#and the supermarket have increased their prices again

[hairtusk]

I'm one more minor inconvenience away from an actual, fully-fledged nervous breakdown

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for refusing to pay mere 15 bucks for a while?

I (34F) started working at a supermarket, everyone is friendly and nice there. This one woman (29F) in particular was very nice, shy and doesn't talk too much but I liked her so much and wanted to be friends. I approached her and we hung out everyday, and we even commute together because I don't drive. I assumed it should be free because it's not my car and i shouldn't be responsible for it but offered to pay a part of her gas bills anyway since it's a she was nice enough to match my schedule and sacrifice a part of her time to pick me up and drop me off, we agreed that she would only drive me if she was free so it wasn't a commitment, and i only needed her for evening shifts because my husband is available on morning shifts. Her only condition that I should never be late because she's always on time and I promised her that.

To thank her properly I even bought food for her everyday, the same sandwiches and cakes I like. I'm not sure if she like them too but I can guess because we seemed to have a similar taste in food. The first couple of days she accepted them with a simple thank you but she told me I shouldn't had to. By the third day she started to reject them insisting that I shouldn't have to, and that she brings her own lunch with her. I insisted on her to accept my gifts and she did reluctantly but told me to stop doing again, because it's my money and i should spend it on myself. I told her we are friends and what's mine belongs to her, and wondered if the food I pick didn't suit her taste so I asked her if she liked it or I should buy different things for her. She said she liked them actually she just didn't want me to spend my money needlessly. I continued buying her food everyday regardless. She stopped thanking me for my act of kindness and awkwardly accepting the food, and every single time she tells me I shouldn't do it again but I insist. This continued on for 2 weeks until she told me she wanted to diet, and I should stop buying her food and specially cake because she is trying to lose weight. I agreed but asked her about her diet so I know what to buy her, but she refused to tell me and I stopped buying food for her.

After a while I started commuting with her on morning shifts too because i can get home faster than with my husband but I noticed she wasn't always available because she make many plans after work. She just informs me she has plans but never tells me what they are, so I started to think she's lying and get sad about it. I never confront her because that's not my style so I just tell her it's fine then vent to my other friends about how she keeps ignoring me. That's not the only reason I think she's ignoring me mind you, she also sometimes doesn't hang out with me during breaks.

She found out what I told other friends and got mad at me insisting that I was lying, she said she was just busy sometimes and can't hang out all the time or that she didn't want to disturb me when I was hanging out with other friends, she also reminded me that she isn't obliged to drive me around all the time because that's not what we agreed on.

We had another fight for something irrelevant but we made up, however I felt that we were growing distant after that. She hanged out with me less and less, because I told her she didn't have to sacrificer her plans for my sake ever and that we I don't have to match our schedule anymore, but I still felt sad about it. I knew venting to my other friends would anger her so I kept my mouth shut this time, so she doesn't accuse me of lying again.

We still commute together specially in evenings shifts, but not too much in morning shifts because she keeps having plans. I don't complain about it even when my husband is unavailable.

I received a message saying she hesitated to tell me something but she had to increase the price for our commute if I still wanted to be with her, and the price she set was insane! 2.5 bucks for each ride meaning I had to pay 5 bucks everyday day! she said driving isn't just about gas and that gas is already expensive because her car isn't economy and specially because we live in a hot climate and we need the AC all the time. I didn't like it and tried arguing with her over it, but she didn't budge and I didn't want to lose our friendship over it and tried to forget about it and I actually did forget it so after a month she told me I had to pay 75 buck for the entire month and I got angry because it was too much. For reference this is not the US and 75 bucks is more than enough for gas, my husband's car needs 50 bucks monthly but her car probably needs about 100 bucks and i'm paying 75% of that! She reminded that it was the price she set and she calculated it carefully so she doesn't accidentally charge me for extra rides. For the next couple of month I only commuted with her when necessary and had to pay around 50 buck each month. Also because I pay her much more I thought I might as well get the most of these ride so I always did grocery shopping after work while she waited for me. It's just 15 minutes usually and she shops sometimes too so why can't I? I started doing grocery whenever I needed without asking for her permission even though she asks mine when needs to shop, but after all I'm the one who practically pays for our rides. She's using me for gas so I might as well use her, I felt I should have never suggested helping her with gas, I'd get free rides and these problems would never happen.

I always ask her how much I owe her immediately after getting our paychecks on the 27th, but I need a few days to prepare the cash so I don't pay until after a week usually. We had a fight because she claimed I was always "late" so I decided to finally stop commuting with her, I paid her the 40 bucks I owed her for that month after I stopped talking to her. It was the start of a new month I never rode with her or talked with her, yet when we got our paychecks she told me I owed her 15 buck! I called her out on her lies and told her to stop using me and stealing my money because I haven't commuted with her for the entire month, but she told me it was for the 28th, 29th and 1st day, three days after the paycheck so they would be paid the next month.

I did the math and realized she was not making it up, I didn't apologize for accusing her because I'm still right, she's very greedy for charging me that much. I didn't pay the 15 bucks because that's such an insignificant amount and it didn't matter. She sent an angry message the next month saying she wants her money and I was overstepping boundaries because "I'm getting too comfortable at her expense". I called her out for annoying me just for the sake of 15 bucks, I don't know why that's important to her. I told her I regret even suggesting to pay her, she blew up on me saying it was common sense to pay the driver and that I'm the one who assumed I was riding for free. She claimed she actually told me about the money beforehand but I embarrassed her by assuming she was giving me free rides, and that her embarrassment caused her to not charge me enough at first. I don't remember any of that, I know I have a week memory but I think she is making all that up to get my 15 bucks, so I refused to pay. I reminded her that I bought food for her everyday and she was so ungrateful for that, which proved I'm generous but she's greedy. I also told it's her fault she allowed and forced me to ride her car!

I blocked her number before she replied so I don't know how she responded to that but I decided to go to HR. Unfortunately HR said our commute is none of there business and my ex-friend had the right to charge me as much as she wanted to, and if I didn't agree to that price I shouldn't have rode in her car in the first place!

I paid the money after that, I even gave her 30 bucks because I'm generous and told her to stop bothering me. She refused to take them because I only owed her 15 bucks but I left before she could return the money. She's TA for charging me too much and being ungrateful but am I also?

What are these acronyms?

[submalevolentgrace]

The Retail and Fast Food Workers (RAFFWU) is coordinating this open letter calling for a consumer boycott of Coles and Woolworths this Christmas, December 2023.

We are calling for a consumer boycott of Coles and Woolworths throughout the week before Christmas. From 18 December 2023, anyone who can should do their shopping elsewhere.

During an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, these supermarket giants have increased their profits AND their profit margins. Coles posted a record annual profit of $1.1 billion dollars in 2023, and Woolworths posted an annual profit of $1.62 billion.  

Between them, Coles and Woolworths account for nearly 60% of the grocery sector in Australia. The power they wield over farmers, grocery manufacturers and shoppers is enormous. Shopping at Coles or Woolies is often the only option for people living outside city centres. 

The supermarket duopoly expects to make even bigger profits at Christmas time. But their own workers can’t afford to shop at these stores. Workers at Coles and Woolies are taking strike action again in the week before Christmas.

edited to put the vital info uptop, read the full letter and sign support at the link

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Thu morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

A good Chol HaMoed! Moadim l’Simcha!

