Tell me you dont understand business w/out tell me you dont understand business. For example: If a company wishes to maintain a 5% NET profit and the Cost of Goods, labor, ect .. continue to go up, do you expect: A) Net profits at a whole number to go up B) Net profits at a whole number to stay the same You obviously measure the profits by percent Year over Year, not 'ZOMG! rEcOrd BrEaKiNg PrOfItS'. You obviously understand this concept, but yet you can't resist copy and pasting fear monger Biden propaganda. I find it amusing how this same example is not brought up in the hospital systems and insurance companies even though there is continued consolidation. However the answer is simple - Inflation in the food service is extremely high and its better to blame it on corporations 'greed' than acknowledging we have a spending/inflation problem. Its only going to get worse once rate cuts start happening later this year.
Walmart is the biggest grocery chain in america and also has the cheapest prices. Do we need to breakup walmart to make it cheaper? Publix is the smallest regional chain in my area and their prices are much higher. MUCH higher. On par or higher than whole foods. I don't dare to set food in local chains that are not high quality.(again, most expensive in the industry) Data says the opposite of what you're implying on this topic. Volume drives down prices, not competition(again, related to this topic). Yet another one of those basic economic concepts that you should be well aware of.
Walmart also has a terrible track record in how they treat employees and in paying their employees. Walmart is the master of passing the cost of negative externalities onto other entities, like the tax payers. They actually encouraged their employees to get federal and state aid to supplement their paltry wages at the time. Walmart has successfully found ways to exploit legal loopholes and pass costs onto the tax payers.... and that should be stopped. Their healthcare plan is terrible and relies on government subsidies. Their customer service consistently is voted amongst the worst as well.
Dude Kroger execs literally said that mergering with albertson would drive up costs for consumers as they would have less choices but would mean greater profits for the corporations. This whole economics of scale is wishful thinking that just isn't true anymore. Read the FTC lawsuit against Kroger. They laid out very clearly why monopolizing would hurt consumers https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...ftc-challenges-krogers-acquisition-albertsons
Sounds like they should be taxed more instead of giving them yet another tax break, the only consistent policy from Republicans, no matter what the circumstances. When it comes to Bidenomics, it's simple -- growing from the middle out. Contrast that with doubling down on four decades of failed trickle-down economics policy. Trump would continue to give tax breaks to Walmart as they continue to see huge profits, while taxpayers would be burdened with subsidizing Walmart's workforce and a higher national debt.
You can do better than this. Walmart and Kroger pay roughly the same. I can't speak for benefits of either company, but the same problem arises in both instances.... its cheaper for employees to get healthcare in the marketplace than through the employer. I find this interesting because in the same breath, many here talk about how awesome the subsidies are for people and how it gives them health insurance. Now you're ONLY complaining about Walmart. What does customer service have to do with this topic? I am not trying to claim Walmart is the best thing ever. I am pointing out the obvious - volume matters and no amount of competition is going to lower prices if the competition can't get the same volume discounts. Feel free to check on the employee benefits and pay on the mom and pop shops. I am sure they are highly competitive.
It's pretty simple. Gov Debt = Gov revenue - Gov spending Tax breaks for Walmart = lower Gov revenue As an aside, Gov spending on Walmart's employees = higher Gov spending
lol. Again, Walmart is not responsible for our massive deficits. Its decades of uncheck spending by BOTH sides.
Do you not understand basic math? Or do we need to covert the equation for rubles for you to understand? The Trump tax cut bill that was passed into law by Republicans, and Trump over the 10 year period pulls 2 trillion dollars out of our revenue stream which adds to the national debt unless those tax breaks to Wal Mart or multi millionaires, or whomever benefited, are offset by spending cuts to essential areas of the government spending. The Republican Congress & Trump as President did not make cuts to the spending bills passed so therefore Trump added 2 trillion dollars to the national debt. Does that make sense comrade?
Here is a simple concept: A and B can be true at the same time. Here is a simple thought: Walmart isn't the only corporation in the US. Walmart isn't the only corporation in the US. The corporate income tax rate has gone down from a peak of 53% (1969) to 21% (2017 Trump's tax break lowering the rate from 35% to 21%). The trillion in lost revenue continues to add to our massive national debt. And as said before, corporations such as Walmart pushing their employees to rely on the US gov to subsidize their low wages while they rake in huge profits also continue to add to our massive national debt. Shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp.
Tell me you don't understand NET profits without telling me you don't understand NET profits. NET profits are after everything is paid. Let me give you a basic definition. "Your net profit measures the true profit remaining after you've subtracted all your operating expenses, taxes, interest and depreciation. Your net profit margin takes this figure and divides it by net revenue, to give a percentage" So to make record profit you have to either A. Significantly reduce costs. B. Sell much more product. C. Raise your profit margin. You surmised companies are maintaining a 5% NET profit margin year over year and making more money somehow. If your margin is at 5% YOY and you sell the same amount somehow your net profit is increasing in your world. That is asinine. If your price is 20 bucks per widget and your total costs are 15 bucks per widget and you sell 100 widgets this year your net profit is 500 bucks Next year you sell for 25 bucks and your total costs are 20 bucks and you sell a 100 widgets then you still made 500 bucks net profit. Even though your total revenue increased. The following year you sell for 30 bucks and your costs are 22 bucks. You still sell 100 widgets. Your net profit is 800 bucks. We are here. In fact it is even worse. The costs are even lower than the previous year but the price is increasing. So in this example it is more like your costs are 18 bucks and you are selling for 28 bucks for a net profit of 1000 bucks.
They don't just encourage their employees to get on government assistance. They hold sessions to show them how to do it.
I have made no statement about Kroger - good or bad. My statement was in regards to Wal Mart and their practices going back decades. Wal Mart has at various times had a large number of employees that were working their maximum hours and still we qualifying for state aid. That is simply not acceptable, and Wal Mart was aware of it - and actually encouraged their employees to get on aid paid for by the tax payers. My employers have all provided insurance, not through the taxpayer funded portal. Yet- the Wal Mart family is the richest family in the world. It is simply unacceptable, and it goes against the public interest. As for volume - yes, volume matters but it also allows large corporations to artificially change the playing field - for example, Wal Mart has so much market power that they can dictate what they pay, and more importantly what their competition pays - and they have been doing that for nearly 40 years. Wal Mart is not alone, but they are a big part of the problem in the USA in 2024, when it comes to income inequality, and a lack of "real cost" being considered.
Lol they hold sessions on helping the poor class on how to get affordable healthcare? How evil. But you're perfectly find with the Healthcare exchange spaming me endlessly just to remind me how much I overpay? I don't know much about the tax break nonsense, but the democrats hailed their great ACA, crowing on about boarding millions of low income people. It's not the companies responsibility to hold some moral high ground and offer its employees amazing health benefits when there is a whole group of people who want to nationalize health care. That was one of the great achievements... this was a backdoor to a government option. But big bad walmart helps, that is a big no no. Walmart never offered great benefits to its peasant workers anyways
Again, whats wrong with that? Walmart pays on par with industry. The only people making minimum wage at walmart are migrant workers or token jobs.
This is not quite right. The grocery market is segmented into the low cost stores (Walmart, HEB), the high quality stores (Central Market, Wegmans) and the middle ground. Walmart owns the low cost segment and is eating into the middle ground, putting pressure on Krogers and Albertsons. Their economic outlook is not good, since they are fighting each other for the shrinking middle ground. if Krogers and Albertsons do merge, there will be less competition in the middle ground but will only delay the inevitable of Walmart owning this segment as well. When Krogers+Albertsons raises prices, cost conscious shoppers will make switch to Walmart.
