lbrtbell (2,252 posts)
Why "mom and pop" stores are as bad as big-box stores
Last edited Wed Feb 20, 2013, 08:39 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
As background: I used to live where this "small" business does business. Their prices are the highest in that whole city, and if you watch this video, you'll see that there is no difference whatsoever between the owner's views and those of Walmart:
http://www.khastv.com/news/local/Minimum-wage-hike-leaves-small-business-owners-fearful-191480801.htmlQuoteThe current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Obama wants to raise it to $9.00. It's a cost that scares a lot of small business owners.
"It's just going to reflect because we'll have to raise our prices," said Allen's Superstore owner Georgene Allen.
Georgene Allen is among many small business owners who say raising the minimum wage won't do any good.
"It's going to hurt us I believe, financially," Allen said.
Did I mention that they already have the highest prices in the city, and always have, long before anyone knew who Obama was?Quote"Also, with Obamacare coming into effect, it's another thing we have to consider and it's really going to affect how we operate," Allen said.
Allen's doesn't provide health care for their employees. So guess who does? That's right--just like Walmart.
The difference between Walmart and Allen's is that the Walmart store is clean, and Walmart actually has some Made In USA stuff interspersed among the Chinese crap.
Lest you think other small stores are any better, consider my experience today. Every time I go to our town's only little grocery store, I'm pleasant and friendly toward its proprietor...who responds by constantly trying to argue with me. Normally, I nod and smile, until today, when my mother accompanied me into the store.
We were talking about how hard it had been for my mom to endure the last blizzard/power outage we had. She was defending the fact that the local power company had gone home for 8 hours and left entire towns without heat or power. While I realize it was a blizzard, the fact remains that the power company workers are paid to work in such conditions, AND they have heated trucks. This nasty woman started mocking my mother and me in front of another customer, saying we were "complaining" and that it was more important for healthy men to go home, than for people like my sickly, elderly mother to be cared for.
Still trying to be nice, I said that we could have just gone out to the car to get warm, except we can't open the garage door with no power (you can't run a car in a closed garage). She said, "Get a generator." I reminded her that I can't start a motor with a pull-cord, as she knows because she's aware that I have an electric lawnmower for just that reason. She just shrugged and started bitching about us to the other woman in the store again.
When we went outside, my mother started to cry at this woman's utter heartlessness, and we've vowed never to go back there again.
In case you haven't guessed, this bitch is a right-winger.
So is Georgene ("Waah, don't raise the minimum wage!") Allen, who routinely sells anti-Obama T-shirts and greeting cards, according to my friends living in that area.
It might be just as well that this happened...the other day, I went to get some eggs there, and found that this nasty woman turned all the cartons around so you couldn't read the expiration dates. The eggs had expired 3 weeks ago. She's always pulling stunts like that, which is why I always read expiration dates before buying any of her overpriced crap.
I just realized today that, for 5 years, I've been kissing up to this woman, trying to be nice, when it's her job to be nice to me and every other customer.
Between Allen's and their filthy stores...and this small-town right-wing hillbilly who misspells every handwritten sign she puts in her window...and the small-town mechanic who cheated me out of $1000, I've had it.
And I realized, this is precisely why big-box stores drive small businesses out of business. You can't treat customers like crap while overcharging them, then expect them to come back for more abuse. People will, at some point, think, "Screw you!" and shop elsewhere.
But instead of learning this lesson, these small business owners keep acting as if it's 1965, and that they own the town because there's no shopping alternatives out there.
There are. From now on, I only do business at places that are either BBB accredited, or have a corporate headquarters that will make things right when an employee does wrong. I mean, if I'm forced to give my money to right-wing Republicans, I at least want to be treated with respect while I do so.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Lint Head (10,117 posts)
5. This just kills me. Mom and pop need to get a clue. Everybody is paying more for everything.
Even the people they employ. The people they employ need to pay for gas, food and roofs over their heads. Don't go into damn business if you find your business assessment and model don't make a profit. You don't have to offer certain benefits to employees if you employ under 50 people. Major restaurants rip off their employees every day. They pay them 3 dollars and hour plus tips then don't work them for 40 hours so they don't have to pay benefits. Big box stores also work people under 36 hours and some over 49 yet do not pay benefits. The system is broken for everybody.
riderinthestorm (12,389 posts)
8. Your story is actually instructive on why MONOPOLIES are bad for communities
Because they can treat their customers (and their employees) like shit because they have you over a barrel with nowhere else to shop.
Walmart has driven out the competition that may have raised the level of customer service in ALL of the shops.
Can you edit to remove the sexist bitch term please?
EastKYLiberal (368 posts)
14. Any business that opposes a minimum wage increase...
Doesn't deserve to do business in America.
rustydog (7,926 posts)
16. To put it simply, Mom and Pop don't have the buying power of Walmart
Costco, Sears, Fred Meyer, etc.
bhikkhu (7,264 posts)
19. They also don't have a mile-long management hierarchy, each step getting their slice
The shop I work for is a small owner-operator, and we compete with a big chain store in town and with W-mart, which is next door.