🔘 SUMMARY TODAY 🔘

⚠️ HEATWAVE.. VERY HOT.  Don’t leave children in the car!  Check on elderly!  Beware heat stroke!

Israel is suffering a desert heatwave, temperatures very hot, very dry - and beaches, parks and the Kinneret are PACKED.  The temperatures should drop to normal spring temps tomorrow with a cooling trend late next week and even possible light rain.

🔘 LEBANON -  The ‘tit-for-tat’ pace of attacks has increased, again, with Israel striking more often, larger hits, more locations, and deep into Lebanon at Hezbollah sites.  Hezbollah has been firing larger rocket barrages, sending more drones, more anti-tank missiles, and is threatening to increase strikes to target northern Israeli cities.  How long can this go on before it goes too far?  Unknown.

🔘 GAZA -  Remember the food crisis and the demand for 500 trucks a day?  At 400 trucks a day Gaza is so awash in FREE FOOD that Gazans are throwing away the airdropped military meals, and vendors are selling (received free) products for 1/4 the price they would be found in Israeli supermarkets.  The major product in demand: cigarettes.

In a “LIE OF THE DAY” moment, in January Hamas put out videos of them digging graves in the Nasser and Shifa hospital parking lots.  In the past week videos when out of “OMG WE FOUND A MASS GRAVE IN THE HOSPITAL PARKING LOT - WHAT HAVE THE ISRAELIS DONE?”.  Of course UN horrified, investigation demanded, etc.  Complicating it, Israel did dig up the graves sites to check if any of the bodies were Israeli hostages, and then put them back after determining they were not.  Here’s a link from Al Jazeera of Hamas creating the “mass grave” that was just found -> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/14/gazas-al-shifa-hospital-forced-to-bury-dead-patients-in-mass-grave

🔘 HAMAS -  Video of leader Sinwar touring above ground debunked, it’s from 2017.  Suddenly their political types are talking about flexibility and deal possibilities, after rejecting ridiculously generous terms from Israel.  They’re feeling some political pressure.

🔘 RAFAH -  It appears Israel is lined up and ready militarily to attack Gaza’s last city and Hamas stronghold Rafah.  What’s the hold up?  We hear of consultations with the U.S. and meetings in Egypt.

🔘 JUDEA-SAMARIA -  Daily attacks at security checkpoints and Jewish town fences and gates.  Conversely, the IDF is doing daily incursions into the larger Arab cities, battles with local terror groups and arrests in Jenin, Shechem, Tubas, Qalqilya, Jericho, Hebron among others.  The enhanced containment strategy is not enough, and the commanding general has quit.

🔘 PROTESTS & POLITICS -  A solid coalition of distraught hostage families and anti-government-coalition protestors has formed, with weekly sizable protests in Tel Aviv and occasional smaller semi-violent protests in Jerusalem.  The protest coalition doesn’t seem to be growing, but it does seem to be becoming more aggressive as they continue to have no effective impact - though some say they are directly having counter-productive impact as videos of the protests are used in Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian videos to “show Israel falling apart under the onslaught of the axis of resistance”.  

For the most part these protests have been given wide latitude, particularly with the involvement of hostage families.  But as they are becoming more aggressive, the police have been in response.

The war coalition - the active government, remains remarkably stable and quiet in public for Israeli politicians.  There is a lot of public speculation and polls around future elections, parties and politicians.  All is speculation until the war and results settle.

[mariacallous]

THROWING KYIV UNDER THE TRACTOR: In a major cave-in to Europe’s farming lobby, EU countries overnight agreed to impose restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural sales, dealing a significant blow to its exports.

Less revenue for Kyiv: This retreat ahead of this week’s EU leaders’ summit (for which farmers are descending on Brussels again) paves the way for a deal with the European Parliament today to partly roll back Kyiv’s trade benefits, officials and diplomats told Playbook. That’s expected to result in a revenue loss of more than €1 billion a year for the war-struck country.

Masks off: At last night’s meeting of the 27 government envoys, France came out in support of Poland, asking for a limit on imports of Ukrainian poultry, eggs, sugar and wheat, according to two people briefed on the discussion.

Strategic yogurt, revisited: Just as Macron stressed France’s no-holds-barred support for Ukraine, the pitchfork-wielding farmers have blown a hole into his “whatever it takes” soufflé.

Signal to Russia: Vladimir Putin can rely on European agri-food groups to do his lobbying for him. Russia’s full supermarket shelves — heaving with EU products — have been one of the regime’s go-to arguments to show Russia is winning the war.

Contradictory policy: This isn’t the first time the EU bowed to its agri sector when it comes to Russia’s war on Ukraine. While Russian-flagged ships are banned from EU ports, there’s an exemption for those carrying Russian fertilizers and pesticides. In previous decisions, the EU also rolled back asset freezes against Russian oligarchs involved in the agri-food trade.

The argument, back then, was that tougher restrictions on Russian fertilizers would lead to higher food prices in Europe. But that’s exactly what restrictions on imports from Ukraine will also do.

HAPPENING TODAY: The Belgian Council presidency and MEPs will meet this evening for negotiations on the new restrictions. Parliament has also asked for a lower ceiling at which the restrictions will kick in, as my colleagues Camille Gijs and Bartosz Brzeziński report in this must-read.

WINNERS AND LOSERS: Take a moment to appreciate the farming lobby’s political feat. Sky-high energy prices, a narrowly averted winter heating crisis, an influx of millions of refugees and Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling didn’t undermine EU will to support Ukraine — but farmers successfully convinced leaders to U-turn on policies aimed at supporting Kyiv’s income.

Winners: EU agricultural groups, who get to have their cake and eat it. After a host of measures meant to lower their production costs (such as derogations from environmental rules and the reintroduction of fossil fuel subsidies), they will now get measures to shield them from competition and increase their sales prices.

Also a winner: Russia. Today’s decision doesn’t just mean a revenue loss for Ukraine; it proves that EU leaders’ support for Ukraine caves under interest group pressure.

Losers: Ukrainian farmers, who look set to forgo some €1.2 billion a year in sales to the EU. And European consumers, who will get even less supply and choice, which could again drive up food price inflation.

BLAME IT ON THE ELECTION YEAR: Asked why they caved in, senior officials blamed their leaders’ fear that the farmers’ protests could fuel new populist parties, such as the BBB in the Netherlands.

But there are other ways to placate them: As some EU officials stressed, countries could help the majority of farmers simply by distributing subsidies more fairly. Some 80 percent of the EU’s direct farm subsidies go to the 20 percent biggest farms, according to the Commission.

[msfbgraves]

Is it me or is the enshittification machine working very fast these days? You used to get years out of a service before they fucked it up too much to be of use to anyone but the shareholders. Now, they barely can build alternative services fast enough before big money comes in and renders any service or product functionally unusable. I'm feeling myself move further and further away from mainstream anything purely because I'm a snob that likes things to be, well, not utter crap. And increasingly, that means you have to make and own everything yourself again, or at least be part of the avant garde of whatever interests you, before the mainstream invariably fucks it up. I had not the slighest interest in learning how to program a computer but I'll have to know, now, to get all the crapware off my pc. I pirate because my smart tv will no longer update. I lament my non existent fine motor skills more and more each day because I cannot fix terribly made clothes. I ditch subscriptions because they only get more expensive and worse over time. I pay for upgrades on public transport because the economy version has become functionally unusable with my level of disability - and I have not declined as hard as their level of service.

