Why Holiday Sales will be down this year

Between more biden economics, businesses finally admitting the truth and laying people off (watch the reporting of unemployment closely I wouldnt be surprised to see the formula "adjusted" again), and potential spread of war coupled with energy sector contraction people are afraid, but apparently not afraid enough to stop some of the insanity.

originally posted by: LordAhriman
I guess it's not happening in mid-Missouri. As some of you know, I'm in management at Walmart. Our sales are WAY up right now, and we have more employees than ever before. I don't really pay attention to nationwide numbers, but our store is booming. We're offering as much overtime as anyone wants as well.

We had our first "black Friday" type event Wednesday (we split it up into 3 events now) and people were literally buying truck loads of TVs. The last TV purchase I saw was 8 75 inchers.

Two weeks to Thanksgiving, and in the time I was there today (5am to 3pm), we sold almost 150 turkeys!

Don't get me started on the online pickup department. We went from 10 parking spots to 25 recently, and we still have lines of cars waiting for a spot. There were 48 people and their manager scheduled in that department today, and we still had to send 9 more people over there for them to keep up.

I keep hearing about food shortages, but we are literally running out of room to store food of all types.

Where are all of these doom tales happening? It's certainly not central Missouri. I do know some states are having massive flu outbreaks right now, and that could definitely be contributing to some staffing shortages.

Your Walmart might be an outlier. Whenever we used to shop at Walmart it was for convenience now it's just a big hassle.

Here Walmart groceries absolutely suck, especially the produce and meats. Eggs and milk are okay price-wise, but brand selection and freshness were weak even before Covid. Used to do Walmart delivery sometimes and it's the worst, pre-opened packages and expiration dates are always borderline. Definitely never order for a specific recipe they will always leave out something crucial, returns and replacements are abysmal. Hell, our Publix sucks too, but it is infinitely better than Walmart groceries, home of the bright red beef


www.mashed.com...

www.mashed.com...

When it comes to buying fresh fruits and vegetables, sometimes just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Sure, it may be convenient to lump your grocery shopping in with all the other stuff you have to buy every weekend, but the produce at Walmart is generally not quite up to snuff.

According to Consumer Reports, Walmart consistently ranks toward the bottom of their listing of supermarket chains in terms of "quality of fresh foods and vegetables, meats, [and] store-prepared foods and baked goods." Out of 68 supermarkets evaluated by Consumer Reports, Walmart falls at #67. Ooph.

Why no love for Walmart produce? The New York Times cites staffing shortages as a big part of Walmart's produce problem. When stores are understaffed, Walmart will pull associates from other departments to work in produce, which means that the 16-year-old kid that got hired for his knowledge of Nintendo Switch peripherals is suddenly trying to figure out how to manage hundreds of items that are all slowly dying at different rates. Not exactly a recipe for crunchy romaine.

Walmart tries again to improve beef offering in stores

Walmart said the deal will allow for a more consistent supply of beef, including better cuts such as rib-eye and New York Strip. The beef sourced from Sustainable is expected to make its way into stores in the central U.S. by late next year.

This venture follows another beef investment Walmart made in 2020 as it opened a beef processing facility for Angus beef in Thomasville, Ga. That facility is operated by FPL Foods and employs about 200. Walmart has not said how much beef it sells to the public, but with 4,700 stores, the retail giant is the largest grocery chain in the U.S. by overall sales. Grocery also accounts for almost 60% of the retailer’s U.S. revenue, or roughly $235 billion last year on food and consumable groceries.

They called for help but nobody came.

That is the worst part of your anecdote. Its one thing for society to have a meager and overstretched work force.

Its the next level when individual people just stop caring about each other.

I have to assume that their were other people working in the store and that these two employees where calling for help that could show up.

But those would be helpers have been overstretched themselves to a point that they decided not to help their team mates and the their customers.

Sure the store leadership probably sucks and deserve a crap store; but in the moment a person was asking for help from another person on their same leave and they were left to drawn.

originally posted by: LordAhriman

originally posted by: greendust

My commute to work everyday is 6 miles of soybean and corn fields, and a half a mile or so of highway 50. I'm not in a ritzy area. But it's also a town with a decent sized college. It's Warrensburg.

The only place I won't go in this state is east St Louis. I also accidentally did that once and survived.

Maybe Troost in KC? I can't think of any more dangerous areas.

