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canyoneer posted:Walmart crashed and burned in Germany. Their corporate culture doesn't mesh well with the German culture. Walmart crashed and burned in Germany because European nations are heavily unionised. Once Walmart realised they wouldn't be able to actively gently caress over employees in favour of profits, they gave up entirely. They'd rather abandon a nationwide launch of their brand than deal with unions. They went into a country where Unions have considerably more power than in the States, and where the employees are much better informed of their rights. The entire plan became more trouble than it was worth, so they gave up. Reminds me of that time near (or was it in?) Canada when a store voted to become unionised, so Walmart just shut the entire place down. We're closed now, you're all fired.
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Dec 14, 2014 22:11
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Spergminer posted:There is much, much more to it, but the unionized culture of Europe certainly didn't help. Wal-Mart's failure in Germany is a must-read. To quote the (excellent) article: "In the US, Wal-Mart is a strictly non-union employer; only 12 of its more than one million US employees – workers in the meat department of its Jacksonville, Texas, store – are known to be union members. In Germany, like in most other parts of Continental Europe however, unions, despite decreasing membership, still wield enormous influence – both in the political sphere and on the shop floor. The unions’ enthusiasm, prompted by Wal-Mart’s decision to hire more staff immediately after its entry in Germany to provide “excellent customer service”, quickly faded away. Soon faced with rapidly mounting losses, Wal-Mart’s management resorted to staff cuts and closures to reduce its above-average personnel costs. Due to strict worker protection regulations, however, making surplus workers redundant can be a complicated, lengthy and costly affair in Germany – a cumbersome fact of life for its German competitors, but, obviously, terra incognita for Wal-Mart Germany’s (mostly) American executives. What is more, the company refused to formally acknowledge the outcome of the sector-specific centralized wage-bargaining process (which is the standard procedure for determining wages in Germany) ver.di, the relevant union, and the retailers’ employers’ association had agreed upon. Although it voluntarily paid its staff 0.5 per cent on top of the general raise, to the company’s management complete surprise, ver.di retaliated by organizing walkouts at 30 stores throughout the country – resulting not only in lost sales but in bad publicity for “union-bashing” Wal-Mart. The ver.di–Wal-Mart controversy is escalating after the union sued the company for breaching Germany’s financial information disclosure regulations." Essentially, they misunderstood how unions work (in a country with strong union laws) by an amazing degree, and when the unions stood up for their workers, Wal-Mart didn't know what the gently caress. I'm glad those people in Quebec got compensation, even if it is 10 years late.
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Dec 15, 2014 03:30
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Welp, so now I know for a fact American cops are just "Just shoot everything, all the time, for any reason, it'll be fine". loving hell.
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Jul 3, 2015 12:35
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I was thinking of getting into Warhammer 40k a few years ago, because there was a fairly active group in my town, and one of my oldest friends was into it, as was his sisters kid, so finding someone to play with wouldn't be a problem. Plus the whole model making thing seemed cool. Problem was, I couldn't justify the absolutely ridiculous prices the models were going for (I'm in Australia), so I held off. Then I got to watch from the sidelines as GW proceeded to be enormous cockheads to everyone they met and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Edit: Also, I seem to remember there were like, 2 or 3 publications dedicated to Warhammer side from White Dwarf? I remember because my mother (who is a very good sculptor among other things) was commissioned by some guy to make clay replicas of some of his units, and he gave her a bunch of magazines as referance material, and a few of his models. I think his whole reasoning was it was waaaay cheaper to get someone to make them, and the resin ones he had tended to melt in the heat we have here. Anyway, I remember the magazines were filled with rule changes and new rules and spreads about new armies and there was one I remember where some guy bought 2 different armies then combined the pieces to make some pretty sweet looking models that also had buffs from both armies? Like the raw firepower of one army but the stealth of the other, because he put stealthy Army1 legs on a Torso and arms of Army 2 holding an Army1 weapon. The models looked awesome as hell though. The piece was all about how great his custom army was. Also, I remember lots and lots of really bad fan fiction. Like, a lot. princecoo has a new favorite as of 10:03 on Jul 5, 2015 |
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Jul 5, 2015 09:54
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14 INCH SLIT posted:I managed to get into it right at the tail end of 2nd edition into third, but was interested in it enough that I had a lot of the old Rogue Trader era minis bought to paint up. I remember a 6 pack of Space Marines being like $12.99, and thats how I started getting into it. Eventually I discovered I could have a more cost effective and enjoyable time spending the money it would take to make an army up to full strength and invest it directly into cocaine. Yeah, here in Australia I can get a squad of marines for around $90. My steam sale addiction is nothing in comparison.