I went to an amusement park I've been to since I was a toddler and got sensory overload, not because any of the rides - they were virtually unchanged - because on every corner, some stall was blaring at me to buy an overpriced trinket. Again, the things in there built to provide you with amusement had not increased. There were no more places to catch your breath.

I mean, I am "voting with my feet", I already am refusing to pay for bad quality but there are no socially approved alternatives.

And sure, that leads to some original experiences. But most of the time it has meant going backwards, using older things that were made to last, or simply refusing to opt in to new technology and I feel that this is the best way of going completely out of touch. The only thing that consoles me about that is that people who work in cybersecurity are completely offline in their own homes. So here I am using pirating and paywall hacks and cooking from scratch and making my own bath oil and taking my nieces to the beach without music because I can't stand the noise and thrift shopping and reviving ten year old machines and finding trials for Spotify to get out of the frickin price hikes and paying for organic food because that is the only way to get some actual nutrition out of supermarket food and somehow failing to see this all as progress.

And now we even have to keep the Republicans out of Ao3. All the while knowing I fed that AI beast.

I'm not even outraged, just annoyed. It's so much effort that somehow wasn't in 2012. I can't think of a single thing that we have now and didn't have then that I couldn't do without gladly - except some music and movies, and using your creditcard to get into the bus.

[prettylonelys]

Ok I hope you are ready for this mammoth. I am going to start off by telling you some cafes to visit. Eckers in Frogner is a really pretty and does nice coffee and food. Pust, which is just across the road from Majorstuen station is another cafe with a very cool atmsophere. As I have already said before if you are looking for a chain coffee shop I would pick Kaffebrenneriet. My favorite is the one by Nationaltheatre but you will probably want to go to the one from Skam which is on Skovveien. They do the best reasonably priced coffee and you must try the pastries. It is good to know you are staying in Gamle because then I will recommend a tiny brunch place called Kumi. It has the most beautiful interior and vegetarian food but I warn you it is on the pricier side. You absolutley must go to Hotel Bristol to get hot chocolate. Inside is absolutely breathtaking and has major dark academia vibes. This is quite popular so I would recommend booking a table in advance on their website. Do not let them fool you into getting two pots of hot chocolate, one is enough for two people to have two cups each. For places to eat, I would first recommend a burrito bar called Freddy Fuego. They have a vegetarian option and lots of options which are all delicious and not badly priced. For pizza go to Villa Paradiso, there are a few of these over the city. If you want a more general Italian restaurant I would try Olivia by the fjord. Great food but more expensive. If you like Japanese food I can tell you about a tiny, tucked away restaurant called Izakaya on Olavs Plass. If you just want to buy snacks or something to cook at your airbnb I can tell you again the cheapest supermarket by far is Kiwi. Now for the thrift shops! Oslo has some amazing thrift stores and Grünnerløkka is the place you want to be. You absoltuely have to go to Robot! This is the coolest thrift shop of all in my opinion. Lots of good finds and a huge shelf of second hand sunglasses. There's also Velouria and Good Vibes Vintage. UFF is worth a look in Løkka but they have a much bigger, I think better store across the city in Prinsens Gate you should check out. The best budget friendly thrift store is Fretex. They are linked with the Salvation Army and you can get items as low as 50nok, which I looked up is about the equivilant of 7 aussie dollars. Next I've got a list of other things nice things you might like to do if you have the time. I saw you like art from your blog so I thought I'd recommend you some galleries. I mentioned before the National Gallery and Museum are free on Thursdays and the Munch Museum is free on Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm. Astrup Fearnley is the only one without a free day. But I also have some smaller, lesser known galleries for you. It is worth checking out whether Peder Lund, Galleri Riis or Galleri Golsa have any exhibitons on while you are there. They are all free and very small, only a few rooms each. Galleri Golsa seems confusing to find but it is opposite a gym carpark and the door is heavy to open but I promise you're in the right place. They are well worth visitng. I would also recommend visiting a huge lake outside the city called Songsvaan. I know it looks far on a map but it only takes 20 minutes on one line and is still within your zone 1 ticket. There is something so magical about walking round the lake on a winter evening with it frozen over and snow covering the trees. They even have a little cafe. You will notice the increase in cold so you definitely want to your wool innersoles and tights under trousers here, I would recommend that if you venture out of the city anywhere or when it gets dark. If you like hiking and it's not too icy walk up Grefsenkollen and you will get a view over the entire city. In my opinion this is better than the view from Holmenkollen. Since you are staying in Gamle I will also recommend visiting Ekerberg woods which is a ten minute tram ride away and has a scultpure park and also the Botanisk Hage at Tøyen. It is small but pretty inside and guaranteed to be warm. I hope this is a help to you!

oh my god thank you so much, i know this must have taken a lot of time and effort to put together so i hope you know i really appreciate it!!!! these all sound wonderful i am about to start making notes literally right after i finish typing this xx

[beardedmrbean]

Finland's birth slump is in the news again. This time Helsingin Sanomat asks what concrete steps the country can take to increase the fertility rate.

Anna Rotkirch, who heads population research at the Family Federation of Finland, told HS one real measure would be free gynecological visits for young women, saying it's "better to learn about one's own fertility sooner rather than later."

A fresh survey by the federation found that people in Finland on average want to have two children, but end up having 1.4.

Esa Iivonen of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare meanwhile said improved access to publicly funded fertility treatments would be a quick and direct way of supporting the birth rate. One cycle of fertility treatments can cost over 4,000 euros in private healthcare.

Some rural municipalities have made headlines in recent years by providing baby bonuses to families. But Iivonen was not impressed by these short-term measures.

"It might have a short-term effect, but I don't believe it has a long-term impact," he said, noting public services overall play a greater role in people's decision to start families.

Is Lidl the cheapest?

Last week German supermarket Lidl said it was lowering the prices of its items. But is Lidl really cheaper than the others?

Hufvudstadsbladet tested Lidl's claims by comparing a basket of 21 basic items at Lidl, K and S stores.

The result is clear, according to the Swedish-language daily.

Lidl's slogan that the chain offers the country's cheapest shopping basket seems to hold true. But the differences aren't significant, according to HBL, which noted that since inflation picked up in the autumn of 2021, food prices in Finland have risen by over 20 percent.

At Lidl on Lönnrotinkatu, the paper's basket cost 42.16 euros. Equivalent items were about 12 percent more expensive at both the S-Market on Bulevardi and K-Supermarket Posti by the Central railway Station. The price difference between the K and S duopolies was only a few cents.

Lidl's own-brand coffee significantly brought down the overall price of the shopping basket, according to HBL.

Autumn's in the air

It may be peak vacation season in other European countries, but in Finland autumn is the air, according to agricultural newspaper Maaseudun tulevaisuus.

The warm and sunny weekend is giving way to more unsettled and cooler weather, MT said, adding that it's unlikely that temperatures will again exceed Finland's 'heat' threshold of 25 degrees Celsius.

Monday will see rain, according to MT, which said western parts of the country are seeing scattered showers as the weather front moves eastward throughout the day.

