Complaint Thread

[exciter1]

When did Books-A-Million officially stop selling LEGO?  Did they ever blow stuff out, or did stores pull all of their inventory?

[MinifigW]

2 hours ago, exciter1 said:

When did Books-A-Million officially stop selling LEGO?  Did they ever blow stuff out, or did stores pull all of their inventory?

Keep in mind I don't have a BAM within several states of me, but I heard anecdotally they seemed to have just stopped getting new inventory since the pandemic. ALA Kmart during their final demise. 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

Just went to IN&Out for burgers

sign on the window:

Start at $18 /hr and Earn up to $21.50 /hr

as a small business owner; it's a reminder that the salary bar for my employees just went up a few more dollars an hour.  FYI; working it out w/ my accountant a $2 increase means the business incurs $4k in additional costs a year per employee.

[KShine]

11 minutes ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

Just went to IN&Out for burgers

sign on the window:

Start at $18 /hr and Earn up to $21.50 /hr

as a small business owner; it's a reminder that the salary bar for my employees just went up a few more dollars an hour.  FYI; working it out w/ my accountant a $2 increase means the business incurs $4k in additional costs a year per employee.

And you and others will just have to pass it on, by adding it onto the cost of whatever it is you provide your customer.

It's a crazy world, but that's just the way it all works.

[Mathew]

2 hours ago, KShine said:

And you and others will just have to pass it on, by adding it onto the cost of whatever it is you provide your customer.

It's a crazy world, but that's just the way it all works.

That’s not how it’s supposed to work.  When said businesses are forced to reduce hours of operation due to staffing shortages they lose money. When they are forced to overpay a high school kid $18 an hour to flip burgers they must raise prices to the consumer.    Eventually consumers will tire of waiting 40 minutes in a drive thru for a $10 fast food burger (that tastes worse than the $5 one from two years ago). Inflation is not sustainable when consumption stops. 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Mathew

[scratchdesk]

A little update on my missing Rakuten cash back from the AT-AT I ordered. 

• As a courtesy, we are making an exception and adding Cash Back for this order to your account. If the code is not provided by Rakuten (even if it comes directly from Lego) it may void the Cash Back. In this case, Lego denied the Cash Back due to the code applied to the order. 
  
  In the future, please make sure to only use coupon codes listed on the store’s Rakuten page. For more information, please see our Help/FAQ page: http://www.rakuten.com/help/exclusions.htm

I'm not sure if the Vintage Camera code set it off or the redemption of VIP for discount.  But it appears one or the combination of both will result in denial of Cash Back. 

[BrickLover80]

2 minutes ago, scratchdesk said:

A little update on my missing Rakuten cash back from the AT-AT I ordered. 

• As a courtesy, we are making an exception and adding Cash Back for this order to your account. If the code is not provided by Rakuten (even if it comes directly from Lego) it may void the Cash Back. In this case, Lego denied the Cash Back due to the code applied to the order. 
  
  In the future, please make sure to only use coupon codes listed on the store’s Rakuten page. For more information, please see our Help/FAQ page: http://www.rakuten.com/help/exclusions.htm

I'm not sure if the Vintage Camera code set it off or the redemption of VIP for discount.  But it appears one or the combination of both will result in denial of Cash Back. 

That explains why I haven't gotten my cash-back on multiple orders around VIP weekend and BF. Very upsetting because these are not discount codes and you pay the rewards with points. What BS.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

20 hours ago, Mathew said:

That’s not how it’s supposed to work.  When said businesses are forced to reduce hours of operation due to staffing shortages they lose money. When they are forced to overpay a high school kid $18 an hour to flip burgers they must raise prices to the consumer.    Eventually consumers will tire of waiting 40 minutes in a drive thru for a $10 fast food burger (that tastes worse than the $5 one from two years ago). Inflation is not sustainable when consumption stops. 

Prices are Way up

Quality & Service way down

Wait-times & Lines are Way up

This must be what communism is like.

I may be off, but I don't think what we are experiencing to be market forces...I mean are there no longer teenagers that need a job? Have they ALL become youtubers and influencers?