We compete just fine on prices most of the time, and its usually pretty easy to beat the big store's service.
randome (10,334 posts)
25. Just as corporations think 'bigger is better'...
...privately owned shops think 'smaller is better'. And neither size is guaranteed to give you good service. People are still people. There are good mixed in with the bad. The polite mixed in with the rude.
I'm reminded of how many on DU talk about how they can avoid sales taxes by buying through the Internet but then berate corporations for using loopholes to do the same.
The only solution to corporations is to close the loopholes and that's a job for Congress to do. Level the playing field for big and small shops.
mojitojoe (91 posts)
41. Notice how the news bimbo referred to him as 'Obama' and not 'President Obama'?
Are you sure that wasn't a Fox network station?
mojitojoe (91 posts)
41. Notice how the news bimbo referred to him as 'Obama' and not 'President Obama'?
Are you sure that wasn't a Fox network station?
SOMEBODY OUGHTA DO SOMETHING!!!
:rant:
Can you edit to remove the sexist bitch term please?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022405656
Lest you think other small stores are any better, consider my experience today. Every time I go to our town's only little grocery store, I'm pleasant and friendly toward its proprietor...who responds by constantly trying to argue with me. Normally, I nod and smile, until today, when my mother accompanied me into the store.
We were talking about how hard it had been for my mom to endure the last blizzard/power outage we had. She was defending the fact that the local power company had gone home for 8 hours and left entire towns without heat or power. While I realize it was a blizzard, the fact remains that the power company workers are paid to work in such conditions, AND they have heated trucks. This nasty woman started mocking my mother and me in front of another customer, saying we were "complaining" and that it was more important for healthy men to go home, than for people like my sickly, elderly mother to be cared for.
Still trying to be nice, I said that we could have just gone out to the car to get warm, except we can't open the garage door with no power (you can't run a car in a closed garage). She said, "Get a generator." I reminded her that I can't start a motor with a pull-cord, as she knows because she's aware that I have an electric lawnmower for just that reason. She just shrugged and started bitching about us to the other woman in the store again.
When we went outside, my mother started to cry at this woman's utter heartlessness, and we've vowed never to go back there again.
In case you haven't guessed, this bitch is a right-winger.
So is Georgene ("Waah, don't raise the minimum wage!") Allen, who routinely sells anti-Obama T-shirts and greeting cards, according to my friends living in that area.
It might be just as well that this happened...the other day, I went to get some eggs there, and found that this nasty woman turned all the cartons around so you couldn't read the expiration dates. The eggs had expired 3 weeks ago. She's always pulling stunts like that, which is why I always read expiration dates before buying any of her overpriced crap.
If you can't account for every retarded scheme evey liberal may some day propose you don't deserve to have a business!
Still trying to be nice, I said that we could have just gone out to the car to get warm, except we can't open the garage door with no power (you can't run a car in a closed garage).Sure you can, DUmmie, crank it up. :whistling:
Still trying to be nice, I said that we could have just gone out to the car to get warm, except we can't open the garage door with no power (you can't run a car in a closed garage). She said, "Get a generator." I reminded her that I can't start a motor with a pull-cord, as she knows because she's aware that I have an electric lawnmower for just that reason. She just shrugged and started bitching about us to the other woman in the store again.
As a fictional spirit-guide I get to deal with all types of people. I find it oddly amusing that when a DUmmies fabricates a story for fellow DUmmies to enjoy all of the evil rethuglican antagonists actually display DUmmie qualities.
Let's take a look at portions of the fantasy piece that the DUmmie DUmbbell composed.
The DUmmie is always pleasant and friendly toward the owner, but the owner (the antagonist in this work of fiction) constantly responds to the pleasantness and friendliness by trying to argue.
Right. Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the cesspool that is DU knows that a DUmmie's natural state trends toward UNpleasantness and UNfriendliness. A person with any knowledge of DU also knows that a DUmmie lives for argument. A DUmmie will argue with a rock. Most store owners (not all but most), on the otherhand, tend to bend over backwards to make a customer happy because the customer spending money in the store is what keeps the store owner in business.
So once again, here is a case of a DUmmie is using a type of transference in a fictional story.
The antagonist in the story also supported the workers being able to go home. According to DU it is suppose to be the other way around. The evil rethuglicans want the workers to work all of the time. While the wonderfully thoughtful DUmmies want the workers to be able to stay at home all of the time. I guess that only is in effect when the workers staying home does not affect the DUmmies.
The antagonist mocked the sickly mother. Another case of transference. Anyone interested in seeing how this would happen in real life if this story was true should Google/nadin George W. Bush's mother with the search narrowed to the democraticunderground.com domain.
Finally the store owner turned the cartoons around to hide expiration dates. Once more this is transference. If anyone really wants to see who turns products around in stores they can just Google/nadin 'bookstores' with the search narrowed to the democraticunderground.com domain.