[msclaritea]

London — "An estimated half a million workers across multiple sectors in the U.K. went on strike Wednesday in the biggest industrial action Great Britain has seen in more than a decade. The strikers included teachers, civil servants, train and bus drivers, border officials and university staff demanding better pay and working conditions amid soaring inflation and energy prices — difficult circumstances that an IMF forecast suggests may have been exacerbated by Brexit.

"The government have been running down our education (system), underfunding our schools and underpaying the people who work in them," the National Education Union's joint general secretary, Kevin Courtney, said, according to The Associated Press. 

About 85% of schools across the country were either fully or partially closed due to the strikes on Wednesday, according to BBC News, leaving thousands of parents to either change their own work schedules or seek child care options.

"Primary schools where you can't find special needs assistants because they're taking jobs in supermarkets, where they are paid better — that's what's making people take action," said Courtney.

Wide-scale strikes have been held across the U.K. for months, grinding public services to a halt and disrupting hospital and emergency care, among other things. While nurses and ambulance workers weren't striking again Wednesday, they do plan to return to picket lines in the coming days.

Inflation in the U.K. has soared over the last year to the highest rates seen in 40 years, and it still stood Wednesday at 10.5%. 

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said the U.K. would be the only major economy to contract this year, performing worse even than Russia, which is still under heavy international sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. 

In October, the IMF forecast that Britain could expect modest growth in 2023, along with other European nations emerging from the coronavirus pandemic and adjusting to energy markets largely devoid of Russian fuel. But its new forecast this week sees the British economy shrinking by 0.6%.

The IMF did not link its prediction to the U.K.'s exit from the European Union three years ago, but Britain's trade has shrunk as a result, and many workers from the EU have left the U.K. since Brexit, causing a labor shortage that other European countries haven't had to contend with.

Many public sector workers say that their salaries have decreased in real terms over the last decade, and the soaring inflation has pushed them into financial difficulty, with some forced to use food banks.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has so far taken a hard line against the strikes, insisting that some of the pay increases being demanded by public sector workers are not affordable for the government. Union leaders say the government has refused to offer anything that would be meaningful enough to call off the strikes.

"Our children's education is precious, and they deserve to be in school today," Sunak said.

The leader of a national federation of trade unions, Paul Nowak, said the strikes would not stop unless meaningful change was achieved.

"The message to the government is that this is not going to go away. These problems won't magically disappear," he said, according to The Associated Press."

I'm so proud of England for doing this. We could have done this long ago but America is still being inundated with divisive tactics to keep people from joining together to fight.

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Inflation Facts

Inflation is caused by rising prices. Remember that when you are looking for who to blame for the higher prices you are paying and rising interest rates on borrowings. In Australia, we have this strange proclivity for blaming the government or just about anybody else than those who are actually increasing their prices. The media engages in this misdirected blame game with increasing regularity. Corporate Australia has been pushing up their prices and recording record profits for their investors. The RBA rarely queries businesses putting up their prices but will frequently warn off any demands for higher wages. Even though it is wage earners who are suffering most from the high cost of living and reduced buying power of their incomes. Bankers like to stick fat with the big end of town, as these are their clients. Inflation facts often get lost in the emotive discussions about who is to blame and what can be done about it. “What is inflation? Inflation is an increase in the level of prices of the goods and services that households typically buy. A powerful lesson from history is that low and stable inflation is a prerequisite for a strong economy and sustained full employment and growth in real wages.” - (https://www.rba.gov.au/inflation-overview.html) The RBA defines full employment at an unemployment rate of 4.5%, which translates into 500, 000 unemployed Australians. Photo by Binyamin Mellish on Pexels.com

Rising Prices, Rents & Property Values

House prices continue to increase around Australia despite the RBA’s best efforts to dampen the economy and spending. Rising property prices are inflationary but because we do not count these figures in the official inflationary indicators we do not talk about this. We do include rising rents, however, and these have been going through the roof for several years now. Rent increases are one of the main causes of stubbornly persistent higher inflation in the Australian economy. Rising insurance premiums is another driver of sticky inflation right now. Telstra is increasing all its mobile phone and data charges this month too, which will contribute to inflation sticking around for longer. In Australia, shareholders are king and consumers are second class concerns for corporate Australia. The duopolies across almost every sector means that competition is at an all time low, which translates into an absence of consumer power in the capitalist equation. A Real Lack Of Competition In Australian Markets The failures of the ACCC to maintain a competitive market for consumers is a government responsibility. Federal governments of both political parties have failed consumers on this score again and again. They listen to their friends and donors in business over and above the majority of Australians. This is an example of a minority manipulating our democratic system for their own benefit. Corporate lobbyists for banks, miners, airlines, supermarkets, multinationals, and media interests pay for the privilege of being heard at the expense of ordinary Australians. Legislation is drafted in consultation with stake holders and tends to favour them over any meaningful change for the consumer. Money laundering via the property market continues unabated because of the interests of Australian middlemen, lawyers, accountants, and real estate agents and their lucrative cuts from dark money. This pushes up the prices of the property market, especially at the top end but, also, filters into the overall market. We have been waiting for 17 years for federal governments to do something about this money laundering from despots, organised crime, drug dealers and other nefarious folk. Scumbag professional facilitators enable bad people to enter Australia and invest their ill gotten gains here. Why haven’t governments found the gumption to do something about this? Vested interests and influence peddled by those benefitting from this continue to allow this corruption to flourish in Australia. Photo by David Peterson on Pexels.com

Why Are Many Businesses Failing?