[Alpinemaps]

That’s not how it’s supposed to work.  When said businesses are forced to reduce hours of operation due to staffing shortages they lose money. When they are forced to overpay a high school kid $18 an hour to flip burgers they must raise prices to the consumer.    Eventually consumers will tire of waiting 40 minutes in a drive thru for a $10 fast food burger (that tastes worse than the $5 one from two years ago). Inflation is not sustainable when consumption stops. 

By whose metric are they overpaying? Not by In N Out’s metric. Thats what they feel the cost of labor is going for. And that’s not just for high school kids, it’s anyone.

Labor is a good just like everything else. Supply and demand applies.

Just as consumers tire of $10 burgers and 40 minute waits, workers tire of sub-par wages that are not life sustaining.

[bigboy61]

11 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

Just as consumers tire of $10 burgers and 40 minute waits, workers tire of sub-par wages that are not life sustaining.

The thing about paying a living wage for these food service jobs is that a portion of them really aren't meant to be your career job. I worked food service when I was in college. I was being paying between 9 and $10.25 an hour (part time no benefits). However, it wasn't meant to be a full time job for me. It was just part time work while in school. Isn't this who most of the fast food jobs are geared for?  Jobs for high school cool/college people to make some money while in school. Thus why they can pay lower and not offer good enough pay to live on (since a lot of these positions aren't meant to be your carerr job). 

 

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong? What are your thoughts?

[cladner]

1 hour ago, bigboy61 said:

The thing about paying a living wage for these food service jobs is that a portion of them really aren't meant to be your career job. I worked food service when I was in college. I was being paying between 9 and $10.25 an hour (part time no benefits). However, it wasn't meant to be a full time job for me. It was just part time work while in school. Isn't this who most of the fast food jobs are geared for?  Jobs for high school cool/college people to make some money while in school. Thus why they can pay lower and not offer good enough pay to live on (since a lot of these positions aren't meant to be your carerr job). 

 

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong? What are your thoughts?

times have changed.  school got harder.  students got lazier. video games got better.  take your pick.  maybe some of them got into crypto early 😛 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by cladner

[Mathew]

1 hour ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

Prices are Way up

Quality & Service way down

Wait-times & Lines are Way up

This must be what communism is like.

I may be off, but I don't think what we are experiencing to be market forces...I mean are there no longer teenagers that need a job? Have they ALL become youtubers and influencers?

Correct. 

[Mark Twain]

The thing about paying a living wage for these food service jobs is that a portion of them really aren't meant to be your career job. I worked food service when I was in college. I was being paying between 9 and $10.25 an hour (part time no benefits). However, it wasn't meant to be a full time job for me. It was just part time work while in school. Isn't this who most of the fast food jobs are geared for?  Jobs for high school cool/college people to make some money while in school. Thus why they can pay lower and not offer good enough pay to live on (since a lot of these positions aren't meant to be your carerr job). 
 
Maybe I'm looking at this wrong? What are your thoughts?

4.5 million people quit their jobs voluntarily in November and most were from people walking away from low paying jobs. Many businesses have treated labor as a disposable commodity for generations, burning through workers like cord wood. It isn’t confined to fast food—Amazon has nearly a 100% replacement rate in their warehouse employees and those are supposed to be good paying career jobs. A lot of fast food employees are young, but a good chuck are in their 30s and 40s, just like the associates at Walmart. They get stuck in a dead end job or leave and find one like it and repeat the cycle. It’s misery and I’d quit, too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/business/economy/job-openings-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare


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[lazuli16]

[minicoopers11]

2 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

Prices are Way up

Quality & Service way down

Wait-times & Lines are Way up

This must be what communism is like.

I may be off, but I don't think what we are experiencing to be market forces...I mean are there no longer teenagers that need a job? Have they ALL become youtubers and influencers?

