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91 Comments
- deadbaby, on 10/10/2007, -1/+46Piggy banks aren't a business. They're a mold made in a factory that also makes thousands of other products. I have to seriously question the authors qualifications to write this type of article if they think piggy banks are some independent branch of industrialized production.
- chaiwalla, on 10/10/2007, -1/+33What about video stores?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -11/+35buried as spam for their incontent-fake-popup, adblock blocked it but I still had to click close
INCASE YOU WANT TO READ THE ARTICLE HERE U GO
10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years
They're going, going and may be completely gone by 2017. Check out their odds of survival.
By Geoff Williams | September 19, 2007
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10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years
They're going, going and may be completely gone by 2017. Check out their odds of survival.
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Determining which industries aren't long for this world may seem easy enough. But some types of businesses, such as telemarketing, are surprisingly hard to kill. And then again, other industries, probably the ones you're sad to see go, can't find a way to survive.
So start setting up your office pool, because here are our picks for 10 businesses facing extinction in 10 years.
Record stores: Record stores are closing in, well, record numbers. One of the most prominent music retailers, Tower Records, shut down all 89 stores last year after concluding it couldn't withstand the onslaught of online music stores and chains like Wal-Mart, which can offer lower prices and sell other items to offset the smaller number of CDs being sold.
Odds of survival in 10 years: Great, if you consider Wal-Mart a record store.
Content Continues Below
Camera film manufacturing: This probably isn't the best business to get into right now. According to The Chicago Tribune, from May 2006 to May 2007, the volume of prints made from digital cameras grew by 34 percent. Film camera sales, meanwhile, fell by 49 percent, while digital cameras sales continued to grow--by 5 percent. Of American internet users, 70 percent own a digital camera; another survey shows that 70 percent of Canadians now use a digital camera.
Odds of survival in 10 years: Some entrepreneurs who specialize in making camera film for amateur photographers could possibly make a living.
Crop dusters: They'll be around in 10 years, but likely not in their present form. The average age of the typical crop duster is 60, the number of crop dusters is dwindling, and the profession can be dangerous. Just several weeks ago, an Arkansas crop dusting company was ordered to stop flying in Iowa after spraying farm workers with a fungicide; 36 farm hands in a cornfield had to be decontaminated by a hazardous materials crew.
Odds of survival in 10 years: The type of crop dusting plane that chased after Cary Grant in North by Northwest will have almost certainly gone south. Farmers say that they'll always need crop dusters, even though new technologies have made them less important than in the past. But commercial airlines are increasingly taking business away from the small, independent crop dusters.
Gay bars: As The Orlando Sentinel noted in a recent article, around the country gay bars have been going out of business as gay men and women have been gaining greater acceptance in society. What used to be a hangout for people who felt unwelcome elsewhere is becoming less necessary.
Odds of survival in 10 years: As with many industries, the very best of them will endure; the rest won't.
Newspapers: Some people thought they were through when radio and TV news came about. Even after the fax machine revolutionized offices, some people predicted that everyone would have their news faxed in, since that would be quicker than relying on a newspaper. But the numbers have been falling precipitously since the 1990s when the internet came on the scene. In the past year, the Audit Bureau of Circulations twice has posted drops averaging 2.1 and 2.8 percent over six-month periods. Newsrooms across the country have been hemorrhaging staff.
Odds of survival in 10 years: They won't disappear; they'll be on the internet. We don't recommend startups investing a lot of money into a printing press plant.
Pay phones: In 1997, there were more than 2 million pay phones in the U.S.; now there are approximately half as many. There are probably always going to be certain places like airports and hotels that offer pay phones, as long as there are people who don't own or can't afford cell phones. Because phone kiosks on the streets are a favorite for drug dealers, who don't want to have their own numbers tapped and tracked, cities are shedding them.
Odds of survival in 10 years: They'll be around, but won't be anything to call home about.
Used bookstores: They've been closing fast, and those that are still open are relying on what's making them obsolete: the internet. A used bookstore used to be the place to find that beloved, out-of-print children's book you used to read 17 times a day until your little sister flushed it down the toilet. Now you just type that title in a search engine and order it within minutes.
Odds of survival in 10 years: Some of them will still be eking out an existence, but the handwriting is on the wall.
Piggy banks: You may chuckle, but as we continue gravitating toward a paperless society, it's not difficult to imagine a day when piggy banks no longer exist.
Odds of survival in 10 years: Sure, they'll probably still be a few around--in antique shops.
Telemarketing: The good news for people who hate telemarketing calls is that the industry may finally be dying; the bad news is that it may take a while. Telemarketing has been hit hard by the national Do-Not Call list that was established five years ago, and sales have been stagnant, but the industry still managed to bring in $393 billion in revenue last year. Some of this is due to clever marketing. This includes holding raffles at shopping malls; when you sign your information, you agree to accept calls from the company running the contest and its partners. Cell phones are exempt from automated telemarketing calls, but not from individuals calling. Then there are occasional windows of opportunity: The national Do-Not Call list is set to expire in 2008, unless you remember to register again.
