If they want to go after someone that is abusing the USPS it's the Chinese sellers that use international postal law to get the USPS to pay the expensive last mile.
This. A 4oz package i ship to someone next door to me (or anywhere in the US) costs me $2.66 (with a commercial discount). A 4oz package from China (to anywhere in the US) costs the Chinese company.17 cents.
For these dipshits complaining us "leftists" should be on board with everyone paying their fair share but aren't... it's not that we don't think that, it's just that we seem to have a better idea of what the problem is than shit-for-brain idiots who only listen to grab-them-by-the-pussy-Trump.
What an asshat. No you dipshit. You lefties are confused. If you would just leave services like deliveries to the private sector, you wouldn't have our tax dollars that prop up the USPS subsidizing Chinese delivery. Private business would fix the price or go out of business. It's you fucking fagots that thing were deplorable and incapable of good thought that's the problem.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Thursday March 29, 2018 @01:29PM (#56347891)
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads".
But you deplorables know the constitution inside and out... lol
That the Constitution empowers Congress to establish Post Offices, does not mean that Congress should do so. It also does not mean that Congress should set postal rates, which rates are a result of political pressure and bribes.
I love it when people think the private industry is what's best for public utilities and services. You've learnt nothing from the internet, you'll learn nothing after you mail gets delivered once every 2 weeks and you get charged not only for sending it but also for receiving it. Go capitalism.
"You've learnt nothing from the internet, you'll learn nothing after you mail gets delivered once every 2 weeks..."
That would sure suck. But it sucks also today, here's how the deliveries were done in London in 1844
'The hours by which letters should be put into the receiving houses in town for each delivery are as follow - For delivery in town, Over night by eight o'clock, for the first delivery. Morning by eight o'clock, for the second delivery. Morning by ten o'clock, for the third delivery. Morning by twelv
But it sucks also today, here's how the deliveries were done in London in 1844
Let me stop you there. The function of a public utility needs to suit the current requirements. That we don't get letters seven times a day today doesn't mean the postal service sucks, people literally don't get that much mail anymore. The current requirements overwhelmingly tend towards 1 or 2 parcel deliveries per day and a letter delivery every couple of days.
The fact they don't do more than that doesn't mean they suck compared to how it was in London in 1844, it just means they are doing what is require
I used to live in Israel. The postal service was atrocious. I am told (I haven't lived there for a while) that it only ever started getting better after private companies started competing with it. It's still not a decent service, though. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Look for the opening hours of any of its branches on Google Maps.
On top of postal service being delegated in the Constitution, private companies can't compete with USPS... and they don't want to. Dipshits like you are too stupid to understand that. Every time conservatives have "privatized" something, the costs to taxpayers goes up in the form of subsidies, and the benefits go down. Now, if you hate this country.... like you seem to... and are literally too damn stupid to understand how things work, then i suppose that's ok. Problem is, for all your whining like a li
We had our national post company incorporated a while ago, here in the socialist Northern Europe. They are competing with the international delivery companies on the local logistics markets just like everybody else. The incorporated post company still has its basic service responsibility to carry mail, they just have the liberty to change the way they are performing it within the reasonable limits. I can't see any particular reason why that wouldn't work in the US as well, and that low cost enabled by "inte
The repub-tards forget to look how it works for other countries and then take and improve.
They think they are the shit and if it's not made by them it's caca.
Well the reality is that other nations lead in many domains and US is dragging behind because the corruption which is rampant during Republican administrations.
Our tax dollars don't go to the USPS. The USPS is not only self-funded, but each class of service pays for itself. That is, your 1st-class letters don't subsidize bulk mail or vice versa.
Honestly, if the USPS ceased to exist, it's a good bet that it would be red-state flyover country that would feel the effect with higher prices and reduced service.
But by all means, please rant some more. I anxiously await seeing you use the word "libturd".
(insults deleted)
You lefties are confused. If you would just leave services like deliveries to the private sector, you wouldn't have our tax dollars that prop up the USPS subsidizing Chinese delivery. Private business would fix the price or go out of business.
No confusion on this side of the education divide; USPS gets NO taxpayer funding. NONE. It's all paid for by postage.
