(06-24-2018 11:15 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 10:02 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(06-23-2018 11:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-23-2018 09:15 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(06-23-2018 12:16 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  I don't see how this is enforceable. Amazon provides a forum for 3rd party sellers. Requiring Amazon to collect sales tax for 3rd party sales is like requiring the mall owner to collect taxes for the tenants. If Amazon is collecting the money then yes, they should collect the tax.

The other issue for me is, I'm in North Carolina connected to a server in Atlanta, buying something through Amazon in Washington, from a company based in Kentucky with a fulfillment center in Arizona, shipped by a company based in Tennessee. Where did the sale actually take place? What if I am sitting in a state with no sales tax? How long before all those states start claiming they are owed sales tax?

But as far as popping into the family grocery as a kid to by a Coke, our gang never put it on the tab. We walked the roadside picking up empties until the deposit refunds were enough to cover the cost. Those days are long gone too.

I cited Service Merchandise as a concept that might re-emerge. Order via app and it is pulled waiting for you. Maybe with local delivery and shipping some goods locally for next day delivery. Retain a showroom for the person who wants to hold it first.

Retails shelves as warehouse space may not be nearly as cost-effective today.

It's all come full circle since the 1890's - 1930's. In the 20's my grandparents left their grocery order at the grocers and they delivered it and collected at their house. The hardware store would do the same. The inventor of the grocery cart realized that people would by significantly more if they could pick the items and load their own cart. So modern retailing was born. Now with busy lives we are simply coming full circle with a high tech twist.

In the Sixties and Seventies in my small Western Pennsylvania home town, we called in our grocery order to the local grocery store. (Sanitary Market in New Salem, Pa.).

(Hell, I even remember the local doctor making house calls)

Someone delivered the order to the house and brought the bags inside. No extra delivery charge.

The strangest thing people might wonder at today? No money was exchanged, as the store put the order on the credit tab and people paid what they could on the bill each month (no interest).

As a kid in the mid-Sixties, I would walk in there many times, buy a Coke or some candy, and say "Put this on our bill" and would walk out. They would.

They had a bunch of yellow ledger cards with each family's tab. They never put pressure on anyone to pay up. They stayed in business like that for decades, a family owned business.

Those days are long gone, most grocery stores are national or regional chains themselves.

Yep Terry, it was in many ways a much more civil time. Our doctor made house calls. The house call also kept infectious disease from spreading so easily (at least when school wasn't in session).

You might say that plastic has replaced the yellow ledger and that the chain is now the grocer. When they master 3D you will be able to walk the virtual aisles and add to your cyber cart. That will probably increase impulse sales again. The only thing is the relationships are lost. And that doctor isn't coming to your home. In fact you'll get the pleasure of waiting in a Doc in the Box with every form of communicable air born disease waiting right there with you. And that's because you can't get an appointment for 2 or 3 weeks with the family physician.

MBA's, Excel spreadsheets, and Wall Street analysts.

We have an overly exaggerated emphasis on cutting expenses in order to maximize profits and compete on price.

The problem with building your sales operation on price is that your customer's loyalty is built on price and your competitors are going to be able to exploit certain advantages to keep up with you or do better.

Dollar General is growing like crazy because they figured out they can't compete with Wal-mart on the price of a 12 pack of "mega roll" toliet paper, but they can offer four normal size rolls for a lot less (not less per square but less comes out of your wallet today) and people living paycheck to paycheck can buy enough to get to the next paycheck.

Eventually competing on price means cutting your labor costs and unless the market can absorb your discarded labor expense it means a decline in the number of people who can afford to buy discretionary goods and services.

It means you have to start sacrificing build quality. Mowers built with thinner decks. Integrated parts that are easy to install with robots or less skilled workers that cannot be repaired easily.

I watched downtown die. No they couldn't compete on price, but they might have lived if they had addressed the other needs. The shift to two working adults in households and single parent households where the only adult worked meant closing your store at 5pm or 5:30pm. My in-laws lived 10 miles from a grocery store and when my mother-in-law went to work her schedule gave her the choice of buying groceries on the way to work (thus no perishables) or waiting until Saturday. And it had to be Saturday because the store was closed on Sunday. Guess who was thrilled when Walmart arrived? The local grocery store had to die because they weren't open when the customer wanted to come buy things.

The competitors in the US economy for the most part have so little experience competing on service and quality that I'm not sure the skill set remains in large enough numbers.

The family doctor is now dependent on volume to make money.

