Del Monte filing for bankruptcy didn’t surprise me. It’s one of those names that’s been around so long, people forget to question whether it’s actually keeping up. It reminds me of The Bay — another legacy brand that kept shrinking while pretending everything was fine.
There’s a common pattern here. These companies get comfortable. They build a name, build a moat, and then stop moving. One division might be tanking, but another props it up just enough to avoid panic. They become what I call sleeping giants — massive, familiar, and still technically alive, but no longer relevant in a meaningful way.
What makes it worse is that these giants rarely collapse overnight. Instead, they decay in slow motion. The people running them double down on legacy systems. The leadership resists risk. They “evolve” just enough to tick the innovation box in a boardroom slide deck but not enough to win market share. Eventually, the world moves on — and when it does, the crash feels sudden, even though it was years in the making.
It’s a cautionary tale. Being in business doesn’t mean you’re in the game. Survival isn’t success if it comes from coasting on the fumes of past relevance. You either evolve fast and often — or you’ll end up like Del Monte. A name people used to trust. A brand that once owned the shelf. Now, a footnote.