Odds of survival in 10 years: They'll be here. Humbled, more impotent, but probably still here.
Coin-operated arcades: With Nintendo Wii, casual gaming online and the Xbox 360, the video game arcade industry is thriving, but not the standalone brick-and-mortar arcades. For those of you who thought arcades were already dead, they still exist--at movie theaters, miniature golf courses and other touristy spots--but it seems only a matter of time before they vanish from the landscape. Ten years ago, there were 10,000 arcades in the nation, and now the number is close to 3,000, according to the American Amusement Machine Association. Revenue from arcade game units brought in $866 million last year, which sounds good until you consider that in 1994, the industry was pocketing $2.3 billion and that the profits are only still high because it costs so much to play a game.
Odds of survival in 10 years: Game over. - Leo21k, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2311. Gyms
No longer needed in the future where people do all their socializing on sites like myspace. Who needs a sexy bod when you can just photoshop your head on to Brad Pitts body then put that picture up as your profile pic? - Divals, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18One would hope that the illegal drug industry would become extinct, due to the legalization of drugs...
- NonLeftistDiggr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16How many government agencies would be out of business if they didn't have the special ability to stay open while blowing their budgets and providing ***** services for the price? CALTRANS would have been gone years ago.
Tower was insane. I can remember walking in there, even in the past few years, picking up a CD, lauging out of pity when I saw $18.99, and leaving to go order from Amazon. - Diggrock, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Oh *****, I just invested all of my money into an arcade company...
- Dumbledorito, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15You mean Pirate Bay?
- jokerthief, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14lol at gay bars going out of business in ten years! Not going to happen. If I were gay, I'd want to go to gay bars to meet partners. It would be much easier with the much better ratio of gay to straight than the typically straight or mixed bars have.
- yomamaisfat, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Porn will go strong forever.
- volvinator, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12You're crazy.
- crackah, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12He wasnt referring to piggy banks as such, just the removals of coins.
- cultist667, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10RIAA & MPAA
- rootstyle, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Its a shame that arcades have really died off. The arcade culture is as strong as ever in Japan, but the in person social gaming is much more important there. I shed a tear for coin-ops. *sniff*
- estacado, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10I have a feeling that the author's motive for the whole article is the opportunity to say "Game Over" for the arcade industry at the end of the article. He just cannot resist the pun.
- diggerman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Blockbuster
- KoolKhemist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Transportation (Trains, Airplanes, Cars, Buses, Boats, Etc)
Because I am working on my Teleportation Algorithm as we speak. - noobeffect, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5As the internet becomes more widely available, the porn industry will continue it's rise.
- crzdmn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4HAHAHA if you finished it today it wouldn't make it through regulatory agencies for 15+ years due to the insane amount of lobbying money that would be spent in order to prevent your technology from essentially putting thousands of industries on death row.
Don't you love Americorp! - crapmatic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Netflix will continue to do great. Not everyone has DSL and FiOS and the interest in watching movies on their laptop screen.
- princeofhosts, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That's not true. I'm work in Japan and Arcades are always busy. Maybe in the States but here, they are alive and very strong.
- KoolKhemist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I'll teleport all the Congressman into a cave somewhere and leave them there if need be.
- dreambucket, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I'm thinking recruiting agencies/headhunters are the next to go. I was placed at my current position by a recruiting agency...sooner or later companies are going to realize that they just paid at least $10,000 for someone to surf careerbuilder for 5 minutes
- endustry, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Interest in film is still pretty strong among longtime photographers and it's not unusual for me to meet someone who started with a digital and has since gone backward to film. While it's possible to do anything in Photoshop, some people still prefer the look of film. Anyway, I see a reduction in variety and availability in ten years but certain types of film such as Kodak's Tri-X and Fuji Velvia should still be in production. The only difference is it will be a lot more expensive than it is now and unless one lives in a big city like New York, people will have to send it out to be developed.
- tomakun, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Print View of article:
http://entrpreneur.com/article/printthis/184288.ht ... - jxfallout, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Which brings up another point, Japan tends to have an AWESOME variety of arcade games in their arcades when compared to ours. Best example was the arcade in a mall closeby that closed about a year ago. It's newest/latest game was Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. :p
- Leo21k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3But we no longer have to pay for porn thanks to the internet, I dont see how they make any money.
- machambi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3check printing ?
- aznrecyclebin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3P2P will go strong forever.
- avisotin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Porn is like light. Everything in the world moves in relation to it as a constant, and if it were to stop, so the world would stop.
- jokerthief, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Yeah but Netflix will probably be the ones delivering the content over the web.
- jxfallout, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4The prediction of arcades being pretty much dead makes me sad. Hell, there's only one arcade in my area (and it's still like an hour away) currently (there used to be several in malls and what-not between 5-10 years ago).
- HanSolo69, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2pics or...I have too short of an attention span to read.
- psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2There's an arcade in a mall like a mile from my house. The arcade was *completely* empty when I was in that mall last weekend. However, places like Dave and Busters are still very much alive. I went there the other day and there was a huge line to get in and get the gamer card.