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Jul 5, 2015 10:12
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C.M. Kruger posted:My dad used to play Warhammer Fantasy back in the 80s, so I think I've got around 10-15lbs of lead minis somewhere. So.... the terrible fanfiction I remember from the magazines may very well have been cannon supplied by the company itself? Oh dear.
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Jul 5, 2015 10:40
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Similar to Woolworths in Australia sold off Dick Smith Electronics in order to open their Masters hardware stores. The Masters stores are not doing well. The Masters stores are in direct compentition with Bunnings, which is pretty much the hardware store here these days. Everyone uses Bunnings, because every store is easy to understand and you can get to what you want easily. Masters stores, on the other hand, have all the "homemaking" poo poo front and center, with everything you need to do the job hidden away at the back. Masters was marketed more towards women and people who want "incidental" hardware needs, despite them all being big proper hardware stores. The result is tradies and guys looking to fix up their deck or whatever walk in, can't find what they want then go to Bunnings. Women tend to send hubby/boyfriend/dad/brother to the hardware store, so the market it's aimed at don't really actually go to the hardware store. Maenwhile, Dick Smith Electronics is apparently doing very well.
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Oct 18, 2015 22:53
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I was interested to learn when I visited the states earlier this year that the price of a Big Mac meal was only slightly (by like 50 cents or something) cheaper than a pub burger that was twice the size, included chips and was by far superior in every way. I was left wondering, why do people eat McDonalds when they can get this plate of awesome?
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Oct 19, 2015 07:35
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Yeah I've always liked JB HI-FIs staff reviews. Even if they don't do anything funny, at least they are generally helpful or informative.
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Oct 25, 2015 21:41
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I was just reminded earlier about Masters, a hardware chain owned by Woolworths in Australia. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Now, this information is fuzzy at best, since it's from a tv show I had no interest in watching. So I may have the supplier wrong. Any Aussie goons able to confirm/correct me? So anyway, in Australia, TV shows about home renovations are big ratings catchers. They all basically get a bunch of couples, give them a shithole/regular house (or some rooms) each, then give them a budget and a timeframe to get that place looking awesome. They then judge them on their work, and some shows get them to auction off the houses once they're done, with them getting to keep the profits. Depending on the show. I don't give a poo poo about home renovation, so I know that there are like 4 shows like this on at prime time and to me, they all just kind of blend together. Anyway, because of the home renovation angle, companies love to pay to get their poo poo inserted, pretty much just a bunch of paid presentations. So Mary and Bob have decided to repaint this bathroom purple, and they're using this gorgeous shade from Duralux paint and they'll be seen screwing together a fancy bed with a Bosch power tool etc. Well, Masters hardware decided to push their brand by being the "supplier" for all their poo poo, so whenever the people would need nails or power cords or a pre-built vanity or something, they'd be on camera going to Masters to get it. Cue one couple ordering something (I think it was a set of cupboards or something like that) and Masters managed to gently caress their order up like 4 times, which wasted time and resources for that team. I think it was somthing like 'ordered wrong theng, then got thing cut to wrong size, then ordered wrong thing again, then didn't order thing, sorry, wrong colour etc". It was absolutely delightful. Use Masters! We're just the worst!