It's the way international postage works. They pay for their cost where it originates, not where it ends up.... something like that. Go to a site like Ebay, for example, and search for some little low value item. You'll see all sorts of sales for less than a dollar, with free shipping.... all from China. With a minimum $2.66 just in postage, US companies simply can't compete; and that's not mentioning cost increases. 6 years ago, my first class package cost was $1.68 (i believe... maybe it was $1.63) f
yeah but if you have ever ordered anything like that you understand why - I will order connectors and such from china (and canada) all the time because they are like literally $.30- $1.00 a pop and you do wait a good 2-6 weeks usually for the items to show up. The Int'l shipping comes at a cost of convenience because they are group shipped often by sea rather than air so even when they are shipped out immediately you may wait a month or more for your package depending on the volume that they happen to be hi
This. A 4oz package i ship to someone next door to me (or anywhere in the US) costs me $2.66 (with a commercial discount). A 4oz package from China (to anywhere in the US) costs the Chinese company.17 cents.
Did you mean 17 cents, or does the package actually cost a fraction of a cent? Pedantic it may be but my level of outrage is affected by whether it costs.17 cents or 17 cents.
And as the postal service is a vital part of the economy... shouldn't there be rates set that in the end MAKE money?
And instead of complaining about "misusing" the postal service by delivering packages (after all, what else is their job then?), shouldn't he enforce those rates? I'm not from the US and don't have that much details, but shouldn't the USPS somewhere under the executive branch as the President?
You've described a real problem. Unfortunately you then followed it up with an uncalled-for attack on our great President. How about you leave the politics out of it and focus on the issue?
Most of them use ePacket now... a wholly USPS owned and operated service with depots in every major manufacturing hub in China.
So lets get this right... USPS sets up this system just for US Tech companies to get electronic parts and modules from China delivered cheap and quick... and you want to "go after them" for USING IT?
*Shakes head*
mnem
Now for something completely... the same old Western Corporate-Centric BS.
Look, I will not claim to know the ins and outs of ePacket and the USPS.
All I know is I can go on AliExpress and buy something for anywhere from $0.49 and it will come with free shipping across the entire globe. Please explain to me how it is economical for someone to make a profit margin on a $0.49 good *and* ship it internationally.
This shipping is being subsidized by someone, because there is no way it is being done profitably.
Of course it is; but you have it bass-ackwards. They make their profit on the large commercial shipments being carried on the same trucks, airplanes & ships. These bazillion 25 shipments are what gets shoved in sacks to fill every last corner and crevice in the hold; they are what actually pays for the fuel for the main trip.
Whining about the "last mile" is stupid; you think they lose money on their presort & bulk mail too? Of course they don't.
mnem
But wait, there's more! Now how much would you pay
The US agreed to agree with that law. You could stop that and not be part of it. It is not as if somebody is holding a gun to your head. Just say that the US is not part of the international postal law anymore.
I don't know what kind of bizaro world I've stumbled into where Republicans are defending a generous pension quasi government entity and democrats are defending the most cut throat capitalistic company in the US currently. Do we all just reflexively side either pro or anti Trump then proceed to rationalize that decision with whatever mental contortions are necessary to avoid any serious challenge to or growth in the way we view the world?
Do we all just reflexively side either pro or anti Trump then proceed to rationalize...
Trump's problem with Amazon is really about his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post (Jeff owns both) and the things the newspaper writes about Trump. Trump calling things "fake news" doesn't make them actually so...
Not trolling (really), but... to address your comments. The problem with Trump is that about 99% of everything he says is either flat-out wrong or easily-provably false. The safe, rational bet is to stand on the opposite side of whatever he's talking about.
The tweet in the TFS looks to be full of errors and/or half-truths, except for the part about harming retailers -- but is that really Amazon's fault or the people and retailers that sell through them. As to the other statements, Amazon *pays* the USPS to delivery things, albeit at a discount -- just like FedEx and UPS do for some last-mile deliveries. As for how much taxes Amazon and their retailers pay, that's on the State and Federal Congresses and the laws they pass. However, I have trouble believing that Trump and the Republicans want a rich person and company to pay *more* taxes, especially after the tax hand-job they gave their buddies and themselves in the recent tax bill.
Continuing that point, Sears was a great retailer for a *long* time, but they failed to innovate and keep up with the changing landscape. I'm not sure their purchases of Kmart and Lands' End and sale of the Craftsman brand did them any favors in the long run. More recently Sears is basically owned and operated by a bunch of hedge fund people who seem intent on chopping it up, selling things off and picking the carcass clean.
Failing to pay them properly means they don't feel invested in the future of the company. So they do the absolute minimum for minimum wage.
