This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Wal-Mart Situation "Getting Worse" New Leaks Reveal
Two weeks ago, Wal-Mart stunned the world when a leaked memo discloses that February sales had been a "total disaster" and the company was facing the worst February start since 2006. Today, Bloomberg's deep throat in Bentonville strikes again, as a new leak emerges. "Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT), already struggling to woo shoppers constrained by higher taxes, is “"getting worse" at keeping shelves stocked, the retailer’s U.S. chief told executives, according to minutes of an officers’ meeting obtained by Bloomberg News. "We run out quickly and the new stuff doesn’t come in," U.S. Chief Executive Officer Bill Simon said, according to the minutes of the Feb. 1 meeting. Simon called “self-inflicted wounds” Wal-Mart’s “biggest risk” and said an executive vice president had been appointed to fix the restocking problem, according to the minutes."
So even as the market completely ignored the Wal-Mart revenue issue, which is "getting worse", the bigger problem is that now it appears to be affecting the company's supply-chain, which likely means that all of WMT's upstream vendors are suffering from the same malaise that has gripped all those entities that still rely on such historical trivia as profitability and cash flow:
Wal-Mart’s inability to keep its shelves stocked coincides with slowing sales growth. Same-store sales in the U.S. for the 13 weeks ending April 26 will be little changed, Simon said in the company’s Feb. 21 earnings call. Comparable sales increased 1 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an average of 1.4 percent from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. This year the shares gained 4.2 percent through yesterday, compared with a 5 percent advance for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Evelin Cruz, a department manager at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pico Rivera, California, said Simon’s comments from the officers’ meeting were “dead on.”
“There are gaps where merchandise is missing,” Cruz said in a telephone interview. “We are not talking about a couple of empty shelves. This is throughout the store in every store. Some places look like they’re going out of business.”
Cruz, 41, who has worked at Wal-Mart for nine years and oversees the photo and wireless sections at her store, said it can take weeks or months for merchandise to be replaced after it sells out.
“My camera bar hasn’t had cameras since early January,” she said. “They let the merchandise phase out but nothing new comes in to replace them. We’re supposed to have 72 cameras but we maybe have 12. What are customers supposed to buy?”
Sure enough, WMT again has pre-canned (pardon the pun) excuses for what this second leak is supposed to mean:
“There’s a number of misinterpretations and half- thoughts” in the documents, which were not official company minutes, David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman said in a telephone interview.
When Simon said things were “getting worse” he was referring to “modular changes,” the process of replenishing merchandise to keep up with customer demand and changing seasons, Tovar said. Wal-Mart is working to “manage this in the most efficient way possible,” he said.
“We’re very pleased with our in-stock position,” he said, adding that products audited by the company and its consultants match or exceed historical levels. He declined to disclose what those levels are.
Tovar declined to make Simon available for comment
Naturally, following WMT's earnings, which showed that in the fourth quarter all was well, the market promptly forgot the recent "totally disastrous", completely oblivious that February is in the current quarter, and the management is obviously stonewalling the reality facing the retailer.
Yet if indeed there is a major issue affecting the world's most efficient logistical chain, what can other retailers say? And what are the implications for all other global trade routes, both macro and micro? Because if trade, which has been a casualty of central planning for years, is buckling, then is the scenario so vividly described in ""Trade-Off": A Study In Global Systemic Collapse" finally starting to come true?
»
- 82669 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I'm looking at Bernanke and the congress and thinking they all realize that there's a drone overhead with NDAA2012 authorization. They will dance their asses off...
They take the business of locals away but in many cases it was a business that would not be making it now. Can you imagine what would have happened to places where incomes are low such as Great Bend, Kansas, without a Wal-Mart --prices going through the roof; food/clothing/tools/farm and school supplies… all out of reach of the locals?
Wal-Mart is an incredibly popular store. Why? It provides lower cost merchandise coupled with higher quality for a price that working people can handle. And let me ask you: did Costco, or Home Depot, or Lowe’s, or Target or Chase take away any mom and pop businesses in your home town? Why the prejudice? Are you a victim of the MSM?
As for taking away jobs, the Home Depot operates 2248 big-box format stores across the United States and is the winner in that category.
I remember the corporate news media gleefully keeping a national tally of the home improvement stores such as Handy Andy and Builders Square that Home Depot was knocking out of business with predatory pricing. Do you? I remember the small business men in flooring, shutters and window coverings, home appliances, lumber, hardware, plumbing, tiling, doors and windows, landscaping… going out of business and taking sales position at HD. And then, when the competition was all gone, HD fired them.
It’s who you know as they say…and for Home Depot founders the man they knew was a highly-placed controversial Wall Street insider, Ken Langone. He was everything.