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Oct 26, 2015 11:11
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It's kind of funny in a sad way how they constantly release information about how amazingly well Masters is doing in newsletters to their other businesses as well. No-one buys it, everyone can see they're circling the drain. Problem is, Masters failing so bad is just making Woolworths beat every other business with the "We're all hosed, work harder and more with less!" stick.
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Oct 27, 2015 14:10
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Jastiger posted:Why am I seeing a commercial with Jennifer Aniston upset there is no shower on the plane. I don't think anyone watching Brooklyn 9 9. Is going to be dropping 2 grand on a plane ticket, nor can they relate to "scrub teir" airlines not having a shower. I like Brooklyn Nine Nine. It's a good show. How dare you suggest I am a poor for watching it.
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Oct 27, 2015 14:11
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I remember hearing an ad during our visit to Las Vegas in which a guy is lamenting his multiple credit cards that are maxed out, then his wife chimes in and tells him about this new great credit card that they can get, with low interest and all that poo poo. I remember because I actually stopped what I was doing and said aloud "What the gently caress?!" and my wife in the bathroom stuck her head out and was like "Are they actually serious? Is this a real ad?"
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Nov 3, 2015 08:49
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Here is Australian supermarket Woolworths latest effort: https://youtu.be/sbqSvxi2weA Woolworths have already pulled it from their website. Edit: Found better video princecoo has a new favorite as of 01:36 on Nov 7, 2015 |
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Nov 7, 2015 01:33
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To quote a youtuber:Neith posted:Lmao. What the gently caress. "Eat this frozen microwave meal because it's totally more healthy than when you grow your own vegetables." For the non-Australians, Woolworths big "thing" is being "the fresh food people" with a focus on fresh produce and bread baked in-store. princecoo has a new favorite as of 01:50 on Nov 7, 2015 |
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Nov 7, 2015 01:45
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The differing prices between Woolworths stores reminds me of how a couple years ago, Woolworths did a big campaign in which they pushed how their prices were uniform across Australia, no matter where you were you'd be paying the same as someone elsewhere. They did this because people noticed that for example, a bottle of milk on the Gold Coast was $2.50 and $3.50 a few suburbs south. Never mind the huge price differences in regional areas or mining communities. The big campaign lasted all of maybe three days, since anyone with any brains could see they had actually barely done anything at all. A Current Affair busted the whole sham wide open on the second night, and the whole thing was dropped the next day. They sank millions in TV adverts and radio ads, as well as upper management doing phone interviews about how it was so great etc. Guys, every single person in the country has a smart phone, with a camera and the internet. It took all of 2 seconds to realise the prices hadn't changed.
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Nov 7, 2015 03:35
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twistedmentat posted:Oh yea. I loving hate truck ads, and by extension, people who buy trucks. You're a loving ad exec who lives in the suburbs and works downtown, why the gently caress do you need a truck that is wider than a single lane and can easily drive over other other cars???? Is it because your penis doesn't work anymore? In Australia, I was that guy installing fence posts in an endless plain. We used something very much like this http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Toyota-Landcruiser-2012/SSE-AD-3445314/?Cr=10 except about 10 years older. We call those big American trucks "Yank Tanks" here, because they're big and obnoxious. That said, some people do have them - usually cockeys who use them for carting feed around, or big amounts of heavy equipment, or quite often to pull a horse trailer or some such. But for general use they are more of a pain in the arse than they are worth. You'll get people bitching because they come into town and can't find a parking spot wide enough, and when they do the nose (or tail) is sticking out into traffic because the bastards are so goddamn long. Also, gently caress trying to run a fenceline in the scrub with one. You'd spend 3/4ths of your day with a chainsaw trying to clear a path for your truck before you even began. Then there is the fuel costs...
