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Ofecks posted:I went to my local one yesterday, looking for a saucepan, since Walmart didn't have what I needed. I hadn't been there in several years. There was a lot of empty space in there, from what I remember of last time, and I was one of maybe 5 customers max. Was pretty sad, really. I feel like there's a bunch of chains that decided they were going to market themselves as a "premium" upper middle class experience that basically amounted to putting an unreasonable mark up on a more "curated" (smaller) inventory selection as a strategy when Walmart started expanding like crazy. That worked well enough to stave off immediate collapse and maybe even allowed some minor short term growth under good economic conditions but it basically has been just delaying their inevitable deaths for a stupidly long time especially now that Amazon is on the scene.
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Jan 14, 2023 22:27
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italian quid posted:I feel like there's a bunch of chains that decided they were going to market themselves as a "premium" upper middle class experience that basically amounted to putting an unreasonable mark up on a more "curated" (smaller) inventory selection as a strategy when Walmart started expanding like crazy. That worked well enough to stave off immediate collapse and maybe even allowed some minor short term growth under good economic conditions but it basically has been just delaying their inevitable deaths for a stupidly long time especially now that Amazon is on the scene. Yup, the only retail that makes money now is Walmart, Costco, and grocery stores. Everything else that’s not furniture is basically dead.
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Jan 14, 2023 22:31
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IDK, I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
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Jan 14, 2023 23:00
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Look at this guy who has never walked by a Lego Store.
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Jan 15, 2023 01:46
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This thread makes me very grateful to not live in the US
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Jan 15, 2023 08:03
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does daiso count as grocery
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Jan 15, 2023 10:51
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ookiimarukochan posted:You're years late there they got rid of the skimpy outfits in early-mid 2016 (my coworkers took me there and were crushed when all the women were dressed in very conservative outfits as apparently they only used to break those out on Sundays for the post-church crowd) How can somebody not die of shame going to a place called Bone Daddy's
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Jan 15, 2023 11:40
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Coasterphreak posted:Yup, the only retail that makes money now is Walmart, Costco, and grocery stores. Everything else that’s not furniture is basically dead. Dollar General and Family Dollar for places too deep in the rural sticks to have a Piggly-Wiggly or Foodland-type grocery store. Corner bodegas for those stuck in urban food deserts.
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Jan 15, 2023 12:01
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There's drug/convenience stores, hardware stores, Apple Stores, Target, car parts stores, pet stores, cosmetics stores, shoe stores, and more I'm probably forgetting. Those places aren't going away anytime soon.
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Jan 15, 2023 14:19
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silence_kit posted:There's drug/convenience stores, hardware stores, Apple Stores, Target, car parts stores, pet stores, cosmetics stores, shoe stores, and more I'm probably forgetting. Those places aren't going away anytime soon. Oh you mean a walmart?
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Jan 15, 2023 14:56
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20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage.
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Jan 15, 2023 15:27
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I’d always heard that to and wondered if it was bs. I guess here in Canada they are launching an investigation into grocery stores that raised their pricing? I’m hoping something comes of it, but a guest CBC Radio had in said not to expect anything.
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Jan 15, 2023 15:35
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage. I mean, with creative accounting those companies can make any profit margin they want. If they want to advertise that they operate on one percent but they actually make five percent, then gee wouldn't you know Kroger Distribution and Cash Register Leasing just increased their prices, there's nothing Kroger Grocery can do about it they really have us over a barrel. It's the same reason the Lord of the Rings franchise "lost" money. It's just so terrible that Universal Marketing skyrocketed their prices, there's nothing Universal Film can do about it. Fun fact, this is one of the ways Trump's dad passed his wealth onto his kids. The kids' company literally sold $500 a unit napkins to their dad's hotels.
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Jan 15, 2023 16:48
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage.
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Jan 15, 2023 17:11
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Canada had a bread price-fixing scandal
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Jan 15, 2023 17:52
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage. That probably depends heavily on the country. But in the markets I'm somewhat half familiar with, supermarkets do operate on razor thin margins, but they also shift a ton of volume all day every day. I strongly suspect that's only true in markets with actual competition, though.
