Thread: Competitors

Interesting article "Retailers try new survival strategies for 2010"

Retail sales are predicted to increase 2.5% in 2010 after a 2.5% decline in 2009.

Retailers try new survival strategies for 2010 - USATODAY.com

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

The average annual income of the members of the American productive class is $39,751. The average annual income for the 22.5 million government employees those people are supporting is $74,519.

Basically, America's "working" people are slave laborers, except they get to wear neckties.

It used to be that workers in Government made a lot less but were compensated with more benefits and vacations/sick days etc.

The situation surely will get worse. Government continues to grow and private sector unemployment continues to decrease.

It appears that the statistics are being manipulated. I can't understand how the unemployment rate decreased to 9/7% when the economy losts 150,000 jobs in December and another 20,000 lost jobs in January. Even first time claims are up 8,000.

We are going to see more damage in employments this year. Mortgages with variable rates reset in April, more taxes, health care and layoffs.

Even the education will cost much more in US, and really for what? Educated people like we have in France to have a degree just to be cashier?

I guess many people are missing the point to re-train workers to different fields when their jobs do not exist anymore. Tell a father or a mother at 40 years old to go back in school for 2 or 4 years perhaps more when they have kids, house, car to pay and not enough money to make a living anymore.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

... Mortgages with variable rates reset in April ...

That's going to send foreclosures sky high and send real property values into a tailspin.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I guess many people are missing the point to re-train workers to different fields when their jobs do not exist anymore.

I'm not sure it's a skill set issue as much as a competitiveness issue. With the corporate tax rate, individual tax rate, and all of the "hidden" taxes, it's difficult or impossible for anyone in the U.S. to compete with an overseas worker.

Heck, I won't even hire anyone in the U.S. now, just because of the cost of complying with regulations and taxes. I can hire someone in Eastern Europe at the same rate of pay and it will cost me around 40% less.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I guess many people are missing the point to re-train workers to different fields when their jobs do not exist anymore.

There are blue collar jobs available like plumbers and electricians but people don't want them. These type of jobs paying 50k use to be a step-up into the middle class. At some point, "Joe the Plumber" would get his own truck and hire a few employees, start advertising and set-up an office. So now he would be making some good money as a business owner.

Blue-Collar Jobs in Demand for 2010
Blue-Collar Jobs in Demand for 2010- Yahoo! HotJobs

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

That's going to send foreclosures sky high and send real property values into a tailspin.

It's no all doom and gllom with the property values. In the East Coast at least, property is selling at 200% of the 2002 levels. Anyone that bought 10 years ago is making a big profit.
But, they are going to tell you that. In their eyes, they are losing money because they aren't making 350%.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

I'm not sure it's a skill set issue as much as a competitiveness issue. With the corporate tax rate, individual tax rate, and all of the "hidden" taxes, it's difficult or impossible for anyone in the U.S. to compete with an overseas worker.

Heck, I won't even hire anyone in the U.S. now, just because of the cost of complying with regulations and taxes. I can hire someone in Eastern Europe at the same rate of pay and it will cost me around 40% less.

Going back to "Joe the Plumber", he just can't make it anymore. The taxes and regualtions are killing him. In many areas, he can't afford to own a home due to the high taxes. In places like New York and New Jersey, the property taxes alone are running around $1,000 a month.

Interesting statistic that I heard today, 1-in-5 government workers are making in excess of $100,000 a year.

What I do is check Google Trends and look for "loops".

Yesterday, I found this info on the French news and found it on a few American news.
I guess this year will be crucial in the mortgage industry. If corporations start to walk away from their responsabilities, it will be ugly and this market will not emmerge anytime soon.
Don't Look Back: Major Players Continue To 'Walk Away' From Poor Mortgages

Interesting statistic that I heard today, 1-in-5 government workers are making in excess of $100,000 a year.

That's pretty sad to see in our state that state workers and teachers are the target for layoffs. Taxes raise on people, businesses, etc It is only possible when everybody make sacrifices, which is not the case. As Bogart mentionned, governement and state managers are paid very high, some states or cities don't even publish publicly how much they make. Perhaps some people are a shame to say what they really make off our taxes...!

it's difficult or impossible for anyone in the U.S. to compete with an overseas worker

It is impossible, that's why the Europeen people wasn't agree with the globalization of Europe, but politicians bypassed this issue and voted their agenda anyway.
I am wondering sometime why people are voting...because in many cases governements work like feudalism.

Originally Posted by firetown

What I do is check Google Trends and look for "loops".

Can you shed my light on what you look for in the "loops"

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

Yesterday, I found this info on the French news and found it on a few American news.
I guess this year will be crucial in the mortgage industry. If corporations start to walk away from their responsabilities, it will be ugly and this market will not emmerge anytime soon.
Don't Look Back: Major Players Continue To 'Walk Away' From Poor Mortgages

There's still hope for retail. The amount of people that are current on the credit cars and behind on the mortgage has increased 50% over the last year. It used to be the other way around.

A recent study developed by TransUnion found the percentage of Americans who were current on their credit cards but behind on their mortgage increased to 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the share of consumers making mortgage payments on time but behind on their credit cards moved in the opposite direction, sliding from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent over the same time period.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Forget....html?x=0&.v=2

Another question about competitors:

How do you deal with competitors who slash their prices down to wholesale prices, and that doesn't include the shipping costs from the suppliers?

So they end up competing with the wholesalers who also sell retail.

Thanks

I hate it when that happens. A friend of mine has a textile business here in Canada. His competitor who is located 15 minutes away had a sale where prices were a tad more than the wholesale price. My friend sold his products a bit lower than the wholesale prices. He lost about $500, but he stole his competitors clients. He was able to give up 500 where as the competitor was not.

This is something people usually don't do. I don't recommend it, but if your goal is to steal your competitors customers, it sometimes works.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

How do you deal with competitors who slash their prices down to wholesale prices, and that doesn't include the shipping costs from the suppliers?

Pretty much all you can do is find something new to sell.

I use to sell enterprise software and the manufacturer was giving deeper discounts to our competitors than they were giving to us. We weren't able to compete for sales.

And the manufacturer still complained to us that we weren't selling enough of their software.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

So they end up competing with the wholesalers who also sell retail.

That's hell on Earth. When your wholesalers are competing with you for end-customers, you really need to find something new to sell.