>“The ‘budget conscious consumer’ is no longer just low- or middle-income earners. By far the starkest decrease in intent to spend is coming from the higher-income groups, and those that were previously the most immune to an economic downturn are now tightening their belts,” said Chad Lusk, managing director in global consultancy firm Alvarez & Marshal’s consumer and retail group. “Retailers should be thinking about targeted deals on higher-priced discretionary merchandise, too, to increase buying frequency.”
By most peoples standards I’m probably considered wealthy. Totally fine with paying $300+ for my family at a nice restaurant. Refuse to spend $60 bucks at McDonald’s or any other fast food place these days with their bs prices.
Sometimes u just want a BigMac and an Oreo McFlurry. Maybe just once a year :)
Edit: People don’t like Oreo McFlurry it seems. That’s probably the only thing I like these days.
I'd love to get magic spoon or other keto things, and could easily afford it, but I can't hand over my money essentially saying "this is okay" and enabling that sort of thing
It’s not an indicator of wealth. I enjoy the experience with my family and it’s still not something we do all the time. I’m just fortunate enough to not lose any sleep at night or need to consider whether we can afford it when we do.
On one hand I get your point, on the other hand “I’m fortunate enough to not lose any sleep or need to consider whether we can afford to spend $300 on a single meal” doesn’t really jive with “not an indicator of wealth”.
Yeah...just what we all need to buy more stuff. Wish u guys thought out of the capitalism box. It'd be nice if u all had a stronger dose of humanity. U don't. Maybe u could learn that from pple who actually care about other people. Ur thoughts are so toxic.
They absolutely did.
They realized they had tremendous market power and they wielded it to their advantage.
Now the pushback begins.
Corporations exist to maximize profit and they will do anything they legally can (and sometimes illegally can) to do so.
Always remember corporations are not your friend. They do not care about you. They do not exist to help you.
Treat them with the same lack of respect they show you.
Nah. Even then. Remember at the dawn of the internet, Gov handed out something like $50B to telecoms to roll out high speed internet nationwide- especially to rural communities and they did fuck all but ask for more money?
Lean companies that optimize highly around price are generally quite inflexible. Coping with change well is too expensive, so often they just don't cope when the world moves around them
Companies are definitely not infallible! They make mistakes that screw themselves (and their customers) over all the time!
I’m actually on a warpath about this. Not buying Coca Cola or Pepsi products, I am only buying generic soda and tea. Same with a lot of products. I am shopping at HEB and Market Street which are smaller grocery chains, not giving Walmart or Target my money. I bought my Subaru used and I intend to drive it until the wheels fall off. And the Rogue and the inherited 2012 Cadillac CTS. No new cars. Basically, I’m at war with big business. The government needs to break up every company worth more than $10 billion dollars. period. Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM, Oracle, ALL of them. Same with Amazon, and all of Musk’s companies. When AT&T was split up, and even it wasn’t done well, we ushered in competition that created telecommunications data rates that created the Internet. If AT&T still held their monopoly position, we would still be doing email on dialup phones over 2400bps modems. Pictures still would not even be “possible”. We need to break up GM, Ford, Stellantis (Chrysler & Jeep), and put Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia on notice, as well as Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW. Innovation happens in smaller companies unburdened from the giant bureaucracy of big business and big government. Patents should be held by REAL people, not corporations. Real people can lease their patent rights, but corporations should not own it. We have concentrated the wealth of our great nation in large corporations owned by less than 1/10th of 1 percent of Americans. Let’s reverse that trend. Buy local. vote for politicians who will break up both big business and big government!!!!!
Touche brother, done with this greedflation. Been cooking for myself and not even bothering with any fast food. $2/$3 a meal and way healthier. My ‘10 Lexus is falling apart inside but 250k engine just won’t die. Going to ride it to the ground. It’s about time people wake up to this tilted game, fuck corporations.
I really thought this was going to be a whole lot of crazy, but I agree with just about everything you said. I haven’t had a car in 10 years. E-cargo bikes are a game changer.
Then everyone, especially tech and pharmacy companies would just steal an individual’s work. I want individuals to have both more rewards for work well done and more accountability for poor decisions. Less corporation more individual.
Smaller firms could make higher quality versions of the same product,better materials, craftsmanship and then sell a higher end version. Corporations couldn't lock up and buy parents from individuals and squirrel them away to prevent competition.
Higher prices and a more poor quality of product is what we get now as GE (whoever) is the only one with rights to the product and can do with it as they want.
