Let's Go, Brandon!

[merh]

Not a social media post, but an encounter I had at the gas pump
I needed to put a few bucks in my tank to keep me going for the week. I don't drive far so it doesn't take much fuel - still it fuckin' stings looking at gas prices today.

So I pull up, and there is a guy on the opposite pump doing the same. We exchange a friendly nod, I figured that would be it but he decided to strike up a conversation.

He asked me how I was doing, so I figured I would make small talk and decided to opine on the state of fuel prices. Immediately he agrees and says it's ridiculous, so I'm like "cool, maybe I'll push it a little further" so I pivot to companies making record profits and high level officers taking in millions in bonuses while we are here to trying to budget if it is worth putting in $40 or just $20.

What does he do? "Yeah man but these taxes are stupid, if we didn't have to pay all these taxes we'd still get cheap gas!"

Dude. You were so close

[merh]

[merh]

CEOs bragged for months about how they could charge higher prices. Customers are now pushing back.
Dominick Reuter May 20, 2022,

Target and Walmart each missed recent earnings estimates, due in part to softer sales.
Each attributed part of the slowdown to rising prices — within and outside their stores' walls.
After months of CEOs and CFOs bragging about pricing power, it seems that customers have had enough.

Until somewhat recently, CEOs and CFOs had been touting their ability to boost prices for consumers above and beyond the amount needed to offset growing labor and supply chain expenses.

"What we are very good at is pricing," Colgate-Palmolive CEO Noel Wallace told investors back in October. "Whether it's foreign exchange inflation or raw and packing material inflation, we have found ways over time to recover that in our margin line."

Wallace was far from alone: Similar statements from executives soon became a political argument that attempted to pin the blame for record high inflation squarely on corporate greed.

Of course, companies fundamentally exist to make money, and maximizing profits is not necessarily the same as price gouging, but recent earnings calls from major US retailers Target and Walmart suggest that companies boosting their margins may have overplayed their hands.

It should be noted that while Target and Walmart themselves resist this trend (Target CEO Brian Cornell calls consumer pricing "always the last lever we pull"), they have to sell products on behalf of other companies who have been more eager to charge customers more.

In Walmart's earnings calls, executives said they saw inflation shaping customer choices more in the previous quarter than they had seen before. That meant increasingly spending less on merchandise and more on food, and choosing store brands over name brands.

Target also saw sales of its in-house brands grow faster than overall sales, continuing a years-long trend. The company was also more willing to take a hit to profits with discounts and deals, bucking a
retail industry
trend of offering fewer promotions.

"While these were difficult decisions, we believe they'll pay off in the long term, given that building long-term loyalty remains our top priority," Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington said.

Meanwhile Amazon, which is dealing with its own inflation headaches, told investors last month that consumer demand has remained strong even with prices climbing faster than they have in a generation.

"But we're wary of it, as probably all companies are, because household budgets are tightened when fuel costs are doubling," Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said. "It ripples through food. It ripples through everything else."

Both Target and Walmart indicated there would likely be price increases in coming months, but Cornell said they would be done "surgically" at Target.

"Not all of [our customers] can afford to absorb this and they need our help," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

[abbey1227]

May 21, 2022 4:50:12 GMT merh said:

Not a social media post, but an encounter I had at the gas pump
I needed to put a few bucks in my tank to keep me going for the week. I don't drive far so it doesn't take much fuel - still it fuckin' stings looking at gas prices today.

So I pull up, and there is a guy on the opposite pump doing the same. We exchange a friendly nod, I figured that would be it but he decided to strike up a conversation.

He asked me how I was doing, so I figured I would make small talk and decided to opine on the state of fuel prices. Immediately he agrees and says it's ridiculous, so I'm like "cool, maybe I'll push it a little further" so I pivot to companies making record profits and high level officers taking in millions in bonuses while we are here to trying to budget if it is worth putting in $40 or just $20.

