Why is everything in consumer / American life so fucking shitty now - and companies literally just say 'oh bc profit margins' and we're now expected to swallow that and sympathize?
Why is everything in consumer / American life so fucking shitty now - and companies literally just say 'oh bc profit margins' and we're now expected to swallow that and sympathize?
like I went to taco bell and they didn't even have napkins out. they had the other stuff just no napkins, I assume because some fucking ghoul noticed people liked taking them for their cars so now we just don't get napkins! so they can save $100 per quarter rather than provide the barest minimum quality of life features.
Because stocks kept trading at higher and higher P/E ratios essentially saying "the market thinks this company can make much more money in the future than they are making now."
The problem is, most companies couldn't, and as we have hit a recessionary phase those companies are now scrambling to try to show continued growth justifying their price.
The way they do that is by cutting off their limbs and selling them for short term cash at long term consequence.
So you see them cutting costs in all kinds of ways that screw over their customers but can show quarterly profits. Even though it means customers may not stay customers if better options appear.
So we are in this sort of pendulum swing period where large corporations suck because there's effectively no competition that doesn't and sucking is the last way for them to squeeze water from a stone. The natural solution is that we'd see competition rise up that doesn't suck to take their customers away and force pro-customer changes.
This likely will eventually happen, but it's going to take time. There are emerging tech trends that will accelerate it, but are still a few years away from practically changing the equation.
In about a decade things should suck less, and a number of the crappy companies around right now may no longer be around, but in the meantime it's still going to suck for a while yet as things adjust to the dying of the old guard and birth of the new.
because somehow our economic system says that a company is only successful if it's growing, not if it's regularly turning a profit every quarter. at least, that's my understanding of it. so, they have to do something to generate something that looks like growth somehow
It's pretty simple. Because we are all so spoiled and entitled that we won't even consider NOT buying their shit anymore. It's the same reason the video game market has grown rampant with micro transactions. They keep pushing the boundaries, and we keep giving them our money regardless of what they do. I'm actually curious to see how far they can push this insanity. They already slap a new year on sports titles every year and somehow sell the same game to the same people annually.
PUT YOUR WALLET DOWN.
in dodge v ford the supreme court ruled that publicly traded companies must put profits first above their workers and the the build quality of their products.
I assume because some fucking ghoul noticed people liked taking them for their cars so now we just don't get napkins!
They were probably just out and too busy to restock or something. It happens. Never been to a fast food place where they don't provide napkins and I steal napkins from the taco bell I live near regularly. What a weird overreaction.
My satellite TV (Sky TV ... UK) subscription ended recently and they would not give me any sort of deal to sign a new contract, Come black Friday they a spamming me by email and every type of advert for great deals for NEW Customers only!
I called SKY to cancel and they offered me a better deal but we're going to charge me an admin fee to sign a new contract, they wanted me to pay them to sign a contract with them!
I told them that it was not acceptable and cancel my service, having been put through to "my manager" they eventually waived the admin fee...
How has it come to this, I'm an easy customer, I am happy with the product, I'll sign a contract if it's a good deal, but they went out of their way to lose me
Because your rights have been eroded by decades of deregulation and lobbying. And because publicly traded companies are legally required to maximize profits at all costs.
Do you really have to ask? Capitalism, when it goes unchecked, turns everything shitty. Capitalism has been relatively unchecked in the US for the last 50 years, so everything is shitty. That’s starting to change as unions become more powerful again, but they’re still a fraction of what they were in the early 20th century. Late stage capitalism, baby!
Taco bell has switched their demographic from dining in, to take out and drive thru. Started with the pandemic, that's why most stuff that used to be readily available isn't put out anymore. All the taco bells in my area did this, same with several other fast food chains.
Why I don't eat out as much is because of the shrinkflation. Back in the mid 90's you used to be able to get a whopper for a dollar. Now they're pushing $6 and they just aren't the same anymore. More if you get a meal.
I'm with you, OP: for some reason, it's the little things I notice.