Lots of businesses are going to the wall at the moment. Why is this happening? The current economy sets them up to fail. Lots of Australians started small businesses over the last two decades encouraged by record low interest rates and the banks consequent open lending behaviours. Combine this with an ever shrinking local manufacturing base which has meant fewer well paying jobs. However, when the economy turns, as it did in response to high inflation only the bigger players can survive the tightening of the screws. Australia has become the land of duopolies where competition is rarer than life on Mars. The failure of governments to oversee markets via the ACCC and protect competition within sectors has left us with Coles and Woolworths, the big four banks, Qantas and Virgin, News Corp and Nine Fairfax, Telstra and Optus, the insurance business controlled by a couple of big concerns, and just about every sector bristling with two or three dominant corporate entities to the detriment of consumers. Now, it is too expensive to run a business downunder with the RBA dampening demand and economic growth stagnant. Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS by U.S. Forest Service (source) is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0 LNP Policies An Ode To America The cyclical nature of our economy and the piss weak efforts of governments to regulate it means unless you are onboard the blue chip buses you are going nowhere. The wealth divide between rich and poor has grown dramatically over the last decade. Those home owners who have paid off their mortgages are sitting pretty whilst the young and those that missed the boat are stuffed, economically speaking. Australia is now a country too expensive to live in for many. A nation of winners and losers, this is the result of Coalition governments borrowing economic policies and ideas from the Americans. America is a land of extremes fostered by ideologies that make it this way. A country full of guns, around 600 million, despite children being mass murdered every week by deranged gunmen. A nation without universal healthcare and where private equity firms squeeze every last dollar of profit out of hospitals and pharmaceutical companies make billion dollar profits from the misery of Americans. A racist land where whites and blacks attend segregated schools in the shadow of centuries of slavery. Australia like the US has saddled our youth with huge debts from higher education. Meanwhile TAFE in Oz is fee free, what kind of parity is this? The Liberals loaded up these higher education debts with CPI indexing ensuring these mill stones will be a much heavier financial burden during cost of living crises. Robodebt was the LNP federal government’s billion dollar betrayal of 500, 000 ordinary Australians. It cost lives and tax payers nearly a billion dollars for this massive fuck up. It was an illegal, ideologically motivated attack on the most vulnerable Australians – those receiving welfare for their economic hardship. It played to a familiar right wing tune, once again inspired by America, wealth is good, being poor is a personal failure. Therefore, those receiving welfare must be bad people and deserving of a good financial kicking. Demonising them as dole bludgers ripping off good hard working folk. This was proven to be false and way wide of the mark. PwC, the giant consulting firm, was paid many millions of dollars to provide the framework for Robodebt in a couple of reviews. Scott Morrison, Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge, and Marise Payne were all directly involved in the design and running of Robodebt. This scheme wrongly and illegally, via an algorithm matching tax records with Centrelink records, informed half a million Australians that they owed large amounts of money to Centrelink – the government welfare agency. It was a massive cockup and a betrayal of the trust that citizens place in their government and bureaucracy. Still, no senior public servant or politician has been prosecuted for this. You can get away with murder in the white collar world of government in Australia – it happens again and again. Inflation & Privatisation Inflation facts must be seen in the context of the times in which they happen. Authoritarian conservative governments betraying the people. Big business squeezing every last dollar from the user pay’s model. Corporations raising their prices in profit gouging mode. A central bank in bed with the big end of town. Politicians bought and paid for via campaign donations from miners, fossil fuel interests, banks, supermarket chains, and the rest of the usual suspects. To echo Michael West, where are the studies into Australia’s neoliberal economic decades of the last 40 years? Why don’t we have any academic reviews into the privatisation and corporatisation of our public sectors and how successful or not they have been? Michael West lays the blame at the feet of the corporatisation of our university sector which is forced to finance itself from fee paying overseas students and from sponsorship from big business. Public utilities were sold off to private concerns and how has that gone for consumers, for the Australian people? Energy companies, retailers and the bills we pay for electricity and gas, have they delivered the cheaper prices we were promised? No, is the answer. Jobs were lost and a few wealthy people have made billions. This is the familiar story, which has run through the majority of privatisations in Australia. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump. Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com ©MidasWord Read the full article

[the-nightpig]

The Evils of Mass Tourism

Global tourism is booming. For decades all the countries of the world have tried to increase tourism, which has become a major source of revenue. There have been timid protests against mass tourism. There should be more.

The obvious benefit of mass tourism is that the local people experience an economic boom. But mass tourism has many negative consequences. First and foremost, it has caused the disappearance of the authentic local store, replaced by endless rows of souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels. All the convenience stores have become souvenir stores, and neighborhood supermarkets too. And many have become restaurants, because tourists are more likely to get food at a table than at a grocery store and the profit of serving a pasta dish is much higher than the profit of selling a bag of pasta. You make more money with a restaurant than selling shoes or light bulbs. In touristy places it has become more and more difficult to simply buy bread and cheese for a picnic. It is more profitable to have a deli that packs bad sandwiches than to have a grocery store that sells bread and cheese. It is more profitable to have a cafe that serves silly expensive drinks than to have a convenience store that sells water bottles.

At the same time, the quality of food has greatly decreased: if you are in a touristy location, you can open any restaurant and serve any food and you'll have a full house just because of the law of great numbers. No matter how many people will be disappointed by the quality of your food (and by the exorbitant price), there will still be enough customers to guarantee a hefty profit.

The museum used to be a place to educate the people. Now it is a business; a tourist attraction. The price of the ticket depends on how much tourists are willing to pay, not on what makes sense in the community. It is also becoming difficult to appreciate the monuments (and the museums) of the world when dozens of selfie-taking tourists constantly block your view.

In many places the tourists are richer than the locals, which causes local inflation. Increasingly, local people cannot afford to visit their own museums because of the skyrocketing prices. Then, again, locals are steadily leaving the tourist places because their homes and shops are acquired by investors who turn them into souvenir shops. This also leads to inflation in real estate. Affordable real estate disappears when tourists are willing to pay two or three times more than locals can afford. Nurses, doctors, teachers, chefs, waiters, cops, janitors, and so on can hardly live in towns that have become tourist destinations: 365 tourists can each pay a lot of money to stay one night in a town but the local mailman cannot afford to pay that sum for 365 days. The mailman is de facto being evicted by a crowd of tourists, the opposite of crowdfunding. Furthermore, home owners have little appetite for long-term frugal tenants when they can rent to extravagant spendthrift tourists.

Clearly mass tourism radically changes the economy: in some places and in some seasons, tourism accounts for 50% of GDP and 50% of jobs. Then there's the sheer congestion of places like Venezia. Downtown touristy locations have become unlivable for locals. You'll experience the congestion only for the two or three days that you spend in Venezia, but Venetians experience it every single day.

The worst part perhaps is that all places start looking the same. The word stamped on the hat or on the T-shirt may be different, but all those hats and T-shirts look the same in every "tourist trap" of the world. In many towns those baseball hats never existed before the invention of mass tourism, so those hats are as "typical" as a MacDonald's hamburger. What changes between one town and another one is only the theme of the souvenirs. Tourist destinations are becoming theme parks.

Cruise ships and large tourist buses are the main offenders. They dump tourists who are mostly interested in a quick selfie and souvenir shopping. These tourists will have zero contact with the local lifestyle and culture.

Incidentally, airplanes are causing 3% to 4% of the world's greenhouse emissions. All those cheap airlines that have fueled mass tourism are also fueling climate change.

The good news is that mass tourism is booming because many more people around the world, including the burgeoning affluent middle classes of countries like China and India, have the money to fly internationally and stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. The bad news is what these tourists leave behind when they return home: cultural devastation.

The way cities are responding to the problems of mass tourism is often the very wrong one. For example, it is tempting to raise prices so that only “high value tourists" will come. This way you greatly reduce the number of tourists while the revenue remains the same (because each tourist pays a lot more). This strategy will penalize millions of ordinary families who will no longer to able to admire some of the world's greatest monuments. This is de facto already happening everywhere: ticket prices for major monuments keep skyrocketing, from Angkor to Petra. The ticket for Machu Picchu now costs $57 which is the equivalent of two days of full-time work for the average Peruvian

TM, ®, Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

[bethestaryouareradio]

Cherry Picking

Life is just a bowl of cherries. So live and laugh at it all.” Lyrics by Lew Brown, Sung by Rudy Vallée, 1931

The birds are flocking to the two trees. Every day I watch them devour my precious, unripe fruit, as I impatiently wait for the sunshine to turn the orbs into deep reds and purple. Finally, I can’t take it anymore. I grab my pruning shears and put on my boots, taking a colander.

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To the orchard I tramp eager to pick as many cherries as possible before all are eaten by my feathered friends. The Queen Anne’s are almost ripe, but the Bings are still small. Nevertheless, I fill my colander to the brim

.