It’s called roll-up, a money-industry term of art. It means that someone, an enterprising banker backed by big money, begins to buy up mom and pop shops to turn them into one large industry, i.e, monopoly. All you need is a Ken Langone, a willing U.S. Congress and a Fed that hands out free money to its friends – and all else is toast.
Here’s how the HD setup began.
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were with a California home improvement chain, Handy Dan. Bernie was the President, Arthur was VP for finance. Langone made a study of the home improvement business and bought stock in Handy Dan.
Conveniently, Marcus and Blank were then, uh-hummm, “fired” from Handy Dan. Langone, who had assembled a group of investors, organized financing for Marcus and Blank, probably straight from the Fed, to found Home Depot. They launched HD in 1979 with stores in Atlanta. (Home Depot notes that Handy Dan is a "former home center retailer" that is now out of business.)
In March of 1997, HD passed the 500 store mark. Today HD operates 2248 big-box format stores across the United States with over 300,000 employees and is known as "Langone's most notable business venture.”
"Local merchants have no choice but to give way," a market analyst with Hancock Institutional Equity Services told the Christian Science Monitor.
"Regional chains and small independents are likely to feel increasing pressure to merge with rivals, or quit," said the Wall Street Journal in January, 1997.
It has been Home Depot's mission to "bury" its competition. James Inglis, former Executive Vice President for Home Depot noted that "Orchard Supply (in CA) proved to be one of the few regional chains Home Depot failed to take a real bite out of."
Dan Wewer, analyst with Robinson-Humphrey Co. in Atlanta, says it’s not unusual for nearby competition to lose 30 percent of their business initially” when HD moves in. The mom and pop stores wither, the regional chains die. Companies like Rickles, Handy Andy, Grossman's and Home Base are history.
And another one gone, and another one gone ... Another one bites the dust. Queen
And it's not all just marketing for money. "Marcus says he has integrated Judaic principles into what he likes to call the 'Home Depot family,'" said Mother Jones on June 3, 2001. "For him, helping people understand Judaism is a matter of marketing. 'I think a lot of it has to do with selling,' he says. 'You've got to sell the beauties of Judaism.'"
If you want to know what those "principles" are, get yourself a copy of Marcus's and Blank's book, Built From Scratch
And I wouldn't be waiting, if I were you, for any leaked memos from Bloomberg on Home Depot or Costco.
Speaking of Home Depot, the one a couple of miles away from my home has at least 40 shipping containers with a fence around them in the parking lot. If they were empty, logic dictates there would be no fence. I wonder if they may see even more severe shortages in the future and wisely stocked up?
Thanks for that. HD is another store I won't be visiting any more. I already have had my fill of Judaic principles and am overstocked on the beauties of Judaism.
In other words, fuck Home Depot, Satan's Home CenterTM.
So agree willy! About 15 years ago we had a video store run by the cutest old couple in our little community. When our kids were little they always love going to pick out their videos. They would always stock the classics too. We'd do Hichcock or Marilyn Monroe night. Then, of course, Blockbuster put them out of business. No more classics, only those movies they could make a profit on due to high demand. When Netflix took them down we certainly didn't shed a tear. Now a Salvation Army store is in there spot. Just sad.
Miffed:-)
Dude, your a bot or a paid interloper. Get an avatar, and get with the program. You can hate both of them, as they are both fucking America(ns). I have a news source, it's called the Internet.
The Internet, your "news source," is a big place. Therefore, you may have missed this over on Lew Rockwell, where Gary North is taking down leftist James Howard Kunstler like last year’s Christmas tree for his “attack on the most successful free market retailing operation on earth, Walmart."
It might widen your Internet view to realize that, unlike you, there are not-so-well-off people who are doing better than they ever could have in the good 'ol days by price shopping at Wal-Mart.
The Horror, as Lew Rockwell puts it: "Consumers get lower prices, to the outrage of the foul-mouthed left." What is the heart of this "disease," this "scrofula"? asks North that has so frightened Kunstler. And answers in his article, James Howard Kunstler: Foul-Mouthed Apologist for the Good Old Boys: Price competition!
“In the United States, millions of customers return day after day to buy at stores like these. But Kunstler, who is an arrogant Leftie elitist,” says North,” dismisses them as helpless rubes who need protection from price competitive retailers.” He wants us to believe “that the Good Old Boys of the small town council have our interests at heart,” and that to protect you from your dark side they “are not going to allow you to get cheated by this national chain, which offers low prices and a 100% money-back guarantee." No, rather Kuntsler likes it when the Good Old Boys get the town council to pass a law against Walmart, thereby protecting their mark-ups."