I really do find it interesting that anytime a DUmmie creates a fictional story he/she/it, in order to make the antagonist appear more 'evil', gives the antagonist DUmmie qualities.
Response to bhikkhu (Reply #18)This turd needs a reality check.
Thu Feb 21, 2013, 09:18 AM
wildeyed (6,835 posts)
43. Bingo.
And it is important to remember that money spent at a small business has a much larger chance of staying in the community. Owners live, work, shop and pay taxes locally. A small business typically doesn't get public subsidies or have access to fancy accountants or lobbyists, so the business also pays a higher percentage of taxes than a big box would.
I own a small business. I get really, really tired of people assuming we are all rightwing. I am happy to pay my employees minimum wage as long as ALL business are required to do the same. In other words, you're happy with $7.25, right? The playing field is even, we will all have to raise prices slightly, to off-set the increase in our costs. but on the other hand, there will be more disposable income flowing, and your costs off-set that increase. so we should make more too. and your price increase negates the "make more". Obamacare actually contains a give away for genuine small business. Nice change after a lifetime of politicians telling me that businesses like mine are the backbone of America and then shiving us in favor of a big corporate contributor as soon as the cameras are off.
Luminous Animal (16,536 posts)
17. That's too bad. My corner grocer is great. He has the keys to near everyone's houses and cars
in case we lock ourselves our or the keys in.
He will order practically anything you want and try new products on a recommendation.
When my husband and I went out of town, we left our 19 year old daughter home and John gave me his phone # to pass on to her and said, "If she is stuck anywhere or needs to be bailed out, have her call me. Even if its 4 o'clock in the morning.
In case you haven't guessed, this bitch is a right-winger.
Yes this post was alerted on, and there is another large thread in Meta about it.I saw that one.
Yes this post was alerted on, and there is another large thread in Meta about it.
In the thread itself, they waste a lot of energy being all bent out of shape over the usage of this word. Oh the huge manitee!BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH
Sure you can, DUmmie, crank it up. :whistling:
I've never seen a garage door opener that didn't have a manual release for just such an occasion. :banghead:
DUmmie not only lies, DUmmie is truely stupid.
The DUmmie also never thought of putting everyone in a single room with a couple of kerosene lamps and have adults do firewatch, that tends to keep warm enough.
I just had a conversation with the manager of Allen's Superstore, they're not real amused with this slander.
Does this DUmmy think obumble is going to provide a free lawyer?
I just had a conversation with the manager of Allen's Superstore, they're not real amused with this slander.Is this where we can tell DUmmie lbrtbell......
Does this DUmmy think obumble is going to provide a free lawyer?
Jesus F. Christ, the bitch and her dam were whining because the utility company didn't send their trucks out in the blizzard while it was still underway?!? And she has apparently never heard of electric-start generators???
If you could bottle ignorance like that, the ATFE would be knocking down your door for manufacturing destructive devices without a license.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
She was defending the fact that the local power company had gone home for 8 hours and left entire towns without heat or power. While I realize it was a blizzard, the fact remains that the power company workers are paid to work in such conditions, AND they have heated trucks.
We were talking about how hard it had been for my mom to endure the last blizzard/power outage we had. She was defending the fact that the local power company had gone home for 8 hours and left entire towns without heat or power. While I realize it was a blizzard, the fact remains that the power company workers are paid to work in such conditions, AND they have heated trucks. This nasty woman started mocking my mother and me in front of another customer, saying we were "complaining" and that it was more important for healthy men to go home, than for people like my sickly, elderly mother to be cared for..
Still trying to be nice, I said that we could have just gone out to the car to get warm, except we can't open the garage door with no power (you can't run a car in a closed garage). She said, "Get a generator." I reminded her that I can't start a motor with a pull-cord, as she knows because she's aware that I have an electric lawnmower for just that reason. She just shrugged and started bitching about us to the other woman in the store again
And here's my favorite part of her rant:
News to me that line crews live in their trucks while restoring power, DUmbasses. Most of the time they're out in the shit while you huddle around the heater or fireplace. Oh, and news for ya--as one of those "utility" workers, we LOVE this kind of shit, because it means HUGE amounts of cash. Case in point--when I was working for SCE, there were in many service centers a "200 Club." What is that, you may ask? Siimple. To join the club you had to have worked 200 hours of DOUBLE TIME in one pay period (two weeks), meaning if you were on callout for a major wind storm, earthquake, etc., you were there working 16-18-20 hours at a shot, and sleeping on a cot at the service center or in your truck. Not going home after 8, you idiots. And considering that you hit DT for anything over 12 until you clocked out and got at least an 8-hour break, even 4 hours of sleep at the service center was paid at DT.
Now, of course, I'm in a part of the industry which is "regulated" meaning the GOVERNMENT tells me how many hours I can work, when, etc...oh, joy.