- ThinkBox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"Newspapers"
- Major newspapers are Advertising driven. The amount of money these sites make from advertising on the web is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.... this isnt anything CLOSE to the actual print business right now. You're looking at millions per month for the majors. Print will not be going away anytime soon, or in the next 20 years. You might see local papers disappear, but you might forget how much small towns base their community off of The Paper. Especially people in their mid 30s and older.
The paper will not disappear when there is a large amount of people who dont get their news consistently and daily from the internet.
"Camera film manufacturing"
This is really a shame, to be honest. I have been doing digital photography my entire life, and have recently begun to shoot my own film and work in darkrooms. The quality of large format cameras, and the beautiful skill involved in the darkroom is an incredible thing. Like I said, I've working on digital my whole life, well when i started working on film I thought it would be an annoying chore. Really, I find film to be absolutely beautiful. It has vastly increased my skill in taking pictures and understanding the concept and history of the photograph. The ability to go into a darkroom and be just as creative with my own hands as I am in photoshop (with a mouse) is truly inspiring. The craft of printmaking may be going the way of the buffalo, but I'll always love it. - jimmiss, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Phone and Cable companies via the proliferation of Wireless broadband.
- tlow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Um... people who still live in the real world. Also, as far as I know there aren't virtual women yet.
- avisotin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Shutup.
- whatever1, on 10/29/2007, -0/+2Everyone should be up in arms about arcades going out of business. Sure, it looks like inevitable, but geeks like us will need places to spend quality time with our kids.
- crashflow, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3i dunno bout you guys, but brad pitt photoshops his face unto my body...
just to get a good laugh out of it. :( - obxjdt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I have to disagree with some of these;
Record Stores Facing Extinction in 10 Years;
Without them, the music industry will go under. Most people want a hard copy of their music collection, and not everyone wants to use iTunes/iPods.
What will change and is changing is the way the music industry works. One hit wonders don't sell albums anymore, just 1-2 songs. We're starting to see quality acts again. There hasn't been many acts with any longevity for the last 25-30 years. Maybe 3-4 that your kids will be listening to in say 20 years?
Crop dusters:
There will always be a need for this until a better/safer delivery system is devised. *Have you ever seen them in action??? These pilots have mad skillz!!! Every pass looks like their going to crash into the ground!*
Used bookstores;
There will always be Bookworms looking to buy, sell or trade good books. Besides, this (and no newspapers) is like saying there's no need for publishers anymore...
Piggy banks;
Only when we have a cash free system. It'll never happen. Besides, isn't a change jar the same thing?
Coin-operated arcades;
Been a looooooong time since I've put a quarter into a game. I agree that the "Arcade" as we know it might be gone, but I think pay to play will be here for a long time in the form of bar-top games (A.K.A. "Crack Machines").
- RawShark, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Just as long as I can continue to get $50 happy endings at the Bangkok massage parlor in town here, I don't give a rats ass what happens to the rest of the business world.
That was a joke. As a camera collector and avid photographer with my own darkroom, I've been in fear of film going the way of the DODO. First Kodak stopped processing K-14 films. Then Kodak stopped manufacturing B&W polycontrast paper. These have been big blows for me. - zoom1928, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't know about that. Even though we advertise on monster.com, dice, and craigslist, we've only had one qualified candidate respond to any of our ads. We're in a very anti-Internet area (Seattle), but you'd still think a few of the unemployed people in the area would look for a job over the internet. Unfortunately we pay a lot of money for a firm that finds candidates. We have paid much more than $10k for programmers that are so clueless than they never think to use the Internet to find a job.
- avisotin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1WHAT?! You don't have a VirtuaGirl?!
- mrsneakypat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dunder Mifflin.
- RRAlex, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's a bit naive to thing the telemarketing will die... I'm really waiting for the cell phone service business to die though. As soon as we get Wi-Fi / Wi-Max coverage all around, VoIP clients on phones will be (are becoming already) the norm and we'll be able to peer with the home... Actually many people are already doing this right now and are only paying 2-3 $ to keep their old world phone number so grandma can still call in... All you need is a small asterisk box (or even pay a provider a bigger price to host it for you!).
In the end we need a secure p2p directory service with web of trusts / social networking (OpenPrivacy in mind.. :-) - SanTe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This totally discounts broadband ISPs' desires to maximize profits by charging ever higher prices for bandwidth that they limit. In what rose-colored glasses world are we all downloading/streaming DVD quality or better video anytime we want for less than what Netflix charges for the same amount of mail-delivered content per month? Do you really think Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc., are going to stand for most of their customers downloading/streaming high quality full length movies several times a month without charging them *much* higher monthly subscription fees to pay for their now obscenely inflated bandwidth bills? The argument that DVD rental by mail is as good as dead is very short-sighted in my opinion, and ignores several realities.
- CDNnewbie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Or northeastern mid-market paper supply firms? ;)
- andycr512, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Well said for a troll who spends his day posting flamebait whenever a Linux story gets on the front page.
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