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fishmech posted:
Clearly we need more bloody wars in the Middle East
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May 27, 2017 19:35
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Magic Hate Ball posted:Most minimum wage jobs are basically slavery. No they're not, and saying this makes you look like an enormous rear end in a top hat.
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May 27, 2017 21:10
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OwlFancier posted:
Huh, I never realized you were a fellow economist.
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May 27, 2017 21:36
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Ice Phisherman posted:Done both. Am a millennial. Dead bodies are heavy as hell. Doubly so when it's a former friend. I remember the first time I found a corpse. Heroin OD case in a park I was doing community service in. The hardest thing was not rolling it to see if he had any cash. After I called the cops they found $200 or so in his pants while they were looking for ID. Still half-way between pride that I didn't steal it and regret. $200 meant I wouldn't have gone to bed hungry for a couple weeks.
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May 28, 2017 05:12
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I remember the first time I found a corpse. Heroin OD case in a park I was doing community service in. The hardest thing was not rolling it to see if he had any cash. After I called the cops they found $200 or so in his pants while they were looking for ID. Still half-way between pride that I didn't steal it and regret. $200 meant I wouldn't have gone to bed hungry for a couple weeks. Next time remember, corpses don't need money.
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May 28, 2017 05:38
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fishmech posted:
I've touched, cleaned, and dressed a dead body. It's basically a normal body except cold and after a few hours you can't pose it nicely for the family anymore. People make more of a fuss about it than they need to.
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May 28, 2017 05:55
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Yeah like, obviously the sales staff wouldn't but frequently the store manager doesn't either. It's all a shell game. How hard would it be to implement an inventory management system that does all the automated stuff it does currently and keeps ordering moderate amounts of stuff by default, but has an option for an employee or manager within the same store to type in a different number if something sells out within an hour of opening/keeps sitting on shelves till it rots? It could even come with an alert to employees to tell them "this is a loss leader, dumbass" or "we're low on stock company wide", and an alert to purchasing to tell them "buy more of this poo poo you idiots".
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May 28, 2017 10:22
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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blowfish posted:How hard would it be to implement an inventory management system that does all the automated stuff it does currently and keeps ordering moderate amounts of stuff by default, but has an option for an employee or manager within the same store to type in a different number if something sells out within an hour of opening/keeps sitting on shelves till it rots? They already exist and are used by the majority of high street chains.
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May 28, 2017 10:31
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serious gaylord posted:They already exist and are used by the majority of high street chains. I would have assumed so normally, but given how terrible retail management seems to be ... 
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May 28, 2017 10:33
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BrandorKP posted:I wonder if all this just terrible management that seems widespread is what is knee capping productivity growth across the country. Poor management is responsible for 125% of the dysfunction at my workplace (because it creates problems out of thin air trying to solve problems that do not exist, you see, is the arithmetic joke there)
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May 28, 2017 18:00
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Willie Tomg posted:Poor management is responsible for 125% of the dysfunction at my workplace (because it creates problems out of thin air trying to solve problems that do not exist, you see, is the arithmetic joke there) Thinking about my employment they just added three head office mid level mangement employees, when what they really needed is six field employees (spread across six field offices) that would have cost the same. Literally no idea what they do, and I work for a small non profit, like 60ish people.
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May 29, 2017 03:25
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BrandorKP posted:Thinking about my employment they just added three head office mid level mangement employees, when what they really needed is six field employees (spread across six field offices) that would have cost the same. Literally no idea what they do, and I work for a small non profit, like 60ish people. I work in a goddamned kitchen and we had to fight tooth and fuckin' nail for one of our PM line cooks to get the kingly sum of fourteen American Dollars per hour because he'd been doing the same job for fifteen years and it would take literally three new hires to replace him. We mathed this out. Three. He does the work of three motherfucking people, just by clocking into work on time, because he knows our line like the Bedouin know sand. Treating this man right is an actual honest-to-god argument we had to have with management who would purport to have expertise upon us mere cooks. Joke's on us, he's leaving in August anyway to be a mechanic. Because who the gently caress would put up with that kinda treatment given any other option?* This would bring our ranks three cooks short in total BTW. I'll leave it to your recognizance to find any number of thinkpieces about How There Is Totally A Cook Shortage in north america. There isn't. Cooking rules. It's great. It's just everyone who's smart enough to work the trade for the given pay is smart enough to work a better trade or else sell drugs. And now we're getting maybe a little far afield of retail in particular, but food is suffering from the same problems in a sector that has probably felt these problems before even retail: the only sectors for growth are in the super low end margins (trucks) or the super high end margins (if you need to ask for a price on the menu, get out). And everyone is super-stressed out, and nobody is really making money in the kind of way they'll be able to leave something to their kids, but nobody has the balls to admit as yet the system is loving broken, though the slow train's comin. *undocumented individuals, that's who. that's exactly and precisely who will put up with those conditions, for pay far less than a working wage Willie Tomg fucked around with this message at 03:50 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 03:48
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I've recently been seeing people quit in maritime because of the hours and work load. gently caress this poo poo and gently caress you style quitting. This is everywhere right now I don't think it's retail specific.
