Do we really live in a "rip off" Britain?

[sir wanksalot]

I read one of the posts in this forum about "strange jobs" and people recounted stories of either themselves or people they know doing not very much for a wage.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing these people as I wouldn't mind a job like that myself but shouldn't we also consider that every job where people are practically superfluous to the business eventually trickles down to price increases to us as the consumer?

Fuel prices hit record highs due to wholesale costs yet when those costs go down we do not see a proportionate decrease in our bills.

I'm reading now about Sainsburys being pressured to offer a "living wage" to all employees but if that happens then guess how that money is going to be recouped?

[lillythesavage]

I read one of the posts in this forum about "strange jobs" and people recounted stories of either themselves or people they know doing not very much for a wage.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing these people as I wouldn't mind a job like that myself but shouldn't we also consider that every job where people are practically superfluous to the business eventually trickles down to price increases to us as the consumer?

Fuel prices hit record highs due to wholesale costs yet when those costs go down we do not see a proportionate decrease in our bills.

I'm reading now about Sainsburys being pressured to offer a "living wage" to all employees but if that happens then guess how that money is going to be recouped?

Every body should earn a wage they can live on, the problem has been caused by shareholder demands and neglect of employees, the shareholders will demand higher prices rather than a cut in dividend  .

Meanwhile, I went to work at 7 instead of the first requested 6am, did about 10 miles had 3 45 minute breaks instead of the regulation 1, got called into the office just after midday, told to go  , see you Wednesday.  .

It cannot last, they are paying me 40 quid an hour before tax, a little less if I work past midday, they must have a plan up their sleeves.

[willie loman]

Every body should earn a wage they can live on, the problem has been caused by shareholder demands and neglect of employees, the shareholders will demand higher prices rather than a cut in dividend  .

Meanwhile, I went to work at 7 instead of the first requested 6am, did about 10 miles had 3 45 minute breaks instead of the regulation 1, got called into the office just after midday, told to go  , see you Wednesday.  .

It cannot last, they are paying me 40 quid an hour before tax, a little less if I work past midday, they must have a plan up their sleeves.

you are in a john grisham novel.

[willie loman]

I read one of the posts in this forum about "strange jobs" and people recounted stories of either themselves or people they know doing not very much for a wage.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing these people as I wouldn't mind a job like that myself but shouldn't we also consider that every job where people are practically superfluous to the business eventually trickles down to price increases to us as the consumer?

Fuel prices hit record highs due to wholesale costs yet when those costs go down we do not see a proportionate decrease in our bills.

I'm reading now about Sainsburys being pressured to offer a "living wage" to all employees but if that happens then guess how that money is going to be recouped?

if you come across companies who are ripping everyone off, to enrich their shareholders, buy shares.

[Gordon Bennett]

if you come across companies who are ripping everyone off, to enrich their shareholders, buy shares.

Just chuck a dart into FTSE 500 and you'll land on one

[Adoniron]

Nobody is happy with making an honest profit any more. Its all about squeezing every last penny out of customers, suppliers and employees in order to maximise earnings per share.

[Blackpool Rock]

Just chuck a dart into FTSE 500 and you'll land on one

What's the FTSE 500 then 

[standardpostage]

What's the FTSE 500 then 

Financial Times Stock Exchange 

[mr.bluesky]

What's the FTSE 500 then 

As Standardpostage says The financial Times stock exchange the 500 meaning the top 500 companies in the country that have shareholders

[Colston36]

Unfortunately nobody has found a better way to run things than capitalism - defined by Adam Smith 250 years ago: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

Just as unfortunately government interferes with the market allowing some - the well-connected - to fiddle. England has been particularly good at letting well-connected Russian crooks to move in here.

[tintin100]

I presume you can have a FTSE 500 but I have never used that term. I know there is a FTSE 100

[RedKettle]

I presume you can have a FTSE 500 but I have never used that term. I know there is a FTSE 100

FTSE 100, 250 and all share I think are the recognised ones.

[RedKettle]

As Standardpostage says The financial Times stock exchange the 500 meaning the top 500 companies in the country that have shareholders

Not necessarily the "top" companies in the country - they are the 500 largest by market capitalisation who are listed on that exchange.  There could be bigger companies not listed there, either privately owned or listed on another exchange. 

[Blackpool Rock]

I presume you can have a FTSE 500 but I have never used that term. I know there is a FTSE 100

That was my point basically there isn't a FTSE 500

FTSE 100; FTSE 250; FTSE 350 and a couple of special Indexes like small cap and fledgling but no FTSE 500

External Link/Members Only

[lillythesavage]

Fuck you Britain might be more the case.
o
Pulled into a tyre shop, 2 new tyres and tracking. Says we do not do tracking .  Put the tyres on and go somewhere else for tracking, he says.