...open an Amazon storefront for them, and talk up your friendly in-person showroom, with stellar after-sales support. Oh you need better staff retention and expertise? And you don't want them to look like they're getting by on 6 hours' sleep after their third part-time job of the day? Pay more. Pay benefits.
It's lack of skill in business management that puts "many thousands of retailers out of business!" First rule of business: distinguish your service or your product.
Because one thing's for sure: you ain't gonna out-compete a multi-billion dollar retail business in your mom & pop 2000 sqft on the stripmall.
This is hilariously bad advice. The overhead for smaller businesses is much higher than for Amazon, not to mention the cost of a storefront.
"Pay more! Offer extra free support! Have a big showroom!" - These three (hugely expensive) ideas are all relatively free on Amazon's side - no sales associates, online reviews from consumers, and a webpage and screenshots. You're proposing a huge increase on cost when retailers ALREADY can't compete with Amazon's prices.
Yeah, wrt practices that put "many thousands of retailers out of business!"Anti-Amazonians' shining example of an Amazon victim is Toys R Us, but their problems began before Amazon was a big deal, way back in the eBay era.
Actually what killed them was being bled dry in a leveaged buyout by Bain Capitol (Mitt Romney's hedgefund vulture capitol firm). They were squeezed of all their assets so ferociously that they wouldn't have been able to survive even in a world without an eBay or an Amazon.
That race-to-the-bottom starts with the staff. Failing to pay them properly means they don't feel invested in the future of the company. So they do the absolute minimum for minimum wage.
You know, I really hate when people pull out this bullshit argument. You pay people more than minimum wage so they'll be part of your consumer base. You pay people more than minimum wage so you attract people who refuse to work on minimum wage because it's an unlivable wage. Maybe that lures in better employees on the ave
While Amazon certainly hurt Toys R Us, their biggest issue was self inflicted - the tremendous burden of the debt from the leveraged buyout, whose interest payments ate up the profits that could have been used to update physical stores and create a competitive online store.
One of the major reasons Toys R Us failed was because they were bought by a venture capital organization (Bain?) that loaded the TRU company with so much debt (basically forcing them to pay for their own sale) that they couldn't respond to market changes- most of their profits were going to debt service.
America is going to be great again once we start subsidizing coal and small high priced general stores where they sell stuff they buy on Amazon at a 100% markup. Tremendous.
The problem with Trump is that about 99% of everything he says is either flat-out wrong or easily-provably false. The safe, rational bet is to stand on the opposite side of whatever he's talking about.
Closer to 84% per Politifact rating "Half True" or lower: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/. Still horrible for a world leader, but worth nothing he does get things right on occasion.
the loss of business is also kind of wrong, more harm has been done to small business by retailers like walmart, kmart, sears, etc pushing out products that compete by creating their own factories overseas (especially in the garment industry) and then as we see with toysrus, sears, etc a lot of these companies are poorly managing their finances by overextending credit, parsing out debt, etc and leaving a hole in the marketplace that online retailers are plugging but still not fully. It is all a really compl
The irony here is that the Cheeto *himself* has bragged about not paying his own taxes, and he's personally put lots of small businesses out of business.
No, You all named GWB the anti-christ and it all spiraled from there with the echo chamber of social media making you all think everyone agreed with you. The answer from those who didn't is the ass-hat in-chief we have now. Thanks for that.
I don't know what kind of bizaro world I've stumbled into where Republicans are defending a generous pension quasi government entity and democrats are defending the most cut throat capitalistic company in the US currently.
The Republicans aren't criticising Amazon, Trump does. Trump is a Republican in name only, in reality he is just Trump. He's literally too ignorant to possess or follow any consistent ideology. Instead, he just vents on Twitter about whatever he's last seen on TV that enrages him momentarily.
Ha! No, you don't get to play that card here. Trump is the head of the Republican Party. The handful of Republicans who don't agree with him are RINOs. They might be TrueConservatives(TM), but they are not in line with what Republicans as a party agreed to. Trump beat #2 Ted Cruz almost two to one. Trump is what Republicans want. Trump is what they believe in. You don't get to come in here and pretend otherwise, just because you don't agree with him.