What does he do? "Yeah man but these taxes are stupid, if we didn't have to pay all these taxes we'd still get cheap gas!"

Dude. You were so close

Some suggest the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) running rampant on Wall Street is driving those higher prices, too

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 3:16:22 GMT merh said:

The president intentionally stifles the supply of oil coming out of the US, then begs foreign countries (some of them enemies) to produce more oil to help with prices?

[merh]

May 22, 2022 11:38:46 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 22, 2022 3:16:22 GMT merh said:

The president intentionally stifles the supply of oil coming out of the US, then begs foreign countries (some of them enemies) to produce more oil to help with prices?

What about the article from Business Insider?

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 14:20:33 GMT merh said:

May 22, 2022 11:38:46 GMT abbey1227 said:

The president intentionally stifles the supply of oil coming out of the US, then begs foreign countries (some of them enemies) to produce more oil to help with prices?

What about the article from Business Insider?

Business Insider

LEFT-CENTER BIAS These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words

[merh]

May 22, 2022 14:26:48 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 22, 2022 14:20:33 GMT merh said:

What about the article from Business Insider?

Business Insider

LEFT-CENTER BIAS These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words

Whereas your sources are much further right.

So even a slight bias is enough for you to discount the whole thing?

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 14:31:56 GMT merh said:

May 22, 2022 14:26:48 GMT abbey1227 said:

Business Insider

LEFT-CENTER BIAS These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words

Whereas your sources are much further right.

So even a slight bias is enough for you to discount the whole thing?

MY sources? Don't I mostly just copy/paste from Yahoo?

Yes, my views on Govt tend to be on the Right

You tell me? Are we allowed to even consider any source that doesn't align with our own views anymore? It seems unlikely.........especially as the Left has continued to drift ever leftward.

[merh]

May 22, 2022 14:35:13 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 22, 2022 14:31:56 GMT merh said:

Whereas your sources are much further right.

So even a slight bias is enough for you to discount the whole thing?

MY sources? Don't I mostly just copy/paste from Yahoo?

Yes, my views on Govt tend to be on the Right

You tell me? Are we allowed to even consider any source that doesn't align with our own views anymore? It seems unlikely.........especially as the Left has continued to drift ever leftward.

The Right hasn't shifted?

[merh]

[abbey1227]

Nov 7, 2021 19:39:06 GMT merh said:

Yet the jobs numbers are improving.
Shelves in the stores I hit are mostly full (cat food...damn. the dog side if the aisle seems fine, but I got chicken, whitefish & sardines, & turkey on the canned cat food side? The dogs are getting it, aren't they& the beef for the salmon & beef)

So why they still pitching doom & gloom?

Did you see Fox disavowed Tucker's Patriot special?

Even they know not to go too far

That's assuming you believe those numbers.  I do not. Everywhere I look, everyone is hiring.

Shelves still seem to be at least 1/4 - 1/3 empty to me. Plenty of things are still hit or miss whether it's in stock.

Are you impervious to the Inflation rates right now? Numbers not seen in 40 years? Even the polls that still somehow have Biden in the lower 40s are unbelievable. He's doing worse than Jimmy Carter at this point. And something like 70% of the country thinks things are going in the complete wrong direction. Too bad their ADHD will have millions forgetting by the time the next election rolls around.

What was his patriot special about? FOX has lost a ton of viewers in the last year for abandoning their viewer base. Seems they, too have drifted to the left. Believe it or not

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 14:42:04 GMT merh said:

May 22, 2022 14:35:13 GMT abbey1227 said:

MY sources? Don't I mostly just copy/paste from Yahoo?

Yes, my views on Govt tend to be on the Right

You tell me? Are we allowed to even consider any source that doesn't align with our own views anymore? It seems unlikely.........especially as the Left has continued to drift ever leftward.

The Right hasn't shifted?

I haven't moved, lady     What views or talking points have changed with me over the years?

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 14:45:01 GMT merh said:

isn't it more like an Order of Protection from the screaming 'mostly peaceful' masses?

