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Worse on Purpose
Investigative essays on corporate enshittification — how the brands you trusted made everything worse on purpose, and who profits when they do.
- Posts
- 46 from 23 Mar 2026 to 28 Oct 2026
- Posting
- weekly (44 in the last year)
- Kind
- magazine
2026 43
- Not Quite Ice Cream: The rise of frozen dairy dessertOct 28, 2026The big brands now sell it in tubs that look just like their ice cream. Here is how to tell the difference, and which brands still make the real thing.
- Farmed Out: How Detroit Ceded ControlOct 21, 2026Detroit outsourced parts production to save costs and for 20 years it worked. Then came 2021.
- Automotive | Worse on Purpose
- Investigation | Worse on Purpose
- Buy It Again: The hidden owners behind Amazon's best-selling brandsOct 14, 2026More than 100 firms bought up Amazon brands, mostly with borrowed money. What changed after the sale, and how to check any listing before you buy.
- Thread Count, Fill Power and Other Misleading NumbersOct 7, 2026Selective marketing and increasingly complex products have made quality harder to judge. What five common numbers leave out, and what to check instead.
- Field Guide | Worse on Purpose
- HVAC Got Worse On PurposeSep 30, 2026Private equity bought the largest HVAC contractors. Their playbook pays technicians based on what they sell. Just six companies make most of the units they install.
- Appliances | Worse on Purpose
- Services | Worse on Purpose
- Singer: The Downfall of a Great American ManufacturerSep 23, 2026Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff are now one company. Only five sewing machine companies actually manufacture anything themselves.
- What Actually Voids Your Warranty?Sep 16, 2026The law has been on your side since 1975. What to do when a claim is denied anyway.
- Reviews You Can TrustSep 9, 2026How product reviews get bought, how to spot it in five minutes, and where I go instead.
- Media | Worse on Purpose
- Cheap To Mandate, Expensive To OwnSep 2, 2026On the compounding effects of safety and emissions regulations on car ownership. Today, simple new cars are illegal to sell and all models are more costly to keep.
- Who Actually Makes Your Supplements?Aug 26, 2026Supplements are by far the most obfuscated category I have covered to date. Here's what you can do about it.
- Supplements | Worse on Purpose
- Between Craft and QualityAug 19, 2026Why it is so hard to prove that the new version is worse. By way of a five-hundred-year-old office for inspecting cloth, a fraud investigation from 1579, and a warning from Adam Smith.
- Philosophy | Worse on Purpose
- The Car Got Better. The Deal Got Worse.
- On IndependenceAug 5, 2026No sponsorships. No affiliate links. No outside money. The rules Worse on Purpose runs on, written in public, for readers to enforce.
- Same Shoe, Different Factory: Who Makes Your Running Shoes
- Footwear | Worse on Purpose
- On QualityJul 22, 2026An ode to Pirsig: What quality is and how it is degraded.
- Your Cookware Got Worse On Purpose
- Kitchen & Cookware | Worse on Purpose
- The World Cup Got Worse On Purpose
- The Mechanisms of Enshittification: Why Your Stuff Gets Worse
- Whole Foods Got Worse On Purpose
- Food & Grocery | Worse on Purpose
- Your Appliances Got Worse On Purpose
- Who Owns Your Vet? Mars, Private Equity, and Your Rising Bill
- Your Mattress Got Worse On Purpose
- Sleep & Bedding | Worse on Purpose
- Your Dinner Got Worse On Purpose
- Authentic Brands Group: The $20B Empire That Makes Nothing
- Apparel | Worse on Purpose
- Your Glasses Got Worse On Purpose
- Eyewear | Worse on Purpose
- Your Power Tools Got Worse On Purpose | Who Really Owns DeWalt, Craftsman, and Milwaukee?
- Tools | Worse on Purpose
- Your Backpack Got Worse On Purpose
- Bags & Packs | Worse on Purpose