Aesop's Goose that Laid the Golden Egg fable applies here. The goose is the corporation, all we have to do is kill it to get all the gold.

You can take "Target" out of the story, this is something that's going to be repeated everywhere.

Profit margins, especially in retail, are pretty thin. When costs go up, something else has to get cut. Private businesses can't just run the presses and print off another billion.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
You can take "Target" out of the story, this is something that's going to be repeated everywhere.

Profit margins, especially in retail, are pretty thin. When costs go up, something else has to get cut. Private businesses can't just run the presses and print off another billion.

yep

read an article about that in the WSJ a few months ago.

they are getting what they asked for but we knew that was coming a mile away

------------------------------

And when Target becomes the new K-mart, they'll all be out of work...

So they thought Target would just eat this increase and keep their same hours AND at $15 an hour?



And I'm certain they went into a higher tax bracket too!

duh all they need to do is raise it to $20 an hour to make up for the lost hours...

I didn't save it, but I did the math on McDonald's once. If every employee got a $1.00 an hour raise, and everything else remained the same, McDonald's would loose money despite their current billions in earnings.

You do realize that none of the people working in the stores are McDonald's employees, correct? The ones who'd get squeezed are the franchise "owners". And I have the feeling the franchise agreements would pretty much guarantee McDonald's corporate would be untouched.

I also wonder how much the average franchise would have to raise prices to cover the added cost. Since it would effect everyone selling in the market, they'd all have to cover the hit, so no one would have an advantage.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I didn't save it, but I did the math on McDonald's once. If every employee got a $1.00 an hour raise, and everything else remained the same, McDonald's would loose money despite their current billions in earnings.

Target made over $3 billion last year, and are on track toward $4 billion this year. I don't see them circling the drain.

BTW, this doesn't mean I'm advocating for the min wage increase. I just want to point out that they're vastly better run than Sears/K-mart.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
And when Target becomes the new K-mart, they'll all be out of work...

quote:

You do realize that none of the people working in the stores are McDonald's employees, correct? The ones who'd get squeezed are the franchise "owners". And I have the feeling the franchise agreements would pretty much guarantee McDonald's corporate would be untouched.

Indeed I do. But it was in response to somebody complaining about wages and corporate profits. It was to demonstrate that "just one dollar" added up to so much money that it would eliminate 100% (and then some) of the money they were complaining about somebody else having.

quote:

Target made over $3 billion last year, and are on track toward $4 billion this year.

Impossible. We were assured they would be out of business after the entire bathroom fiasco.

Is this bathroom business something regional? I was in my local store last week and there were normal men's and women's. There was also a seasonal help hiring sign up, and I don't remember the pay rate being $15, more like $13. Seasonal might not be treated the same as a regular employee, however.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Is this bathroom business something regional? I was in my local store last week and there were normal men's and women's. There was also a seasonal help hiring sign up, and I don't remember the pay rate being $15, more like $13. Seasonal might not be treated the same as a regular employee, however.

They have been implementing it over a 2 year period: Target (TGT) said it would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by the end of 2020.

No idea on the bathroom situation.

Experienced my first point-of-sale kiosk at a McDonald's recently. Took me a few seconds to get the hang of it. Then my brain started thinking about the hourly wage of that piece of equipment.

Government: Minimum wage is now $15 an hour.

Business: Install kiosk that costs $1.50 an hour to run and maintain.

Check, meet Mate.

But, but, but... they wanted them to do something! about the feelgoodisms.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGSense:
Experienced my first point-of-sale kiosk at a McDonald's recently. Took me a few seconds to get the hang of it. Then my brain started thinking about the hourly wage of that piece of equipment.

Government: Minimum wage is now $15 an hour.

Business: Install kiosk that costs $1.50 an hour to run and maintain.

Check, meet Mate.

Honestly, those are wonderful if you have a desire (or a need) to customize your order. Much easier for the computer to ensure that it got "no pickles, no onions" or "no tartar sauce" right than the cashier.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGSense:
Experienced my first point-of-sale kiosk at a McDonald's recently. Took me a few seconds to get the hang of it. Then my brain started thinking about the hourly wage of that piece of equipment.

Government: Minimum wage is now $15 an hour.

Business: Install kiosk that costs $1.50 an hour to run and maintain.

Check, meet Mate.

$1.50 an hour to operate AND 100% less surly than your typical McDonalds worker around here. A win-win all around!

Watched Lizzy Warren in the debate last night. They asked how she would pay for her healthcare plan for "all". The rich and evil corp. are of course going to pay for it all and she actually said the middle class would have their taxes go down. Absolutely impossible.

quote:

Ahh...the "Entitlement" mentality. I believe that was a graduate level economics course.

Well, Econ was a secondary degree for me when I was in college. I graduated in 1977. And I was 39 years old, working 60+ hours per week on my job. I was dumbfounded at the level of ignorance on the part of many (half?) of the students fresh out of high school.

And it has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime now. I was sent by my company to teach at a minority university in 1990 and was disappointed to find that the level of ignorance had decreased to the point of shameful. And it has only deteriorated each year since then.

It does not seem all that complicated to me that businesses cannot "stay in business" without turning a profit!

Unfortunately, IMO, far too many of our "college students" have not reached the stage where they can find their ass with both hands and a Geiger counter. Maybe getting the hell out of mommy's basement might help.

quote:

Originally posted by hile:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGSense:
Experienced my first point-of-sale kiosk at a McDonald's recently. Took me a few seconds to get the hang of it. Then my brain started thinking about the hourly wage of that piece of equipment.

Government: Minimum wage is now $15 an hour.

Business: Install kiosk that costs $1.50 an hour to run and maintain.

Check, meet Mate.

Honestly, those are wonderful if you have a desire (or a need) to customize your order. Much easier for the computer to ensure that it got "no pickles, no onions" or "no tartar sauce" right than the cashier.

Actually quite the opposite is true.

Foremost, from personal experience, if you want a combo meal but want salad instead of fries, the kiosk doesn't allow that change. Even employees said so and that means you have to order the fry combo and then have someone tell them to make the switch. Rarely do they get it right.

Also consider that even if you tell the kiosk to hold the pickles, a human has to be able to read and accomplish that. A most formable task for some.

Lastly, the kioks are a living petri dish of germs from the last 500 people who used the screen before you. If the McRibs don't kill you the free side dish of germs might.

quote:

Originally posted by hile:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGSense:

Experienced my first point-of-sale kiosk at a McDonald's recently.

Honestly, those are wonderful if you have a desire (or a need) to customize your order. Much easier for the computer to ensure that it got "no pickles, no onions" or "no tartar sauce" right than the cashier.

My experience at many fast food places, including but not restricted to McDonald's -- the problem with customizing an order is usually not with the cashier.

I have learned the hard way: if I want to change something, even something as simple as "no lettuce," I need to go inside and order at the counter instead of using the drive-through (insert Joe Pesci reference here). Many times I have opened the wrapper to check before leaving the store. Asked for the manager, showed the manager that although the cashier had entered "no lettuce" correctly, the sandwich maker had interpreted it as "extra lettuce." Order entry at a kiosk vs. order entry by a cashier will not solve this problem.