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May 29, 2017 04:02
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This is becoming two bros circlejerking and I can't really speak right now to the illegal subtext that underpins every working class decision, but $14/hr guy telling us upfront he's out in autumn will be the first righteous quit I've seen in three years. You're not hallucinating.
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May 29, 2017 04:34
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So the big news last week in the retail apparel world was that American Eagle Outfitters is trying to raise the capital needed to purchase Abercrombie & Fitch. AEO currently sits as one of the most profitable non discount outlet American Apparel companies still around. Their gross net profit doesn't compare to Gap, INC. but percentage wise their returns are much higher. This move I feel could really bog them down. AEO has done well riding on the quality of the products, streamlining the focus of their brand to a more mature audience and the strength of their online presence. The main problem is none of these companies - and not a single American Company - has yet been able to go Fast Fashion yet. And Fast Fashion brands are the ones making a killing in pretty much every market out there. A big weakness of traditional Apparel companies was revealed last year with our Mild Winter. Traditional Apparel companies and Department Stores like AEO, JcPenney, Gap Inc, etc. lost a lot of money on heavy winter clothing. They were not able to move fast enough to change their process. They already had the heavy orders ready to go and since their designs and orders take months of time to fulfill they weren't able to change it before anyone knew that it was going to be a mild winter that year. So at the beginning of 2016 they lost a lot of money because nobody bought winter clothes and they ended up having to discount and throw away a lot of their clothing. That was a contributor to the current retail apocalypse we are all experiencing. When we talk about Fast Fashion Companies like Zara and H&M they tend to be able to turn around orders in less than a month from design to store floors worldwide. Nobody in the US can do this yet. Not a single apparel company. I believe Forever 21 is the company that has come closest although GAP is investing a lot of time in changing their work process hoping to achieve this goal as well. What scares me more and should scare apparel retailers is the new Fast Fashion brands - who don't even have physical stores. BooHoo is the largest brand - and they are putting out 200 new designs a week. They're already have revenues of around $500m a year and currently are the fastest growing retailer on earth. These companies are leveraging instagram and social influencers in ways a lot of these other brands have not been able to. They are very quickly taking a chunk out of the US Apparel market.
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May 29, 2017 06:27
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People here earlier wondered how A&F remains in business and how it's image is so dated. I have to throw something in there: gay men. I'm a fat ugly gay who has to buy pants at Wal-Mart and shirts at Old Navy, but fashionable gay men I know are only just starting to catch on in that A&F is on the way out in that "this-chain-is-too-big-to-be-good-anymore" way. All that imagery of square-jawed boys and their bared hairless tiddies keeps them relevant among queers longer than anyone else. I grew up in a small town that had no stores and only knew of them because of their so-controversial catalog imagery. Then when I moved to a city with a lot of tourism-driven shopping, they set up a flagship store and were for some time paying attractive boys to stand around shirtless outside. That would have been enough to lure me in if I didn't know that it would only lead to body shame.
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May 29, 2017 08:16
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Willie Tomg posted:Joke's on us, he's leaving in August anyway to be a mechanic. Because who the gently caress would put up with that kinda treatment given any other option?* This would bring our ranks three cooks short in total BTW. I'll leave it to your recognizance to find any number of thinkpieces about How There Is Totally A Cook Shortage in north america. There isn't. Cooking rules. It's great. It's just everyone who's smart enough to work the trade for the given pay is smart enough to work a better trade or else sell drugs.
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May 29, 2017 10:34
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blowfish posted:I would have assumed so normally, but given how terrible retail management seems to be ... The issue is that while the systems are very powerful, ultimately a store manager has little authority over what they stock. It is all determined by forecasters, merchandisers and buyers who in fashion in particular, work nearly 12 months ahead of whats currently in store. Theres very little room for flexibility in these industries, particularly any with very long lead times. As such they tend to just sell out rather than re-order.