Of course they would love to see your shiny pimpled new tyres you bought elsewhere and do the donkey job, ffs.

I just drove away.

[lostandfound]

What's the FTSE 500 then 

I suspect he has confused it with the S & P 500.

The Sage of Omaha's top investment tip IIRC!

[King Nuts]

Fuck you Britain might be more the case.
o
Pulled into a tyre shop, 2 new tyres and tracking. Says we do not do tracking .  Put the tyres on and go somewhere else for tracking, he says.

Of course they would love to see your shiny pimpled new tyres you bought elsewhere and do the donkey job, ffs.

I just drove away.

I think the only reason retail is generally so rubbish in this country, is because consumers/punters/the public put up with it.

Far too many Brits feel like someone's doing them a favour by selling something to them.

The truth is that the perfect balance in retail is when the consumer wants a product or service to the equal and same extent that the vendor wants to provide it. I've always thought that the baker's shop is the perfect example. The baker wants to sell you the £2.50 loaf and get it off his shelf to exactly the same degree you want the loaf and want it more than the £2.50 you've got in your pocket. You've got to have the cash, and his bread has to be fresh. The shop clean and welcoming. The baker mustn't look grubby or have an 'attitude' or a bogie sticking out of his nose, or make you wait outside for 15 minutes or give you any kind of grief at all.

[Blackpool Rock]

I think the only reason retail is generally so rubbish in this country, is because consumers/punters/the public put up with it.

Far too many Brits feel like someone's doing them a favour by selling something to them.

The truth is that the perfect balance in retail is when the consumer wants a product or service to the equal and same extent that the vendor wants to provide it. I've always thought that the baker's shop is the perfect example. The baker wants to sell you the £2.50 loaf and get it off his shelf to exactly the same degree you want the loaf and want it more than the £2.50 you've got in your pocket. You've got to have the cash, and his bread has to be fresh. The shop clean and welcoming. The baker mustn't look grubby or have an 'attitude' or a bogie sticking out of his nose, or make you wait outside for 15 minutes or give you any kind of grief at all.

At £2.50 for a loaf i'm keeping the cash in my pocket 

[King Nuts]

At £2.50 for a loaf i'm keeping the cash in my pocket 

You can always get factory-made cack in Asda or Lidl for under a quid. If you want the good stuff, made by an actual baker.....

[petermisc]

You can always get factory-made cack in Asda or Lidl for under a quid. If you want the good stuff, made by an actual baker.....

And that is the main problem, too many people in the UK buy based just on the price.  Consequently the retailers do all they can to get the price lower.

You only have to go in a Tesco on the continent and compare what they are offering there, compared to a Tesco in the UK, to realise the difference in shoppers' expectations.

[Blackpool Rock]

And that is the main problem, too many people in the UK buy based just on the price.  Consequently the retailers do all they can to get the price lower.

You only have to go in a Tesco on the continent and compare what they are offering there, compared to a Tesco in the UK, to realise the difference in shoppers' expectations.

So on the basis it's done cheaply it suggests that prices in the UK aren't a rip off 

Companies / brands do have different marketing strategies depending on the country and what people appear to be prepared to pay.
As I understand it in the UK confectionary and soft drinks are far cheaper when compared to most of Europe.

Also despite having higher duty on beer i'd say from what i've seen our beer is cheaper than a lot of places, seem to remember paying €6 or about £5 for a beer in Italy about 8 years ago and you only got 500ml not a fucking pint 
Germany was also more expensive about 5 years ago when I was there though Portugal did seem more reasonable

[Blackpool Rock]

Rip off Britain was a bit feature of the Tabloid gutter press 20-25 years ago, the implication was that Brits were paying more for the same things you could buy cheaper elsewhere.
I went to Spain on holiday and was hoping to buy some brand name clothes while I was there but found it was more expensive than the UK.

I'm just not sure it's actually true 

[billybobsmith]

Compared to the US, most of our prices are cheap.

I've done grocery shopping at Vons, Trader Joes etc. over there, and you can be looking at £3.50 upwards for a loaf of bread that would cost a £1 here; pack of ham £7 compared to under £2 in say Asda etc.
Few things such as soft drinks can be cheaper, but most things there, whether in grocery stores or larger supermarkets, are 2-5x the price of over here.

[King Nuts]

So on the basis it's done cheaply it suggests that prices in the UK aren't a rip off 

Not necessarily. Most large retailers and suppliers to consumer markets (and I mean that in the broadest sense, from Tesco to BMW cars) want to capture as many market segments as possible, based on what segments they believe exist or can be created.

Asda, for instance, has its basic level brand. Can't remember the name offhand, but you can buy a whole chicken for 1.99. And then they have the mid-brand stuff and then the 'extra special' line for what they see as the top end stuff. Tesco does the same, as does Waitrose and so on.