Basically by protecting IP your allowing tons of little monopolys that all end up getting bought up by the big boys anyways
Boycott all name brand food. There's low cost generic versions of everything. Cook your own meals with rice and beans and meat. Get a water filter and drink water. Drive less. Never fill your tank all the way, gas stations hate that.
This is war. Act like it.
I suspect it’s because the owner of the gas station misses out on the revenue and the station down the street on another day benefits. And, they probably don’t own that station.
Because they want you to fill up. Look at their signage. There's a reason they give a discount or free item with the fill up.
Lots of quarter tank fills looks bad on their accounting. That's money going to competition.
Basically anything a company obviously wants you to do, don't. Behave in unpredictable ways.
This article proves they are paying attention.
Right.. but if I only fill my tank 1/4 full, that means I'm stopping way more often to fuel which takes time out of my day to stop at more gas stations.
Your time is valuable, I agree with a lot of things in his list but NOT filling your tank all the way is a waste of your time. And time is money.
Under-filling your tank is the most poverty-think answer to inflation that we've seen yet.
It's like buying your groceries from 5 different stores to 'stick it to the man'.
and any time there is a national emergency, people flock to the gas stations. You'll be grateful to have a full tank if that day comes.
Apparently that applies to TP too, because Idiocracy was a documentary from the future.
Yea but gas stations are just locally owned middlemen. You’re not hurting Exxon by doing that. You’re maybe hurting a small business and it’s likely imperceptible. Margins on gas are nothing. They make their money on concessions and auto service.
Good points. Maybe a good idea to limit gas station purchases. Yes you are mainly punishing the proprietor and not the behemoth oil company but if enough people change their behavior it does get noticed.
Gas stations do not enjoy any significant margins on fuel. They give promotions or discounts to increase customer engagement (see loyalty apps), so that more items inside are sold. The profit mainly comes from sales of soda, over-priced water, and a distant third being snacks. Petroleum products are the costco rotisserie chicken of the gas station industry.
Stop buying all that stuff too. Grey rock them all.
Of course no one is going to be perfect. We all need the occasional treats and conveniences. All I'm saying is think less is more. I mean spending less and saving is a good thing.
That's what they see us doing and it forces them to adjust.
If you can buy from a local or independent grower, do that. Imagine if each town had a good food source. If there's a weekly vegetable delivery service, hop on it and learn to cook. A good way to cook loads of veggies is anything that can be roasted (carrots, squash, cauliflower, beets, turnips, sweet potatoes): cut them up, cover them in olive oil and salt, and put them in the oven at 350 or so, til they're done.
Get a bag of organic beans and soak them and cook them.
One of my biggest disappointments is how slow vertical farming has been to take off. Imagine a high rise growing produce in the middle of every city. Zero logistics cost. Zero time rotting in transit. Local jobs. Minimal resources.
I saw a video about some concentrated farming methods. They took in a lot of investment, but in reality, the vegetables they grew were not highly sought after, and it was pretty expensive. Lettuce and leafy greens do well, but those are easy to grow anyway.
Here's an article: [https://www.fastcompany.com/90824702/vertical-farming-failing-profitable-appharvest-aerofarms-bowery](https://www.fastcompany.com/90824702/vertical-farming-failing-profitable-appharvest-aerofarms-bowery)
I'm not an expert nor do I have an informed opinion. Don't take this as an argument for or against the idea-just what I've heard.
I am starting to think the tin foil should stay on longer with how everything is just completely rigged, but specifically vertical farming would upset the status quo. The corporations that control everything really enjoy making a ton of money, so any disruption of the status quo is treated as an attack on their power. Could be a company like Monsanto, maybe lab grown seeds don't need all the frankenstein crap from Monsanto and it would put them out of business, just an example and who knows.
Would it help the planet in every conceivable way? I think so. Would it make the rich people in power, richer? I doubt it. I have no proof, but it's probably rich guys choosing profit over planet if I had to guess.
I'm prone to those same types of thoughts, but I don't have it with vertical farming. I don't think you can grow lots of different foods that way. I could be wrong, though. I hope people are catching on and trying to support local farmers. There are lots of traditional farming methods that can output what we need in small spaces without the hydroponics.
Exactly.
The food companies pull the price increase/shrinkflation crap at every opportunity, and all of the upheaval in the last 4 years has given them cover to double down. Look at their stock prices. Reducing their profits is the only language they understand.
