Investors Are Debating Which Companies Won't Survive The Next 10 Years. 'Every Time I Go, There's Almost Nobody In The Store'

Reddit investors are once again throwing predictions into the ring, this time debating which companies won't make it through the next decade.

Department Stores, Meal Kits And Meme Stocks Under Fire

In a recent Reddit thread on r/stocks, many pointed fingers at once-popular retailers that now appear to be limping along. JCPenney and Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) were frequently called out as relics barely hanging on. “I'm trying to figure out how JCPenney stays afloat,” one person said. Another added, “Every time I go, there's almost nobody in the store.”

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Some Redditors said that JCPenney owns or once owned valuable real estate, which has helped it survive longer than expected. But the consensus is that unless these brands find a way to reinvent themselves and connect with younger generations, the clock is ticking.

Meal-kit services like Blue Apron also took a beating. Redditors criticized the business model as being too niche and too expensive. “Neat idea – just not very practical or useful in my experience,” one comment read. The company was acquired by Wonder Group for $103 million in 2023. Others said only HelloFresh has managed to stay profitable, while the rest “are cash incinerators.”

Tech, Toys And Fitness Face Trouble Too

Maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) was another company seen as falling behind. One person wrote, “Talk about blowing a head start,” saying that newer companies are pulling ahead fast. Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) attempt to acquire iRobot fell apart early last year due to regulatory concerns. The company’s stock price has fallen by almost 80% since the beginning of the year.

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Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) also came up frequently, with users slamming the company for overpricing and overreliance on internet connectivity. “During the [Amazon Web Services] outage a few weeks ago, all of the instructor-led courses stopped working, understandably, but I was shocked to find out that ‘Just Ride,’ which is just a ride timer, stopped working too,” one user complained. The company also announced this month that it is recalling nearly 878,000 of its exercise bikes in the U.S. and Canada after reports that certain Bike+ seat posts can break during use.

Funko (NASDAQ:FNKO), the company behind Pop! figurines, was likened to Beanie Babies, with users saying it got too aggressive with product lines and overextended itself. One popular comment summed it up: “Beanie Babies with the environmental footprint of an elephant.”

Some Picks Were More Political Or Personal

Trump Media (NASDAQ:DJT), Indeed, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM), CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) and OpenAI made appearances in the comment section, with investors airing everything from tech skepticism to distrust in leadership.

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PayPal was called a legacy platform trying to compete with the likes of Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) and Amazon and was accused of “delusional management.”

Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE), which is expected to be delisted soon as a result of the Chapter 11bankruptcy filing, and Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) were also repeatedly mentioned as companies on shaky ground. 

A recurring theme was generational change. Many believe that once older generations fade out, stores like Kohl’s, JCPenney, Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ:CBRL) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) will face massive challenges. “Boomers keeping lots of these relics floating,” one commenter said. “It’s going to be quite the market shock as they die off, unfortunately.”

Not everyone agreed with the doom-and-gloom. Some pointed out that bankruptcy doesn't always mean extinction. Companies often restructure or get acquired. Still, the dominant sentiment was that without serious adaptation, a wave of companies could vanish in the next 10 years.

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