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You might have heard that the company that owns Instant Pot has filed for bankruptcy. The makers of Instant Pot did something horribly wrong: they made a really good product that works very well and does not need to be replaced frequently. This means that owners of Instant Pots might only need to buy one and rarely replace it, if at all.

This is a great success from the perspective of *industry,* in Veblen’s sense, but terrible for *business.* The makers of Instant Pot failed to sufficiently sabotage their product by, say, building in intentional obsolescence. Maybe they should have used cheaper parts that wear out faster, or installed software that requires regular updates, or deliberately inserted components designed to make it fail.

But they didn’t, and so sales were stagnant. The firm that owns Instant Pot borrowed lots of money in an attempt to make a new version of Instant Pot they somehow hoped to sell to consumers of Instant Pot. It was too much; the firm did not earn enough differential profits—profits at a faster rate than its competitors—and so the firm is failing, despite the success of the product.

https://thetakeout.com/instant-pot-maker-parent-brand-file-for-bankruptcy-2023-1850534708

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