Inflation from Money Printing, Survival, or Greed?

ElCubano said:
Costa Rican coffee is good as well.
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A bit mild for me. Plus I don't have a visceral connection with it like I do with a good Yaucono. :D

Took a girlfriend to PR for a 3-day weekend a while back and drove all around the island, including taking her up into coffee country (oh, those old carreteras with the stone markers and the clouds in the valleys below you as you drive...) The little plantation that I wanted to show her was closed, but when we stopped at a tiny market and I happened to mention that to the guy behind the counter, he said "oh, that's my cousin! Let me give him a call" - so we got a private tour of the place, with him telling us about his family starting it and showing us old photographs. We bought four or five pounds of it, and he ground it for us right there.

Good people there, with big hearts. Just as I remember it from 20+ years ago.
 
Cuddles said:
take your 7$/coffee rant to the 8$/coffee guy, I'm just saying competition will undercut just enough from what people are already paying.
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If a couple of short paragraphs constitute a "rant" for you, your education obviously ended right around the "good enough to read a fortune cookie" stage. The popularity of Twitter makes so much sense now...

You whined about "gouging", and I pointed out why it's a terminally-ignorant take. If you don't like having your errors pointed out in public, maybe don't post in public? Or learn how free market economics work - say, the variety of tradeoffs along the production possibility frontier.

That might require reading more than a quarter-page of text, though.
 
BlueWaterSailor said:
If a couple of short paragraphs constitute a "rant" for you, your education obviously ended right around the "good enough to read a fortune cookie" stage. The popularity of Twitter makes so much sense now...

You whined about "gouging", and I pointed out why it's a terminally-ignorant take. If you don't like having your errors pointed out in public, maybe don't post in public? Or learn how free market economics work - say, the variety of tradeoffs along the production possibility frontier.

That might require reading more than a quarter-page of text, though.
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yeah I don't get the anti-starbucks thing, they charge that because some people will pay it, and so what. McDonalds large coffee is $1.50 and home brewed is pennies, or don't drink coffee at all.
 
Having started, built, then years later sold a couple businesses I am glad that it is in my past during these inflationary times because the public doesn't want to hear it.

I used to tell some bitchy customers to pay my electricity (just that, nothing else) and I'll give them what they were purchasing for free. $650/month per location and this was back in the mid to late 90's plus FPL's rates have historically been average or below!!!

Rent, Inventory, Labor, Insurance, Advertising out the wazoo.

I'll end - with walk in someone else's shoes before you point fingers. Though yes of course some biz's have taken advantage and gouged.
 
SunTrader said:
Having started, built, then years later sold a couple businesses I am glad that it is in my past during these inflationary times because the public doesn't want to hear it.

I used to tell some bitchy customers to pay my electricity (just that, nothing else) and I'll give them what they were purchasing for free. $650/month per location and this was back in the mid to late 90's plus FPL's rates have historically been average or below!!!

Rent, Inventory, Labor, Insurance, Advertising out the wazoo.

I'll end - with walk in someone else's shoes before you point fingers. Though yes of course some biz's have taken advantage and gouged.
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Two observations here.

First, small retailers don't have much choice when it comes to setting prices. If the producers and wholesalers raise prices, what other choice do you have? If the government demands higher wages, what can you do but pass it on to your customers?

Second, consumers are too damn fickle. I mean, geezus, they want this , they want that, and if they don't get what they want, they bitch endlessly. There are dozens and dozens of other coffee shops. But no, they must look respectable and get their brand from Starbucks. That's all fine, but the problem is they can't stop whining about how expensive it is either. Hey babe, grow some balls for once.
 
schizo said:
Two observations here.

First, small retailers don't have much choice when it comes to setting prices. If the producers and wholesalers raise prices, what other choice do you have? If the government demands higher wages, what can you do but pass it on to your customers?

Second, consumers are too damn fickle. I mean, geezus, they want this , they want that, and if they don't get what they want, they bitch endlessly. There are dozens and dozens of other coffee shops. But no, they must look respectable and get their brand from Starbucks. That's all fine, but the problem is they can't stop whining about how expensive it is either. Hey babe, grow some balls for once.
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"First, small retailers don't have much choice when it comes to setting prices...."

"Second, consumers are too damn fickle....."

Although in most cases yes, neither really wasn't true in my situation.

Products and services I offered were not as susceptible to dramatic price rises back then and I believe that would still be the case today.

Half or more of my customer base were retired folks who had nothing but time on their hand to bitch. I either laughed it off or just ignored the comments. The customer is NOT always right.

But I knew that after word got out I was selling, quite a few customers got emotional that I was no longer going to be the owner/proprietor that I did right by them during my time.

All you can ever do is treat people how you would want to be.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I was independently owned but my competition is all 4 corners of the compass, to my north, east, south and west were franchised or corporate owned locations. I outdid them all, to such an extent a franchisee bought me out and converted it over. Much to his later regret.
 
Covertibility said:
Wow, there's no such thing as price gouging in the free market. Google Micron, Samsung and Hynix DRAM price fixing.
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You mean producers try and sell high just like us traders? gee who would have guessed, we must all be bad folks

Unions, OPEC, and Apple all try and fix prices at higher levels, so are they gougers?

put a number on gouging- assign a profit margin that is too high so that you can label them gouger, then tell me why that number is special
 
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NCC1701 said:
You mean producers try and sell high just like us traders? gee who would have guessed, we must all be bad folks

Unions, OPEC, and Apple all try and fix prices at higher levels, so are they gougers?

put a number on gouging- assign a profit margin that is too high so that you can label them gouger, then tell me why that number is special
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Nah, it's actually customers - vicious bastards, every last one of them! All thieves and ripoff artists, always wheedling you for a discount and running off to competitors when there's even a penny difference in price, or the other guy's product is even a tiny bit better. Those traitors. Why, they'd rob you at gunpoint if they could, or sue you into the ground! Can't trust them for a second.

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Huh. It's as if, I dunno, you could imply hostile intent to people no matter what side of the transaction they were on. Weird. Maybe that's a really stupid thing to do? Especially for a type of interaction that takes place millions of times per day, pleasantly and without friction 99%+ of the time? One that, in a larger context, has brought the greatest amount of peace to humanity, by replacing the violence-based method of taking money with the cooperative, voluntary method of making money?

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
-- Milton Friedman
 
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