Sozaijiten Vol 222 Rarity
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You can access all the past editions of The Daily Planet on the green Category bar on the top of each page under the heading PlanetPOV.BUSINESSWalmart ( ) revolutionized consumers’ lives for decades. It built a successful retail empire across the country, powered by its low prices.But Walmart has failed to keep up with the innovation, and now other companies are successfully changing consumers’ behaviors in a way that is slowly killing the world’s most famous retailer.Want proof?Look no further than its most recent quarterly earnings report. Although it marked its second full quarter of positive same-store sales growth (albeit a measly 1.5%) after nine consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales, overall earnings still declined 13%.So what’s happening?It’s Not Them, It’s Y ouShopping behavior has changed.
And even though the recession forced many Americans to “trade down” to cheaper items like the ones Walmart is famous for, consumers sought out new ways to do so. In many cases they traded even further down and headed right for the Dollar Generals ( ) of the world.More frightening for the company is that even Walmart’s core customer base of low-income households is now a significant part of this epic shift in shopping behavior.The change, of course, is that traffic has shifted from physical stores to online stores.
In fact, a startling 50% of Walmart’s customers now shop on Amazon.com ( ), versus just 25% five years ago.Amazon’s low prices (thanks to its low overhead expenses and no sales tax in most states) and unbeatable selection (thanks to the acquisition of companies like Diapers.com and Zappos), combined with the convenience of online shopping, have attracted a growing fan base of customers — stealing more and more customers away from Walmart.Even Jeremy King, the chief technology officer of Walmart, admits Walmart.com is “playing a catch-up game” with Amazon. And yet it’s pretty clear that any attempts to compete with Amazon online will be futile.That’s because Amazon’s reach will only continue to expand as it builds out its Kindle platform. The ease of purchasing with just one click from virtually whatever device you choose (your computer, phone, Kindle, or even Apple’s iPad) will continue to attract a growing number of consumers — again, spelling bad news for Walmart.It’s Not Just Web Retailers Eating Walmart’s LunchOn the physical front, the most revolutionary Walmart killer is Costco ( ).Costco, a members-only warehouse chain, targets a more affluent demographic than Walmart but similarly prides itself in offering heavily discounted items. Even though Walmart has a similar arm of its business, Costco is light years ahead of Walmart’s Sam’s Club.Costco’s charm permeates many levels. Markups on products are heavily controlled. Items can never be sold for more than 15% of cost (whereas supermarkets will mark up items by 25%, and department stores mark items up by as much as 50%). This means consumers always know they’ll find unbeatable bargains.
And that keeps them coming back for the majority of their shopping needs. Stores require little upkeep. They are bare bones in design, meaning they require less maintenance capital than its more posh (by comparison) competitors. Plus, Costco only stocks around 4,000 items. Walmart’s stores, by contrast, often carry more than 100,000 different items, which constantly need shelf attention. Shopping is easier. The smaller scope of products makes the purchase decision easier for customers.
But it also generates higher sales volumes, which enables Costco to sell items quicker than they have to pay their suppliers for them — and allows them to negotiate even lower deals with these suppliers. Costco has a secret ingredient. The stores have an additional element that Walmart will likely never be able to replicate: the “treasure hunt.” Costco constantly stocks shelves with new items available for just a short time. Customers return excited to see new offerings, and they often leave with items they hadn’t intended to purchase.
Returns are never a problem. Even if shoppers later decide their impulse buys were unwise, Costco has the most consumer-friendly return policy out there, accepting returns on most products without a receipt and with an infinite timeframe.Given all this, it’s little surprise that Costco’s retention rate for members hovers around 90%. This means that once a customer gets a taste for the savings — and experience — Costco offers, he or she will likely be a customer for life. Again, bad news for Walmart.So How Much Is Walmart Hurting?It is unlikely Walmart will completely disappear anytime soon. While she was insured as an adult through work, it was not an ideal plan for someone with her condition—high deductibles, high co-pays, high out-of-pocket on a salary set right at living wage. Her employer hires lots of young, healthy adults and for those workers, it serves.
For my daughter, not so much. Until Obamacare, it was the best she could do. My employer, on the other hand, had a great insurance plan.