Pretty much anything in the north part of Saint Louis city and about half of north Saint Louis county is dangerous. I think it still has one of the highest murder rates and overall crime rates in the country. Not proud of that, actually embarrassed. I don't even say to anyone that I am from the Saint Louis area anymore because of the negative vibe it has. Fortunately for me in that subject of discussion it seems that many other major cities are becoming equally retarded and unsafe.

That being said, where I live Walmart is stocked and doing well. Actually at the time I don't see any store that is out of stock where I live. However if I go to the upper middle class to upper class shopping areas, they have stock, they just dont have enough employees.

Lately I've been painting/sculpting gifts for friends and family in order to save money.

I also like to take pictures of me and my loved ones in scenic/memorable locations as we go hiking or during our travels.

I print those pictures out at Walgreens and frame them or turn them into fridge magnets.

My rule is, cheap, personally made gifts for Christmas (with socks) and a big more expensive gift for birthdays.

Not so worried when it comes to shopping in store, since the Amazon delivery driver has become Santa Claus.

More stores will adapt, like with the advent of curbside, if they want to survive.

a reply to: nugget1

I found out just before leaving that the store manager had an annual employee budget, and any amount not spent was added to her bonus

And that's the answer .(or at least part of it)
Companies charge 2x of what they used to.
Companies only sell 1/2 the product .
That means they make as much money with 1/2 the work , causing lay-offs of 1/2 the employees.
Win-win for corporations.

a reply to: Gothmog

Unfortunately that is absolutely one part of the equation.
Like the Covid lockdowns, this too might have an undesired effect on the companies.

When people realize they DON’T need all that crap, maybe they will buy less and less and as used
To be said, make do. Who will be crying then?

When people are forced to learn how to cook at home, and discover it taste great, is cheaper and healthier, they may realize they don’t need to go or restaurants.

When people learn old crafts, and start making stuff, what bottom line will hurt?

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: JAGStorm

Even Facebook is laying off over a thousand workers, up to 12 thousand employees and the news media has not said a darn thing about it, that is about 15% of the work force.

They are no the only ones, is going to be some sad holiday for many households in the nation, but the media is covering up and only crickets about this news, even when the stock market has plunge 60% in the last month.

Many big companies are preparing for a meltdown to save their butts.

And still the biden administration claims the economy is solid

What a way to spend the holidays, thank you biden.

Yup, and just like everyone jumping on the inflation bandwagon, I mean raise our prices because everyone is, you will see companies laying off workers because they now have an excuse to do so. FOMO, fear of missing out.

Just bought a se of tires, double the cost, bought an airline ticket, almost a grand for what used to be 4-500 bucks. Hold on to your britches!

a reply to: JAGStorm


I know anecdotal post ain't worth sh!t. But in our little community and our small retail boutique; sales are up. People seem to have plenty of disposable income and are looking to spend it, especially now that the holiday festivities are under way.
I hope entrepreneurship and free enterprise won't fade away under the convenience of Amazon. But in a way, I welcome the challenge to design a service or product that can take up the slack and foster a new business. Capitalism has a definite thrill when swimming with the sharks. It's an addiction like Texas holdem at the NA casino down the road. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat; the best way to make your dreams come true is to live them.

AMAZON to lay off a whopping 10,000 employees before Christmas, due to the incoming RECESSION, caused by Biden's stupid anti-energy initiatives and multiple interest rate hikes.

Source: hannity.com...

Heh-heh. It has only just begun.

Currently Ohio Minimum Wage is $9.30/hr. January 1, 2023 it goes to $10.10/hr. Why did it magically jump 90 cents? Because Ohio decided to peg state minimum wage to cost of living inflation. Because things went a little crazy economically this year, Ohio gets an automatic major bump.

Can you see the economic death spiral starting? Because things will get bumped again in 2024 and continue to do so until there is a major correction in the form of collapse.

But we all saw it coming when the Dollar Tree became the Dollar and a Quarter Tree under disastrous economic policies.

originally posted by: carewemust
AMAZON to lay off a whopping 10,000 employees before Christmas, due to the incoming RECESSION, caused by Biden's stupid anti-energy initiatives and multiple interest rate hikes.

Source: hannity.com...

Just read about that..wow.
Not good!

a reply to: JAGStorm

In New Zealand, inflation eating away at people's buying power will likely significantly impact consumers' Christmas spending. Claims concerning the number of job vacancies exceeding the availability of labour are false. If such a claim were remotely true, the number of people on the dole would be near zero.