Ask Paul: January 20 (Premium)

Image source: The New York Times

Happy Friday, and welcome to another set of great reader questions to kick off the weekend. This article was NOT written by AI, I promise. :)
Overreactions
leoaw asks:

In the past few days I've had a series of emails from stores that used to offer various member discounts now get rid of them. Best Buy is switching its Rewards to only people with their credit card. Amazon is getting rid of its Smile donation program. A gas station rewards program I was in just sent an email today that they're changing their program, too. Is there an external regulation driving this (I did receive a bunch of "our privacy policy has changed" emails at the beginning of the month) or has the industry collective determined they weren't getting their return on investment in the programs?

I feel like this might be related to the economy and that each of these companies has finally started taking a hard look at their business, determined which bits are costing them too much, and have started scaling back. Brad and I talked about this, sort of, on today’s First Ring Daily, this notion that Big Tech (in the case of our discussion) was only too ready to accept what should have immediately been seen as a very temporary surge in pandemic-related revenues for what it was. But instead, they reacted like Lotto winners, and over-hiring was just one side-effect. I’d like to believe that these firms are led by adults who understand how these things work. But the pandemic proved otherwise.

To your specific point, I guess those examples aren’t as dramatic taken one by one. But as a consumer and an individual, you can literally feel the belt tightening at all of the companies whose products and services you use. And they are collectively having an impact at the individual level. I saw this at Dunkin’ Donuts, for example, and the change they made to their rewards program a few months back was so confusing and so unfair compared to the previous system that I literally stopped going there. This is what happens when companies overreact: they did so during the pandemic and now they’re doing so in the opposite direction in the post-whatever-recession. And it makes them look less sophisticated and in control. It’s like someone spilled money into the air and they’re running around, bumping into each other trying to catch the bills before they hit the floor.

Ultimately, the only power we have as consumers is to take our business elsewhere. And while we may be looking at reduced benefits no matter where we turn, depending on the market or business, there may be some options that aren’t taking these major steps back in customer service. Or at least some that aren’t as bad. And we vote by changing.

I’m going to write about Google’s overreaction, specifically, later today or tomorrow depending on my schedule goes.
Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio
helix2301 asks:

Paul, what are your feelings about the new mac mini vs. Mac ...