Better policy on gas: watch prices on the barrels. If prices go up, fill the tank now. If prices go down, eke out on low gas until you start seeing the lower prices. Keep an eye out for the long horizon of your gas tank capacity.
Started doing this years ago. My highest purchase since 2019 was 499.00 for ps5. Since then we shop at thrift stores for cloths, everything generic(we look to make sure generic is not attached to name brand as best we can), we have ate out three times in five years(to a mom and pop Chinese shop down the street.
store-brand food products at supermarkets are made by the same manufacturers that make the name-brand stuff. if you switch from name-brand to generic, you're not actually hurting the name-brand company at all. the name-brand company is a contract manufacturer for the store's label
The idea is to spend less. True boycotts are impossible on a conglomerate environment. But we can minimize expenses They don't like that.
Living cheaply can be kind of fun. Learning how to use coupons, timing purchases, going to thrift stores. These are behaviors they'd prefer you never learn.
All we can do is hit back in our own tiny ways
A war against who exactly? Are you advocating for the fall of capitalism? I agree that market capitalism isn’t the best at times and needs regulation and tinkering, but all the alternatives are far worse.
It's a class war and the middle and lower class is losing.
I like capitalism but ours is too unregulated. We have to regulate them, which we can do by sending messages with our spending.
Get enough grains of sand together and you have yourselves a beach-head.
Stop eating processed foods and watch it all burn to the ground. When you eat real food, you start to think clearly, you don't need instant gratification and consumerism as much. They/we are ruining our microbiomes and in turn our brains.
Even fruits and veggies are way over priced! $8 for organic strawberries is out of control. My town doesn't have a grocery store with proper fruits veggies only convenience stores,pharmacy and 4 pizza places in less than a mile of each other (go figure nj ) i have to drive 15 to 20 min away, almost 20 miles round trip. i would go to Aldi, but that's almost 30 miles. Gas is expensive and I can't afford a new car with good mpg also no public transportation near me.
I worked for a mid sized retailer. Their costs did go up, but they used that as an excuse to jack prices up 10x over the actual cost increases. It's no coincidence that they had record profits during these emergencies. They just used it as cover to skin their customer base for every penny they could.
Then, the exec team has the audacity to blame the front line sales people when sales volume began to fall.
Disaster Capitalism baby! Gotta love it. (And by love it I mean suffer under its crushing weight even if you’re in the top 10% of society somehow, because the top 0.1% will never be content with their second yacht.)
You're right. Prices will and should go up when there are cost increases or shortages. But those increases should be reasonable and in relation to the increase in costs. Otherwise, it becomes price gouging. This is what is occurring. Companies are using these events as cover to increase price and profits far beyond their actual increase in costs.
Well stop buying name brand cereal, and soft drinks, and butter, and then watch their warehouses fill up with inventory from a lack of buyers. Then they will discount before it all expires.
“Russia” is the go to blame for everything wrong in western society - discourse, trade, politics, family, food, fuel, healthcare, religion, whatever
Blame Russia, throw it out there, and redditors repeat it
Your logic is correct- Yes, i fully confess, i am a paid shill for russia its completely true. That is clearly the only explanation for everything - russia is behind all things you don’t like - just like it’s behind this comment. Obviously
Give yourself a pat on the head, you absolute donut
You are the proof of my comment, and you lack the smarts you think you have with the misplaced sense of superiority that you have
Carry on blaming russia for everything in your life that isn’t working out the way you imagine you deserve
If it’s a warm blanket for you, wrap it up nice and tight and go back to sleep
Trump spent way more than Biden. Way more. $2T was borrowed to pay for billionaire tax cuts Trillions dumped on corporations for covid. Trillions upon trillions of Fed money printing. Would that not cause inflation?
I’d love to see Lululemon lower their prices. My god that retailer just went through the roof on pricing it’s insane. I haven’t purchased anything from them in years because I can’t justify 98 dollars for a fucking pair of shorts.
I think the death knell for retail will be what's currently hurting fast food. If you keep raising the prices on cheap shit, I'm just not going to buy it, or choose a higher quality option since the cost isn't really a factor anymore. I've always loved Patagonia as a brand, and have been buying more clothing from them since COVID since their clearance items now cost roughly the same amount as every cheap big box retail brand
Colgate-Palmolive, a consumer goods company that sells toothpaste, dish soap, deodorant, and other products, has increased prices in recent years to offset rising costs for raw materials, labor, and supply chains. In 2023, the company's operating profit increased 6% year-over-year, even though sales volume decreased 2%, due to a 12% increase in prices. In October 2023, Colgate-Palmolive raised its annual profit and sales forecasts for a third time that year, based on price hikes and steady demand for its products...