Dismissing Kunsler’s journalistic market niche which for a decade has hovered around a civilization collapse and a return to a world of abandoned highways and empty houses and horses working the fields (Kunstler's "extraordinary" book, according to the publisher, "full of love and loss, violence and power, sex and drugs, depression and desperation"), North says rather “if we ever get a breakdown in the division of labor on a scale comparable to Kunstler's scenario, it will be because of central banks, the dozen largest government-protected commercial banks, and a failure of the banks' payments-clearing system. It will not be because of Walmart or Amazon.”
North then lands one final jab on Kunstler’s glass jaw:
“Excuse me? Am I to believe that some underfunded little store in a strip mall is going to be able to pay for truckers to deliver supplies when Walmart can't? Really?”
http://www.garynorth.com/public/10717.cfm
"How can you live with yourself?"
By recognizing that playing favorites among tyrants is the sport of sycophantic morons; if you don't think Wal-Mart also qualifies as a cartel, you're too fucking stupid to reason with, slick.
How about maybe the leak occured because Wal-mart has been a huge dick to everybody: vendors, shareholders, customers, employees...and when you breed that type of environment, you are gonna have snitches?
Deep Throat didn't squeal just because he wanted to do "what was good for the country." They didn't give that motherfucker at the CIA the promotion he wanted!
Walmart did try to get a banking license fairly recently.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/22/news/companies/walmart_banking_services....
Inflation
Dont care about WalMart cameras or junk food, but they do need to restock those ammo shelves pronto.
Forget about the weekly Wal shelf check.
Get it NOW.
Wherever you can.
ITS GETTING REAL AT THE WAL-MART SHOPPING LOT..
Fat peeps are there but cash? no ones got alot.. {trade ya my food card dood}
Is that a dood or a chick at the bar dressed in pink with a massive gut? { who cares?}
I always waits till late night to see what sights they got. {so many}
now they can use all of that excess fat they been storing via cheetoh munching
i believe that ms cruz is going to be cruising for the exit and a new job, through no volition of her own....
Jeesh! Wal-Market ran all the local, privately-owned stores out of business in my town over the past 15 years. Now what are we going to do? Hmmmm. This iPad is starting to look mighty tasty!
Semen is more nutritious. Got breasts? We can trade.
I would demand that no penis comes with the bresats. There are way too many trannies with breasts. In our she he she he he he she he she world we live in you got tbto be careful.
If it lactates, they will come.
if the clones can't buy at walmart..
maybe they will buy
AAA rated treasuries
I understand the slack in customers, and supply chain problems leaving shelves empty, but I don't understand the correlation.
If people are cleaning out the shelves, why are sales static or worse?
Are customers cleaning out only the cheapest necessities and not buying the more profitable incidental purchase items so it is a double-whammy of selling out of loss-leaders while being overstocked with more profitable items that aren't selling?
Bingo.
Absolutely.
Good question about correlation ...
There seems to be some 'size limit' beyond which a company becomes unmanageable. Look @ GM.
The size limit is probably shrinking, too. Other, similar general-store type retailers are having real problems like Penny's. Sears has been a corpse for awhile.
Ditto. But Walmart is hard on suppliers. Maybe the suppliers prefer to fill elsewhere, at higher prices.
And suppliers gotta move inventory as well.
Or suppliers can't wait for up to 2 years to get paid by WalMart and still stay in business? Domestic suppliers closing shop or opting out of their relationship with WMT?
You can not tell me that upper level management in that organization is unaware of their supply chain. That's pretty much the entire business, ya know?
Another possibility is that WahMaht execs are emptying their supply chain on purpose. They have fixed costs. They know what is NOT making them money. They let those items run out. What is left? Only profitable items. The reduced revenue also gives them cover to reduce staffing to a minimum.
Possibly this is a means of "down sizing" the stores, without actually being seen as downsizing. There has been a continuing "re-arrangement" of store layout, widening isles, removing shelves, shallower shelving. It would not surprsie me to hear that they might start building new walls all along the back of the stores in a weekend, in order to reduce square footage.
So, this has basicly all started since Jan1 2013? Has there been some internal economic work done by WMT HQ that projects the de-wealthing effect across their customer demographic since the 5% or more reduction in NET income, rising insurance costs, reduced income, etc for the prols?? Sounds to me that this is deliberate.
The $1.50 (for 50) tea-candles and cheap batteries make up for the empty shelves of brass-past if you find yourself doing the Wal-(ammo) shelf check.
Exploding floor lamps, cheap tea candles, sparking, sputtering, appliances, and box limits on wally world ammo. And from what I can tell your avatar has somethin ablaze in it. You've got a penchant for pyrotechnics son!
They're only missing supplimental fire insurance LOL.
They aren't. Prices are going up and they are seeing a drop. We are going to see people starving really soon.
Maybe it's the 10 oz "pound" of coffee......
More Air Less Product! Environmentally Conscious!
Now available in Extra Value Bargain Sustainable Green!
Exta virgin lard is a bargain I hear.
