The Companies You Hate

I know why economic growth is slowing: Consumers hate the companies they do business with.

At least that's the conclusion I'd draw if I took at face value the vitriol readers heaped on businesses that ignore them, overcharge them, disrespect them and generally mistreat them. In my July 28 column on inflation, I asked readers to send me examples of companies they hate. So the hundreds of emails I received bashing companies hardly constitute a scientific sample, and it's wise to take these complaints with a grain of salt.

But the data suggest two important conclusions about the economy and what investors can expect in the next six to 12 months.

First, the degree of irritation at what I've called, after Adam Smith, the toil and trouble of buying anything now, suggests that companies are nearing the limits of their efforts to cut costs by pushing more of the work in transactions onto buyers' shoulders.

Second, if companies are approaching the limits of do-it-yourself cost-cutting, the next stage is going to require investment in service-enhancing productivity tools. That, of course, would be good news for many of today's hard-pressed technology companies.

Let me share a sampling of the complaints.

The Usual Suspects and Then Some

As I would have expected, few people had anything good to say about today's suppliers of telephone, cable television or Internet service.

"I recently had my landline phone service go out, and it cost me three calls (not easy since my phone service was out!!), two visits from technicians and nine days without service. The company was SBC Communications (SBC). So I think I can do without a landline."
-- Donald Marks