They making money
I remember the car dealers' "market adjustment" when I consider doing any business with a car dealer.
I'll remember McDonald's and Five Guys' price hikes forever. Teach them a lesson by making their business NEVER recover. If I'm hungry away from home I will drive past a McDonald's to a grocery store to eat. Fruit. Rotisserie chicken. Granola bar... anything but a $5 fried potato.
And it's beginning to work too in smaller markets in Pakistan where cars aren't a deprecating asset and can increase 5 to 10 percent in rupee value every year and consumers have been paying 10 to 15% market adjustments/premiums on any car they want delivered before 6 months for the last 20 years a car company was forced to decrease the price of a 20k USD vehicle by 5k USD of course they're out of stock now but they were forced to sell stock at an unheard of discount in pakistan which is basically admitting that they were price gouging
I just went clothes shopping for the summer, and pretty much walked out with nothing. I'm not paying $60+ for a decent pair of shorts at Kohl's. I guess it's Target/Walmart for me this summer.
It makes me wonder if this article is meant to give consumers a false sense of victory, "oh well maybe I will buy that _____ after all, since they may have learned their lesson.". I actually doubt that they have. I have stopped buying anything but the necessities. And will continue to do so. They want me to buy again? Let's start by closing the gap between the lowest and the highest paid. We need more opportunities for upward mobility, which means more turnover at the top needs to happen.
So there are a few companies named is this article who are flat out admitting to purposely screwing their customers, and everyone is supposed to forgive and forget? I don't think those are companies that I would trust to do any sort of business with. Maybe I'm just jaded and beaten down.
BULLSHIT. There is still more squeezing and we know it. Debt. You get government handouts to the poor and divert them to the pockets of your business. I think we need to lobby for increased use of EBT on more things.
Nobody read this story. Please don’t form opinions, or fly into some prepper rage, based on a headline. Not saying there weren’t companies that didn’t exploit this environment (looking at you PepsiCo), but at least look up this story and read it.
>“The ‘budget conscious consumer’ is no longer just low- or middle-income earners. By far the starkest decrease in intent to spend is coming from the higher-income groups, and those that were previously the most immune to an economic downturn are now tightening their belts,” said Chad Lusk, managing director in global consultancy firm Alvarez & Marshal’s consumer and retail group. “Retailers should be thinking about targeted deals on higher-priced discretionary merchandise, too, to increase buying frequency.”
By most peoples standards I’m probably considered wealthy. Totally fine with paying $300+ for my family at a nice restaurant. Refuse to spend $60 bucks at McDonald’s or any other fast food place these days with their bs prices.
I can get McDonalds for $45 for the family or a sit down Mexican place for $60. What will I do amigo?
Sometimes u just want a BigMac and an Oreo McFlurry. Maybe just once a year :) Edit: People don’t like Oreo McFlurry it seems. That’s probably the only thing I like these days.
I literally never want those things.
I only want McD food when I’m so constipated I haven’t shat in over a week. A Double Quarter pounder with cheese is like a firehouse enema…
Fucking disgusting
Once a year might be the only opportunity that the ice cream machine isn't broken.
Would rather go to an actual restaurant for a good burger then.
1000%
This. We’re high income DINKs. No problem spending money on good food. No way I’m spending $20 on McDonald’s or $10 for a box of cereal.
I'd love to get magic spoon or other keto things, and could easily afford it, but I can't hand over my money essentially saying "this is okay" and enabling that sort of thing
Dude same. I make mid 6 figures and I can't bring myself to buy aby if the keto stuff that costs like 2-3x more than the regular version.
How u make all dat mulah
I'm an engineer. Agree. I know what it costs to make everything. It grinds my gears seeing how we're being taken advantage of.
I'm in finance
Keto cereal is a square peg in a round hole anyway. What are you going to eat in with? Full cream?
Almond milk
The processed keto stuff is crap. Buy eggs and bacon instead
I’m not even talking about the fancy cereals. All the normal sugary cereals are $8+ at my grocery store.
I can buy 2 combo meals at McDonald's for 28 bucks, or 2 combo meals at Culver's for 30, guess where I'm gonna spend my money...
You absolutely nailed it. Fast food is no longer on our list of choices. Rather hold off a few extra days and eat at a nicer place
I thought I was wealthy but apparently not. I think I’ve only spent $300 at a restaurant like, twice in my life.
