A lot of insightful comments were made during the “Top Five Companies We’d be Better Off Without” series, so I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the best ones.

On Sony (#5), Jeremy says:

I refuse to buy anything Sony. There is nothing worse than paying a premium for a piece of garbage that you can get for much less elsewhere. Not to mention their stupid new formats they are always trying to force on people. … How did Betamax work out for you, Sony? That format really took off. … I look forward to blu-ray resulting in the same fate.

Zing! What happened to you, Sony? I remember the fun times I had with my Sony Walkman and PlayStation 1…

Regarding Wal-Mart (#4), David says:

Wal-Mart is surely my #1…they put small businesses out of business, cheat employees out of healthcare by keeping their hours down, force manufacturers to cut corners in order to meet price points…

But paigu begs to differ:

I live in an area where people really do think of Target as “Tarzhay” and Walmart as “ugh, I’d never set foot in there.” But you know what? Sometimes I just want to be able to run into a store, grab some groceries, folders, and socks in one swoop, then go, without being distracted by huge BRIGHT red signs and dots and ads full of smiley uppercrust white folks cavorting around with their luxury Target items. I don’t need a store that tries to improve it’s own image by using models to sell toilet paper. Walmart is nofrills shopping, convenience, and low prices.

I’ll admit, if there were a Wal-Mart in our town, we’d probably go there much more frequently than Target. Fortunately I don’t think there’s an undeveloped patch of land big enough in Rockville, Maryland to fit a Wal-Mart.

While some felt as I did about McDonald’s (#3), noonebutmme highlighted some of the charitable efforts of the Golden Arches:

McDonald’s has created a $2 million matching fund to match donations raised by the Ronald McDonald House Charities canisters in McDonald’s restaurants and donations made within the company to help employees in need. … Following an initial $2 million commitment announced immediately after hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Ronald McDonald House Charities converted canisters in McDonald’s U.S. restaurants to accept donations for disaster relief.

When it comes to Verizon (#2), Clever Dude shares my pain:

You hit the nail on the tele-head. After dealing with the fools that they call sales people each telling me something totally different and totally wrong about the phones and services I was researching, I just caved in and bought the one that looked the coolest…

Commenters took the most issue with my #1 choice, the United States Postal Service. As Lazy Man and Money put it:

I’m not convinced the flat rate thing is bad. If I had to pay variable pricing for locations and weight, I could never figure out what it would be and would have to go to the post office (or equivalent) to figure out how much postage is required. That’s going to cost me more in time, gas, and effort than a few 39 cent stamps…

In light of this, I went outside yesterday and personally apologized to my mail carrier for writing the article. He said he’s never heard of this site. I’m not sure why he’d lie like that. Must be some sort of postal conspiracy.