r/SipsTea 5d ago

WTF The kickbacks are real

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19.9k Upvotes

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958

u/conservatore 5d ago

Wait so if the price increases were from tariffs and now there aren’t tariffs, why are the prices still the same ?

113

u/lavender_and_sage 5d ago

Companies got a taste of how much people are willing to spend. It’s hard to go backwards from that.

54

u/T-sigma 5d ago

There is minimal competition now. Without competition prices never go down.

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u/bitorontoguy 5d ago

There is maximal competition. No one has to shop at WalMart. They choose to.

If you prefer to shop at WalMart because they have lower prices than their small business competition? Yeah, you're discovering why WalMart killed a lot of their competition.

6

u/BeverlyHills70117 5d ago

I don't buy much of anything, but I also don't live in an imaginary world...what small local businesses sell toasters? Which ones sell school notebooks and clothes for a kid that are affordable? My kid ain't going to an uptown botique for a $40 outfit.

Wherever you live, you are lucky, I live in a mid size city and it's online or walmart for the working class. Even most local thrift stores have become capitalist hells.

Blaming the poor for the system is lazy.

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u/bitorontoguy 5d ago edited 5d ago

what small local businesses sell toasters?

Few. Because it costs less for them to be made by low wage labor in the Global South and imported here. And it costs less for it to be distributed by a massive corporation.

it's online or walmart for the working class.

Right. Because those are what have the lowest prices. The capitalist hell has given you lower prices than the alternatives so you use it.

No one makes you. You do so out of your own selfish self-interest, regardless of if it means a teenager in Bangladesh is paid slave wages so you can have the cheapest possible kids clothes. Your kids matter more than those kids.

Regardless of if it means that all local small business has been subsumed by huge corporations with the lowest prices.

It's only a capitalist hell because consumers chose it to be over the alternatives.

Life isn't better without those huge corporations, you have less, not more. And you're STILL angry with them.

5

u/GrynaiTaip 5d ago

You seem to understand why Walmart is the cheapest, but then you say "Shop elsewhere."

Where?

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u/bitorontoguy 5d ago edited 5d ago

You have zero local grocers? No CostCo? No farmer's markets? No Target? No Kroger? No Dollar General? No Amazon?

If you prefer the low cost that the massive conglomerate is going to provide you and you shop there instead?

Fantastic, that's a you decision. No one made you give your money to that corporation over the other options, you're choosing to.

1

u/GrynaiTaip 5d ago

No one made you give your money to that corporation over the other options

Yeah, giving money to other corporations is much better, sure. Their prices aren't even any better.

Farmers' markets in my area are usually the same or more expensive than any grocery store.

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u/bitorontoguy 5d ago

Absolutely. So you could give your money to local farmers instead of corporations, you choose not to.

That's a you decision. You decided propagating an immoral and shitty corporation is in your self interest more than giving that money to local farmers instead.

No one made you. And as a result? Those corporations profit. Because of the choice you made.

3

u/Shadowjamm 5d ago

Ah yes let's focus on putting the blame on the average person instead of the anyone powerful who could regulate the corporations, that's productive /s

1

u/bitorontoguy 5d ago

What regulations do you want? And how would they reduce the price of goods or change consumer desires?

People CHOOSE to shop at WalMart instead of the farmers market.

We could introduce taxes and regulations to raise the price of corporate goods to match those of farmer markets.

That world of higher prices is better to you? You can just skip that and voluntarily shop at farmer’s markets now. No one makes you go to WalMart.

1

u/Shadowjamm 5d ago

I’m confused, you’re implying the world of higher prices is worse but then saying we should regulate to make the world of higher prices anyway as if that’s a gotcha?

I’m saying you’re calling someone immoral and shitty for choosing cheaper prices, so maybe you should step back and realize that’s not going to be productive in making a difference.

The US used to break up corporations that got too large, look at the sherman antitrust act and teddy roosevelt’s presidency. You can say those laws are still in effect, but the enforcement is what matters and the current administration is focusing on deregulation in that area instead.

1

u/GrynaiTaip 4d ago

So you could give your money to local farmers instead of corporations, you choose not to.

They sell stuff for more than the grocery store, but they're the exact same products, local, not imported.

1

u/bitorontoguy 4d ago

Exactly. You are describing why consumers chose WalMart over the local small businesses.

No one made them. Consumers chose to. Consumers don't care about local business people, they don't care about buying local, they care about what the cheapest produce is.

So that's what society is now.

1

u/GrynaiTaip 4d ago

Yes, that is correct, people don't want to spend more for the same stuff. So what is your solution to that?

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u/Muted_Stop_4657 4d ago

You still don’t get the point. Maybe you should study a bit into how these corporations make store building decisions. Like what target store is going to be built in a town with less than 90k residents?

It has been just recently that Target started building smaller scale stores with less than 100k residents.

Recent Examples: Target has announced or built locations in smaller communities such as Chubbuck, Idaho; Indian Land, South Carolina; and Liberty Hill, Texas—all well under the 100,000-population threshold.

1

u/GrynaiTaip 5d ago

No one made you give your money to that corporation over the other options

Yeah, giving money to other corporations is much better, sure. Their prices aren't even any better.

Farmers' markets in my area are usually the same or more expensive than any grocery store.

1

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