guys who are oblivioussss to all this are in charge of all the money and power is spot on.
" ... It transforms our inspiration, Hemingway’s legacy, by embracing a more-inclusive future.” Oh, this is a gem. This is priceless. Reminds me of the tiny-getaway-house-in-the-woods startup that was featured a few years back ... with actual screens in the windows. "Congrats, dude," the commenters wrote, "you invented the cabin." Same clueless energy, doubtless, same reward. Go to a local carpet store and tell them the size you want; they'll cut, trim and bind and you won't pay a Silicon tech bro for shipping.
My heart broke at ‘a more-inclusive future’ being white men creating things for white women. Totally missing the point. And missing the breadth of inclusivity going all the way back to where your money came from. And then my eyes rolled out of my head and off the table. Working in tech for almost 15 years, this is so so common. And digging in behind the scenes, hearing some of those marketing conversations... it’s a wonder I haven’t retreated to the woods already. This was a perfectly articulated rant. 👏🏼