You can get that at any comic store or L.A.R.P. convention.
Come on ZH....This is a prime example of your axiom "correlation is not causation" at work. As an avid 'fan' of leftist political propaganda, I can assert comfortably that this shunning of walmart is not obama's fault. In fact this is all part of the transformation of which we in the "FORWARD" movement often assign language.
Our operatives are abandoning walmart in droves to demonstrate solidarity against the evils of capitalist free market profiteers and globalism in general ( you see it now huh?)
As the economy continues to heel and the climate ceases to change, expect even more of these amazing manifestations of our "FORWARD" policy to emerge.
>>>>>As the economy continues to heel
Heel. You got that right.
So, what you're saying is that the udder liberal leftist FULL RETARDS plan on starving themselves to death in order "to demonstrate solidarity against the evils of capitalist free market profiteers and globalism in general"?
Boo-yah!
The Life of Brian comes to mind.
Well, by progressive 'reasoning' metrics and the standards by which the entire FORWARD campaign currently well underway has been producing.....Yes, your conclusion would be quite well supported by the evidence.
/Sarc
You must have forgotten to include the sarc tag.
i don't go to either very often, but the target in our area is stocked floor to ceiling with everybrand of everything you can think of. last time i went to walmart it looked like there had been some sort of clearance sell, empty spaces everywhere in every department i walked through. i go to sams club about once a month for tp and detergent, coffee beans. and it just doesn't have what it use to. less merchandise and lots of things i use to get, no longer carried. prices are higher at sams and walmart as well. i find that food lion is actually cheaper than walmart.
things are bad out here, i see hard working frugal people facing increasingly impossible juggling of their budgets. they don't seem to realize what is happening. the "welfare-disability" group are having to cut back now, no more new cars, boats, cruises, 250k homes. ever seen someone you know was doing the fake disability thing for the last 15 years reach 65. boom......................they lose disability and go to social security with zip earnings.
my business is doing great right now, till the income tax runs out. lol
No doubt...the vacuum supporting many lives is becoming evident. Sinkholes...revealing the truth.
5 pages of sheriff sale notices in our little town paper this week.
no worries about out of stock items, just shove another size in that SKUs place
I am not wasting my fucking time to check if you finally ordered the fucking SKU that has been empty for 5 fucking weeks, I'll just shop at a normal grocery store and order the shit from amazon
Plus you can get slotting fees just by ordering new SKU's of stuff.
Maybe the abused contract workers in the non-air-conditioned stacks in Fontana finally got pissed enough to re-route some of that crapola to the black market.
Where would the Walton model be without planned obsolescence or various incarnations of Soylent Green?
This Walmart “total disaster” doom issue sucks. How are we going to keep up the humor on sales clientele?
Walmart People Photo 'Wall-O-Shame'
http://walmart-people.com/Home
I stopped by Wallmart last weekend in nice area of SoCal. to p/u a few things with a family member. It was the middle of Sunday afternoon and the place wasn't crowded and looked like the " Tasmanian Devil" had ripped through the place.
Items mismarked and in the wrong places. Asked one of the managers a question about an item and the bone head sent us to the complete opposite (wrong) side of the store to find said item. Wallmart? Should be called, " The Land of The Lost"...
Last week was the third week of the month so the EBTs are toast. In my area they are building three new grocery stores within 2 miles. Everyone wants to sell groceries because it is the only thing selling.
Tis tue. Never go to WMT at the start of the month - it's usually crazy. At the end of the month it can be a ghost town. People have too much month and not enough money. Wait till next month with 31 days.
I do not go to WMT much. Maybe their stand alone groceries but Aldi is much cheaper. Anyway, there was a really good story in WSJ or somewhere a few years ago. WSJ is shit now like all media.
Anyway it was how big WMT hyper marts with food are quiet until 12:01 am when the scum at The JP Morgue (Chase) load up the EBT SNAP cards. These f***ing parasites are out with their spawn waiting til one minute past midnight to buy their processed junk food. The big WMT's with 40 checkouts then go insane at 12:01 am. Don't they load the EBT/SNAP cards twice a month?
Corporate America loves welfare and foodstamps.
And baby formula. It's sad to see people pay for something that should be free, and sadder that they have to sell it in smaller and smaller packages because people are broke.
It is free.
They're called tits.
+100
All I can tell you from my visit today to my local WM was the ammo shelves were again empty like it was some sort of hurricane related stock up before the shit hits the fan event.
All of the common stuff is sold out everywhere. It has been that way for almost 2 months now. The supply chain of ammo appears to have been hijacked. The only explanation I hear is that the ammo producers are running as fast as they can and cannot keep up. Two months later and nothing on the shelves? hmmmmmm...
US SA - Following the old Soviet Union. Eventually it couldn't even afford the military.