The old system of having a tab at a grocery store kept the consumer coming back, today who cares because the credit is from Capital One not Smith's Market.

Yet not everyone has forgotten. I use a Lowe's credit card because I get a discount when I use it and if I need to buy a big ticket item that I can't pay off at the end of the month they offer 0% financing for X months (but I lose the 5% discount so the interest is hidden).

(06-24-2018 01:53 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 11:15 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-24-2018 10:02 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(06-23-2018 11:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-23-2018 09:15 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I cited Service Merchandise as a concept that might re-emerge. Order via app and it is pulled waiting for you. Maybe with local delivery and shipping some goods locally for next day delivery. Retain a showroom for the person who wants to hold it first.

Retails shelves as warehouse space may not be nearly as cost-effective today.

It's all come full circle since the 1890's - 1930's. In the 20's my grandparents left their grocery order at the grocers and they delivered it and collected at their house. The hardware store would do the same. The inventor of the grocery cart realized that people would by significantly more if they could pick the items and load their own cart. So modern retailing was born. Now with busy lives we are simply coming full circle with a high tech twist.

In the Sixties and Seventies in my small Western Pennsylvania home town, we called in our grocery order to the local grocery store. (Sanitary Market in New Salem, Pa.).

(Hell, I even remember the local doctor making house calls)

Someone delivered the order to the house and brought the bags inside. No extra delivery charge.

The strangest thing people might wonder at today? No money was exchanged, as the store put the order on the credit tab and people paid what they could on the bill each month (no interest).

As a kid in the mid-Sixties, I would walk in there many times, buy a Coke or some candy, and say "Put this on our bill" and would walk out. They would.

They had a bunch of yellow ledger cards with each family's tab. They never put pressure on anyone to pay up. They stayed in business like that for decades, a family owned business.

Those days are long gone, most grocery stores are national or regional chains themselves.

Yep Terry, it was in many ways a much more civil time. Our doctor made house calls. The house call also kept infectious disease from spreading so easily (at least when school wasn't in session).

You might say that plastic has replaced the yellow ledger and that the chain is now the grocer. When they master 3D you will be able to walk the virtual aisles and add to your cyber cart. That will probably increase impulse sales again. The only thing is the relationships are lost. And that doctor isn't coming to your home. In fact you'll get the pleasure of waiting in a Doc in the Box with every form of communicable air born disease waiting right there with you. And that's because you can't get an appointment for 2 or 3 weeks with the family physician.

MBA's, Excel spreadsheets, and Wall Street analysts.

We have an overly exaggerated emphasis on cutting expenses in order to maximize profits and compete on price.

The problem with building your sales operation on price is that your customer's loyalty is built on price and your competitors are going to be able to exploit certain advantages to keep up with you or do better.

Dollar General is growing like crazy because they figured out they can't compete with Wal-mart on the price of a 12 pack of "mega roll" toliet paper, but they can offer four normal size rolls for a lot less (not less per square but less comes out of your wallet today) and people living paycheck to paycheck can buy enough to get to the next paycheck.

Eventually competing on price means cutting your labor costs and unless the market can absorb your discarded labor expense it means a decline in the number of people who can afford to buy discretionary goods and services.

It means you have to start sacrificing build quality. Mowers built with thinner decks. Integrated parts that are easy to install with robots or less skilled workers that cannot be repaired easily.

I watched downtown die. No they couldn't compete on price, but they might have lived if they had addressed the other needs. The shift to two working adults in households and single parent households where the only adult worked meant closing your store at 5pm or 5:30pm. My in-laws lived 10 miles from a grocery store and when my mother-in-law went to work her schedule gave her the choice of buying groceries on the way to work (thus no perishables) or waiting until Saturday. And it had to be Saturday because the store was closed on Sunday. Guess who was thrilled when Walmart arrived? The local grocery store had to die because they weren't open when the customer wanted to come buy things.

The competitors in the US economy for the most part have so little experience competing on service and quality that I'm not sure the skill set remains in large enough numbers.

The family doctor is now dependent on volume to make money.

The old system of having a tab at a grocery store kept the consumer coming back, today who cares because the credit is from Capital One not Smith's Market.

Yet not everyone has forgotten. I use a Lowe's credit card because I get a discount when I use it and if I need to buy a big ticket item that I can't pay off at the end of the month they offer 0% financing for X months (but I lose the 5% discount so the interest is hidden).

Dollar General is expanding rapidly through stores but they aren't putting the capital up in building them. They are having outside contractors put the stores up and they lease them through 30 year Triple Net leases. It's a really good expansion plan.