Because of a miniscule harvest last summer, I cut back my trees by a third. This June, my efforts were rewarded with a bounty of sweet cherries, even enough to share with the flying acrobats. Most people are familiar with Bing cherries sold in supermarkets. The deep red-purple black colored Bings are firm, juicy, and known for their rich sweet taste with a hint of tartness. Compared to the Bings, the mild, honeyed flavored, and lesser-known Queen Anne varieties are crunchier, marbled with bright red and yellow hues. Like the birds, I gobble them fresh from the branch. When I was a kid, our family always worked on neighboring farms picking cherries, which usually ripened in late May. The pay was minimal, but the perks included opportunities to eat these delectable fruits as we filled the buckets for sale. One year my siblings and I competed for who could pick the most cherries in the fashion of “one in my mouth, one in the bucket.” Becoming painfully sick, we all paid the price of our childishness. For years, none of us could tolerate the sight of a single cherry.

As adults, we laugh at our bowl of cherries mishap. We are again enamored of this luscious crop and enjoy it in salads, pies, and jams, eating in moderation. The birds have been dropping the pits throughout my garden where small cherry trees are sprouting.

Because of our mild winters and hot summers, we can expect a wide range of blooms this summer. Stunning clematis experiences its second seasonal display, climbing and covering a pipe. Like most plants, clematis prefers well-drained soil filled with rich organic matter. Once clematis is established, it is relatively low maintenance, requiring minimal water, occasional fertilizer, and pruning to promote healthy growth and abundant flowering, attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Roses bloom profusely in my garden adding beauty and perfume, while the common corn-flags add spires of fuchsia pink torches. My perennial, spicy-scented Asiatic lilies attract pollinators with captivating fragrances amidst big, bold blooms. Although these lilies make gorgeous bouquets, as the splendid stars of my garden, I am loathe to cut any!

The fern-like foliage of yarrow adds visual interest while improving drainage with its deep roots that assist in breaking up compacted clay. The leaves accumulate nutrients making yarrow an excellent compost companion. By attracting pollinators and ladybugs, yarrow increases biodiversity, promoting a healthier ecosystem. As a medicinal plant with compounds containing anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and analgesic properties, yarrow has for centuries been used to treat wounds, alleviate symptoms of colds and fevers, and reduce the pain of insect bites.

The edible flowers and leaves of nasturtium add a peppery punch to salads, sandwiches, and sides. These “Nonna” plants, as I call them because they grew in my grandmother’s gardens, are easily grown from seed. Their dense flowers and foliage can cascade over walls, fences, and raised beds, or create a living mulch as a ground cover to suppress weeds. Nasturtiums attract beneficial insects that control unwanted pests including aphids, whiteflies, and squash bugs.

To bring vibrant color to your patio or porch, plant a container of bright red geraniums. Geraniums will grow in full sun or partial shade, easily root from cuttings, and require very minimal care. Prune back spent flowers or leggy stems to encourage bushier blooms that will continue through the fall. Geraniums are the no-fail June boon.

Are you finding a plethora of spider webs in your landscape? Congratulations! Gardens that avoid chemical pesticides tend to have a higher spider population. As a natural pest control, spiders help to maintain a balance between predator and prey species. Although it is unnerving to run head-first into a nearly invisible web, I welcome these hunters of mosquitoes, flies, aphids, beetles, and more.

Despite the prevalent trend to rip out lawns to minimize water usage in fire-prone areas, having a well-maintained, cut to three inches or less green grass area adds a defensible space to homes, reducing the risk of ignition and spread of a wildfire. Although no landscaping choice is fire-proof, a healthy, mowed, and watered lawn, may reduce the amount of combustible material available to fuel a fire. Lawns are visually appealing and offer a restful environment providing a refreshing respite to our eyes from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Whether in a park or a small backyard, a lawn soothes the senses and invites people to play. Cartwheels, croquet, picnics, and stargazing connect us to the natural elements.

Sitting on green grass is the perfect place to eat a bowl full of cherries. So live and laugh at it all.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. Happy June Boon!

 Read Lamorinda Weekly: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1809/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-June-Boon.htm

For more gardening advice for all seasons, check out Growing with the Goddess Gardenerat https://www.CynthiaBrian.com/books. Raised in the vineyards of Napa County, Cynthia Brian is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3 which was just honored as the 2024 Nonprofit of the Year by the Moraga Chamber of Commerce. Tune into Cynthia’s StarStyle® Radio Broadcast at www.StarStyleRadio.com. Her newest children’s picture book, Books in the Barnyard: Oh Deer! from the series, Stella Bella’s Barnyard Adventures is available for discounted pre-sales at https://www.CynthiaBrian.com/online-store. Hire Cynthia for writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com  

Thank you for reading StarStyle® Empowerment . This post is public so feel free to share it.

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[nickgerlich]

The Price Is Right

Once upon a time, grocery stores paid employees to either apply price stickers to each can, bottle, and box, or use a handy little tool to stamp the price on the package. It took a lot of time, but since cashiers had no way of knowing prices—short of memorizing them—it had to be done. Things got complicated when prices rose, because then new numbers had to be affixed to packaging, sometimes with a higher-priced label stuck right on top of the previous.

Bar code scanners changed all that in 1974, allowing supermarkets to use shelf labels to announce the price, and the cashier to simply scan the items at check-out. It worked, and still does, as long as the item has been entered into the store’s inventory system. When prices changed, it meant having to update the database, as well as replacing old shelf labels with new.

But there is a better way, though. It’s just that they have been slow to gain traction. Until now, that is, with Walmart announcing they will roll out electronic shelf labels (ESLs) at 2300 of their stores by 2026. The ESLs can be updated remotely, meaning that the database and shelves can be done simultaneously. It will no doubt make life a lot easier for Walmart and its employees.

And that’s where things can get interesting. The ability to change prices at any given moment means that Walmart and any other retailer could—not saying they would, necessarily—use surge pricing. That is when sellers jack up prices because demand is strong. It also goes by the moniker dynamic pricing.

Of course, it means that prices could be revised downward too, if conditions warrant it, like if a retailer needs to push out some merchandise for whatever reason, from freshness dates to short-term sales and sales promotions, as well as trying to close out an item.

The truth of the matter is that we have lived with some degree of dynamic pricing for years. It explains why shopping for airline tickets is better on Tuesdays (that’s what I hear, anyway). It’s why hotels typically cost more on weekends. It’s why some gas stations charge more in the morning, when people who forgot to get gas the night before are suddenly panicking.

As a traveler, I have learned how to play this game. It’s almost like gambling, though, because sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. I typically do not make hotel reservations until day-of, unless I have knowledge that rooms might be in short supply. For example, on this trip west, I did not reserve my room in Albuquerque until Monday morning. I had started my search the day before, though, and already knew that rooms were running about $200 a night, typical for summer.

I rolled the dice and waited 24 hours, hoping that their bookings would not be high. I won the bet, and got a Homewood Suites for $160. But if I were planning to return in October for Balloon Fiesta, I would book now, knowing they will likely be at or near full occupancy then, with prices increasing as the supply of rooms decreases.

But back to Walmart. Again, I am not saying they will do devious things, but the ability to do so—whether them our any other retailer—exists. Imagine this scenario: The National Weather Service announces a blizzard is likely in two days. We all know this causes people to desire French Toast, so everyone is going to load up on bread, eggs, and milk. This would be a great time to raise the prices of those in-demand items, along with others that their in-house research could easily show to be popular when bad weather is in the forecast.

This has already been done around the world with soft drink vending machines, raising prices during the day when demand is high, and reducing them at night when sales are low. You could do the same when it is exceptionally hot or cold. Nefarious? Perhaps, but then again, isn’t pretty much everything we do intricately tied to supply and demand?