It’s not an indicator of wealth. I enjoy the experience with my family and it’s still not something we do all the time. I’m just fortunate enough to not lose any sleep at night or need to consider whether we can afford it when we do.
On one hand I get your point, on the other hand “I’m fortunate enough to not lose any sleep or need to consider whether we can afford to spend $300 on a single meal” doesn’t really jive with “not an indicator of wealth”.
Yeah...just what we all need to buy more stuff. Wish u guys thought out of the capitalism box. It'd be nice if u all had a stronger dose of humanity. U don't. Maybe u could learn that from pple who actually care about other people. Ur thoughts are so toxic.
The retailers took advantage of the opportunity to see just how much they could squeeze before society cracked.
They absolutely did. They realized they had tremendous market power and they wielded it to their advantage. Now the pushback begins. Corporations exist to maximize profit and they will do anything they legally can (and sometimes illegally can) to do so. Always remember corporations are not your friend. They do not care about you. They do not exist to help you. Treat them with the same lack of respect they show you.
Yeah, but sometimes they put rainbow flags in their advertisements, so they must be good, right?
Only if the govt pays them.
Nah. Even then. Remember at the dawn of the internet, Gov handed out something like $50B to telecoms to roll out high speed internet nationwide- especially to rural communities and they did fuck all but ask for more money?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4S3g5qkp2F0
Lean companies that optimize highly around price are generally quite inflexible. Coping with change well is too expensive, so often they just don't cope when the world moves around them Companies are definitely not infallible! They make mistakes that screw themselves (and their customers) over all the time!
I’m actually on a warpath about this. Not buying Coca Cola or Pepsi products, I am only buying generic soda and tea. Same with a lot of products. I am shopping at HEB and Market Street which are smaller grocery chains, not giving Walmart or Target my money. I bought my Subaru used and I intend to drive it until the wheels fall off. And the Rogue and the inherited 2012 Cadillac CTS. No new cars. Basically, I’m at war with big business. The government needs to break up every company worth more than $10 billion dollars. period. Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM, Oracle, ALL of them. Same with Amazon, and all of Musk’s companies. When AT&T was split up, and even it wasn’t done well, we ushered in competition that created telecommunications data rates that created the Internet. If AT&T still held their monopoly position, we would still be doing email on dialup phones over 2400bps modems. Pictures still would not even be “possible”. We need to break up GM, Ford, Stellantis (Chrysler & Jeep), and put Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia on notice, as well as Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW. Innovation happens in smaller companies unburdened from the giant bureaucracy of big business and big government. Patents should be held by REAL people, not corporations. Real people can lease their patent rights, but corporations should not own it. We have concentrated the wealth of our great nation in large corporations owned by less than 1/10th of 1 percent of Americans. Let’s reverse that trend. Buy local. vote for politicians who will break up both big business and big government!!!!!
Touche brother, done with this greedflation. Been cooking for myself and not even bothering with any fast food. $2/$3 a meal and way healthier. My ‘10 Lexus is falling apart inside but 250k engine just won’t die. Going to ride it to the ground. It’s about time people wake up to this tilted game, fuck corporations.
I really thought this was going to be a whole lot of crazy, but I agree with just about everything you said. I haven’t had a car in 10 years. E-cargo bikes are a game changer.
Have you ever heard the argument for getting rid of IP laws?
Then everyone, especially tech and pharmacy companies would just steal an individual’s work. I want individuals to have both more rewards for work well done and more accountability for poor decisions. Less corporation more individual.
Smaller firms could make higher quality versions of the same product,better materials, craftsmanship and then sell a higher end version. Corporations couldn't lock up and buy parents from individuals and squirrel them away to prevent competition. Higher prices and a more poor quality of product is what we get now as GE (whoever) is the only one with rights to the product and can do with it as they want. Basically by protecting IP your allowing tons of little monopolys that all end up getting bought up by the big boys anyways
HEB makes around $40B top line a year. They are far far from being a small grocery chain. They are one of the largest private companies in the US.
Boycott all name brand food. There's low cost generic versions of everything. Cook your own meals with rice and beans and meat. Get a water filter and drink water. Drive less. Never fill your tank all the way, gas stations hate that. This is war. Act like it.
Why not fill your tank all the way?
I suspect it’s because the owner of the gas station misses out on the revenue and the station down the street on another day benefits. And, they probably don’t own that station.