Comrades get ready for the long lines for the basics once Wall Street, Bernanke and the Fed get their massive inflation plan in full gear.
The Russian troops could sell their gear and tanks and walk home. How are we gonna get the boys home from Afghanistan?
You can't get here from there by walking.
Make them swim
Ms. Cruz will be unemployed or hours cut back to 5 per week by Monday.
It would just give more credit to her story.
The shoes keep getting worse. I saw some that looked like glued together canvas. I would go barefoot in the snow or make some myself out of cardboard before I wore their shoes. They really are the worst in so many ways.
The glued together canvas are the socks or stretch tights. the shoes are the things that look like banana leaves with velcro on them. Oh and the gloves are like grape jelly and sand except grittier and harder to get on and off.
but you can't beat the low low low prices.
Maybe their suppliers have finally figured out that doing business is WMT is the kiss of death. Sure, you get a nice order, but they kill you on the price and they put tons of rules on you. WMT is well known for pushing costs down to their suppliers for the privilege of selling to WMT. Perhaps there is no more margin left at the supplier and they are now better off simply not selling to WMT.
You nailed it. I watch people in my area suck P&G's dick, only to find terms of net 90, and huge delays getting paid. They break smaller companies, and people have learned to avoid them, and other huge clients. I suspect the issue at WMT also has to do with price inflation in China, as a tiny bit of inflation there would crush their margins, and suppliers.
I shop at Walmart every weekend. The empty shelves have started to become a real issue. Mainly seeing it in perishables like sandwich meats and produce. For me though, the biggest problem is the lack of cashiers. Two Saturdays ago there was one cashier in the entire store. Simply not acceptable.
Noticed the same thing. Lots of empty slots on the shelves and fewer cashiers. Odd thing is that they usually fill empty spaces with big plastic tubs or something if they think it will be empty for a while, so it looks like they expect to be restocked soon. Peeked into the garden center and did see it chock full of summer stuff, so maybe their trucks were moving that stuff instead of the regular restocking.
Saw that too. Packed to the gills with the new patio furniture sets.
Maybe they took that global warming stuff too much to heart!
I'm curious which items are not stocked. Typically, they have different systems/schedules for grocery vs. general merchandise vs. seasonal. They move through different docking systems, with high-volume items moving straight through with cross-docking.
I read that Wal-Mart can get as short as 72 hours from the producer to the shelf (thats not from a warehouse, from the PRODUCER/MANUFACTURER to the shelf).
Weeks without product is not due to transport problems or demand forecasting problems. It has to either be intentional or due to difficulty in getting the product at all (prob farther back in chain at manufacturer or before), or some other problem.
Same here, last weekend they had one cashier for cigs and two self service lines open.
Hope Amazon has super saver shipping on tp and kleenex.
Best avatar EVAR!
The way to fix the "too few cashiers" problem is to make it too expensive for them to understaff. I've been known to abandon a full cart and tell the staff why I'm leaving without having spent any money. If more people did that, the problem would get fixed. Eventually it will cost less to have adequate staff than what it costs to reshelve stuff (and to discard formerly frozen items).
I've been noticing that in the Walmart vitamin section for several months now. I thought it was really strange: how could WALMART run out of basic types of vitamins? Hmm.
There was vigorous debate on an earlier thread re food prices. Once poster was claiming that they were not going up (!), and she was roundly and correctly slammed. Over the past several years, at least in Silicon Valley, they definitely have been, at least for healthful food. However. I think something new is happening in that department, starting about now, and it kind of creeps me out. Well, two new things.
One is that big chains (my experience is with Safeway), aren't even pretending to have their registers ring up the sale prices they advertise. Check the receipt; I bet you'll find serious errors, and not in your favor. It is easier to keep prices low, if you don't actually honor them. It was really annoying the other day; I got up to a register and the cashier (a guy) was weeping because he'd been slammed by the last customer for that. So I said kindly things. Then he overcharged me. And I felt too sorry for him to say anything. Bleagh. They are making their cashiers take the heat.
The other is the flyer I just received from "Sprouts," a German produce chain. Their stuff is pretty good. The weird thing is that this month's flyer's prices are insanely low, at least for the, at least for around here. I could give examples (organic heirloom tomatoes 99 cents a pound, organic potatoes 1.99 for a five pound bag, Arrowhead Farms grains BOGO), but they might not be relevant to your shopping brain; every part of the country is different. My point is that, from my shopping experience, it looks like this store is really desperate to get people in the door. And they haven't been so much so, in the past. These prices don't make sense in a keep-your-company-in-business sort of way. This isn't just a few loss-leaders, on stuff no-one really needs.
Sorry to be the token asshole here...
But...
That guy weaping should have made better life decisions during high school before he dropped out to smoke weed all day in the early 2000's...