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Nov 24, 2015 00:11
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So the supermarket chain in Australia has changed its rewards program. It used to be that you'd do your shopping, scan your rewards card and earn around 4 cents a litre off fuel, and maybe save some money on certain items around the store. These were called "Everyday Rewards Card Specials", and were full price - unless you scanned your card at the checkout, at which point up to 20% would be discounted from those items. Additionally, you earned Qantas Frequent Flyer points - Qantas being Australias biggest airline (who never crash, according to the Rainman). You accrued Frequent Flyer points every time you shopped, which could be redeemed for a bunch of poo poo like TVs and stereos and gifts as well as free flights and accomodation. It was a pretty popular rewards program, and although it seemed that the orange ticketed Everyday Rewards Specials were more often than not on lines that weren't very big sellers, a savvy shopper could easily save themselves a fair bit. I'd say for my family we would spend maybe $150 max a week on groceries, and always wound up saving (accidentally, we never really gave enough of a poo poo to hunt down the specials) about $5 to $10. I've seen people come away with $50+ saved, and there was usually one or two items somewhere that were fairly popular that would get smashed by people stocking up on it while it was on that special. I think part of it was that on the reciept it straight up told you how much you'd saved - so you'd look at your total and be like "That shop cost $112.29 but look, I saved $4.50 with the rewards card, plus this week was double Frequent Flyer points. That's cool, I guess." Now, they have ditched the Frequent Flyer system completely, and scrapped the Everyday Rewards Specials. The card now does 2 things: 1. You still earn 4 cents a litre off fuel. That hasn't changed at all. 2. You now earn "Woolworths Dollars". Now instead of immediately saving up to 20% on selected items, you earn a certain amount, dependant on the item, which is recorded on the card. So let's say you hunt down a bag of potatos that are Woolworths Dollar enabled this week, and they are $3.50. They are still $3.50, the price is the same, but you might earn $1.00 in Woolworths Dollars to buy those potatoes. So there are no specials - just regular priced goods that earn you an amount on your card. The amount does not seem to have a common factor - why does this toothpaste earn me $0.12 cents but this hand lotion earn me $1.50, despite them both being the same price? The payoff for earning these Woolworths Dollars is that once your card has accrued $10, you automatically get $10 deducted from your next shop. [quote] The Sydney Morning Herald posted:
(Bolding is mine because it's not instant satisfaction. You literally have to wait until your next shop to benifit, assuming you've got the "Dollars". I remember doing a survey for Woolworths a while back, and I remember the question asking me what I wanted most out of shopping at Woolworths. It was a multiple choice question, with the choices being "Frequent Flyer Rewards", "Cheaper Groceries" "Excellent Service" and one or two others. Who the gently caress isn't going to choose cheaper groceries if it's an option? I'm quite certain that what the customers wanted was for Woolworths to lower the prices on their groceries across the board, not make up some new bullshit rewards system. So, from our old saving of up to $10 a week, the total Wollworths Dollars we've accrued since it's inception 3 weeks ago is..... 79 cents. https://www.woolworths.com.au/Shop/Discover/Woolworths-Dollar
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Nov 30, 2015 15:39
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Just wanted to pop in and say that Coke and Pepsi taste the same. Not trying to start anything here, since what I just said is categorically false in Australia - Coke tastes pretty good, Pepsi tastes like arse. Pepsi Max is okay, I guess, certainly better than Diet Coke, which is awful. I'm just saying, when I visited the States earler this year I honestly could not tell the difference between regular coke and regular pepsi. They both taste like... well, kind of like a middle ground between the two, but leaning slightly towards a coke flavour. For years I'd heard people say that coke and pepsi taste the same and thought they were nuts, coke and pepsi taste totally different, but nope. In Vietnam had a coke, and it was unusually sweet there.
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Dec 2, 2015 23:15
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Mu Zeta posted:Saw a lot of these on the train this year. They went away pretty quickly. Wow. Just... Wow. I heard a radio ad yesterday for a government assisted education initiative for 45 to 54 year olds that is supposed to, from what I can gather, help you further your career by looking at your already aquired skills and qualifications and get you working in a better job. The thing is, the ad starts out like this: (The background sounds are of a busy grocery store, giving the impression both these women are working retail on checkouts) Woman 1: 20 years on Friday Jan! You must be pretty excited! Woman 2: Yeah, I've been with the company a long time, but I just don't know if I can do this any more. Woman 1: Well maybe you should give (whatever the gently caress company, I don't remember) a call, they'll (rest of spiel about what they do) Woman 2: Okay, thanks! I'll give them a call! The problem is, both women talk and sound like they're 20. The start is really confusing, because your first thought is "She's turning 20" but then you realise that they're talking about length of time working at a company and you think "wait on, she sounds far too young to have worked 20 years anywhere" The result is the ad just doesn't seem genuine. It'd be like if Justin Beiber went around selling retirement plans.