By 'Republican', are you talking about the Congressional Republicans, or the base in flyover country? If it's the latter, then yeah, Trump did do impressively, even though Ted Cruz held his own in several red states. But if it's the former, Trump to this day has trouble w/ them when he tries to push his own brand of non-Republican policies, be it tariffs on steel/aluminum, easing up on Russia (before the Salisbury poisoning of the Skripals) that are at odds w/ traditional GOP policies. Heck, there is no
Really? How is it that the senate, despite a Republican majority, has been unable to
- Get a single vote on repealing & replacing Obamacare?
- See through all his government nominees, including ambassadors?
- Pass immigration reform that included the wall, an end to the visa lottery and chain migration?
And aside from that, how does a Republican congress send him an omnibus bill that is filled w/ Democrat dreams, such as funding for a tunnel in NY, Planned Parenthood, a ban on using any money for the wal
I don't know what kind of bizaro world I've stumbled into where Republicans are defending a generous pension quasi government entity and democrats are defending the most cut throat capitalistic company in the US currently.
I believe that's pure confirmation bias on your part. You see some people defending the president's accusations and other people questioning them, and you assume that the former are all republican and assume that the latter are democrats because that is consistent with your your expectations based on your past experiences as you perceived them. Now because this experience is perceived to be consistent with those expectations once again, those expectations are reinforced for next time. The thing to remember
Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't that, literally, why they exist?
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Funny)
I think that he thinks that the USPS delivers Amazon's stuff for free using Unicorns.
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they want to go after someone that is abusing the USPS it's the Chinese sellers that use international postal law to get the USPS to pay the expensive last mile.
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
For these dipshits complaining us "leftists" should be on board with everyone paying their fair share but aren't... it's not that we don't think that, it's just that we seem to have a better idea of what the problem is than shit-for-brain idiots who only listen to grab-them-by-the-pussy-Trump.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:1, Troll)
What an asshat. No you dipshit. You lefties are confused. If you would just leave services like deliveries to the private sector, you wouldn't have our tax dollars that prop up the USPS subsidizing Chinese delivery. Private business would fix the price or go out of business. It's you fucking fagots that thing were deplorable and incapable of good thought that's the problem.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Funny)
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads".
But you deplorables know the constitution inside and out... lol
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
Well. You ass-hat Republicans have control of both the White House and Congress. So fix it or shut the hell up.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
does not mean that Congress should do so
I love it when people think the private industry is what's best for public utilities and services. You've learnt nothing from the internet, you'll learn nothing after you mail gets delivered once every 2 weeks and you get charged not only for sending it but also for receiving it. Go capitalism.
Re: (Score:3)
"You've learnt nothing from the internet, you'll learn nothing after you mail gets delivered once every 2 weeks ..."
That would sure suck. But it sucks also today, here's how the deliveries were done in London in 1844
'The hours by which letters should be put into the receiving houses in town for each delivery are as follow - For delivery in town,
Over night by eight o'clock, for the first delivery.
Morning by eight o'clock, for the second delivery.
Morning by ten o'clock, for the third delivery.
Morning by twelv
Re: (Score:3)
But it sucks also today, here's how the deliveries were done in London in 1844
Let me stop you there. The function of a public utility needs to suit the current requirements. That we don't get letters seven times a day today doesn't mean the postal service sucks, people literally don't get that much mail anymore. The current requirements overwhelmingly tend towards 1 or 2 parcel deliveries per day and a letter delivery every couple of days.
The fact they don't do more than that doesn't mean they suck compared to how it was in London in 1844, it just means they are doing what is require
Re: (Score:1)
I used to live in Israel. The postal service was atrocious. I am told (I haven't lived there for a while) that it only ever started getting better after private companies started competing with it. It's still not a decent service, though. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Look for the opening hours of any of its branches on Google Maps.
Re: (Score:0)
UPS, FedEx, DHL don't do this, dumb-ass.
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Yeah we should do this and rural hicks should pay the full cost of getting their deliveries about 4 times what they pay now.
Oh wait thats not fair you cry - what are you some kind of commie?
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Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
Can you site an example? Perhaps with a link to a source?
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
Of course.
https://www.usps.com/
Re: (Score:0)
We had our national post company incorporated a while ago, here in the socialist Northern Europe. They are competing with the international delivery companies on the local logistics markets just like everybody else. The incorporated post company still has its basic service responsibility to carry mail, they just have the liberty to change the way they are performing it within the reasonable limits. I can't see any particular reason why that wouldn't work in the US as well, and that low cost enabled by "inte
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
That! Exactly.
The repub-tards forget to look how it works for other countries and then take and improve.