What if he was 14 or 15? When I was a hard working young man around that age I took criticism from both customers and superiors to heart. It'll only build him up in the long run.
The guy weeping was shorter than me (and I am not quite 5'4"). He actually looks deformed, with bizarro teeth, and an extremely crooked face, and a slight hunch back, and goggle glasses, and on good days he drools slightly. However he is NOT NOT NOT retarded (as you can tell I shop there enough to recognize him). I think he may be British in origin. Anyway, definitely not a doper, and I don't think he had as many options in life as some of us. I'd guess he's in his early 40s. He's been there at least several years.
The people who work in Safeway around here are a pretty diligent, responsible lot. I think there are a lot of people who grew up here in Silicon valley who want to stay near their families, but can't manage to get fancy jobs. So they work really hard at the Safeway type jobs. I know a few people personally who fit that description. I think it's different in different parts of the country.
Asshole much?
No, the poor guy is not an asshole. He is a nice person in a difficult situation.
I was talking about YOU, idiot.
Ha!
Man, alive...
I was being ironic, Orly.
I thought that you'd catch that.
No, I must have missed the </irony> tag.
I think it was, like, 'cause, you know, I was totally drooling at the time. Couldn't read my screen or something? But I'm sooooooo NOT, NOT, NOT retarded or anything, you know, I mean, I'm a nice person. British in origin, so, maybe I was like, totally drunk or something. I don't know cause I totally don't remember. You know?
Must have been the chicken.
;?
EAT MORE SPICES FROM THE DOLLAR STORE.
Moar spices, you mean?
It appears that "clueless" was the word you were looking for.
That was a great movie. Karen thought it should have won Best Documentary.
:D
I seem to have become the focus of your entire being, Orly.
Wasn't that your goal? It seems you have succeeded.
Orly is just mad because his EBT card ran out, his weed is gone, he's too lazy to do anything other than be a butt hole online, at which he is doing marvelously. You have indeed reached your potential, Orly. Mother is proud. Dad, well ...ummm...we can't find your dad for comment, though there was a news item of a fellow matching his description caught doing un-natural acts with a dog behind your shamble of a shack.
Yeah, well when you see my Dad, you tell him that I love him and miss him very much.
Will you do that for me, Mr. Faucet?
Love the aside "I think he may be British in origin". I'm pretty sure you can get away with making derogatory remarks about the Brits. Of course had you suggested he was black, or maybe Muslim or Jewish you'd be in heaps of trouble.
OMG! She would never say anything like that! Never used the "N-word"...ever!
And the deformed face and the gnarly teeth. Maybe it was my brother-in-law.
He has an accent; I think he's a Brit. Posters were speculating about his age, and whether he was a doper, and so on. So I tried to describe him.
Like brown hair, green eyes?
Hunchbacked?
Blue shirt?
But NOT, NOT, NOT retarded?
Did it ever cross your mind that he had an "accent" because he was dentally challenged, Karen? Ever think of that? Even once?
Yes, of course it occurred to me. Brit was my first guess, since I've talked with him in the past. However there were other possibilities; I didn't think I needed to list them all.
My mom just helped her cleaning lady pay for dental work. It's not cheap.
Her cleaning lady?
Wow,
Karen, I must admit that you have been a blast this evening. Thruthfully, I have tears in my eyes from our conversation but the mine here is so deep and rich, I don't want to explore it all in one evening.
Believe me when I say that it was fun talking to you. You made my day. For real.
Perhaps we'll meet again on another thread and maybe on better terms.
In the meantime, good night. I wish you only the best.
:D
Addo:
And by the way, I apologise for the idiot and asshole thing. That is never my style but you sure riled my goat up. Now that I understand you much better, I regret having said those things to you. Please accept my apology.
Not a problem.
I fear that I still don't understand why every thing I wrote seemed to enrage you. It was not my intent; in fact I went to some effort to be pleasant. So I can't guarantee that I won't continue to enrage you.
Look, everything is a matter of degree. There are loads of REALLY rich people around me. Most of them are too cheap to help out their cleaning lady with dental care. If my mom, who is upper middle class, is eager to, why is that so bad?
Re the guy who was working as a cashier: I mentioned that he was not retarded, because people who have that degree of physical deformity, often are. And so someone reading that he was weeping, might think, "well, the guy is mentally handicapped, of course he's crying over nothing." My point was that Safeway has set up a system so evil for its cashiers, that an adult male who seems to have no mental problems, is reduced to tears. I described him physically, because posters were speculating about his age and similar attributes.
Also re the dental thing: it is not typical around here for people to have seriously uneven teeth. In some parts of the country it is. There it wouldn't be something one would remark on, in describing someone. I noticed the other day that someone who works where I volunteer, now has a visibly missing tooth. That freaks me out. Okay, it's normal some places. It isn't here. It means people are BROKE here, who weren't before.