Personally, I like this effort. The academic in me would almost pay good money to work with Walmart to study consumer behavior and price sensitivities. Imagine all the data! Imagine all of the journal articles to be written!

But then again, the consumer in me harbors some concerns about folks in an office somewhere—either upstairs at the store, or at HQ—yanking my chain and messing with me. It would be a huge twisted game of The Price Is Right, in which the retailer is constantly trying to figure out the right price to maximize their returns. You thought you knew your prices. They could change that on a whim.

Hang on to your wallets. This could get interesting.

Dr “The Price Of Technology” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[equalonline]

Best Platform Weighing Scale to Buy Online

Weighing machines are one of the most necessary tools that you can find in every field, whether it is a retail store, small grocery shop, fitness center, school, hospital, commercial industry, or even at your home, their importance cannot be declined. When it comes to commercial use, it becomes more essential to choose the weighing scale carefully. Here you will find the best platform weighing scale to buy in India, its uses, features, and where to buy it online. Before moving ahead it is necessary to know the importance of platform scale.

Importance of Platform Weighing Scale  

Weighing is important for industries to maintain inventory or to make any product accurate. With having an appropriate scale you can make it smooth and hassle-free.  The modern electronic weighing scale features innovative technologies, they are not only useful for weighing things accurately but also with ease including some other useful functionalities like tare, pieces counting, unit conversion, etc. And so it has made the weighing even much easier than ever. These types of weighing scales are generally used to weigh heavy goods with accuracy. So choosing the right one is necessary.  

Features of Platform Weighing Scale

1. Digital Readability

The modern platform weighing scale supports digitally readable which means it comes with a bright LED display to make visibility more clear. 

2. Accuracy

The digital platform scale always offers more accurate and precise measurements. Thus, it becomes easy to use even if you are weighing heavy loads for commercial purposes which lead to a better result in the long run.

3. Repeatability

A good weight scale always shows consistent results even if you are weighing the same product again and again without showing any result deviation. 

4. Capacity

The capacity of a weighing scale is referred to as the maximum weight it can hold with accuracy. Every electronic scale comes with a maximum weighing capacity ranging from 5 kg up to 300 kg. As the commercial weighing scales are also used to weigh heavy goods, so it wisely as their price varies according to weight capacity.   

5. Platform

The platform is the upper surface of the weighing machine where you put the product to weigh. There are two main things to consider with the platform which are platter size and platform type (MS or SS). For weighing large size goods you need to have a large-sized platter to weigh it properly. 

Best Commercial Platform Scale In India

When it comes to commercial weighing machines, it plays an important role in weighing things up to the maximum capacity it has, with utmost accuracy. To measure the weight of heavy goods, the platform weighing machines are the ideal ones.

EQUAL is the only weighing brand in India that you can choose blindly. EQUAL is the largest weighing scale andweighbridge manufacturer in India which serves their product globally. EQUAL is known for its supreme quality and service worldwide. We can ensure you that by buying equal platform weighing scale you are not going to regret in the future. 

EQUAL Platform Weighing Scale

EQUAL platforms and floor scales provide weighing solutions for various industries. It is simple to operate, these industrial scales offer the functions and features needed to improve efficiency and increase the productivity of industry and warehouses, on assembly lines or loading docks, during shipping and receiving activities, and at small retail shops. EQUAL Electronic Platform Scale is a low-cost, high-precision measuring solution, most suitable for supermarkets, grocery stores, and other retail outlets. It is a versatile weighing machine because it also runs on a rechargeable battery in case of a lack of mains power. The scale will also automatically switch off when it is not in use, which saves power. 

Customer Reviews For EQUAL Platform Scale

What makes a product appropriate is its feedback from consumers. That is the reason why we have included this section here. It will help you to ensure your decision while making a purchase online for an equal weighing scale. All these are taken from the EQUAL Amazon Store.  

Conclusion

Investing in a good quality platform scale is worthwhile as it directly affects your business. Having a low accuracy scale can make a blunder with your business, that is what you may not expect. You choose your weighing scale wisely. Let us know if you have any questions, follow us socially subscribe for regular products, and offer updates. Image Source: 500px

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2024/01/retail-sales-fall-at-sharpest-rate-since-covid

Retail sales fall at sharpest rate since Covid

Getty Images

By Dearbail Jordan

Business reporter, BBC News

Retail sales volumes fell by 3.2% in December in the sharpest drop since the UK was in a Covid lockdown.

Official figures revealed a sharp fall in demand for goods, but food sales also declined in the run-up to Christmas.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it appeared people did their shopping earlier in November, taking advantage of Black Friday sales.

It meant that retail sales tumbled at the fastest rate since January 2021.

The ONS said the amount of non-food products people bought in December fell by 3.9%, with department stores the worst hit. That compares to a 2.7% increase for non-food products in November.

Food demand was also down at the end of the year, falling 3.1%. In November, food sales rose by 1.1%.

Lisa Hooker from PwC said there were “fewer large family gatherings reducing the number of gifts being bought overall”.

She added that people “reined back on areas such as toys, sports equipment, watches and jewellery,” but said fashion was “one of the least affected categories”.

Heather Bovill, deputy director for surveys and economic indicators at the ONS, said December’s fall in retail sales was “the largest overall monthly fall since January 2021, when the reintroduction of pandemic restrictions knocked sales heavily”.

Shoppers and retailers set for ‘challenging’ 2024

While she said that discounting in November encouraged people to shop earlier for Christmas, there was also evidence from department stores, clothing retailers and those selling household goods that consumers spent less on gifts.

While the fall was the biggest since January 2021, when further Covid restrictions were enforced, the actual volume of goods that people bought in December was the lowest since May 2020 when the country was in the first Covid lockdown.

Supermarkets have been reporting strong sales over the Christmas period, although the value of their sales has been helped by rising prices over the past year.

For non-food stores the pattern has been mixed. Fashion chain Next enjoyed strong sales, but JD Sports issued a profit warning after its trading was weaker then expected.

Specialist wine outlet Majestic said it had seen record sales in the run-up to Christmas, helped by a rebound in its trade with the hospitality sector.

However, chairman and chief executive John Colley told the BBC’s Today programme that, overall, consumers were still reeling from the high food prices seen over the previous 12 months.

“I think we’ve still got fallout from inflation… and I think consumers are still feeling the pinch and I don’t think that’s over, even now.”

Earlier this month, the British Retail Consortium predicted a “challenging” year ahead for the sector with household budgets still being squeezed by higher living costs.

The worse-than-expected retail sales also raise the risk that the UK ended 2023 in “the mildest of mild recessions”, according to Alex Kerr, assistant economist at Capital Economics.

A recession is typically defined as two three-month periods – or quarters – in a row of shrinking economic output.

The UK economy shrank by 0.1% between July and September. It contracted again in October but bounced back in November.

Mr Kerr said that even factoring in the effect of Black Friday sales on shopping, December’s drop was “far bigger” than expected.

“That may have been partly because of consumers bringing forward their Christmas purchases into November,” he said. “But it was also because the drags from the cost-of-living crisis and sharp rise in interest rates are still weighing on real incomes and consumer spending.”

Inflation, which measures the rate at which prices are rising, has fallen sharply since the highs reached in October 2022.

