Is it the end of the line for businesses that trap customers?

Published August 20, 2026

 

Is it just me, or have you noticed that things that used to be awesome aren’t so much any more? It’s an age-old complaint to say ‘things used to be better,’ but hear me out: the data is finally starting to back up at least some of our gut feelings.

Even as I’m primarily addressing our American culture, my suspicion is that this trend and subsequent backlash goes beyond our borders. But as an active American consumer of tech and media, I have to say the more I learn about what’s currently happening, the more I agree with many industry analysts.

For years, the technology and business sectors have relied heavily on what is known as a “milking strategy.” This approach prioritizes extracting the maximum possible profit from a product or customer base in the shortest amount of time, entirely disregarding the long-term stability of the brand. However, recent trends suggest that this milking strategy might have finally eaten itself.

How so? Well, you and I and a lot of other customers and audiences have grow increasingly frustrated with being “milked” and more and more of us now refuse to be held captive. So, it appears that market corrections are currently underway. Ironically, actual product satisfaction may soon start to grow, simply because companies have overplayed their hand and are now financially compelled to return to genuinely serving their customers.

A goal for many of these articles is to introduce you to real phenomena and developing terminology even if it might be a little embarrassing. There is a developing term for this phenomenon coined by writer Cory Doctorow. It’s slightly crude, but it perfectly encapsulates the vibe: ‘enshittification.’ Believe it or not, this term is now used among those who focus on business practices and economic trends.
The cycle is predictable: platforms first operate at a loss to artificially create a great experience and lock in users, then they degrade that experience to lock in business vendors, and finally, they abuse both groups to extract maximum value for shareholders.

We see this everywhere. Netflix captured a massive audience with cheap subscriptions, but recently adopted a strategy of raising prices while reducing its output of new, high-quality scripted series. The platform even stopped reporting regular viewership metrics as audiences began abandoning their hottest shows. Uber aggressively subsidized rides to build a duopoly, only to implement surge pricing once consumers had few other options. Amazon shifted its search results to prioritize paid advertisements in a “payola” scheme, and dating apps have degraded their matchmaking algorithms to keep users single and paying for premium tiers.

While the consumer frustrations are obvious, the ethical downsides within corporate culture and the workplace can also be pretty severe, though less visible. The “growth at all costs” mentality that fueled these strategies placed immense strain on employees, leading to burnout, high turnover rates, and potentially toxic company cultures.

Plus, now that companies realize their milking strategies are failing, they often aggressively cut costs by “firing” unprofitable customers. Did you get that? Intentionally getting rid of customers. Dropping customers like a bad habit frequently leads to mass layoffs of the employees who previously supported those divisions.

When insurance giant Marsh & McLennan jettisoned thousands of clients, it also purged its workforce, leaving the remaining employees feeling less than great, sparking massive defections. In the gig economy, these power dynamics can get even more nasty for independent contractors, actively degrading their labor conditions. Ultimately, treating both customers and employees as disposable commodities sends a bad message that destroys trust and morale all the way around. That bleeds into the larger culture.

I wonder how many folks feel this general ‘ickiness’ in society right now, but haven’t connected the dots to these corporate strategies simply because they haven’t been personally burned yet. To be clear, I’m definitely not presenting hard evidence here, but these possible conclusions and observations are worth watching for going forward.

Fortunately, the collapse of this unsustainable playbook is creating massive new opportunities. The market is aggressively pivoting away from “growth at all costs” and embracing sustainable, capital-efficient growth. Investors are finally demanding that companies prove they can actually turn a profit on the products they sell, rather than just burning through cash to buy new users.

This shift should be positive for the market long-term. It forces businesses to stop buying growth and start earning it. Companies must now focus on resilience, patience, and customer success. As the old model of “trapping” customers fails, businesses are rediscovering that transparency, dependability, and genuine innovation are the only ways to survive. Trust is no longer just a buzzword; it is becoming a foundational economic asset.

However, if we look beyond the individual customer experience, there are still massive, systemic risks looming over society and the broader economy. We still have to keep an eye on how companies use AI to track our data and manipulate pricing—something I warned about in my last column. But for now, take some comfort in the fact that the industry has realized we’ve had enough.

If left unchecked, this strategy of trapping customers on declining platforms could wipe out true market competition, completely ruining the win-win setup that motivates society to participate in the economy at all.

It must be said with absolute clarity: the sheer complexity of these economic, technological, and societal topics would require a massive effort to fully untangle and verify properly. So, the thoughts I’m offering here are simply observations designed to prompt general awareness of these issues and provide a helpful entry point.

But in reality, this new term is really just an update of the stereotypical drug pusher getting people hooked on the good stuff before slipping in the cheap stuff because people are too hooked or distracted to notice.

Maybe we can all just take a breath and focus on the fact that the industry has noticed “we’ve had enough” of this old milking strategy. That’s kind of nice, right? Maybe, just maybe, some of our major companies will start focusing on quality and customer retention again.

And beyond this, let’s see what’s next!

 

J Matt Wallace