Teenagers want more pay just like everyone else. Why take a low paying job when you can take a higher paying job (tuition isn’t decreasing…)…I think one important aspect being overlooked here are the non-breadwinner parents who used to work for supplemental income and just don’t anymore to lower exposure to Covid or to take care of kids that couldn’t go to in-person school. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by minicoopers11

[lodibricks]

1 hour ago, minicoopers11 said:

Teenagers want more pay just like everyone else. Why take a low paying job when you can take a higher paying job (tuition isn’t decreasing…)…I think one important aspect being overlooked here are the non-breadwinner parents who used to work for supplemental income and just don’t anymore to lower exposure to Covid or to take care of kids that couldn’t go to in-person school. 

Of course we all want more money, but we keep focusing "low paying jobs" though. The kicker to me is the ripple effect, anyone higher up currently getting $20 will now want $30, and their managers will now need $40-50....and goes on up. Now that measly minimum wage job just bumped up every level of pay for all jobs. And it's not just McD's. Any other blue or white collar job is now saying, "why am I doing all this stressful work for $20 when I can flip burgers or stock shelves for the same pay?" It's so much bigger than a bump in minimum wage.

Good points on the supplemental income & taking care of kids.

[FM]

My teenager is looking for his first job at 15 and can't find an entry level position in a fast food restaurant. By me all the McDonald's and BKs all closed their indoor dining and kept it closed. They've wanted to eliminate the overhead of renting dining space and the labor to maintain it for years. COVID shut down Walmart? They reopened with 1 cashier for 20 lines now. Market forces apply, but never let a good crisis go to waste. The 'big guys' never pay, they only pass it on.

I guess the only option is for the federal government to give 18-year olds with no marketable skills an unsecured $200k government loan they can never pay back. There's a reason government loans survive bankruptcy.


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[Alpinemaps]

http://bp-forum.s3.amazonaws.com/monthly_2022_01/a3d2ca33bb783e42dfa40ee6e83bd446--military-brat-army-brat.jpg.9f3ae0e84cf25ae57951859a8043bc3b.jpg

Record profits. Escalating salaries for CEOs. The rich keep getting richer.

Of course we all want more money, but we keep focusing "low paying jobs" though. The kicker to me is the ripple effect, anyone higher up currently getting $20 will now want $30, and their managers will now need $40-50....and goes on up. Now that measly minimum wage job just bumped up every level of pay for all jobs. And it's not just McD's. Any other blue or white collar job is now saying, "why am I doing all this stressful work for $20 when I can flip burgers or stock shelves for the same pay?" It's so much bigger than a bump in minimum wage.
Good points on the supplemental income & taking care of kids.

That doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t fundamentally care what you make. If you can make $30 instead of $20, good for you!



And there the rub. Fattest profits in 7 decades. And we’re worried about whether it’s appropriate to pay a living wage? Just because someone is in high school, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it as well.

[iahawks550]

1 hour ago, Alpinemaps said:

And there the rub. Fattest profits in 7 decades. And we’re worried about whether it’s appropriate to pay a living wage? Just because someone is in high school, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it as well.
 

I don't think anyone is really arguing a living wage. The argument is the ripple effect for the economy itself. When wages keep going up, either companies take smaller profits (lol) or they maintain by raising prices or eliminating jobs. The problem is that you have a bunch of public sector jobs that can't operate that way because their only income is taxes. Guess what that means?

So, higher costs, higher taxes, minimal pay raise means the middle class gets squeezed, and it's most likely the not the lower end or the upper end that feels it.

[Alpinemaps]

16 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

I don't think anyone is really arguing a living wage. The argument is the ripple effect for the economy itself. When wages keep going up, either companies take smaller profits (lol) or they maintain by raising prices or eliminating jobs. The problem is that you have a bunch of public sector jobs that can't operate that way because their only income is taxes. Guess what that means?

So, higher costs, higher taxes, minimal pay raise means the middle class gets squeezed, and it's most likely the not the lower end or the upper end that feels it.

Companies not taking smaller profits also has a ripple effect.  CEOs taking bigger and bigger pay days has a ripple affect.

