Follow suit

To "follow suit" is to follow the example of someone who went before.

Today's story: Free stock trading
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Follow suit

Today’s expression is to follow suit. It means to follow the example of another person. Charles Schwab announced that it would make trading stocks free on its platform. You can bet that there were some stressful meetings in the boardrooms of their competitors. A few of their competitors decided to follow suit: they decided to follow the example of the leader and make trades on their platforms free, too. Why would they follow suit? Why give up this source of revenue? They were probably afraid they’d lose customers to their competitor.

It happens all the time in business. One company will cut prices, or increase quality, or make some type of change—and competitors will follow suit. You see this in industries that are extremely competitive. Airlines, for example. About a year, maybe two years ago, airlines started offering something called “premium economy.” It’s a kind of seat that’s better than economy class, but not as expensive as business class. I don’t even know which airline first offered it, but most of the other big international airlines followed suit. It’s something customers wanted, and everyone felt like they had to have premium economy on their long-distance flights. One airline went first; the others followed suit.

Free two-day shipping is popular in the US. Amazon started it, and then other companies like Walmart and Target had to follow suit. They didn’t do it right away, but they realized that if they didn’t follow suit, they’d continue to lose customers.

“Follow suit” comes from a popular rule in card games. Playing cards have four suits—spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. Two black, two red. Those are called suits. In many card games, if one player plays a club, the next player must follow suit and also play a club. The next player must follow the example of the previous player.

JR’s song of the week

The song of the week is “Different Drum” by Linda Ronstadt. This one appeared in the final episode—maybe the second-to-last episode—of “Orange is the New Black,” the Netflix show that just concluded this year. JR and I both watched that show and we liked it. I liked the earlier seasons better, but the conclusion was good. And this song was in one of the last episodes. “Different Drum” by Linda Ronstadt. The key line in this song is, “You and I travel to the beat of a different drum.” That means, you and I have a different rhythm. We have different styles; we want different things. You and I travel to the beat of a different drum. The song is unique because it was written by a man, from a man’s perspective, but Linda Ronstadt is the one who sang it.

I had a friend in high school who was always upset because she couldn’t sing along to the most popular songs because they were written from a man’s perspective. But that didn’t bother Linda Ronstadt in “Different Drum,” which is the song of the week today.


That’s it for number 199. Thanks for being with us. We’ll be back on Monday—we have a good topic on Monday. The differences between living in the US and Canada. That’s Monday’s topic—don’t miss it!

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Story: Free stock trading