“Mistake” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
More of a “well we got what we could get while we could get it”
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Amazon, Walmart, and Target finally realize their colossal pricing mistake—now they’re slashing costs to win back customers
We will. It was the second one.
And now they expect us to go into a spending spree with these “new amazing low prices”.
I think they ought to prepare for disappointment.
One thing the pandemic “shortages” taught me is that in most categories I really do have enough stuff already.
Oopsy, the credit cards are maxed out already due to their gouging So purchasing will remain low until credit card debt declines.
Oh wait, that’s not going to happen anytime soon because the landlords are price fixing.
Amazon Fresh just became the latest big-box retailer to cut costs on thousands of items, following in the footsteps of Walmart and Target in reversing course on years of inflation-induced price hikes
Greed-induced. Inflation-excused.
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Corporations are always greedy, so this factor never changed. It could not have been the cause of inflation, since we had greedy corporations and more inflation before.
I want to point out that your reasoning is irrational which makes your conclusion nonsense.
You didn’t root cause or analyze anything, then declared yourself to be right “because”.
Here I’ll show you, let me use your method to “prove” something.
“The Potato Party has always been in charge in Tombo County, the hungry kids in schools are not the fault of The Potato Party because kids here have been hungry before.”
We can “prove” so many things this way!
The Potato Party could have changed its policies, so your comparison is not apt. Corporations have never been not greedy, so what changed?
The pandemic, constant coverage of inflation giving them a shield to raise prices and blame inflation even when their SEC filings indicate that this is complete bullshit, and crucially greater consolidation resulting in fewer options for grocery shoppers.
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Are you sure? Here’s the markup since the pandemic
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…a global pandemic? That excuse let them raise prices far beyond their actual cost inflation.
Yes, so the issue was people could afford to pay more when they got their stimulus. Which is the point of the stimulus, it worked 100%
The question is whether the skeptics that said the stimulus would cause inflation were right. Is it the corporate greed or does giving everyone money increase prices?
No, that’s not what the issue was. The stimulus was a drop in the bucket, and I think it’s insane to talk like people “have more money now” because they got a check for like a thousand dollars 4 years ago. That shit was gone the week after it was given, probably to rent in most cases.
The price increases were blamed on supply chain issues, which did exist, but not to the degree that could justify the increase.
There were several stimulus checks, so maybe some people spent it on rent and some saved it and spent it on going out when the shutdowns were over
You can see that people spent a whole lot more on food in 2022
Probably that the greedy became greedier. Greed isn’t exactly linear, it’s exponential. It used to be:
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime
Today’s version goes something like:
Boss makes a million, I don’t make jack
that’s why when I’m at work
I like to smoke crack
The greed is constant, but the opportunities to excuse price increases are not. Egg prices jumped up about 6x because they had the excuse of bird flu, but the prices magically went down (but stayed elevated) after the government threatened an investigation. As ineffectual as our government has been made, increasing prices out of nowhere with no plausible excuses will invite an investigation.
So my point is instead of blaming greedy corporations, we just discussed possible causes and solutions. Isn’t this a more constructive conversation?
You admit that corporations are always greedy, so how is out of the realm of possibility that an excuse like supply chain issues (which have since been resolved) would provide the perfect opportunity for these greedy corporations to jack up prices far beyond those underlying causes and get away with it?
The margin hasn’t changed much
So that means the corporations got the same % on their sales
What you thought would happen: thing X cost the corp $10 and they sold it for $15. When it costs $20 they sell it for $25
What actually happened: it cost $20 and they sold it for $30
That’s because investors hate it when the margin goes down
What’s the source of this graph?
So my point is instead of blaming greedy corporations, we just discussed possible causes and solutions. Isn’t this a more constructive conversation?
Corporations all raised prices at the same time. No competition to offset the greed. Normally that level of coordination is impossible among different companies, at least some would keep prices lower to retain customers.
Normally that level of coordination is impossible among different companies, at least some would keep prices lower to retain customers.
The biggest con in the world. You would think people are not capable of organizing for a common cause.
That level of coordination IS possible when all you need is a bunch of CXOs and investors in a union.
You think collusion to keep prices is not possible? Does that people people agreeing on a specific set of laws and policies living in a demarcated region (a country) is not possible?