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Dec 25, 2015 00:03
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After hearing my co-workers rave about the show Arrow, I finally, in a fit of boredom, decided to give it a go on Netflix. And it's actually pretty good, I'm enjoying it. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a tv show about the Green Arrow, a DC comics character. He's a rich young playboy who gets shipwrecked on an island for 5 years, comes back with a notebook full of names of people who are bad, and goes around cleaning up the city with his new badass skills he aquired while on the island. There is also some family stuff thrown in, dealing with his uber-rich family and their problems, and his ex-girlfriend and stuff. All in all, it's not bad. But what I don't understand is why all the ads I've seen for it on network television make out like the show is 95% rich white people problems: the serial instead of being what is essentially a knockoff Batman (with a family). I'm being disparaging, but to be honest, I watch it to see the Green Arrow beat the poo poo out of bad guys, and find out what happened on the island that made him turn from a rich privileged douchebag into a bow weilding badass. All the advertisements I've seen focus almost entirely on the family drama side of things, and I don't give much of a gently caress about that. It's why I never bothered to watch the show until now. Case in point, I remember an ad spot for an episode where the ad was all about how his equally rich entitled 17 year old sister got high and totalled her new convertable, and how his mother might have been lying to everyone about his father... What will the Arrow do?! No mention of what actually happens, which is he kicks the poo poo out of a bunch of dudes, takes a drug dealer hostage, pins some guy to a roof with an arrow and gets involved with the Russian mob. All of which is much more interesting than what the ad prattled on about. The Netflix episode descriptions are equally as bland; they talk only about what happens in the episode in regards to his family and home life, rarely mentioning his vigilante missions at all. It makes no sense. If Batman did this: "Next week on BATMAN, Bruce considers dating a supermodel, but feels sad about his late mother. Alfred reveals a secret that Bruce has long suspected." You'd be like "Who gives a gently caress, I want to know if Batman is going to punch the riddler in the dick this week or curb stomp the penguin."
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Dec 26, 2015 16:23
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Wanamingo posted:Is it really that much of a Batman knockoff? I've kind of been meaning to watch the show because I've always liked the Green Arrow from the comics and the DCAU, but that's disappointing to hear. The character was originally created in the 40s pretty much solely to capitalize on Batman's popularity, and nobody liked it. The comic really didn't take off until the 70s when they had him lose his fortune and become more of a progressive/environmentalist character to accompany the Robin Hood thing he has going on. It helped differentiate it from everything else out there, it sucks that they'd go back to the roots of having him be Batman except also an archer. Well, he's a billionaire playboy by day, gadget using vigilante who hides his face by night, so yeah, pretty much. The biggest difference beween the two is the Arrow will straight up kill a motherfucker if required, and his arsenal of gadgets isn't anywhere near as good as Batmans. It's still worth giving a fair go, because it's not bad at all. I didn't watch it until now because I thought, from the official marketing, that it would be family drama filled poo poo, but I'm enjoying it.