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May 29, 2017 14:28
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ISeeCuckedPeople posted:So the big news last week in the retail apparel world was that American Eagle Outfitters is trying to raise the capital needed to purchase Abercrombie & Fitch. I don't understand this at all, what does AE stand to gain from acquiring the brand? It can't be wanting the physical locations because expanding that many actual stores at once in this environment is asinine. I mean stylistically they're not terribly different, A&F is just preppier while AE more standard 20s urban millenial in mind and thats clearly not a good thing in this market. A&F is tanking while AE has been flat or slightly negative in sales growth which isnt a terrible thing in this market. Also, AEs only source of growth recently has been Aerie, and Aerie and AF seem to send very different messages out(and the Aerie message is clearly the profitable one). Also AE has no debt at the moment which is fantastic for a company so it might decide the time to use this leverage is to buy AF, the gently caress?
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May 29, 2017 16:18
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ISeeCuckedPeople posted:The main problem is none of these companies - and not a single American Company - has yet been able to go Fast Fashion yet. And Fast Fashion brands are the ones making a killing in pretty much every market out there. I'd disagree and for evidence I'd point you to exhibit A, H&M. Or rather, it's stock price*. Because you see, while H&M is an outrageously profitable company that is growing at a rocket pace investors can't help but notice how online retailing has been steadily eating into its numbers and is decreasing its ability to continue expanding within its own sector. The entry level for entering into the fashion industry is at all-time low and like you noted the future is pointing towards even lower margin operations like Boohoo or Zalando knocking the current retailers out of business. *There's a lot more to this but I thought I might just get into the part that is thread relevant.
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May 29, 2017 18:03
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Amused to Death posted:I don't understand this at all, what does AE stand to gain from acquiring the brand? It can't be wanting the physical locations because expanding that many actual stores at once in this environment is asinine. I mean stylistically they're not terribly different, A&F is just preppier while AE more standard 20s urban millenial in mind and thats clearly not a good thing in this market. A&F is tanking while AE has been flat or slightly negative in sales growth which isnt a terrible thing in this market. Also, AEs only source of growth recently has been Aerie, and Aerie and AF seem to send very different messages out(and the Aerie message is clearly the profitable one). Also AE has no debt at the moment which is fantastic for a company so it might decide the time to use this leverage is to buy AF, the gently caress? If i had to guess theres one of two things going on Its an attempt to consolidate market share in an industry thats struggling, like officemax, staples and office depot. Or Its some investor sweetheart deal that is going to make some particular subset of shareholders a lot of money in details. Coin flip as to which.
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May 29, 2017 19:01
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RuanGacho posted:If i had to guess theres one of two things going on It could be both too. Or the second sold as the first: "We need to merge to achieve synergies and expand our market share." * drools uncontrollably thinking about money that could be borrowed against the under leveraged company.
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May 29, 2017 19:40
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Speaking of amazon I bought some poo poo from there today (free same day! get hosed retail!) and i got an ad for a new service of theirs called "Amazon Sweet Surprise" They send you a little internet enabled device with a button on it, and when you press the button it orders a box of assorted chocolates/sweets sent to your house and charges you $18.  https://www.amazon.com/b?node=14809330011 E: I've done some more research into amazon dash buttons (they have them for ALL KINDS OF poo poo), and I found the one dash button to rule them all 
hakimashou fucked around with this message at 05:45 on May 30, 2017 |
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May 30, 2017 05:19
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That's the most  product I've ever seen. Not only is it abusing people with lack of self-control but it's also doing so at a completely inordinate price while promoting obesity.
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May 30, 2017 06:16
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They should make one that ships you a random book on a specified wish list, that way it would be promoting literacy and reading instead of obesity.
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May 30, 2017 06:39
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I am looking forward to the version that orders cigs or alcohol.
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May 30, 2017 06:49
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i'm envisioning one for every home called the Whammy Ward. what it does is every night a paramilitary force called the whammies makes its rounds and shakes down a few random households to confiscate most of their possessions. but if you press the whammy ward, for only 18.99, you are immune to the whammies if your house is selected that day.
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May 30, 2017 07:12
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Discendo Vox posted:I am looking forward to the version that orders cigs or alcohol. I am morbidly curious to see what Amazon would do if drugs ever get legalized.
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May 30, 2017 07:37
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side_burned posted:I am morbidly curious to see what Amazon would do if drugs ever get legalized. Weed/taco drones, calling it now.
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May 30, 2017 07:47
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side_burned posted:I am morbidly curious to see what Amazon would do if drugs ever get legalized. In practice they won't do any of these anytime soon because there are a wide range of liability concerns. ...but they do have a really massive range of caffeinated drinks for the same reasons.
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May 30, 2017 08:07
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side_burned posted:I am morbidly curious to see what Amazon would do if drugs ever get legalized.
