Unfortunately during the pandemic, only the "big box" stores were allowed to be open; the mom & pop stores were forced to be closed. The big corporations did very well during the pandemic - the little guys not so much. In fact many went out of business because of the lockdowns. So ya, there were people who were held hostage & lost their shirts. Turns out it was likely totally unnecessary to shut down anything and we would have been further ahead than where we are now.
'Pass it off to the customer,' billionaire Jim Pattison says of rising business costs
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
Out of control?
The CEO is recruited. The company that wants them is outbidding other companies. That is the nature of bidding and auctions, be it for cars or antique or art or for CEO's. The ones with the most money get the best...
It actually is humorous to me when people are so concerned about how much someone else makes. Sounds like personal insecurities to me.
The "big box" stores were closed in my area, just like the "mom and pop" stores.
Shops, stores and merchants that were able to convert to online did well, some very well others did not fare well at all but, who is at fault? The government? The store owners? Former customers?
Those that claim being held hostage were ones that were unable or unwilling to change with the cirucumstances.
Huh. Interesting. Different rules in different places, & I’m assuming at different times.
In the first wave of the first lockdown, gyms & barbers indoor eating restaurants and what have you where shuttered out here. That was clear, but others where less so.
Just selling clothing? Closed. Selling clothing & groceries? Open. No pharmacy = closed, but having an in store pharmacy = open. It was an evolving mishmash of rules that did favour the big box stores.
Not too many Mom&Pop stores sold auto parts & clothing & groceries & had in-store pharmacy & liquor stores under the same roof.
I’m assuming Dixie Cup & Yourself might be from different areas of Canada??
Not sure. I am in Ontario. Not so sure the rules were much different in any Province.
Big Box stores like Home Depot and Lowes were closed but you could order online and pick up.
Big department stores like the Bay were closed. Walmart was open but only the grocery and pharmacy parts, the rest was roped off. There were (supposedly) limits on the number of people in the store at any given time. I stood in line to get into grocery stores and pharmacy.
Of course, restaurants were closed except for take out.
Liquor and beer stores were never closed.
Mom and Pop stores could sell but it was pick up only..... if they had online presence.
I think Dixie Cup is well to the West of you & I both, and I’m a couple of provinces to the West of you.
I heard about them roping off 1/2 of stores out there, but that didn’t happen here. If you needed a pair of pants, clothing stores where closed unless they also sold cheese or what have you. Stores where limited to 1/2 capacity for months on end, etc…but I think there might have been more sense in the West compared to our Eastern Neighbours Gov’ts regarding roping off halves of stores and what have you. Either a store was allowed to be open or it wasn’t.
You & Dixie Cup experienced this goat rodeo differently being in different places. I know that where I live, if I needed a plumbing part I just went and got it, but was pretty grateful that my girlfriend was confident enough to cut my (and others) hair through the lockdowns. Home Depot or Lowe’s never closed here, but I experienced this differently than you as I’m not in Ontario.
Wealth distribution has grown increasingly more slanted to the high earners for forty or fifty years now, the higher the income, the higher the increase in share of the wealth. The top one percent saw their share increase by 53% since 1982, the bottom 50% saw their share decrease by 28% during the same period.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016009-eng.htm
I grew up in a middle class home where a single income made the mortgage payment, the car payment, put food on the table and maybe took a holiday now and then or put a kid through college. Days long gone.
Yeah well, here, in Ontario, when they had lockdowns, they were real lockdowns.
Lots of people were really pissed and lots of people were really happy.
As normal, the whole thing is the fault of the Government LOL
Lots of young families occupying the single family homes around me . They mustn’t of gotten the message . But like I said before , you should have been a CEO , what is stopping you except , you ?
I meant all of history. Looked at starting from, say, the building of the Great Pyramid, the downward distribution of wealth was a blip.
My income (and eventually my wealth) increased when I went back to school to get a Diploma.
Having said that for a bit, we did have to "line up" at our local Walmart or Costco to get in as only a certain number of people were allowed in. However, nothing was "roped off" - you could purchase clothing but you couldn't (and maybe still can't) try them on. The change rooms were (are??) closed.
Not all of that is pay. Much is in shares, which anyone could by and reap the benefits from.
Except for politicians. What they make is truly obscene. And we don't seem to have any control over it. At least if one doesn't like what a CEO makes they have the option of not shopping at that business.
Some politicians charge publicly funded organizations for speeches and get promoted for the trouble .
What politicians make is what they decide LOL.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a job and decide every year how much of a raise you get??
Back in the day there used to be an unwritten contract between an employee and the employer. I'll give you 30 odd years of service to the Company, and you take care of my family.
But with the advent of Free / Global Trade a few decades ago, it all of a sudden became a race to the bottom. Outsourcing cheap labour to foreign countries became the norm...paying people in Bangladesh 50 cents an hour to make Nike shoes...paying cheap wages to Mexicans to build goods...Chinese labour...etc.
The bottom line and pleasing the shareholders became the priority. In other words, Joe Sixpack and Sally Housecoat were thrown under the Bus.
Today the chickens are coming home to roost. The steady evaporation of the middle class...a large gulf between those who have and the have-nots. It truly is a mess brought on by greed and poor policy.
But with the advent of Free / Global Trade a few decades ago, it all of a sudden became a race to the bottom. Outsourcing cheap labour to foreign countries became the norm...paying people in Bangladesh 50 cents an hour to make Nike shoes...paying cheap wages to Mexicans to build goods...Chinese labour...etc.
The bottom line and pleasing the shareholders became the priority. In other words, Joe Sixpack and Sally Housecoat were thrown under the Bus.
Today the chickens are coming home to roost. The steady evaporation of the middle class...a large gulf between those who have and the have-nots. It truly is a mess brought on by greed and poor policy.
The irony, in Canada on a Federal level at least, is that they give themselves their annual raise every year on April 1st.
LILLEY: Canadians are the fools this April 1 as taxes, MP pay go up
MP salary, carbon taxes, booze levy all set to increase Thursday