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Jan 15, 2023 17:58
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Unless you live in a rural area, there is a ton of competition between supermarkets/grocery stores in the US!
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Jan 15, 2023 18:08
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Splash Attack posted:does daiso count as grocery No.
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Jan 15, 2023 18:08
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Here in NZ there are a total of 2 supermarket companies and they are hated with a passion, second only to petrol companies, largely due to blatant price fixing. How bad is it? Well recently some enterprising people found it was cheaper to buy food, including nz grown food, from Australia and have it shipped across. Nearly 35% cheaper on some goods. Dollar adjusted nearly twice what Americans pay for produce. 5th highest food prices in 38 oecd nations despite us being an agricultural country. loving capitalism man
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Jan 15, 2023 18:28
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Professor Shark posted:I’d always heard that to and wondered if it was bs. I guess here in Canada they are launching an investigation into grocery stores that raised their pricing? I’m hoping something comes of it, but a guest CBC Radio had in said not to expect anything. without getting too far into the weeds on this I think that is largely being driven by the NDP and is going to end up being a dead end, I'm not really sure why they picked that fight. Operating a supermarket is a supply chain heavy industry that actually got hit with real inflation when gas prices went up and when you looked at their profit growth it was above normal but it wasn't absurd like if you looked at a domestic oil and gas company or some other industry.
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Jan 15, 2023 20:34
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carrionman posted:Here in NZ there are a total of 2 supermarket companies and they are hated with a passion, second only to petrol companies, largely due to blatant price fixing. Same thing in Norway. 95% of all grocery stores (big and small) are controlled by three companies with one of them (Norgesgruppen) having a market share of 45%. One of the reasons it has one of the most expensive food prices in the world (others include huge import tariffs and monopolies in certain food sectors like dairy).
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Jan 15, 2023 20:44
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage. Grocery stores will have a very thin profit margin per item sold, though they do earn plenty through volume. But the real money comes from something called a slotting fee, where they make manufacturers pay them to sell their stuff https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee
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Jan 15, 2023 22:12
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Tweetbot and other third-party clients stop working as Twitter 'intentionally' blocks API access That's a good sign, right?
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Jan 16, 2023 00:54
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage. That might be true in some areas, but I know here in Northern California we have the very common chain Safeway who’s everywhere and most packaged name-brand items are nearly double the price of the much smaller chain Winco, so obviously Safeway is making much more than 1%, even accounting for more expensive advertising and real estate costs. Safeway is notorious for understaffing their stores, too, so it ain’t labor costs either. (BTW, Safeway is owned by evil scumfuck private equity assholes and Winco is 100% employee-owned, that might have something to do with it, of course)
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Jan 16, 2023 00:56
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silence_kit posted:Unless you live in a rural area, there is a ton of competition between supermarkets/grocery stores in the US! 
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Jan 16, 2023 01:34
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ultrafilter posted:Tweetbot and other third-party clients stop working as Twitter 'intentionally' blocks API access It's a great sign that musk has tiny dick energy, as if we needed another. Maybe they can ask Digg for help while they flail.
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Jan 16, 2023 02:05
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Ofecks posted:20 years ago (!) I was working at a supermarket. Part of the orientation was some informational materials that said grocery retail operates on an extremely thin profit margin, like 1% or less. Who knows how accurate that is because the chain I worked for was extremely anti-union so most of us were paid minimum wage. Random example (which happens to be the chain that fixed bread prices) https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-profits-booming-sales-1.6653223 quote:Revenue totalled $17.39 billion, up from $16.05 billion in its third quarter of 2021. quote:In its drugstores like Shoppers Drug Mart, revenues benefited from elevated sales of higher-margin categories like beauty, cough and cold, Loblaw said.
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Jan 16, 2023 03:08
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ultrafilter posted:Tweetbot and other third-party clients stop working as Twitter 'intentionally' blocks API access I think Tweetbot saw this coming because they already have a mastodon client in beta. Obviously a much smaller market.