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May 30, 2017 08:10
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Cicero posted:Probably nothing until public sentiment was overwhelmingly cool with said drugs. Yeah I mean alcohol delivery is still barely legal or wholly illegal in a lot of places even though alcohol usage has been accepted for so long. It'd hardly be surprising if one of the places that is hard on weed now would make delivery very hard if they're ever forced to legalize having it.
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May 30, 2017 10:23
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BrandorKP posted:I wonder if all this just terrible management that seems widespread is what is knee capping productivity growth across the country. Nah. Running every business for the sole goal of short-term stockholder gains is the issue. It shouldn't be some groundbreaking thing for Amazon and Google to reinvest in still being relevant companies in ten years, but there it is. Halloween Jack posted:I've been told that companies like Aramark have some great chefs working for them in college cafeterias, because so many well-trained people are willing to accept the constraints and monotony in order to get a living wage and benefits. You should drop by the restaurant industry thread over in GWS. The vast majority of the old crew of kitchen goons are now either working hotels for the steady pay and benefits or out of the industry making vastly better money as computer janitors and the like because no matter how much you love cooking, there is no money in it. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 13:37 on May 30, 2017 |
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May 30, 2017 13:08
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Liquid Communism posted:You should drop by the restaurant industry thread over in GWS. The vast majority of the old crew of kitchen goons are now either working hotels for the steady pay and benefits or out of the industry making vastly better money as computer janitors and the like because no matter how much you love cooking, there is no money in it. Is that fixable? I mean, I want it to be, it's not a rhetorical question, but everybody always says the margins are crazy thin in food service. I sometimes think about ways to fix the fact that kitchen workers can never take sick days, and it seems like even if there were a pool of temps to draw from, kitchen team dynamics are so crucial that you can't really slot someone in just for the day.
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May 30, 2017 17:47
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Willie Tomg posted:This is becoming two bros circlejerking and I can't really speak right now to the illegal subtext that underpins every working class decision, but $14/hr guy telling us upfront he's out in autumn will be the first righteous quit I've seen in three years. You're not hallucinating. Here's the place I'm going with it, this is a small part of a model from a lawsuit between the navy and a shipyard : https://imgur.com/Wq5vNPH What we are seeing isn't something that is new. These cycles of overworking and burning people out are modelable . Retail or a restaurant would look a little different but not significantly different. Now at the mid management level there is probably ignorance. But at the top.... business is about making systems. You set up processes that repeat to generate money. You continually tweak and improve the prices. They know how to model these things, or hire consultants that do (McKinsey, etc) Liquid Communism posted:Nah. That's it, at some level some precentage of it is being done on purpose. The rest is lazyness just the repeating the lovely norms of those doing it on purpose.
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May 30, 2017 17:51
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Is that fixable? I mean, I want it to be, it's not a rhetorical question, but everybody always says the margins are crazy thin in food service. I sometimes think about ways to fix the fact that kitchen workers can never take sick days, and it seems like even if there were a pool of temps to draw from, kitchen team dynamics are so crucial that you can't really slot someone in just for the day. I really wish they could take sick days. Norovirus is no joke.
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May 30, 2017 17:54
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Is that fixable? I mean, I want it to be, it's not a rhetorical question, but everybody always says the margins are crazy thin in food service. I sometimes think about ways to fix the fact that kitchen workers can never take sick days, and it seems like even if there were a pool of temps to draw from, kitchen team dynamics are so crucial that you can't really slot someone in just for the day. They seem to be taking a stab at it up here in Seattle. Between the 15 minimum wage and flat shared gratuities at places like Chinooks and Ivars, don't know how it's working though.
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May 30, 2017 18:00
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Is that fixable? I mean, I want it to be, it's not a rhetorical question, but everybody always says the margins are crazy thin in food service. I sometimes think about ways to fix the fact that kitchen workers can never take sick days, and it seems like even if there were a pool of temps to draw from, kitchen team dynamics are so crucial that you can't really slot someone in just for the day. Isn't the default markup on food 400%? With that and only having to pay front of house people $2.50 an hour, how can margins be so thin?
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May 30, 2017 18:16
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WampaLord posted:Isn't the default markup on food 400%? With that and only having to pay front of house people $2.50 an hour, how can margins be so thin? Overhead on a restaurant is crazy. The cost of food is relatively small compared to everything else.
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May 30, 2017 18:17
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hobbesmaster posted:Overhead on a restaurant is crazy. The cost of food is relatively small compared to everything else. By overhead do you mean just rent/utilities, or something more? Is that what kills restaurants and why stuff like food trucks are such a big thing now?
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May 30, 2017 18:23
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