Pretty shocked to see this with how ubiquitous they’ve seemed these last few years. Of all the recent kitchen gadgets this is one of the few that felt genuinely useful to me.
Am I reading this right?
The maker of Pyrex glassware and Instant Pot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection … brands also include Corelle, Snapware, CorningWare, Visions and Chicago Cutlery, …
Pyrex seems like a way bigger deal than instant pot, and those others are also well-known. Is this just a restructuring thing where they will screw creditors and then continue on? Or they will sell off the brand names to some new companies that may or may not keep the same quality?
Only speculating but I think this is a symptom of late stage capitalism. Companies are staking enormous risk on leveraged finances to achieve impossible stock prices. And if they miss, they’re done. They collapse and get rolled into giant multinationals to funnel even more money to the top.
From another article:
The Instant Pot, for its part, is not dead. Cornell Capital has brought in a restructuring crew, and the brand’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing allows it to continue doing business while it seeks relief from its debts.
So likely, we’ll see a bit of divestment, a shift of focus? I dunno, I’m just regular people, I don’t get to restructure and cancel my debts in a way that isn’t personally destructive.
Corning seems like a way bigger deal than Pyrex too… between them and AnchorHawking they essentially own the industrial glassware industry. Pyrex is only a small part of that; it also spans things like smartphone screens and lab equipment.
That said, Corning has bought a lot of companies of questionable quality in the last decade; sounds like now they’re being forced to divest some of those properties.
Corning is not CorningWare. Corning Inc sold their entire consumer products division off. Corning Inc (makers of Gorilla Glass and fiber optic cable) is just fine.
I think the ubiquity is what did it. When it becomes commoditized, the only way to differentiate is to be seriously good (see Kitchenaide).
I guess everyone who wanted one got one and doesn’t need another. That or they realized food in it always turns out just a little overcooked and soggy.
Indian food – so easy to make something like Rajma and Dal in there.
I use mine twice a week just to cook chickpeas to make hummus from… Then the rest of the usage is always something to do with pressure cooking dried beans. Dried beans at ethnic grocers are so insanely cheap as well. I am definitely not a fan of making too many meals in there beyond certain stews.
Instant Pots are amazing if you cooked every single day, but when I started meal prepping, I stopped using mine as much. Instant Pots aren’t great for meal prepping, their capacities are too small.
That’s a shame. Their pressure cooker and air frier are pretty good £/performance. I’m usually using one or the other to make a main/side. I even ferment doughs and yogurts in the IP.
I’ve not found a glass jug comparable to the .5L Pyrex measuring jug. Maybe its a psychological thing, but I’m happy to abuse pyrex in a way I won’t other glass products. The shallow-wide 1L jugs seem to have pouring issues no matter who makes them.