I'm in grocery stores a lot. It used to be, there was a nice little seating area there to sit, drink my coffee and work. But now, because homeless people dared to duck inside a public-facing area to briefly escape the elements, they removed many of the tables and chairs and they're now a big, empty space. Heaven forbid they add more seating, actually staff enough people to enforce a time-limit, etc; no, instead we all are worse off for it. But corporate profits have never been higher, so worth it, right!?
Theres a few problems
- Companies trying to maximize profits
- Corrupt political systems lets companies exploit their workers and customers alike
- Supply chains have been getting disrupted more and more. "Just in time" and getting "just enough" supplies no longer works well. A lot of stuff gets delayed or out of stock
- We expect unlimited resources on a finite planet. Whether its plastic junk, useless tech, or food we expect it to be available 24/7/365
Capitalism is the answer. Greed, unchecked profits.
Oh it's even more complex.
Who sells those napkins?
(Answer; Sysco. If a place is short on napkins, Sysco is turning the screws on the franchise owner).
We're going to through the "enshittification" as a society. There was the Great Recession, the DotCom Bust, the Great Inflation, etc.
What is going to matter, is can we use this "enshittification" to benefit society by increasing wages, encouraging social mobility, protecting and enshrining rights for marginalized communities, etc. Building a more inclusive society.
Yep.
Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. They have to make money. And how much money do they have to earn? MORE.
To grow, they offer good food at a reasonable price. It seems cheaper to put the drink machine out for customers to make their own drinks choices… but then we need those extra pennies, so behind the counter it goes, so customers don’t get free refills… then how can we source cheaper stuff, beef beans etc. there will be c constant demand to squeeze every penny from the system… Bob is making too much; better fsck his schedule until he quits so we can hire Alice as she make only minimum wage.
I’m not sure where napkins fall in the chain but yes the quality likely will continue to spiral down.
There are very few companies who recognize that there is a quality floor they should not go below. Where they acknowledge that we can’t get any worse, but they have to raise prices. And depending on the managers this cycle will continue back and forth
Well you know all those boomers retiring ? They not doing work anymore but that's not the worst of it. Now they are spending that retirement money instead of stashing it.
So they're selling their stocks and now the companies need cash or demonstrate profit growth or else their share prices will tank.
The US has not set up a system that compensates properly. Most European countries have a security net in place when capitalism squeezes regular people. The US does not. You're on your own.
It's a shame so much time has passed for the public to even recall how much Teddy fought for the average Joe blow public with his first deal. He fought the corporate overloads and they couldn't believe he couldn't be bribed like those before him and since.
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. -Theodore Roosevelt
Unionize, as an induvidual you are ultimatily powerless, as a collective not so much.
Modern society does everything it can to prevent you from collectivising, long work hours, low pay, private healthcare, high rent; all meant to make you work so hard you never have a chance to group up and demand better; resist it and organize.
Ask for napkins, if they won't give you any, pour a soda out on the counter and steal some of the paper towels they use to clean it up. (Actually don't, this method isn't nice for the workers)
It's going to be a fun next few years. Corpo dickheads keep trying to make another nickel next quarter, but more and more people have had enough. If food is too expensive, people will start stealing it, and the police can't be everywhere. Better hope there isnt 't some global pandemic or something that would suddenly make it acceptable to wear a mask in public.
because people swallow. stop going to that taco bell or taco bell in general. likewise for other things.
Yep! If everyone keeps buying shitty pastries that come from plastic bags at Starbucks then they're going to keep making them. Enjoy.
The napkins thing is a thing at McD near me.
You have to stand there and wait for about five minutes to flag down a member of staff (they’re all in the back now due to the self serve kiosks). The same for sauces. Which to me says that my time is meaningless to them. They don’t trust us to not take too many but they’re also too lazy to put some in every customers bag.
I will no longer eat there due to this and the crazy prices for the same mediocre food.
Fucking ghouls. Yet we have debates at work all the time and I’m seen as some weirdo for not wanting to be fleeced by every company on the planet.
Be like me and steal what you can from these companies. Commit delivery fraud (item never arrived when it did). Raise chargebacks etc. take what you can as that’s what they’re doing. Just don’t do it to sole businesses.