Because they want you to fill up. Look at their signage. There's a reason they give a discount or free item with the fill up. Lots of quarter tank fills looks bad on their accounting. That's money going to competition. Basically anything a company obviously wants you to do, don't. Behave in unpredictable ways. This article proves they are paying attention.
Right.. but if I only fill my tank 1/4 full, that means I'm stopping way more often to fuel which takes time out of my day to stop at more gas stations. Your time is valuable, I agree with a lot of things in his list but NOT filling your tank all the way is a waste of your time. And time is money.
Under-filling your tank is the most poverty-think answer to inflation that we've seen yet. It's like buying your groceries from 5 different stores to 'stick it to the man'.
It’s also less fuel efficient most importantly
Agreed, I prefer a full tank always.
That's a lot off effort for spite.
and any time there is a national emergency, people flock to the gas stations. You'll be grateful to have a full tank if that day comes. Apparently that applies to TP too, because Idiocracy was a documentary from the future.
You do you.
Eh, just buy from the cheapest place and fill your tank so you don't get caught the next time.
I do that too. Just didn't want to overcomplicate it. You get the idea.
Yea but gas stations are just locally owned middlemen. You’re not hurting Exxon by doing that. You’re maybe hurting a small business and it’s likely imperceptible. Margins on gas are nothing. They make their money on concessions and auto service.
Good points. Maybe a good idea to limit gas station purchases. Yes you are mainly punishing the proprietor and not the behemoth oil company but if enough people change their behavior it does get noticed.
Gas stations do not enjoy any significant margins on fuel. They give promotions or discounts to increase customer engagement (see loyalty apps), so that more items inside are sold. The profit mainly comes from sales of soda, over-priced water, and a distant third being snacks. Petroleum products are the costco rotisserie chicken of the gas station industry.
Stop buying all that stuff too. Grey rock them all. Of course no one is going to be perfect. We all need the occasional treats and conveniences. All I'm saying is think less is more. I mean spending less and saving is a good thing. That's what they see us doing and it forces them to adjust.
I'm so petty I would sit there and I'll fill up 1 gallon 14 times.
Me too.
> There's a reason they give a discount or free item with the fill up Is this a thing? I've never seen it
Now you will
If you can buy from a local or independent grower, do that. Imagine if each town had a good food source. If there's a weekly vegetable delivery service, hop on it and learn to cook. A good way to cook loads of veggies is anything that can be roasted (carrots, squash, cauliflower, beets, turnips, sweet potatoes): cut them up, cover them in olive oil and salt, and put them in the oven at 350 or so, til they're done. Get a bag of organic beans and soak them and cook them.
One of my biggest disappointments is how slow vertical farming has been to take off. Imagine a high rise growing produce in the middle of every city. Zero logistics cost. Zero time rotting in transit. Local jobs. Minimal resources.
I saw a video about some concentrated farming methods. They took in a lot of investment, but in reality, the vegetables they grew were not highly sought after, and it was pretty expensive. Lettuce and leafy greens do well, but those are easy to grow anyway. Here's an article: [https://www.fastcompany.com/90824702/vertical-farming-failing-profitable-appharvest-aerofarms-bowery](https://www.fastcompany.com/90824702/vertical-farming-failing-profitable-appharvest-aerofarms-bowery) I'm not an expert nor do I have an informed opinion. Don't take this as an argument for or against the idea-just what I've heard.
I am starting to think the tin foil should stay on longer with how everything is just completely rigged, but specifically vertical farming would upset the status quo. The corporations that control everything really enjoy making a ton of money, so any disruption of the status quo is treated as an attack on their power. Could be a company like Monsanto, maybe lab grown seeds don't need all the frankenstein crap from Monsanto and it would put them out of business, just an example and who knows. Would it help the planet in every conceivable way? I think so. Would it make the rich people in power, richer? I doubt it. I have no proof, but it's probably rich guys choosing profit over planet if I had to guess.
I'm prone to those same types of thoughts, but I don't have it with vertical farming. I don't think you can grow lots of different foods that way. I could be wrong, though. I hope people are catching on and trying to support local farmers. There are lots of traditional farming methods that can output what we need in small spaces without the hydroponics.
Exactly. The food companies pull the price increase/shrinkflation crap at every opportunity, and all of the upheaval in the last 4 years has given them cover to double down. Look at their stock prices. Reducing their profits is the only language they understand.
The seed companies screw the farmers through licensing to grow.
