Starbucks Employees Petition Company To Stop Slashing Hours After Raising Wages

originally posted by: Aazadan
a reply to: Phage

And that's still better terms than most grocery stores offer. It's not what it used to be, but their union has resulted in them retaining that much.

How do you think the chain would fare with $15/hour bag boys? How do you think the pharmacy technicians would feel about getting paid the same as that bag boy?

a reply to: Phage

That's no different than a presidential candidate spending millions of dollars on his ad campaign, those ads don't make him any less of a liar or greedy bastard. PR is essential to running a business, shady or not.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Ah. Ok. Giving money away is bad, unless it's good.

How did Albertsons fare all through the 90's with a grocer's Union and 16 an hour cashiers?

They did good. Everybody made money, everybody was happy.

The 90's were good times.

a reply to: Phage

I never said it was bad, but even the most corrupt politicians and businessmen donate money for PR.

a reply to: onequestion

How did Albertsons fare all through the 90's with a grocer's Union and 16 an hour cashiers?

All of the cashiers were paid $16/hour?

a reply to: onequestion

Or CostCo today? Its employees average $20/hour plus benefits and they're the second largest and most successful retailer behind Walmart.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Its employees average $20/hour plus benefits

Nope.
www.glassdoor.com...
www.payscale.com...=Costco_Wholesale_Company/Hourly_Rate

a reply to: [post=20942229]Phage[/po

Guess some critical thinking needs to be engaged. We are not paying enough for the product we buy. We pay a low price at the store, then higher taxes to take care of the min wagers. But the businesses still turn a healthy profit and abuse the tax payer cause we are cheap? uniformed? stupid? Nope cause we bang our chest and try to yell free market. When in fact it is all but free. Seems that some are stuck in a 1960s style economy full of Ford and GM jobs. They are GONE! The manufacturing jobs are gone for the most part.

Time to update your beliefs, cause Profits are privatized and losses are indeed socialized.

When you are paid starvation wages, it’s up to public-assistance programs to make up the difference. That government assistance, costing treasuries billions of dollars per year, is part of the high cost of low wages.

Tax payers are subsiding the fresh coffee that the company is selling. When a min wager gets sick, the treating hospital doesn't get stiffed, the tax payer pays. Even full timers, tap into the safety nets.

About 47 percent of all working recipients of public assistance work full time (at least 1,990 hours per year).

www.counterpunch.org...

originally posted by: Phage
How do you think the chain would fare with $15/hour bag boys? How do you think the pharmacy technicians would feel about getting paid the same as that bag boy?

They would fare just fine, more money going to employees (assuming it's something applying to everyone, not just one company), means more money to spend, which increases volume and offsets the cost of additional wages.

The pharmacy technicians would get over it, the gap would close a bit (which is what an increased minimum wage is supposed to do), but they would still make more money.

a reply to: seasonal

When a min wager gets sick, the treating hospital doesn't get stiffed, the tax payer pays. Even full timers, tap into the safety nets.

And what happens when mandatory wages are too high, and cause hours to be cut and jobs to be lost? Does the cost to those safety nets go down?

a reply to: Phage

I should have looked into it a little more, not sure how some sites got $20/hour but CostCo still is above average with its pay scale not to include 88% of its employees have health insurance and other benefits.

Average salaries for CostCo employees

Their cashiers average over $15 an hour just by ringing stuff up and pushing buttons. Now how in the world are they so successful while still paying their employees a fair wage? Probably because the corporate persecution complex is bull# and is just an excuse for them to not pay their employees a fair wage.

a reply to: Aazadan

means more money to spend, which increases volume and offsets the cost of additional wages.

You have an odd understanding of some very basic economic principles. Demand is related to cost. The more expensive something is the less demand there is for it.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Their cashiers average over $15 an hour just by ringing stuff up and pushing buttons. Now how in the world are they so successful while still paying their employees a fair wage?

Because they sell higher value products, with higher profit margins, the employees have a higher value.

BTW, do you think that $6.3 million is too much?
insiders.morningstar.com...

a reply to: Phage

Gas fluctuates in price every day yet the demand never goes away or changes. Why is that?

Ever heard of Artificial Scarcity? If anything, THAT is what drives prices up or down, not supply and demand.

a reply to: Phage

They don't mark up any of their products more than 15%. They get a lot of their money from their $55/year membership and with 85 million members that's nearly $5 billion/year. The reason they charge a membership is because they sell their products so cheaply and in bulk so they have to make up the difference.

If his employees get paid fairly them he can make as much as he wants as long as it doesn't affects those he employs. I said that in a previous post, you must have missed it.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Gas fluctuates in price every day yet the demand never goes away or changes.

Are you sure about that?

As we would expect, the rapid rise in gasoline prices in 2008 was accompanied by a significant drop in sales volume. With the official end of the recession in June 2009, sales reversed direction … slightly. The 12-month MA hit an interim high in November 2010, and then resumed contraction. Since September of 2014, sales have been on the rise, most likely due to the drop in gasoline prices. The moving average for the latest month is 3.6% below the pre-recession level and -0.3% off the November 2010 interim high.

www.advisorperspectives.com...

a reply to: Phage

Well we have to be adults and figure what it cost to live.

If we hide our heads in the clouds and give false wages, then someone has to pay, hint: it is the tax payer.

3 ways

If some one is paid 25,000 year and cant afford food, and healthcare. Some one will pay that bill. Right now tax payer

OR

We no longer help people with out cash/insurance and let them die/do self-gallbladder removals. Just an option and an ugly one.

OR

We pay a livable wage and the businesses will have to actually attach a price to their product to cover that living wage. Another option.

I wish it could be different, but I am a realist and see no other options. Continue on course (Tax payer abuse) or change.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

They don't mark up any of their products more than 15%

Ok.

Mark up a $5 cup of coffee 50%. You get $2.50 for profit and overhead.

Mark up a $1,500 dollar TV set 15%. You get $225 for profit and overhead.

a reply to: Phage

First the high gas prices were accompanied by a loss in sales volume, the sales volume then rose likely due to the drop in gas price.

That's basically going against your supply and demand argument. Sales go up and down based on the price, not the other way around. There will ALWAYS be high demand for gas as long as we have combustible cars on the road, that's a fact, so the fluctuating price doesn't make very much sense in the scheme of supply and demand.