BMW too. Their range covers every possible type of car that someone might want, from a 2-door sports job, through various family saloons and SUVs to its top end 7 and 8 series lines.

In order to do this, some companies have to almost lose money on the cheaper lines, and then pad the prices of the expensive lines to compensate, and to ensure there's a real as well as a perceived differential.

I'm sure there's a word for it in marketingspeak, but I don't know what that is. But it means sometimes we think we're getting a ludicrously good deal and other times we feel ripped off.

Same with train tickets. If I book in advance to go to London from my home town, I can get the fare down to under a tenner if I go off-peak with a railcard. But if I show up at the station and want to go NOW, it could cost me over a 100 quid for an unrestricted first class one-way ticket.

All this makes comparisons, especially with other countries where this sort of malarkey doesn't go on to the same extent, difficult.

[King Nuts]

Compared to the US, most of our prices are cheap.

I'm not so sure. Petrol's way cheaper there, still about half what we pay.

And they don't have VAT. Sales tax sort of does the same thing, but is generally way under 10 per cent in most states, and I believe nonexistent in some.

I noticed on my last trip a month or so back, prices have generally gone up, but Uber travel is cheaper, and so is public transport in general.

Taxes on income are higher, no question, and I suspect the overall balance of taxation in the US shifts more towards taxing income more than spending, compared to Britain.

[Blackpool Rock]

Not necessarily. Most large retailers and suppliers to consumer markets (and I mean that in the broadest sense, from Tesco to BMW cars) want to capture as many market segments as possible, based on what segments they believe exist or can be created.

Asda, for instance, has its basic level brand. Can't remember the name offhand, but you can buy a whole chicken for 1.99. And then they have the mid-brand stuff and then the 'extra special' line for what they see as the top end stuff. Tesco does the same, as does Waitrose and so on.

BMW too. Their range covers every possible type of car that someone might want, from a 2-door sports job, through various family saloons and SUVs to its top end 7 and 8 series lines.

In order to do this, some companies have to almost lose money on the cheaper lines, and then pad the prices of the expensive lines to compensate, and to ensure there's a real as well as a perceived differential.

I'm sure there's a word for it in marketingspeak, but I don't know what that is. But it means sometimes we think we're getting a ludicrously good deal and other times we feel ripped off.

Same with train tickets. If I book in advance to go to London from my home town, I can get the fare down to under a tenner if I go off-peak with a railcard. But if I show up at the station and want to go NOW, it could cost me over a 100 quid for an unrestricted first class one-way ticket.

All this makes comparisons, especially with other countries where this sort of malarkey doesn't go on to the same extent, difficult.

Yeah I seem to recall with supermarket own brand stuff about 20-25 years ago there was a bit of a price war between Tesco and the others where they all wanted to be seen as offering the cheapest tins of beaked beans and tinned tomatoes, seem to remember them being about 6p each at one point so they must have been losing money on them.

Not so sure with cars though as i believe some companies make more money on the basic models due to the volumes they sell whereas the higher end models that only sell a few hundred or thousand and retail for £60K+ lose money as they never recoup the development costs and cost of tooling.
I'm sure I heard a few years ago that Vauxhall made more profit on the Corsa than any other model due to selling a lot of them.

With cars people may want sat a BMW M5 but they settle for a standard 520 "repmobile" and hope they get some reflected glory from the flagship model.
Years ago with the Ford Escort most people wanted an XR3i but settled for a lower model and about 10% of Escorts sold were the XR3i, of course people with the XR3i actually wanted an RS turbo 
The car that bucked that trend of 10% of cars being the top model sold was Subaru with the Impreza where apparently around 90% were the Turbo version and only 10% non Turbo

[sir wanksalot]

In my experience I have found that designer goods and electricals are the same if not more expensive abroad.

Food, utilities, petrol, cigarettes, booze are often much much cheaper

[Ali Katt]

Some things are well below cost bananas for example. Some things are way above: full sugar coca cola, cereal.

[lillythesavage]

Yeah I seem to recall with supermarket own brand stuff about 20-25 years ago there was a bit of a price war between Tesco and the others where they all wanted to be seen as offering the cheapest tins of beaked beans and tinned tomatoes, seem to remember them being about 6p each at one point so they must have been losing money on them.

Not so sure with cars though as i believe some companies make more money on the basic models due to the volumes they sell whereas the higher end models that only sell a few hundred or thousand and retail for £60K+ lose money as they never recoup the development costs and cost of tooling.
I'm sure I heard a few years ago that Vauxhall made more profit on the Corsa than any other model due to selling a lot of them.