They think they are the shit and if it's not made by them it's caca.
Well the reality is that other nations lead in many domains and US is dragging behind because the corruption which is rampant during Republican administrations.
Re: (Score:2)
Were so sorry we cant thing as good as you
Re: (Score:0)
Our tax dollars don't go to the USPS. The USPS is not only self-funded, but each class of service pays for itself. That is, your 1st-class letters don't subsidize bulk mail or vice versa.
Honestly, if the USPS ceased to exist, it's a good bet that it would be red-state flyover country that would feel the effect with higher prices and reduced service.
But by all means, please rant some more. I anxiously await seeing you use the word "libturd".
dom
Re: (Score:2)
ruh-roh. the randoids are out in force!
Re: (Score:1)
You lefties are confused. If you would just leave services like deliveries to the private sector, you wouldn't have our tax dollars that prop up the USPS subsidizing Chinese delivery. Private business would fix the price or go out of business.
No confusion on this side of the education divide; USPS gets NO taxpayer funding. NONE. It's all paid for by postage.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
Obvious leftist troll playing at being knuckle dragging conservative.
If you have to humanize the opposition then you've already lost.
Re: (Score:0)
You are an embarrassment to your parents.
I know. Your mom told me last night when my cock was in her ass.
Re: (Score:0)
> costs the Chinese company .17 cents.
how is that possible?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually this is incorrect.
Read about "e-packets" from the source..
This is why it costs less to send a package from China to New York then it does to send a package from New York to a block away.
http://about.usps.com/news/nat... [usps.com]
Re: (Score:0)
yeah but if you have ever ordered anything like that you understand why - I will order connectors and such from china (and canada) all the time because they are like literally $.30- $1.00 a pop and you do wait a good 2-6 weeks usually for the items to show up. The Int'l shipping comes at a cost of convenience because they are group shipped often by sea rather than air so even when they are shipped out immediately you may wait a month or more for your package depending on the volume that they happen to be hi
Re: (Score:2)
> costs the Chinese company .17 cents.
how is that possible?
He was rounding off. It's actually 6 shipments for a penny.
Re: (Score:0)
Nice divide and concur Yuri, everyone gets inflamed and no one will notice.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:2)
Conquer you fucking moron
Re: (Score:0)
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:2)
I don't give a shit
Re: (Score:1)
I don't give a shit
Thank you for keeping us all informed about what you do or do not give a shit.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:2)
You're very welcome
Re: (Score:0)
> A 4oz package from China (to anywhere in the US) costs the Chinese company .17 cents.
1/5 of a penny? Doubtful.
Re: (Score:1)
This. A 4oz package i ship to someone next door to me (or anywhere in the US) costs me $2.66 (with a commercial discount). A 4oz package from China (to anywhere in the US) costs the Chinese company .17 cents.
Did you mean 17 cents, or does the package actually cost a fraction of a cent? Pedantic it may be but my level of outrage is affected by whether it costs .17 cents or 17 cents.
Re: (Score:2)
And as the postal service is a vital part of the economy... shouldn't there be rates set that in the end MAKE money?
And instead of complaining about "misusing" the postal service by delivering packages (after all, what else is their job then?), shouldn't he enforce those rates? I'm not from the US and don't have that much details, but shouldn't the USPS somewhere under the executive branch as the President?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
Irony. I love irony, especially unintended.
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
LOLOL... SERIOUSLY?!?
Most of them use ePacket now... a wholly USPS owned and operated service with depots in every major manufacturing hub in China.
So lets get this right... USPS sets up this system just for US Tech companies to get electronic parts and modules from China delivered cheap and quick... and you want to "go after them" for USING IT?
*Shakes head*
mnem
Now for something completely... the same old Western Corporate-Centric BS.
Re: (Score:2)
Look, I will not claim to know the ins and outs of ePacket and the USPS.
All I know is I can go on AliExpress and buy something for anywhere from $0.49 and it will come with free shipping across the entire globe. Please explain to me how it is economical for someone to make a profit margin on a $0.49 good *and* ship it internationally.
This shipping is being subsidized by someone, because there is no way it is being done profitably.
Re: (Score:1)
Of course it is; but you have it bass-ackwards. They make their profit on the large commercial shipments being carried on the same trucks, airplanes & ships. These bazillion 25 shipments are what gets shoved in sacks to fill every last corner and crevice in the hold; they are what actually pays for the fuel for the main trip.