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Jan 16, 2023 05:29
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Haifisch posted:Don't worry, Kroger's doing everything they can to change that by buying as many other chains as they can. I get that this is the thread where we act all alarmist about this kind of stuff, but I live in a mid-sized metro area in the US, and there are ~10 different companies within reasonable driving distance where I can buy groceries. In fact usually the tack taken by left-wing people when they are trying to find something about being a customer in American retail to complain about is that there is TOO much choice and TOO much competition in American retail.
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Jan 16, 2023 10:41
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silence_kit posted:I get that this is the thread where we act all alarmist about this kind of stuff, but I live in a mid-sized metro area in the US, and there are ~10 different companies within reasonable driving distance where I can buy groceries. Any idea how many of those 10 are traditional grocery stores (rather than what the Food Industry Association defines as "non-traditional grocery stores" like wholesale clubs [Costco], variety stores [Dollar General], drug stores [CVS] or mass-market retailers [Wal-Mart]), and of those, how many are one of the 20+ chains that are part of Kroger, or the 20+ that are part of Albertsons*? Yes, I got sucked into a research hole trying to figure out how many of my local grocery stores were owned by the same company and it was a bit depressing. if it's different where you are, you are #blessed. (* If you're reading this post in a few years when the acquisition is over, read "one of the 40+ chains that are part of Kroger" instead).
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Jan 16, 2023 11:49
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Jan 16, 2023 12:16
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man i love Gwep's hot bar
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Jan 16, 2023 12:26
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The Obelisk Market’s Annual Bag-Bag sales jingle always gets stuck in my head
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Jan 16, 2023 12:40
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Here’s what I’m counting. There are even more places to buy groceries ON TOP of this like the various ethnic grocery stores. 4 regional grocery stores with different ownership. 1 is owned by Kroger. Costco Walmart Target ALDI Lidl Trader Joe’s Sprouts Whole Foods I think focusing on just normal grocery stores is misleading—there are many other places which absolutely compete with normal grocery stores. silence_kit has a new favorite as of 12:46 on Jan 16, 2023 |
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Jan 16, 2023 12:41
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Food mommy
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Jan 16, 2023 13:00
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The small city I live in has, on one of the main roads, two differently named supermarkets right across the street from each other. They are both owned by the same company. I'm not sure if their pricing or selection is different. It was years ago before one of the chains bought the other. Not sure if it's some illusion of choice BS or if they were just too cheap to change the sign. I think we have 7 total and will have an 8th soon.
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Jan 16, 2023 13:01
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silence_kit posted:Here’s what I’m counting. There are even more places to buy groceries ON TOP of this like the various ethnic grocery stores. Sorry if this is getting to derail like, but food deserts doesn’t mean the entire area / city doesn’t have multiple grocery stores. Probably a lot of us are fortunate enough to live in areas with multiple stores. We are also fortunate enough to have options like cars where we can drive to them even if one is way, farther away. There are def a ton of areas , obviously mostly areas of poverty, very small towns, or both, that do live in a food desert. Lucky if they have even a wal mart. Serviced only by a family dollar (which is not a real grocery store). Etc. no options nearby to get fresh / healthy groceries , and lots of time either can’t afford a car or even if they have one gas is expensive to drive 45 mins to the grocery store. Like a lot of America , it’s invisible to a lot of people , like me for the record, who don’t have to live through those issues daily. None of this is meant to be an attack btw. Just saying, it varies a lot and is a big issue.
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Jan 16, 2023 13:39
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We weren't talking about food deserts. I'm just making a response to the bog standard thread ranting about capitalism. SA posters are like Bobby Boucher's mother in The Waterboy, but instead of the devil, all ills in society get blamed on KKKorporations and capitalism. Retail is like one of the triumphs of American capitalism, at least if you ONLY focus on the consumer side of things. The issues in American retail are usually on the worker side, and this is partially because things are usually SO GOOD for the consumer. But yeah in the case of big, but not-rich US cities, there's not a lot of retail in poor residential areas of the city. It is a problem. That one is not really caused by consolidation and lack of competition in American retail though. In the case of small towns, which were previously mentioned by me, well, the reality is that Americans are moving away from small towns anyway. silence_kit has a new favorite as of 14:17 on Jan 16, 2023 |
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Jan 16, 2023 13:55
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But capitalism is the source of literally all our problems.
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Jan 16, 2023 13:57
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When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
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