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Dec 27, 2015 00:25
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Karma Monkey posted:You weren't kidding. Thanks for mentioning this show. Never knew it existed and since your mention, I binge watched season 1. It's a hilarious mix of shooting arrows at bad guys until they admit their crimes and #FirstWorldProblems and #RichWhiteKids. So far my favorite subplot is the rich hero's rich friend being cut off from his trust fund and asking his rich hero friend for a job. Also, patiently waiting for someone to snap and say "OMG WE KNOW!!! YOU TOLD US ALREADY LIKE A BILLION TIMES!!!" after he drops into a conversation for the millionth time that he was stranded alone on an island for 5 years. Really silly show, but I can't stop watching it. Yeah, but they keep forgetting, it seems. Especially his idiot sister. The action parts are pretty good, the drama parts are just bad because not many people can relate to scratching a Maserati or wanting to change from being the kind of person who rents a football stadium to play strip-football with supermodels into a regular person with a steady girlfriend. I mean, I personally totally get why you'd want to play strip-football with odels, I do it every weekend, but I don't get why anybody would want to change that. It's great. I haven't finished the first season yet, but I'm super keen to learn more about the island, and watch more of the list get crossed off. I don't give a poo poo about his dipshit rich family who can't seem to understand that being shipwrecked and tortured for 5 years is going to maybe make a person a little different when they get back. I don't think anyone who gets excited to watch a superhero show is in it to see stupenously wealthy people bitch about how they didn't get the convertable they wanted for their birthday, or wax poetic about how they've missed their son for so long and everything changed. Advertise the poo poo we actually want to see, not the boring filler if you want to get people to sit down and watch your show. Don't advertise your kick-em-up superhero show as if it's The Bold and the Beautiful. princecoo has a new favorite as of 03:35 on Dec 27, 2015 |
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Dec 27, 2015 03:31
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Jeep has some ads out where a spouse comes home one day and has purchased a Jeep, comes in and is just "I bought a Jeep!" and the other spouse is all "Oh good!" or at least "Well that's nice." If my wife came home and announced she'd bought a loving Jeep I'd hit the goddamn roof, and she'd do the same if I did too. It reeks of that rich entitlement advertising that the Christmas Lexus ads do - We're so rich we can afford to just go out and buy a $50,000 car on a whim - surprise! We now own a Jeep! I'd have to be a multi-millionare before I would even consider dropping that much cash on anything without talking it over with my partner first. princecoo has a new favorite as of 03:54 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 03:33
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kizudarake posted:You're supposed to assume they went out specifically that day to buy a car, and they're coming home to announce they went with a Jeep. Even so, it's a big financial decision. Playing it so flippantly makes it appear like the people who did just buy a Jeep are entitled and wealthy to the point of excess. I mean, my wife and I do pretty well for ourselves, but even if I was going out to buy a runabout car for like $10,000 and had a couple to choose from, I'd still be on the phone to my wife talking that poo poo over, assuming she didn't come with me in the first place. Nobody just goes "today i will buy a car" and have their partner go "eh, whatever, okay" unless they have so much money that it doesn't matter what car they get.
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Feb 1, 2016 08:43
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Krispy Kareem posted:My favorite recent car commercial for the new Audi plug-in hybrid. lol what how did that woman gently caress up collecting eggs so badly?
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Feb 1, 2016 22:11
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I successfully got an Adsense account for my Youtube channel a few years ago, but never really did anything with it. Forgot about the whole thing. Now I've started a website, and tried to get adsense set up on that, but was denied since I already had an account. But it also wouldn't let me set it up for the website. So it gave me the option to delete the account and apply again. I did so, and it still won't approve me because I have already got an account (that I specifically disabled and destroyed using their instructions) attached to an alternative email address (that no longer exists). The solution according to them appears to either get the original email address back (impossible, when you do what I did, Adsense does say that you can get the address back within a certain time period just in case something like this does happen - well my email address was unable to be retrieved within half an hour, so good job) or follow a link to a page where they'll contact me and help me directly and oh that page is literally a fully made adsense page with the text saying that the information can't be found (and therefore gently caress you you're on your own)
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Feb 24, 2016 22:30
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There is a local real estate radio ad where I live that says they're number one. The ad is pretty typical until the end, where they go "Everyone else is just number two" I enjoy it, a little subversive "you're all poo poo" because I happen to know that the woman who started the business the ad is for used to work for the only competition in town, and she left them after they dicked her over and other workplace bullshit.
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Mar 18, 2016 07:59
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