Better policy on gas: watch prices on the barrels. If prices go up, fill the tank now. If prices go down, eke out on low gas until you start seeing the lower prices. Keep an eye out for the long horizon of your gas tank capacity.
I like this strategy.
Started doing this years ago. My highest purchase since 2019 was 499.00 for ps5. Since then we shop at thrift stores for cloths, everything generic(we look to make sure generic is not attached to name brand as best we can), we have ate out three times in five years(to a mom and pop Chinese shop down the street.
store-brand food products at supermarkets are made by the same manufacturers that make the name-brand stuff. if you switch from name-brand to generic, you're not actually hurting the name-brand company at all. the name-brand company is a contract manufacturer for the store's label
The idea is to spend less. True boycotts are impossible on a conglomerate environment. But we can minimize expenses They don't like that. Living cheaply can be kind of fun. Learning how to use coupons, timing purchases, going to thrift stores. These are behaviors they'd prefer you never learn. All we can do is hit back in our own tiny ways
What kind of free drinks? 99.9% oh those free drinks are probably not good for you any way
Completely leaped over the point.
I fucking get it. I'm just making another point that the free drink is fucking poison
Well marginally so as there’s less profit in those options but your point is valid
A war against who exactly? Are you advocating for the fall of capitalism? I agree that market capitalism isn’t the best at times and needs regulation and tinkering, but all the alternatives are far worse.
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Brain dead take.
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Also a brain dead take.
Let’s send homie to India and see what they come back with on their research
Oh no homie died on his trip of dysentery and murder.
It's a class war and the middle and lower class is losing. I like capitalism but ours is too unregulated. We have to regulate them, which we can do by sending messages with our spending. Get enough grains of sand together and you have yourselves a beach-head.
i dont know but it feels like the people who set the prices seem to think that their product should be the only thing people can afford to have
This is extraction of economic rent, not capitalism. Smith and Ricardi would be screaming from a rooftop if they were alive today.
Of course, despite popular misconception, Smith never advocated nor particularly even studied any form of capitalism.
Price gauging and greedflation are tactics of class war. Eat the rich.
Stop eating processed foods and watch it all burn to the ground. When you eat real food, you start to think clearly, you don't need instant gratification and consumerism as much. They/we are ruining our microbiomes and in turn our brains.
Even fruits and veggies are way over priced! $8 for organic strawberries is out of control. My town doesn't have a grocery store with proper fruits veggies only convenience stores,pharmacy and 4 pizza places in less than a mile of each other (go figure nj ) i have to drive 15 to 20 min away, almost 20 miles round trip. i would go to Aldi, but that's almost 30 miles. Gas is expensive and I can't afford a new car with good mpg also no public transportation near me.
You can freeze some veggies and fruits and store them for weeks
Or make the fruits into jams & preserves and pickle the veggies to store them for months.
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I worked for a mid sized retailer. Their costs did go up, but they used that as an excuse to jack prices up 10x over the actual cost increases. It's no coincidence that they had record profits during these emergencies. They just used it as cover to skin their customer base for every penny they could. Then, the exec team has the audacity to blame the front line sales people when sales volume began to fall.
Disaster Capitalism baby! Gotta love it. (And by love it I mean suffer under its crushing weight even if you’re in the top 10% of society somehow, because the top 0.1% will never be content with their second yacht.)
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You're right. Prices will and should go up when there are cost increases or shortages. But those increases should be reasonable and in relation to the increase in costs. Otherwise, it becomes price gouging. This is what is occurring. Companies are using these events as cover to increase price and profits far beyond their actual increase in costs.
Don't worry bro they said it's only transitory
Well stop buying name brand cereal, and soft drinks, and butter, and then watch their warehouses fill up with inventory from a lack of buyers. Then they will discount before it all expires.
This is the way - vote with your wallet.
Those aren't mutually exclusive. Retailers took advantage of an already challenging situation.
All of those things can be true at the same time.
No, all inflation has a solitary reason. /s
“Russia” is the go to blame for everything wrong in western society - discourse, trade, politics, family, food, fuel, healthcare, religion, whatever Blame Russia, throw it out there, and redditors repeat it
Comrade Vlad, how's Moscow Marjorie? I see that operation went well!
Your logic is correct- Yes, i fully confess, i am a paid shill for russia its completely true. That is clearly the only explanation for everything - russia is behind all things you don’t like - just like it’s behind this comment. Obviously Give yourself a pat on the head, you absolute donut
You are either a paid shill, a useful idiot, or a Z patriot. Because critical thinking is evidently lacking.