If I got annoyed by everyone in Silicon Valley who has a lot more money than me, I'd go insane. Really, I don't care; I have other stuff to think about.
Upon reflection I suppose I shouldn't mention that I'm originally from Connecticut. Okay, now go take a blood pressure med. BTW, I'm not from a RICH part of Connecticut!!!!!!!
I have been yanking your chain all night, Karen. I was surprised at how easy it was to do, as most people get very definsive after about the third time.
To me that says you're a good person with good intent and what I call a shining heart. If I may say, though, the light that shines there shines too much toward yourself and not at the people around you.
I understand that you are young but, if I may be so bold, if you stopped judging yourself so harshly against what you perceive every day, that everyone else is so "rich" and you maybe not as much, you would come to understand that having money and things is not truly rich at all.
Perhaps you should take your shining heart and face it to the outside for a while, toward others in your community; towards your community itself. My bet is that you will find that there are many richer people who don't have anything and lots of wealthy people as vacant as a Mason jar.
Try it for a while. let go of rating yourself 24/7/365. Instead, open your eyes to what is around you and who is around you. I think you'll be surprised that the depth of understanding of life that you are seeking doesn't come with a price tag. Rather, it comes with tolerance and love.
Re-read the thread tomorrow and you'll see that it was really funny. I have mirrors that don't even look at me? C'mon. I was on a roll.
It was a lot of fun. I was never angry with you (though perhaps you should refrain from telling people that the food they feed their autistic son is crap because you don't know. He eats salad, leaves, tortilla chips and soap bubbles and that's it. No kidding. And Dr. Pepper...).
In other words, when you do shine your heart to the outside, there will come an understanding that everyone's lives are different and if you can take just one aspect of their life and make it your own experience, then that makes you that much wiser. :D
Until next time...
What a rough week for you. May be time for a new ID.
I gave you new ideas, admit it. Got you thinking outside your box.
:D
No, it wasn't funny, Orly. It was all kind of ugly and pointless and dreary.
I made a point of not yanking your chain. I just don't get into that sort of thing.
I spend my time volunteering. i could work for money instead. I think I have a good enough handle on the charms of materialism.
Sounds like Piers Morgan.
I looked up Sprouts. They are not German. It is Leon Black (former Drexel Burnham) of Apollo Management. Used to be called Smart and Final.
The German ones are Aldi and Aldi's other chain Trader Joes (TJ). Aldi and TJ have insanely good prices. Aldi rocks.
German efficency. TJ has sweet deals on wine and gluten free, both of which keep me alive.
"Once poster was claiming that they were not going up (!), and she was roundly and correctly slammed. "
No I wasn't. Everything I said was correct. You speak for yourself, Karen, and I'll speak for me, okay? And, once again, mind your own business.
:(~
Orly, you are mad because I said that the groceries that you described buying were not healthful. You said that you bought cheap chicken breasts, cheap cheese, pepperoni and Dr. Pepper. I said that meant you were buying saline injected chicken (fed arsenic for growth, actually), BGH cheese (oozing udders, loads of antibiotics), sodium nitrate and high fructose corn syrup. I can see why that didn't make you happy. But it is what it is.
I wouldn't feed my family food from Dollar stores. The spices which you say you buy there are from China, and are irradiated.
I was being polite by not naming you. Also, I'm not sure how one "minds one's own business" in the COMMENT section of a blog. If you describe what you buy, you need to expect it to be commented on.
No, you said that. I said I bought chicken breasts in bulk at a very good price. I also bought all natural, store brand cheeses at a very good price.
Did the lab tests come back yet on the BGH content on my chickens yet? I am just dying to know the value. Let me know as soon as you get the report, k?
The spices I buy are from Mexico, not China. They don't have x-ray machines in Mexico. Everyone knows that.
Why are you so behind the times?
How was your mac n cheese, by the way? And the beans that your <wink, wink> husband eats? I bet it was tasty, huh?
Orly, you are a very angry person.
Au contraire, ma soeur. But I imagine you're a little peeved right now.
I am actually a very happy and balanced person.
Keep digging, though. This is fun.
:D
Well, it seems to be a socioeconomic thing. There seems to be real resentment here. And yes, I probably am better educated, better off, and better read than you. Maybe better looking. So the answer is for you to say something interesting and insightful, not to swear repeatedly.
Spices from Mexico are irradiated. They do not have to be labeled as such, but I promise you that they do not stay fresh in your cupboard by way of magic. If you wish to avoid eating irradiated spices, go to a health food store and buy them in small quantities from the bins; it is very inexpensive. "They have no x-ray machines in Mexico"? Hmmm.
Okay, okay. I admit it. I deeply resent you, Karen.