The moment adult children under 26 became eligible, I moved her onto my insurance, and with zest and thankful prayers, I paid the extra premium. Just in time, as it turns out, for the downward spiral of hospitalizations.You want to know what it’s like to hear your daughter is at high risk for something called? No, you don’t. Really.(Continued below the fold). Understand this, though: The last thing you want to be inflicted with, on top of every other worst case scenario playing out in your panicked brain, is concern about whether the good news is that you’ll have to help your daughter figure out how to declare medical bankruptcy from a hospital bed at age 22.Again, thank you, President Obama.This population of individuals is particularly vulnerable because they suffer from conditions they have had all or most of their lives. They have received coverage and treatment as children, only to have it taken away at a time in their lives when they are expected to become self-sufficient. To complicate matters, these patients, who are generally capable of working, often have difficulty finding employment because of their health history.—Her employer kept her on the books under the Family Medical Leave Act for 12 weeks, and then—God bless them—voluntarily extended that three more months.
They wanted her back, but no end was in sight. She went on disability during the long, long wait. Will her job still be there when she’s fully recovered this summer from her surgery? Maybe, maybe not. There’s no guarantee. And I suspect in this job market, without a college degree, with the need for time off from work for extensive surgical follow-ups, with new restrictions on activity because of a new porcine mitral valve, any job search is going to be a tough one.Many of these individuals may not realize that they should be receiving regular care, and even for those who seek care, access may be limited by insurance considerations. Because the prevention of secondary disability is an important part of ACHD management, this lost opportunity translates into increased human suffering, reduced productivity, and societal cost.—Increased human suffering, reduced productivity, societal costs.
That’s a bunch of cardiologists talking, not bleeding heart commie liberals. We pay a cost as a society for these lost young people—the hundreds of thousands of them saved in infancy through mind-blowing (and expensive) medical advances, extensive interventions, the most cutting-edge medical technology, who are abandoned to a Darwinian free market, uninsurable, in their 20s.All the care wasted over the years! My God, it’s mind-boggling, all the cardiac specialists and facilities, our family agony, the burden put on my daughter herself as she became a teen, to follow to a T complex instructions: make every follow-up appointment, avoid contact sports, no weight lifting, take your beta blockers every 12 hours, stay away from caffeine, track your palpitations, get enough sleep, don’t forget your medical ID bracelet, carry your device card and ask for a pat down when you go through TSA checkpoints. The effort until now had focused mainly on Clinton administration officials and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who co-authored a Medicare reform proposal with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) last year. This past week, however, the Ways and Means Committee changed tactics after unearthing a 2003 vote in favor of premium support by the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.Wyden has said that he doesn’t support this iteration of the plan, that the caps it places on growth in Medicare spending are too drastic, and he’s opposed to raising the eligibility age for Medicare, as the Republican budget would.
So they can’t really get away with using him any more. So what they’re trying to do now is equate Democratic votes for the Medicare prescription drug bill to what they’re calling “premium support” in their plan. The originator of premium supports, Harry Aaron from the Brookings Institute, says that’s not what this plan is.Aaron said Republicans are free to use the term “premium support” now that it’s in the public domain, but stresses that what he had in mind when he coined it was far different. Join RECENT COMMENTS. Kalima on WTF??
Sozaijiten Vol 222 Rarity 2
He not only asks foreign countries to interfere on his behalf in domestic elections, he wants the U.K. To join with one of the scoundrels in the. Kalima on The coverup. The “perfect call” was anything but.
— John Eisenberg, White House lawyer, pushed to move transcript of Trump call to classified server a. AdLib on I feel the same way, very encouraged, by your thoughtful and incisive views.
It's energizing to be reminded by others that you're not among the few, w. Kalima on Oops.
Now by all accounts, he’s down to bribing repub senators with campaign money to not impeach him, and already has 9 takers. Smearing the office i. TOCB on I am encouraged by people like you. Even as a little black boy growing up in the south, I believed in what I thought the Constitution stood for. I kne. Kalima on “HE CAN THROW RUDY OVERBOARD NOW”: INSIDE THE FEUD BETWEEN GIULIANI AND ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR Giuliani made a mess of an investigation Barr wa. Kalima on With the class of testifying witnesses so far, trump’s attack mode is just not working as it had in the past.
The trump attack on Col. Vindman on Twit. Kalima on There was enough in the edited transcript to nail him but the lawyers around him thought it was so damaging that they put it in a secret file to cover. Kalima on This is all about exonerating Russia for interference to exonerate trump and that trump can lift the sanctions.
It couldn’t be more obvious if they tr. Kalima on It’s the only right thing to do in this crumbling Mad House, and anyone who wants to save their integrity should do the same. Resign before trump canTOP NEWS.