If someone appears to be repeatedly personal, lean towards patience as they might not mean offense. If you are sure, however, then do not deepen the problem by being negative; instead, simply place them on ignore by clicking the unhappy yellow face to the right of their name.
- Manlobbi
Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks
No. of Recommendations: 11
World-wide, they hide in plain sight. Whether $.99, 1 pound, 100 yen or whatever, there are few villages in the world which don't have at least one (and there are about half a dozen or more within a ten-minute walk from where I live. On numerous occasions, they have leapt to the assistance, both at home and abroad. While there are chains of them large enough to be publicly traded in multiple countries, the vast majority of them tend to be ethnic Chinese owned (or in the case of the Philippines, supplied by Chinese offering credit to the largely Moslem proprietors).
That said, rather than fill this post with cheap anecdotes, I would rather look at the vast logistical organization required by what are likely hundreds of thousands of these small shops. The shops are not owned by MBAs. Someone had to decide what stock each should carry, provide credit and startup assistance. The size of the industry is likely measured in hundreds of billions of dollars.
And now have come the tariff war between the US and China. While the news is full of the results of Temo, Alibaba and Shein having their exports to the States being slaughtered by the tariffs, and the effects on "average" Americans, not a single story has been on the news about the impact when these stores who even more Americans habitually pick up items from. Pretty soon, the small items we all depend on - sponges, brooms, TV cables, extension cards - darn near everything - is going to be impacted, as well as an entire class of stores quietly slipping under water along with their ma and pop entrepreneurs.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 1
The 99-cent store has essentially disappeared. Now they are pretty much "99-cents and HIGHER PRICES" stores. There used to be one by me, and I would stop by now and then to see what they had received. A fair bit of mis-manufactured stuff (misspellings, etc ) that makes them unsellable at normal prices. So, lots of surprises at what comes in. Once, I got 5-lb bags of whole wheat spagetti at $1/bag. Stocked up. Had some visitors from Brazil, so took them to the $1 store--they were THRILLED. It is traditional to bring souvenirs from a foreign trip for others, so they got lots of gift stuff CHEAP--and that made their day. Pretty soon, they will be the $4.99-$5.00 store....
No. of Recommendations: 3
Back in pre-civil war days there was “the penny press”. The first instance I know of with stores proclaiming their pricing on the sign was the five cent store. Woolworth’s was the first, (“The Great 5¢ Store” was the name of it, I think), which morphed into the 5-and-dime.
I remember the Kresge’s store in my hometown had a sign with the name and the logo was “10¢ & 25¢” in a seal next to the name.
Flash forward 50 years, and it was the Dollar Store or one of the many variants (Family Dollar, Dollar General, 99¢, etc.) and now there’s a chain called 5-Below, presumably everything under $5. Eventually that will go away, or become irrelevant, because inflation marches on.
I suppose that’s the foundation of a modern society - a little bit of inflation, but it does rack up over the years, and I do resent having to pay tax on the “appreciation” of my house through no fault of my own. (Improvements I have made is a different thing.)
Anyway, yeah. Inflation: too little is not enough, and too much is a disaster. Funny game we play.
No. of Recommendations: 7
The chalenge will not only be inflation, but availability. In the casee of 5-Below, EVERYTHING is made in China. I just visited a TJ Max this morning and noticed that the only iten in their entire kittchen department not made in China was a pile off three Lodge cast iron frying pans. I haven't beedn to a Harbor Freight recently, but managemen t has to be in panic mode.
At 145% +25%, we haven't levied tariffs on Chinese products, pragmaticly, we have applied a trade embargo as a sanction. While they can likely hold their breath longer than we can, in the interum, we are destroying multiple US businesses along the way and forcing those who can least aford it to pay more for or go without products in order to pay for a better tax deal for those at thee top of the food chain.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 0
pay more for or go without
A great way to get them to revolt against him. Plus, many of them are NOT afraid of guns. Rather, the RWNJs are *really* afraid if many minorities are "Second Amendment Ready".
No. of Recommendations: 6
The chalenge will not only be inflation, but availability. In the casee of 5-Below, EVERYTHING is made in China
As I drove along I-40 there was a giant billboard proclaiming “TRUMP STORE” with the address a couple miles up the road. As it turns out that was my exit and I drove right past it on the feeder road, a smallish, almost cottage looking building with a big TRUMP sign out front, as you would expect.
I would love to go in and see if I could find a single item that was manufactured anywhere but in China, but I don’t have the time, and I suspect I would say something that would get me thrown out, shot, or worse.