You are all foolish and thought global suicide was NOT their primary objectives. Corporations, Wealth, Religion, etc. etc. are all thing you would call bullshit but the God of the Dead is sick of your shit.
because it is not designed to be good but just to make money
Fiduciary responsibility, number has to get bigger
Maybe they are out of them because some ghoul took all of them to clean their car? One self entitled customer.
I think it's less that we're expected to sympathize, and more just that they've realized enough people will tolerate it. With OP's example, Taco Bell has clearly decided that whatever business they may lose due to people deciding to not go to Taco Bell anymore because of the lack of napkins will be less than whatever they save by not stocking napkins anymore.
And they're right.
Don't get me wrong, it's a shitty thing to do, but between people in general not realizing that this place doesn't even have napkins anymore, and people deciding they still want semi-delicious garbage tacos anyway, they're really not going to see a big dip in revenue. They've simply realized that they really can just make their presented experience a little shittier just to save some money.
Its hard to believe a fucking nobody bank like SVB collapsing could do this.
If you've never operated or owned a restaurant before, it's because the top 3 expenses in a restaurant are: food, labor, and paper. Controlling paper usage helps control costs significantly. That's why.
It’s all disgusting out there.
My wife and I kicked all fast food 2010.
We use a crock pot for beans. Buy tortillas etc. We can beat Taco Bell burritos with zero worry about disease.
We transmuted our disgust for corporate hegemony into carefully crafted campaign designed to rise above it as much as possible.
And we’re not saints. Still using abuser Amazon because fuck. But we try and I ride right in by fast food faces feeling so good not to give them an effing dime.
Stop your consumerism, vote with your wallet
It’s because the rate of profit has a tendency to fall.
Taco Bell will just put out a "napkin tipping" jar and blame lack of tips for not providing napkins.
It's a pretty complicated economics question why inflation is happening. They're working on it by adjusting interest rates, I guess.
As for why the average American isn't doing so well, it's basically the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. If this same inflation was happening with a 70's distribution of wealth (and IIRC it actually did) it wouldn't be fun but it wouldn't be pushing so many people to the brink, either.
Shareholders. Part of me thinks they see the writing on the walls of climate change and want to just get the most they can out of the rest of the short time we have left.
I was just thinking how captured the basic necessity of hydration has become. So many people have become fooled into emptying their pockets to buy soda etc. and the idea of merely drinking normal water is not enough. Plus the lack of enforcement to regulate a universally clean water supply to all areas. I mean… clean accessible water is a super basic foundation of civilisation. Now corporations have diverted that need into profit and almost certainly helped derail any plans to ensure that water is safe and drinkable.
You now live in the monopolist stage of capitalism, aka imperialism.
Read "imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism by Lenin" for more insights.
$$$$$
Re napkins: it's also possible 1 in 100 people abuse the privilege and ruin it for everyone else by taking 500 napkins at time.
Also see: how most downtowns in major cities have to do a door code on restrooms in their businesses to reduce the likelihood of someone ODing inside / smearing feces on the mirror / whatever
It doesn't take much for a small percentage of selfish ding dongs to cause problems for the majority of decent people
Permanently Deleted
So what are you doing about it?
The American consumer is the worst-behaved, most deranged, most thievery-prone they've ever been in history. "The customer is always right" thinking is endemic. Roving bands of Karens are straight-up assaulting workers. People want everything for free and figure "gratis" means "loot an entire two-armed carry." Not to even get started on the fucking shoplifting!
When people abuse a privilege, you take the privilege away, from everyone. It's pretty simple. If you want a retail experience where you feel privileged and taken care of then you need to be going to places that have some kind of mechanism to keep the hoi polloi away. A membership fee, an unusual location, some kind of barrier to entry.
In fast food restaurants in the UK, you get your own napkins or they give you them on the tray when you collect your food. Or in some other non-fast food restaurants, they will bring napkins with your cutlery after you've ordered your food.
This is how it has always been and it's a slightly strange thing to get upset about.
You sound like a crybaby. No napkins for your taco equals muh capitalism!!