Whining about the "last mile" is stupid; you think they lose money on their presort & bulk mail too? Of course they don't.
mnem
But wait, there's more! Now how much would you pay
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:0)
Are you the smokestopper guy?
Re: (Score:2)
The US agreed to agree with that law. You could stop that and not be part of it. It is not as if somebody is holding a gun to your head. Just say that the US is not part of the international postal law anymore.
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do we all just reflexively side either pro or anti Trump then proceed to rationalize ...
Trump's problem with Amazon is really about his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post (Jeff owns both) and the things the newspaper writes about Trump. Trump calling things "fake news" doesn't make them actually so...
Not trolling (really), but... to address your comments. The problem with Trump is that about 99% of everything he says is either flat-out wrong or easily-provably false. The safe, rational bet is to stand on the opposite side of whatever he's talking about.
The tweet in the TFS looks to be full of errors and/or half-truths, except for the part about harming retailers -- but is that really Amazon's fault or the people and retailers that sell through them. As to the other statements, Amazon *pays* the USPS to delivery things, albeit at a discount -- just like FedEx and UPS do for some last-mile deliveries. As for how much taxes Amazon and their retailers pay, that's on the State and Federal Congresses and the laws they pass. However, I have trouble believing that Trump and the Republicans want a rich person and company to pay *more* taxes, especially after the tax hand-job they gave their buddies and themselves in the recent tax bill.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Trump's problem with Amazon is really about his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post (Jeff owns both)
Sweet zombie jesus, somebody report this. Some guy named Jeff owns Jeff Bezos!
Re: (Score:-1)
Yes, severe confusion is a symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon is just Sears-on-your-iPad.
Continuing that point, Sears was a great retailer for a *long* time, but they failed to innovate and keep up with the changing landscape. I'm not sure their purchases of Kmart and Lands' End and sale of the Craftsman brand did them any favors in the long run. More recently Sears is basically owned and operated by a bunch of hedge fund people who seem intent on chopping it up, selling things off and picking the carcass clean.
Sears has a bigger problem than plunging sales [businessinsider.com]
Sears workers describe decay in failing stores [businessinsider.com]
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Failing to pay them properly means they don't feel invested in the future of the company. So they do the absolute minimum for minimum wage.
...open an Amazon storefront for them, and talk up your friendly in-person showroom, with stellar after-sales support. Oh you need better staff retention and expertise? And you don't want them to look like they're getting by on 6 hours' sleep after their third part-time job of the day? Pay more. Pay benefits.
It's lack of skill in business management that puts "many thousands of retailers out of business!" First rule of business: distinguish your service or your product.
Because one thing's for sure: you ain't gonna out-compete a multi-billion dollar retail business in your mom & pop 2000 sqft on the stripmall.
This is hilariously bad advice. The overhead for smaller businesses is much higher than for Amazon, not to mention the cost of a storefront.
"Pay more! Offer extra free support! Have a big showroom!" - These three (hugely expensive) ideas are all relatively free on Amazon's side - no sales associates, online reviews from consumers, and a webpage and screenshots. You're proposing a huge increase on cost when retailers ALREADY can't compete with Amazon's prices.
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The overhead for smaller businesses is much higher than for Amazon, not to mention the cost of a storefront.
And here's an example. I recently purchased the science-fiction novel, "The Three-Body Problem".
Guess who I bought it from.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, wrt practices that put "many thousands of retailers out of business!"Anti-Amazonians' shining example of an Amazon victim is Toys R Us, but their problems began before Amazon was a big deal, way back in the eBay era.
Actually what killed them was being bled dry in a leveaged buyout by Bain Capitol (Mitt Romney's hedgefund vulture capitol firm). They were squeezed of all their assets so ferociously that they wouldn't have been able to survive even in a world without an eBay or an Amazon.
Re: (Score:0)
You know, I really hate when people pull out this bullshit argument. You pay people more than minimum wage so they'll be part of your consumer base. You pay people more than minimum wage so you attract people who refuse to work on minimum wage because it's an unlivable wage. Maybe that lures in better employees on the ave
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Did Sears have practices that put "many thousands of retailers out of business!" ?
Yes. Starting in the 1890s, the Sears catalog and mail order system drove thousands of small dry goods shops out of business.
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While Amazon certainly hurt Toys R Us, their biggest issue was self inflicted - the tremendous burden of the debt from the leveraged buyout, whose interest payments ate up the profits that could have been used to update physical stores and create a competitive online store.