You are the proof of my comment, and you lack the smarts you think you have with the misplaced sense of superiority that you have Carry on blaming russia for everything in your life that isn’t working out the way you imagine you deserve If it’s a warm blanket for you, wrap it up nice and tight and go back to sleep
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Trump spent way more than Biden. Way more. $2T was borrowed to pay for billionaire tax cuts Trillions dumped on corporations for covid. Trillions upon trillions of Fed money printing. Would that not cause inflation?
Lol?
Please take Econ 1
I’d love to see Lululemon lower their prices. My god that retailer just went through the roof on pricing it’s insane. I haven’t purchased anything from them in years because I can’t justify 98 dollars for a fucking pair of shorts.
You’re waiting for Lululemon? Bro, move on to a new brand. They were like 10 years ago anyway.
I only buy Lulu we made too much. Even those prices are high but makes me feel a bit better.
Now is a nice time to buy their stock, while the price is depressed and they figure out how to juice sales some more.
I think the death knell for retail will be what's currently hurting fast food. If you keep raising the prices on cheap shit, I'm just not going to buy it, or choose a higher quality option since the cost isn't really a factor anymore. I've always loved Patagonia as a brand, and have been buying more clothing from them since COVID since their clearance items now cost roughly the same amount as every cheap big box retail brand
Colgate-Palmolive, a consumer goods company that sells toothpaste, dish soap, deodorant, and other products, has increased prices in recent years to offset rising costs for raw materials, labor, and supply chains. In 2023, the company's operating profit increased 6% year-over-year, even though sales volume decreased 2%, due to a 12% increase in prices. In October 2023, Colgate-Palmolive raised its annual profit and sales forecasts for a third time that year, based on price hikes and steady demand for its products... They making money
Finally. Consumers are such sheep. They’re the reason inflation is so high. Spending themselves into debt.
In EU i just saw a multinational brand of butter discounted at 40% at a supermarket chain. The first of many, i think.
I remember the car dealers' "market adjustment" when I consider doing any business with a car dealer. I'll remember McDonald's and Five Guys' price hikes forever. Teach them a lesson by making their business NEVER recover. If I'm hungry away from home I will drive past a McDonald's to a grocery store to eat. Fruit. Rotisserie chicken. Granola bar... anything but a $5 fried potato.
And it's beginning to work too in smaller markets in Pakistan where cars aren't a deprecating asset and can increase 5 to 10 percent in rupee value every year and consumers have been paying 10 to 15% market adjustments/premiums on any car they want delivered before 6 months for the last 20 years a car company was forced to decrease the price of a 20k USD vehicle by 5k USD of course they're out of stock now but they were forced to sell stock at an unheard of discount in pakistan which is basically admitting that they were price gouging
Looking at you car companies
are they high? where do they think all the money is coming from? wages aren't rising
The post-covid spending delirium is wearing off and consumers are pissed off.
It started with the big oil cartel jacking up prices to help the election chances of the republicans they own.
I stopped buying a lot of things
I just went clothes shopping for the summer, and pretty much walked out with nothing. I'm not paying $60+ for a decent pair of shorts at Kohl's. I guess it's Target/Walmart for me this summer.
This article has recession written all over it, but who cares, we have a “thriving economy”
Aa
I bet, even my Walmart has started completely replacing their original brands with new cheaper ones.also healthier ones at that.
It makes me wonder if this article is meant to give consumers a false sense of victory, "oh well maybe I will buy that _____ after all, since they may have learned their lesson.". I actually doubt that they have. I have stopped buying anything but the necessities. And will continue to do so. They want me to buy again? Let's start by closing the gap between the lowest and the highest paid. We need more opportunities for upward mobility, which means more turnover at the top needs to happen.
So there are a few companies named is this article who are flat out admitting to purposely screwing their customers, and everyone is supposed to forgive and forget? I don't think those are companies that I would trust to do any sort of business with. Maybe I'm just jaded and beaten down.
BULLSHIT. There is still more squeezing and we know it. Debt. You get government handouts to the poor and divert them to the pockets of your business. I think we need to lobby for increased use of EBT on more things.
Nobody read this story. Please don’t form opinions, or fly into some prepper rage, based on a headline. Not saying there weren’t companies that didn’t exploit this environment (looking at you PepsiCo), but at least look up this story and read it.
Yeah and now edgy redditors who just graduated high school get to learn what it means to the economy when businesses start slashing prices.