Target Corp. will cut prices, cancel orders and take other steps to cut its bloated inventory, moves that will lower its profit in the current quarter more than executives thought just three weeks ago.
Demand softened for home products, like furniture, that were popular during the height of the pandemic. In addition to presenting a financial cost, a lot of those items are bulky and take up considerable space in stores and warehouses.
"We got more of that product than we want to have, and we think dealing with that head-on by being aggressive now positions us with the right flexibility for the back half of the year," he said.
But it will come at a cost. .
While its excess inventory will be marked down, Target may see its overall price level rise this summer as it grapples with transportation and other costs that are being affected by inflation.
"Price is the last lever that we pull. … But price increases are unavoidable given the inflationary pressures that we've seen in many categories," Fiddelke said.
https://www.startribune.com/target-will-slash-prices-to-get-...
Apparently, it handled the start of the pandemic poorly and couldn't keep anything in stock. Then just as the winter wave started to ease, it bet big that people would continue to stay locked up and bought tons of home improvement things it should have had in stock a year ago.
Personally, my Target runs have gone from every other week to almost never, because it simply doesn't seem to ever have the things I want and need anymore.
This does not end inflation, but tends to exasperate it. The company goes out of business and you now have fewer things in the economy, but the same amount of money. The result is further inflation.
The issue with a retailer going out of business is not the retailer itself, but the manufacturers behind it. Target failing to sell their product reflects large numbers of manufacturers being unable to sell their product.
I’m looking at expensive hard good rights now. Purchases that I’ve been putting off for awhile because I know those prices are going up soon.
I’ve noticed the local “free range fancy chicken eggs” have remained $4 since two years ago but the cheap eggs have gone from a Buck (sometimes 50 cents on sale) to almost the same $4.
I noticed this too and stared buying the free range eggs again (used to get these all the time for my ramen eggs). There's definitely a difference but I don't go through enough eggs or cook them in a way that I typically care (no time to prep ramen and therefor nitamgo anymore).
People in border states have seen this since the start of the pandemic. I remember the first time that the only toilet paper available in Kroger was all Mexican brands.
I suspect that Mexican companies can make more money shipping goods to the U.S. than selling them locally. I also wonder if the demand from the north had made shortages in Mexico worse.
What Trump sank was the US joining the Trans Pacific Partnership.
There weren't that many changes, but he did implement the TPP's intellectual property rules.
> I doubt the lightbulb cartel is still a thing. While oligopolies and monopolies exist, it's not the answer to every inflating article.
An oligopoly doesn't have to also be a cartel, it just has to have few competitors.
I think the GP is complaining about how the US as pretty much allowed any market consolidation short of outright monopoly for a long time, which means a lot of companies have too little competition and therefore too much market power.
You know what people hate more than oligopolies? High prices. Consolidation is not de facto problematic. Unless said consolidation leads to cartel-like behavior or entrenching regulations (which even Adam Smith recognized as a problem and a propensity of elites, I'm not arguing in favor of laissez-faire capitalism), margins will be cyclical in a free market and colluding oligopolies will eventually face new incumbents, because high margins attracts competition and investments.
There are exceptions like markets where cost is prohibitive for new participants, say telecom (hello Rogers-Bell-Telus), but I don't see how that applies to lightbulbs in the 21st century.
And a lot of people are now questioning the wisdom and effectiveness of that approach.
Also a, "that shouldn't come [as] a surprise" response doesn't really address anything in this subthread. I don't think anyone is surprised that was the approach that was taken or its result, they just disagree with it.
You mean you disagree with it, despite there being many markets where less competition doesn't hurt or even benefits the consumer.
Also, addressing the tone or being grammar nazi doesn't add much to discussion.
Isn't the baby-formula fiasco yet another wake-up call?
While we're at it, let's stop burning our food. Growing (and subsidizing) corn for fuel is asinine.
Why wouldn’t it be?
1: https://www.inlineelectric.com/lifespan
But since you brought up this subject, why should I care consumer brands are exercising their pricing power for as long as I have access to the low-margin alternatives? People paying $5 for takeout coffee at Starbucks doesn't affect me in any way. It would affect me if Coke and Starbucks prohibited the existence of competitors or extinguished them, but that isn't the case (for these examples at least, such anti-competitive behaviors do exist) as you have yourself implicitly noted in your comment.
In a sense they do, every Starbucks in existence is a store where a traditional coffee shop cannot be stablished. How many more Starbucks it takes to completely shut other competitors out of the market?
I can only think of a single other dedicated coffee shop near my suburb of Cincinnati, and it's a cat cafe that serves dogshit coffee (or catshit, I suppose, and I'm not referring to the civet). At least they have cute adoptable cats to play with!
socialists in 2022: "evil oligopolies are raising prices unfairly causing inflation"
havent found one that could explain why they didnt "collude" to raise prices in 2008-2019.
whereas its quite clear what caused the high prices was rather insane govt spending caused by socialist policies.
Applies to Amazon too nowadays.
guess its just a coincidence that they chose now to do it. and not 2017
^^ that chart.
also, giving people money directly with stuff like unemployment and stimulus checks is extremely stimulative compared to say building a bridge.
massive supply shocks didnt help either. but they govt knew there was supply shocks and increased demand anyway. despite warnings by democratic economists. (we just found out yellen herself had misgivings about the 1.9T price tag)
The people you’re referring to would not be saying companies are taking advantage of the zeitgeist and raking in bigger profits knowing inflation talks will take all the blame or straw manning like your 2022 line. Gas prices rising so much providing incredible profits is an obvious example of this.
No one in the White House or Senate are socialists. Bernie is like the Nordic model: capitalism + large safety nets + govt programs. The senate has been in republican control or with the useless Dem leaning current situation with too many conservative Dems. Trump’s regime did some of the biggest “socialist policies” spending. It is wild to assert the right pass socialist policies.
2. The minute we started talking about inflation, every company in my life took advantage of it--overnight.
3. I'm with you on the government spending. I understood the money thrown at Covid, but that's done, and the working poor will never see those checks ever again. And I'm no fan of the Infrastructure Bill.
4. If you don't wonder why gasoline prices fluctuate by a dollar hourly at some stations, while making record profits; I don't know what to say.
5. Every large company made record profits during Covid, and we don't know why? They didn't lower prices.
Again the $300 extra per week for unemployed people affected by Covid was a one time thing. Companies might get free money as usual, but not the little guys.
It was conservatives (Trumpy) that passed first 2 trillion stimulious package.
America has just a few badly run "socialist" programs.
I think we all have seen our homeless population get bigger each month.
Oh yea, federal government programs. Basically (Cal-fresh, and medi-cal)have gone back to make qualifying very hard.
This just might be the “new normal”. The lack of readily available products might be a problem, but there’s also a good chance we see much higher wages across the board
The leading edge of millennials are already way out of their best reproduction years. Middle's very much iffy. The youngest are OK but will be starting to enter that "your risk of complications and birth defects are increasing a ton year over year" territory soon.
And cheat on Capital?
Globally, it's a bit different, the bulge of millennials is in fact larger by all measures, but that bulge isn't really driven by the US or Europe, it's the Middle East, and to a lesser extent, East Asia.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2...
https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2021/
https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/1...
Prices seem higher regardless, which ties into higher fuel and labor costs.