I read your argument as "we can't have higher wages, because that will hurt the economy."  I hate to sound communist, but instead of distributing the profits to the shareholders, how about distributing profits to the employees?

Labor is a commodity, but, so are shareholders.  It's just about where a company puts value, and where a company puts it's profits.  And let's face it - you and I are not the shareholders that are benefitting to the degree where redistributing the profits of a company will have a significant affect on us.

[chinothegeeko]

There will never be a minimum wage that meets a livable wage. Costs just rise with it. Keeping it unreachable.


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[Shortbus311]

I don't think anyone is really arguing a living wage. The argument is the ripple effect for the economy itself. When wages keep going up, either companies take smaller profits (lol) or they maintain by raising prices or eliminating jobs. The problem is that you have a bunch of public sector jobs that can't operate that way because their only income is taxes. Guess what that means?
So, higher costs, higher taxes, minimal pay raise means the middle class gets squeezed, and it's most likely the not the lower end or the upper end that feels it.

Yes, the middle class will feel this squeeze the most. Inflation this past year was 5.9%. With the near nationwide increase in minimum wages and companies just offering higher wages to attract workers to low paying jobs, I would be willing to bet that the lower class workers on average increased more than 6% this year (if anyone has any actual data on this please share). And I guarantee that the upper class did better than 6% this year if the stock market is any indication. The people who actually lost ground are the middle class. How many got a greater than 6% raise this year? Not me.

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[chinothegeeko]

Yes, the middle class will feel this squeeze the most. Inflation this past year was 5.9%. With the near nationwide increase in minimum wages and companies just offering higher wages to attract workers to low paying jobs, I would be willing to bet that the lower class workers on average increased more than 6% this year (if anyone has any actual data on this please share). And I guarantee that the upper class did better than 6% this year if the stock market is any indication. The people who actually lost ground are the middle class. How many got a greater than 6% raise this year? Not me.

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That’s the goal. Eliminate the middle class. It’s working for sure.


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[Phil B]

It's capitalism at work folks. Free market and hence price is just a reflection of supply vs demand. There is no plan to eliminate the middle class, unless that plan is capitalism. Then yeah, let's get rid of capitalism. But the people complaining about the unfair effects of inflation tend to be the biggest proponents of capitalism.

It's like Ted Cruz (IIRC) decrying federal handouts and then asking for one as soon as his state gets hit with a national disaster. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Call me a commie, but the best way to protect the middle class is more government-controlled programs such as free healthcare, guaranteed minimum wage, social security that keeps people away from poverty, and with that (unfortunately but necessarily) higher taxes.

Flame away ...

[Alpinemaps]

4 minutes ago, Phil B said:

with that (unfortunately but necessarily) higher taxes.

I'm not a fan of the phrase "higher taxes," but prefer "fairer taxes."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/business/tax-break-qualified-small-business-stock.html

Quote

Once aimed at small businesses, a 1990s-era tax break has become a popular way for Silicon Valley founders and investors to avoid taxes on their investment profits.

This is the story of the incredible cloning tax break.

In 2004, David Baszucki, fresh off a stint as a radio host in Santa Cruz, Calif., started a tiny video-game company. It was eligible for a tax break that lets investors in small businesses avoid millions of dollars in capital gains taxes if the start-ups hit it big.

Today Mr. Baszucki’s company, Roblox, the maker of one of the world’s most popular video-gaming platforms, is valued at about $60 billion. Mr. Baszucki is worth an estimated $7 billion.

Yet he and his extended family are reaping big benefits from a tax break aimed at small businesses.

Mr. Baszucki and his relatives have been able to multiply the tax break at least 12 times. Among those poised to avoid millions of dollars in capital gains taxes are Mr. Baszucki’s wife, his four children, his mother-in-law and even his first cousin-in-law, according to securities filings and people with knowledge of the matter.

Do you think that Mr. Baszucki, and his family, are paying a fair share of their tax, compared to us?  I'm not talking about making them pay above and beyond a percentage of what you and I pay.  But I am asking - do they pay at a same or similar rate of tax compared to their income/worth as you and I?  (Spoilers - no).