I thought even PP promoted protection?

[merh]

May 22, 2022 14:54:35 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 22, 2022 14:45:01 GMT merh said:

isn't it more like an Order of Protection from the screaming 'mostly peaceful' masses?

I thought even PP promoted protection?

So that isn't privacy?
What they claim women don't deserve?

What privacy is there to the anti-abortion crew screaming slut  & whore & baby killer at gals walking into PP?

[abbey1227]

May 22, 2022 17:49:12 GMT merh said:

May 22, 2022 14:54:35 GMT abbey1227 said:

So that isn't privacy?
What they claim women don't deserve?

What privacy is there to the anti-abortion crew screaming slut  & whore & baby killer at gals walking into PP?

you act like I support those screaming crowds?   I do not

It's none of anyone's business........and as such, there shouldn't even be any exchange of funds. THAT's how some of you MAKE IT the business of others, by expecting others to pay for it.

[merh]

May 23, 2022 2:13:33 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 22, 2022 17:49:12 GMT merh said:

So that isn't privacy?
What they claim women don't deserve?

What privacy is there to the anti-abortion crew screaming slut  & whore & baby killer at gals walking into PP?

you act like I support those screaming crowds?   I do not

It's none of anyone's business........and as such, there shouldn't even be any exchange of funds. THAT's how some of you MAKE IT the business of others, by expecting others to pay for it.

You aren't paying for it.

You are paying for birth control & cancer screenings & pap smears & STD treatment.

You claim you don't make all that much so you aren't paying for much of it.

[abbey1227]

May 23, 2022 3:11:00 GMT merh said:

May 23, 2022 2:13:33 GMT abbey1227 said:

you act like I support those screaming crowds?   I do not

It's none of anyone's business........and as such, there shouldn't even be any exchange of funds. THAT's how some of you MAKE IT the business of others, by expecting others to pay for it.

You aren't paying for it.

You are paying for birth control & cancer screenings & pap smears & STD treatment.

You claim you don't make all that much so you aren't paying for much of it.

I disagree.........we are paying for it........as well as the large donations to the Democratic Party.

I don't wanna pay for the birth control or cancer screenings, paps or STDs either.

I do not make a lot myself, so my $Dollar amount is likely less than yours paid in. But my wife and plenty of others are footing the bills. I feel sympathetic to them having their money taken and wasted like that.

If you don't want something to be anyone else's business........ take care of it all by yourself

[merh]

May 23, 2022 3:21:29 GMT abbey1227 said:

May 23, 2022 3:11:00 GMT merh said:

You aren't paying for it.

You are paying for birth control & cancer screenings & pap smears & STD treatment.

You claim you don't make all that much so you aren't paying for much of it.

I disagree.........we are paying for it........as well as the large donations to the Democratic Party.

I don't wanna pay for the birth control or cancer screenings, paps or STDs either.

I do not make a lot myself, so my $Dollar amount is likely less than yours paid in. But my wife and plenty of others are footing the bills. I feel sympathetic to them having their money taken and wasted like that.

If you don't want something to be anyone else's business........ take care of it all by yourself

But we are connected & meant to help one another.

[abbey1227]

May 23, 2022 3:30:23 GMT merh said:

May 23, 2022 3:21:29 GMT abbey1227 said:

I disagree.........we are paying for it........as well as the large donations to the Democratic Party.

I don't wanna pay for the birth control or cancer screenings, paps or STDs either.

I do not make a lot myself, so my $Dollar amount is likely less than yours paid in. But my wife and plenty of others are footing the bills. I feel sympathetic to them having their money taken and wasted like that.

If you don't want something to be anyone else's business........ take care of it all by yourself

But we are connected & meant to help one another.

That is such cult-like thinking, imo

You're in denial of all of the people who behave in the exact opposite manner.......and then there's people like me just sitting in the middle on the fence.

I do not have a wish to join this large club that you want to be in.