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One of the major reasons Toys R Us failed was because they were bought by a venture capital organization (Bain?) that loaded the TRU company with so much debt (basically forcing them to pay for their own sale) that they couldn't respond to market changes- most of their profits were going to debt service.
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America is going to be great again once we start subsidizing coal and small high priced general stores where they sell stuff they buy on Amazon at a 100% markup. Tremendous.
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The problem with Trump is that about 99% of everything he says is either flat-out wrong or easily-provably false. The safe, rational bet is to stand on the opposite side of whatever he's talking about.
Closer to 84% per Politifact rating "Half True" or lower: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/. Still horrible for a world leader, but worth nothing he does get things right on occasion.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:-1)
Haha, you cited Politifact! #CredulousDunce
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the loss of business is also kind of wrong, more harm has been done to small business by retailers like walmart, kmart, sears, etc pushing out products that compete by creating their own factories overseas (especially in the garment industry) and then as we see with toysrus, sears, etc a lot of these companies are poorly managing their finances by overextending credit, parsing out debt, etc and leaving a hole in the marketplace that online retailers are plugging but still not fully. It is all a really compl
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The irony here is that the Cheeto *himself* has bragged about not paying his own taxes, and he's personally put lots of small businesses out of business.
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No, You all named GWB the anti-christ and it all spiraled from there with the echo chamber of social media making you all think everyone agreed with you. The answer from those who didn't is the ass-hat in-chief we have now. Thanks for that.
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"No, You all named GWB the anti-christ and it all spiraled from there"
LOLOLOLOLOL. In the US, conservatives have been calling liberals traitors and commies since at least the 50s. Calm yo tits.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
The glove fits. Wear it with pride, commie.
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I don't know what kind of bizaro world I've stumbled into where Republicans are defending a generous pension quasi government entity and democrats are defending the most cut throat capitalistic company in the US currently.
The Republicans aren't criticising Amazon, Trump does. Trump is a Republican in name only, in reality he is just Trump. He's literally too ignorant to possess or follow any consistent ideology. Instead, he just vents on Twitter about whatever he's last seen on TV that enrages him momentarily.
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Trump is a Republican in name only
Ha! No, you don't get to play that card here. Trump is the head of the Republican Party. The handful of Republicans who don't agree with him are RINOs. They might be TrueConservatives(TM), but they are not in line with what Republicans as a party agreed to. Trump beat #2 Ted Cruz almost two to one. Trump is what Republicans want. Trump is what they believe in. You don't get to come in here and pretend otherwise, just because you don't agree with him.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:1)
Up until a few years ago Trump was a Democrat or funded Democrat politicians
Trump leads GOP? (Score:2)
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:0)
I don't know. For a "fake republican" he sure seems to have the full backing of the GOP.
Republicans should not get to disown this asshat.
Trump's GOP backing? (Score:1)
And aside from that, how does a Republican congress send him an omnibus bill that is filled w/ Democrat dreams, such as funding for a tunnel in NY, Planned Parenthood, a ban on using any money for the wal
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Because, no matter how much he likes to boast about it, he's simply not much of a dealmaker.
Seriously, how fucking useless do you have to be not to be able to pass healthcare reform when you control the house and the senate?
Re: Trump's GOP backing? (Score:0)
Dumbass, it was just explained to you in the very post you are replying to. It was the entire point of the post you replied to.
I'll speak it out: Trump does not control congress. The never trumpets do.
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This was true at some point, but Trump and his supporters have taken over the party. One interesting book on this is Trumpocracy [amazon.com].
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I don't know what kind of bizaro world I've stumbled into where Republicans are defending a generous pension quasi government entity and democrats are defending the most cut throat capitalistic company in the US currently.
I believe that's pure confirmation bias on your part. You see some people defending the president's accusations and other people questioning them, and you assume that the former are all republican and assume that the latter are democrats because that is consistent with your your expectations based on your past experiences as you perceived them. Now because this experience is perceived to be consistent with those expectations once again, those expectations are reinforced for next time. The thing to remember
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Why would you do that for free?
My friend's little girl would positively explode if you had something delivered to her via unicorn.
Not gonna lie, I might pee myself a little too. :-P
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Tell him unicorns will pay for the wall, then he'll stop pestering us about it.
We'll even promise to put multicorns on the job, bigly faster than unicorns.
Re: Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy? (Score:2)