About two years too late for me to accept apologies on post pandemic price gouging, already cancelled prime and use local groceries over corpo stores. In general they have better quality of selection and prices most of the time, plus it encourages me to explore more variety of small groceries from other cultures, farmers markets, etc.
Similar with fast food if you want to charge me 16 bucks for a meal I’m going to an actual restaurant instead
look at this fucker, with his local grocery stores. They’re all but extinct out here on the prairies
Yeah definitely a privilege of living in a pretty densely populated area with lots of options and even here some have closed, including some of the larger populations of Asian and middle eastern immigrants in the area running many of the smaller shops.
The chain stores are more than the co-op stores in my area too. And with summer coming farmers markets are definitely a better value AND quality option, too
Big-box stores lowering prices wasn’t an altruistic move to throw customers a bone during tough times. Retailers have suffered from weak sales due to customers’ struggle with high prices. Target reported a 3.1% drop in net sales from a year ago and a 3.7% quarterly dip in comparable sales, marking its fourth consecutive quarter of declines. Though Walmart has continued to soar, it owes much of its 6% revenue growth to its e-commerce successes and wealthy customer base, the latter of which makes up a growing chunk of its audience.
This trend has continued in fast food, with McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King all announcing meal deals following earnings reports that suggest customers are losing their taste for high-priced fast food, including $18 Big Mac meals and threats of surge pricing.
No one could have anticipated this outcome
You have to be wealthy to shop at Walmart now. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Though Walmart has continued to soar, it owes much of its 6% revenue growth to its e-commerce successes and wealthy customer base, the latter of which makes up a growing chunk of its audience.
wtf
You know shit is bad when you need to be making $80,000 a year to afford to shop at Walmart.
Whale economy as seen in f2p games.
Starve the community around you with higher prices, make all your money with the few who buy bottled mineral water for car wash.
And their efforts won’t likely be all that beneficial to people for some time, if at all… 🫤
“I promise I’m not gonna hit you baby if you come back, honest i won’t. You know i just get excited because i love you too much…”
Nah. I’ve already gotten used to not buying random crap anymore. I’d rather have the cash.
These are stores which also sell necessities, not just random crap. Based on the article, it sounds like mostly food is having its prices scaled back.
And they rely on selling both to be profitable. But now their customers are used to not buying the latter (random crap) so that they can afford the former. And the retailers are realizing they may not begin buying random crap again even when prices decrease, because life without the random crap isn’t much different.
I hear those big box stores will shut down immediately if someone, anyone, just scatters union pamphlets around the store.
Exactly. Local Walmart (Pico Rivera, ca) shut down for “plumbing” issues for 8 months when union activity started. The building was less than 10 years old
Isn’t price gouging illegal? 🧐
So is price fixing.
It wasn’t a mistake. Did they make money? … Checks notes … lots of it.
…i quit shopping brick-and-mortar after target routinely charged more in their stores than online + shipping…
They’ve even started getting worse with their apps. I got a notification recently that one of the apps (target) will have fluctuating prices. My understanding is it’s demand based increases. While walking around the store one time I looked at items in the app and most of them were higher than on the shelves.
They’ve spent years pushing people to get comfortable with app shopping and easy pickup… Now they’re going to squeeze every penny out of that crowd that they can.
I walked into a Whole Foods for the first time a little while back for an Amazon return, I saw the $9 gallon of milk and walked right out.
Hopefully the price slashing is significant.
Whole Foods has always been ridiculously overpriced though.
At my first job in 1988, milk was $4.10g. Just bought some for the first time in ages and it was $3.79g.
It comes with free bird flu particles now
That’s only in raw milk.
Pasteurized milk only kills/deactivates the virus. The fragments are still in it. Raw milk has free floaters
If it’s deactivated, then it’s just free protein.
Anyone noticed a pricing difference with “local” grocers? Obviously there aren’t many left and at least in my area they rely on a regional distributor that’s pretty consolidated. Just curious if they’ve been treating consumers any better.
The spouse does most of the shopping but I was in a Harps the other day and saw that a medium (shrinkflated) bag of Cheetos was $8.75 USD.
Harps isn’t super local but… Holy shit. Who can afford Cheetos at that price? I used to buy them as an occasional treat but fuck that noise.
EDIT: for fun I just searched Walmart and they’re $5.94 there. I’m still not spending that much for a garbage treat.
Don’t worry. They’ll be “marked down” to regular price (still overpriced) on the sell-by date so people think they’re getting a deal.
