Chewy is a mail order pet supply company in the U.S. I've been a happy customer for years, but not long ago I ran into an issue that they just don't seem equipped to resolve. A new pkg of our regular cat food seemed a bit off. To make sure it wasn't a new recipe, I contacted the manufacturer, who sent a replacement, though they are normally wholesale only. My next Chewy order of that food was also off, so I contacted Chewy this time. I've had lots of great customer service experiences with them, and the customer service representative was super friendly and offered to replace the food. They have always immediately issued a refund or replacement, no questions asked. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just going to get another off package, so I explained that this was a repeat problem, and could they make sure that their entire batch in storage hadn't gone bad. The agent agreed and carefully wrote down the issue, which would go to their fulfillment department, but guess what? My replacement was another off package of cat food. I've sent them a couple of detailed feedback notes, but I've also stopped buying our cat food from Chewy (we buy other, nonperishable things from them). What's your take? I have theories, and I'm curious to hear yours.

So I'm running my nonprofits first online auction fundraiser and I'm bummed by the turn out. It seems we're getting ok traffic but no ones bidding. I wonder how I could make the listing more appetizing or do we just have sucky stuff? Auction site is lssupportnetwork.org/auction Would love feedback on how to improve.

While we’re on the big topic of Labubu strategies… I wanted to ask… why do people look after them so much? They’re a $30 toy! People are keeping them mint, not putting them on bags like they’re designed to, and instead buying cases for them to protect them, or keeping them in their boxes. No way people would cut the tags off. One scratch and it’s game over… tears! Flossys Dad got her one and told her she couldn’t take it to Kinder as it was too special. But… she takes other toys that cost more… How did they get us to care so much? People aren’t doing this with like, $30 Kmart toys! What strategies are getting people to value these so greatly, and to treat mass produced items with such consideration! This kind of care often only happens for high ticket items like luxury bags for example. Like, they won’t put the bag on a table incase the feet get scratched. They buy bag raincoats, and wrap twillys around the straps. How did they get this kind of respect for an item on something essentially cheap? What can we learn from this so that people value our offers more?

I wanted to show you how discussions should flow in here! It's super important they don't just stop after the first "right" answer. That benefits no one. Why?? So when we stop looking at something because there's an obvious answer, we're training our brains to think in single layers. But real strategic thinking happens when you can see multiple possibilities at once and understand that businesses rarely do things for just ONE reason. And even more so, just because a good answer is there... doesn't mean it's the best one. There may be gold to be unearthed that even they didn't realise at the time. Commenting a lot of ideas when there's already a good one there, isn't just about being thorough for the sake of it. When you practice exploring every angle on other people's strategies, you're literally rewiring your brain to think this way about your own business. Remember - there's usually many reasons why brands do what they do, AND... there's always many reasons why brands COULD have done what they did. Not all of them need to be true to be interesting. By exploring everything, we train our muscly brain to get stronger at this. To see depth in people's decisions. And to then learn how WE can figure out these strategic moves in our own businesses. 😎 Here's some examples 👉🏻 EXAMPLE 1. Example 1 - Original post: "Why do you think this brand has such extreme price differences between their two main products?" - Comment 1 - Sarah: "They want people to not buy the expensive one but instead buy the 'better deal' option and feel smart about it. Classic price anchoring!" - Comment 2 - Mike: "True! But what if they also had way less stock of the expensive one and needed to move the cheaper inventory? I've seen brands do this when they've overordered." - Comment 3 - Emma: "Ooh or maybe the product they're steering you toward has much better profit margins for them? Like the expensive one looks fancy but actually costs them heaps to make?" - Comment 4 - Jake: "Here's a wild thought - what if the expensive option has old technology they're phasing out, and the 'better deal' one has new tech they want everyone to move to? Making it feel like the customer's choice rather than forcing them!" - Comment 5 - Lisa: "Love that! Plus there's the psychology angle - maybe their target market hates feeling ripped off, so by showing them an 'overpriced' option first, anything else feels totally reasonable?" - Comment 6 - Tom: "What if it's about market positioning though? Like they want to be seen as a 'premium but accessible' brand, so they need the expensive option there just to make that statement, but actually want to sell volume at the lower price?" - Comment 7 - Amy: "Could even be A/B testing! Maybe they're seeing which price point converts better and this is their way of having both options live simultaneously?" - Comment 8 - Dave: "Or what if the expensive one is just there to make their main competitor's pricing look bad? Like strategic market disruption disguised as product pricing?"

Read to the bottom and type 'Read' once you have! Welcome to The 3AM Thinkers Club 🎉🎉🎉🎉 You know those middle-of-the-night moments when your brain won't shut up? Whether it be with your own problems or someone else's. When you're lying there at 2:47am thinking of the most random things? Like... "Why do luxury hotels give you tiny soap bottles when others have big dispensers?" or "Why do I ALWAYS want to buy something at Aldi's special buys but never at the other supermarkets?" That's your strategic brain working! This place will teach your brain to do that... figure out those answers... but while you're awake. WHY BOTHER? Because when you can spot strategies in real life business scenarios like Aldi or Hotels, you'll be able to reverse engineer things and play with them in your own business. Here, you will learn how to think like a strategist. And you're about to get addicted to it. Your 3am brain already does this... makes random connections others don't. We're just going to train it to do it in an educated way so that you can benefit from it, instead of being kept awake from it. 📌 HERE'S HOW IT WORKS!! ❌ This is NOT a place to: - Ask for help with your personal business problems - Share your struggles or get advice - Post about your offers or services ✅ This IS a place to: - Share cool business observations you've spotted in the wild - Decode why companies do seemingly backwards things - Make connections between totally unrelated industries - Train your brain to see strategic patterns everywhere Think of it like a gym for your strategic thinking. Every post, every comment, every observation is a rep that makes your pattern-recognition muscle stronger. 🏆 THE ADDICTION SYSTEM (You're going to love this) HERE'S HOW YOU GET POINTS - IT'S ALL ABOUT QUALITY: 🔥 When people LIKE your posts - you get points 🔥 When people LIKE your comments - you get points 🔥 When people ENGAGE with your insights - you get points BUT HERE'S THE CATCH: You only get points when people actually LIKE what you've shared. Not just because you posted something. It has to be GOOD.