With cars people may want sat a BMW M5 but they settle for a standard 520 "repmobile" and hope they get some reflected glory from the flagship model.
Years ago with the Ford Escort most people wanted an XR3i but settled for a lower model and about 10% of Escorts sold were the XR3i, of course people with the XR3i actually wanted an RS turbo 
The car that bucked that trend of 10% of cars being the top model sold was Subaru with the Impreza where apparently around 90% were the Turbo version and only 10% non Turbo

High volume cars make more money on volume obviously, but unit margins are often higher on low volume cars created by demand for them, waiting lists and hype.
They do as you say bring up sales of lower models when he hype gets going on any high end model.
Few do not cover costs, that is usually small companies entering the market and bombing.

There is lots of platform sharing these days, the car looks cosmetically different but the bones are the same as another in the range which keeps costs down. VW group do this a lot, with VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Porsche SUV,s. That is why there is so much choice these days.

At the moment though, just finding the new car in the spec you want is an absolute mission. You will be quoted a delivery date, or not in some cases as they may not take your order, but be very lucky if your car arrives by the due date. Of course there are no discounts in this situation so unit margins are good.

[Colston36]

I'm not so sure. Petrol's way cheaper there, still about half what we pay.

And they don't have VAT. Sales tax sort of does the same thing, but is generally way under 10 per cent in most states, and I believe nonexistent in some.

I noticed on my last trip a month or so back, prices have generally gone up, but Uber travel is cheaper, and so is public transport in general.

Taxes on income are higher, no question, and I suspect the overall balance of taxation in the US shifts more towards taxing income more than spending, compared to Britain.

I have spent a fair amount of time in the US since the 1970s. You have private wealth and public squalor and everything is rigged for the rich. Which is why the top 1% own 70% of the wealth.

Anyone seriously rich can find a way to avoid paying much tax. When I had a business there all I had to do was start a Delaware corporation to minimise tax.  If they ever catch up with Trump, it'll be an eye-opener.

But God help you if you're poor or even not rich and sick: no free health care  They ask for your credit card before you even get into the hospital. My father in law was quite well off - but cancer took care of that. 

The best supermarkets are expensive; the others are crap. Public transport may be cheaper - but first you have to find it. In many places there just isn't any. My daughter wants me to live with her in LA. No way. When I visited her 5 months ago we spent an amazing amount of time (and money) getting from one vast suburb to another via Uber.

 

[ulstersubbie]

Public transport may be cheaper - but first you have to find it. In many places there just isn't any. My daughter wants me to live with her in LA. No way. When I visited her 5 months ago we spent an amazing amount of time (and money) getting from one vast suburb to another via Uber.

I remember going to LA in the eighties and being shocked at the lack of transport for such a big city, car is definitely king over there.

[sir wanksalot]

I remember going to LA in the eighties and being shocked at the lack of transport for such a big city, car is definitely king over there.

Likewise in Florida.

Went to visit some friends back in the 90's and just wanted to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Motorists were waving at me and all kinds of shit like I was doing some sponsored event for charity!

[Adoniron]

I have spent a fair amount of time in the US since the 1970s. You have private wealth and public squalor and everything is rigged for the rich. Which is why the top 1% own 70% of the wealth.

Anyone seriously rich can find a way to avoid paying much tax. When I had a business there all I had to do was start a Delaware corporation to minimise tax.  If they ever catch up with Trump, it'll be an eye-opener.

But God help you if you're poor or even not rich and sick: no free health care  They ask for your credit card before you even get into the hospital. My father in law was quite well off - but cancer took care of that. 

The best supermarkets are expensive; the others are crap. Public transport may be cheaper - but first you have to find it. In many places there just isn't any. My daughter wants me to live with her in LA. No way. When I visited her 5 months ago we spent an amazing amount of time (and money) getting from one vast suburb to another via Uber.

I remember when I visited San Francisco the wealth and poverty side by side. On one street you would have fancy hotels and expensive boutiques with flash cars going up and  down the road. Literally a block away they were queueing round the corner for the night shelter.

[king tarzan]

It's what it is..
Learn to live with it
Simpletto...

Moaning whining won't achieve anything..

Eye of the 🐅👊🥊🥊🥊

[king tarzan]

Likewise in Florida.

Went to visit some friends back in the 90's and just wanted to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Motorists were waving at me and all kinds of shit like I was doing some sponsored event for charity!

American me
Excellent film...

[sir wanksalot]

American me
Excellent film...

Whenever you respond to a post I think I need to put it through Google translate 

[king tarzan]

Whenever you respond to a post I think I need to put it through Google translate 

Great film..
Shows how to waste life or try to better yourself..

[sir wanksalot]

Great film..
Shows how to waste life or try to better yourself..

 

[shed]

Why give a shit? KT is a legend