You are clearly, clearly far-better educated than I could ever hope to be. We had to burn all my books because we ran out of firewood. That is how I am sure you're much better off, as well, for I never hear you mention anything about a sale; only "organic" and "heirloom"; wonderful words like that,
We don't have heirlooms in my house. We had to sell them to try to get rid of the mice. Didn't work.
My bet is that you are, indeed, a beautiful woman. Far more beautiful than I could ever hope to be. I have mirrors that won't even look at me. I am ashamed.
Please. Please forgive me.
:/
" I never hear you mention anything about a sale"
Orly, my ENTIRE POST was about sale prices! That was what it was ALL ABOUT!!!!
There seems to be a reading comprehension issue here.
That must be it. I should read it again. For practice.
Note to self: "air-lume..."
Fuckin' cat fight on ZH, who'd a thunk it?? You go, girls!!! Nosey but equal opportunity asshole, Moonstears.
(note how I got ^between^... prolly stupid of me!)
What the hell?
This is disconcerting... Walmart the king and rolemodel of JIT?
JIT don't look so good now when there is $5-6 gas
True that... and what other retailers are using JIT.... think about that.
JIT don't mean shit
when you can't Git
your Bits
make a man have fits
wallmart greeter got to sitz
poor mans
doorman
at the
Chinese Ritz
Watch what happens to JIT when the debit cards truckers carry don't work for a week, or so.
Fuck You Waltons.
edit:
yes, I see I was not the first to say it. But I will not be the last...
So that warehouse on wheels is not robust vis a vis Peak oil....
Really? No shit....
Hey Cackmeister, what do you think will get us first, global warming or peak oil?
Define "get us" and then maybe we can talk...
I know you need to think of things in a simplistic manichean manner and it may not be possible in this case...
It's a simple question canucklehead, and apparently, the answer is beyond your comprehension.
Go fuck yourself...
I've been to Walmart a lot lately, and the only empty shelves I see is the ammo case. They be Soviet empty.
Re: Walmart Prices
Two of the easiest products for me to track prices on are Barbasol shaving cream and Kraft boxed mac and cheese. They are always the same. Until recently, both were always at $.88. But, in the last 6-9 months or so theyve been creeping up. Now theyre at $1.28 for a nice 45% increase. I would say this is prettty reflective of what all is going on with prices in general.
So - this Sprouts place that I wrote about above, that has disconcertingly good prices this week. Their Back to Nature Mac and Cheese is BOGO. Why is it so low? This is something people *buy*. Usually their great sales are on stuff no-one actually needs. Well, not that one NEEDS Mac and Cheese, but you know what I mean.
You're the worst kind of hypocrite I have heard on ZeroHedge.
Orly, didn't you also post that you bought a big bottle of cheap wine?
Errrmmmmmm....yeah? It was $11.68, if you would like to know...
And?
It's okay. I'll remain patient while you think of something clever to say.
An anagram of kareninca is Inane Rack. Which is just funny.
Some double entendres working there...
Damn Rly, never seen anyone stir you up like little miss i live in the silicon valley.
I hope you get the idea?
What did Deckard say when Tyrell asked him about Rachel and why it took so long with the Voigt-Kampf test?
Actually this all makes me think that I need to reread Nietzsche. He wrote a lot on this topic.
Freddie wrote about Blade Runner? I thought that was Dick.
Euro's fixing to roll over hard.
Get your "Risk-Off" ready...this could be pretty wild.
Downside target: 1.279...
@Karen, "Why is it so low? This is something people *buy*. Usually their great sales are on stuff no-one actually needs."
There's a definite recession on main street. Sounds like you're describing a business that is struggling to stay open. They're lowering prices to attract customers but they may be not even be making a profit, especially with perishable items at or close to cost. Then the new HC regulations and higher taxes will help push a lot of these businesses over the edge. Don't be surprised if they close up shop soon.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Desperation, and maybe closing up.
I got a kick out of this barbasol commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wweujqGL1Xo
Same great flavor and either one will soften your beard in a pinch. Don't recommend either for shaving pubes though.
When purchasing agents of WalMart destroy .00001 cents to global partner vendor competition, then charge back for product undersold penalty losses. Greed only got in the way for the success of WalMart. Reap what they sow!
I do believe Wal-Fart is finished w it's Red Giant phase...
So Apple can be torn to shreds based on unsustained rumours and actual facts and statements by Wal Mart employees - are just ignored....
Absolutely Telling of an upside down ponzi like scheme - coming apart at the seams in all the wrong places...
Golly. I know that I for one feel a lot better. Next, they can fix Europe. Then cure cancer. Then save Japan. And rescue China.
If it weren't for E.V.P.s we would all be in a world of hurt.
Surely, on this one point, every ZHer can agree.
Sadly, there's no cure for the crap oozing out of D.C.