However, the most recent inflation figures showed that the rate edged up to 4% in December against widespread expectations that it would continue to fall.

Economists and financial markets had forecast that the Bank of England would cut interest rates this year, possibly in the spring.

However, the recent inflation figures suggest that a cut may not be made until June. Interest rates are currently at 5.25%.

Related Topics

Retailing

UK economy

Office for National Statistics

More on this story

Rate cuts still expected despite inflation uptick

2 days ago

Shoppers and retailers set for ‘challenging’ 2024

9 January

[mamun52]

Why did Hema turn around again?

Hou Yi’s words are not an exaggeration.

 If starting a business is to sort out the inside first and then conquer the outside, Hema has only been able to completely sort out the inside HE Tuber nine years after it was founded.

Since its establishment, Hema has tried more than 10 business formats, including Hema F2, Hema mini, Hema Neighborhood, Hema X member store, Hema Outlet, Hema Premier and so on.

Trying means unknown results. According to public data, Hema lost about 3 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2021 alone. It was not until January 2023 that Hou Yi issued an all-staff letter, officially announcing that the main business Hema Xiansheng had achieved profitability; in April of the same year, He said in an interview with the media that Hema has achieved full profitability in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.

If what Hou Yi said is true, it will be even more critical for Hema to hold on to this hard-won result. Especially in the face of severe competition, Hema needs to prove itself with sustained profits.

In May last year, Alibaba stated in its financial report that the Alibaba Group's board of directors approved the launch of the listing process for Hema, which is expected to be completed within the next 6 to 12 months. But soon, news came out frequently that Hema's IPO might press the "pause button."

Alibaba said in its third-quarter financial report that Hema's initial public offering plan is on hold while the group is evaluating market conditions and other factors necessary to ensure successful project implementation and enhance shareholder value.

On the other hand, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in November 2023, the national consumer price dropped by 0.5% year-on-year; on average from January to November, the national consumer price increased by only 0.3% compared with the same period last year.

“Price reduction” has become the unified theme online and offline.

Online, JD.com and Taotian have both given up their positioning of focusing on the urban middle class/white-collar population and embarked on the path of low-price strategies; last year’s Double 11, major e-commerce platforms, MCN companies, and anchors also all aimed at “the lowest prices on the entire network.” The dispute over "price" was fierce.

Offline, in the face of the explosive trend of Mixue Bingcheng stores with more than 20,000 stores, consumer brands such as Heytea and Nayuki's Tea have also launched low-priced beverage series.

Similarly, in the supermarket format, not only Hema and Sam's are engaged in a price war, supermarket chains such as Yonghui, Wal-Mart, and Carrefour have also lowered their product prices.

It can be said that Hema and many supermarket brands have also reached a time when they have to change.

Today's low-price strategy has the meaning of "a strong man cutting off his wrist" for Hema, and can even be called a "key move" for Hema. But can this move bring Hema back to life?

3. If the giant changes direction again, what are Hema’s chances of winning?

The low-price strategy has indeed attracted consumers' attention to Hema, but if Hema wants to achieve and maintain full profitability in the short term through "discount reform", how far is the journey ahead?

On the one hand, it will still take time for Hema to shift to a low-price strategy. Since Hema's discount reform was officially launched in October last year, its relationship with its suppliers has attracted widespread attention from the outside world. At the end of December last year, Wang Xiaolu announced that he would stop cooperating with the Hema system because he was dissatisfied with the discount reform. It is emphasized that "the price is the lifeline of the company and dealers, and selling in violation of the price is harmful to everyone's common interests."

Many other brands have also become dissatisfied with Hema, including mid-to-high-end tea consumer brand Chabiubiu. Its founder once issued a long article to denounce Hema, saying that since October 21 last year, Hema’s products have been removed from the shelves, and tens of thousands of boxes of goods have been required to be removed within a time limit; he then accused Hema of unilaterally removing inventory products. The price was reduced from 79 yuan/box to 39.98 yuan/box, causing many customers who had placed orders at high prices through other channels to ask for refunds.

On October 20, 2023, Gu Guojian, a professor at Shanghai Business School, published an article on the public account and revealed that because Hema’s low-price strategy has destroyed the market price system, big brands have begun to suspend and cut off the supply of Hema, and carry out a “strangling” style of encirclement and suppression. ".

This is a problem that Hema must face with its low-price strategy,

 but fortunately Hema does not seem to care about the "breakup" of the partnership. It is said that Hou Yi not only forwarded Professor Gu Guojian's article, but also revealed that because of selling a certain milk product at a discount, , Hema has been "banned across the entire network" by the dairy company, adding that this does not affect Hema's determination to promote discounts.

This also shows Hou Yi's determination in reform and his confidence in future victory.

However, the discount reform is just the beginning. Hema will continue to implement the low-price strategy in 2024. According to Sina reports, Hema’s goal is to streamline the number of Hema’s SKUs from the existing 8,000 to about 5,000. . This data means that Hema Fresh will be closer to the two major benchmark brands in the future - Sam's Club's SKUs are controlled at about 4,000 all year round, and Costco's is even less, about 3,700.

Hou Yi also said that in the future, Hema will implement the "753" price system, that is, KA products are 30% off the market price, private brands are 50% off the market price, and late-issue products are 30% off the market price.

A large number of SKUs were "eliminated", and the prices of branded products were discounted by 30%. This was too fast and too fierce. It is understandable that such a strong medicine would make it difficult for partners to resist in a short time.

For Hema, this may be a strategic shift decision, but what is involved behind it is the interests of the entire industry chain. It is difficult for many brand owners to respond to the new price system and supply requirements with a single order, so they can only "resist" by suspending or cutting off supply.

It can be speculated that if Hema cannot smooth out the cooperative relationships with many brand merchants in the supply chain in a timely manner, and does not even care whether they are willing to continue to cooperate with them in the future, it will have an adverse impact on its long-term development.

From another perspective

the discount reform currently implemented by Hema has become a standard feature in the consumer field, rather than an exclusive advantage.

First, Sam's, which is fighting against the "mountain-moving price", is also implementing discounts. Zhang Qing, chief purchasing officer of Sam's Club China, recently told the media that in the last 12 months, Sam's invested nearly 1 billion yuan in cost reinvestment in product prices, allowing dozens of products that members purchase daily to achieve long-term price reductions.

At the same time, other domestic supermarkets are also lowering their prices. Under this industry trend, it is difficult for the discount reform to bring any exclusive advantages to Hema.

Secondly, the sudden rise of real-time retail will also have a huge impact on the domestic supermarket industry. On December 1, 2023, Meituan Maicai quietly changed its name to "Little Elephant Supermarket" and launched a series of price reduction promotions; recently, platforms such as JD Daojia and Ele.me have also made frequent moves in the direction of instant retail.

For Hema, in the current discount reform, its competitors are not only supermarkets such as Sam, Yonghui, Carrefour, and Wal-Mart, but also Xiaoxiang Supermarket, JD Daojia, Tmall Supermarket, Duoduo Maicai, and Dingdong Maicai. and other online platforms.

Hema is currently facing a very complex situation, which is a great test of the strategic determination and execution ability of the helmsman. However, reform will inevitably have pains. What is the chance of Hema winning? It can only take a long time to see the results of the change. At this time, any It's too early to draw any conclusions.