The local grocers that I shop at are all Asian, but aside from the big Japanese one, they are all far cheaper than the big stores, especially when it comes to meat and produce.
Interesting. All the local shops here are far and away more expensive than the chains. I want to shop local, but everything looks to be 20-30% higher. I can’t justify it.
Do you have any local shops that cater to an immigrant community, such as Asian, Hispanic, African…? These tend to be so much cheaper than what I think of as “white people grocery stores” (Safeway, Albertsons, Publix, whatever is in your region). They might not have everything you’re looking for, but they’re fantastic sources for fresh food.
P.S. To be clear, I don’t actually think that those big name stores cater exclusively to white people. I just go to a lot of Asian stores and I needed a way to easily communicate to my husband which kind of store I’m going to (he likes to ask for ice cream and frozen pizzas that they don’t have at the Asian stores), and that’s what evolved for us.
This pattern can sometimes be seen even in the same store when you look at things in other aisles vs the international aisle. Early in the pandemic, I was expecting food supply to get disrupted and decided to stock up on some spices while they were still available. A large bag of cumin (like 1kg) in the international aisle was about the same price as a 250g cumin package in the spice aisle, and both were cheaper than a plastic shaker filled with like 100g.
I’m not sure if that’s still the case though. I’m still going through that 1kg of cumin today, glad that I opted for the whole cumin seed instead of ground because the whole seeds last longer.
Was about to say this too! Seasoning in the “Hispanic foods” section is SO much cheaper.
I got a 6-pack of a Korean drink I enjoy called Milkis in an Asian grocery for about the same price as a 6-pack of Coke at a Kroger.
The imported Korean drink and the American drink are the same price except one’s in a local store.
Imported goods do often cost more, and Japanese and Korean products tend to cost more to begin with. I’ll bet that Asian grocery had good prices for vegetables.
If the old Asian man who either couldn’t speak English or could speak English but with an accent so heavy I didn’t understand him didn’t insist on proudly showing me random products (I can’t blame him, his store had just opened and he was happy to see customers), I’d tell you, but it didn’t exactly give me a chance to browse. Thankfully I happened to see the Milkis in the middle of it and grabbed them before he took me somewhere else so I could nod and smile some more.
Anyway, I’m definitely going back. Hopefully he’ll be showing someone else around and I’ll actually get a chance to browse.
He sounds delightful. Inconvenient to encounter, but delightful.
It was very sweet even if I couldn’t understand him. My daughter was not happy about it, which also made me need to leave sooner. Teenagers.
Not local, but I’ve been shopping at Lidl and Aldi for years and while their prices raised some with inflation, it was negligible compared to bigger grocery stores. I pay less than half at Lidl than I would at another store.
I’ve been seeing the horror stories of $9 milk for years but I’ve never paid more than $2-3 for. Gallon of milk.
Walmart is still cheaper then local basic stores like Price Chopper and Hy Vee
We’ve got a local grocer, their prices tend to be even higher - probably because they have no negotiating power when everyone else is jacking up prices
Hope Loblaws here in Canada follows suit
Just don’t shop there
Can’t drive due to tourette’s, only spot within walking distance
I hope they get nationalized.
It’s basic economics. As prices rise sales drop, you just need to adjust to find the point of maximum profit. Since market information isn’t perfectly known you’ll occasionally see overshoots like this.
Yes, but once you progress beyond demand elasticity and possibility frontiers, you learn about how externalities and marketing distort the tidy micro/macroeconomic theories.
“Perfect information” and “rational self interest” are the two biggest inbuilt crutches to economic theory, and capitalism evolves its profit-taking modalities daily. If marketing can convince consumers that an objectively inferior brand is equal or better to the competition, then the price inelasticity raises dramatically
Yep, been waiting to see this adjustment. Problem for them is they changed our habits with the high prices. That’s not easily undone with a price drop. People get a bad taste in their mouth, they don’t come back.
Yes, I gave up on eating in the last few years and now I’m used to it
Come now, be realistic. OP probably means switching to cannibalism.
Funnily enough I haven’t really used a big retailer in ages. I might hit Walmart on very niche items, though only if I’m not aware of a local alternative. Same for Amazon: Go on there, look for stuff, check who makes a thing, go to that website or spend a minute and scroll through Etsy. Amazon: The worldwide product distributor info marketplace.
