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    America's new millionaire class: Plumbers and HVAC entrepreneurs

    (www.wsj.com)
    185 points hhs | 11 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:35 UTC | HN request time: 1.079s | source | bottom
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    elawler24 ◴[13 Oct 24 22:07 UTC] No.41832117[source]▶
    My dad bought a failing HVAC business 30+ years ago, then made it profitable over the years and sold it back to his employees last year. He had the option to take a few highly lucrative PE deals, but it was clear they would squeeze the life out of the employees and customers he had worked hard to support over many years. I can’t imagine how low quality this kind of trade work will become if PE owns them all. It will be similar to vet, dentist, and dermatology clinics which now feel like factories that don’t care about the humans on the other end - often employing fear tactics and sales quotas to incentivize upsells.
    replies(6): >>41832219 #>>41832220 #>>41832549 #>>41832822 #>>41841303 #>>41842080 #
    1. dopylitty ◴[13 Oct 24 22:22 UTC] No.41832219[source]▶
    I'm glad you mention dentists/vets. I make it a point to verify local businesses aren't PE owned before I will use them.

    Of course one of the problems with PE is they hoover up _all_ the businesses in an area so you don't have a choice.

    There really needs to be regulation in this area preventing a single beneficial entity/controlling entity from buying/owning more than a few percent of a certain type of business in an area.

    replies(5): >>41832270 #>>41832333 #>>41832882 #>>41833032 #>>41853782 #
    2. chubot ◴[13 Oct 24 22:28 UTC] No.41832270[source]▶
    Hm what’s the best way to look up the owner of a business? I share this viewpoint on dentists and doctors
    replies(1): >>41832888 #
    3. dboreham ◴[13 Oct 24 22:36 UTC] No.41832333[source]▶
    Our vet graduated before I was born, and I'm really old. He still charges 1978 prices. Hoping he hangs on until our last batch of cats goes on to coyote heaven.
    replies(1): >>41832870 #
    4. groggo ◴[14 Oct 24 00:04 UTC] No.41832870[source]▶
    :(
    5. lasr_velocirptr ◴[14 Oct 24 00:06 UTC] No.41832882[source]▶
    I have thinking about doing this for a while. How does one go about verifying whether a business is PE owned or not?
    replies(1): >>41832997 #
    6. cj ◴[14 Oct 24 00:07 UTC] No.41832888[source]▶
    The fastest and simplest way is to ask them directly by calling or emailing. Searching for information about private legal entities, while possible, is inconvenient and usually incomplete/sparse.
    replies(1): >>41834903 #
    7. Spastche ◴[14 Oct 24 00:28 UTC] No.41832997[source]▶
    you can kind of get an idea by looking up who owns it on your state's secretary of state website, if a personal name or an LLC with a local address is the owner it's probably local, but if it's an out of state address then you can probably google it and find out who's address that is associated with
    8. semiquaver ◴[14 Oct 24 00:34 UTC] No.41833032[source]▶
    Just curious, how do you verify this?
    9. data_maan ◴[14 Oct 24 06:53 UTC] No.41834903{3}[source]▶
    But why would they respond with that information?

    PE already has a pretty bad press, so they know that customers are calling only because PE is a red flag.

    They could just serve some meaningless half-truth and try to confuse you.

    replies(1): >>41836929 #
    10. lazide ◴[14 Oct 24 12:34 UTC] No.41836929{4}[source]▶
    PE often doesn’t care because most folks don’t know what is going on. Private practitioners are usually proud of it.
    11. wellthisisgreat ◴[15 Oct 24 22:27 UTC] No.41853782[source]▶
    How do you find out who owns the business?

    Literally what kind of question would you ask on the phone?