4 ms·
That's the new trend in many grocery stores. Someone on HN or Reddit mentioned that grocery charities are actually a tactic to estimate the sign of the derivat
by srtjstjsj 8y ago
That's the new trend in many grocery stores.
Someone on HN or Reddit mentioned that grocery charities are actually a tactic to estimate the sign of the derivative of e the customer base's grocery-discretionary income, as a hint of when to raise prices.
- bendoidic 8y agoInteresting angle. Any resources to back up that claim? Feels so dirty, like free health screenings for employees, when the real purpose is to built an insurance risk profile for a geographic area.
- cedivad 8y agoHN; the place where people use "sign of the derivative" instead of "trend" or "growth".
- anothergoogler 8y agoI was particularly confused by the typo, "sign of the derivative of e", e being constant.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- YaxelPerez 8y agosign of d/dx e^(discretionary income) perhaps
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- DrScump 8y agoOr simply introduce themselves as the vector for charity, taking corporate credit for the donations of their customers.
- swensel 8y agoThis is what I always guessed was the reason.
- asntbqjkwbucaa 8y agoI always assumed the reason was to generate $XXX million in donations for a tax deduction for the grocery store chain.
- gardnr 8y agoI'm not a tax attorney but I don't think that's how deductions work.
- asntbqjkwbucaa 8y agoDo you mind explaining more? I was under the impression that a corporation can take a tax deduction for charitable donations. There's a line item for it on Form 1120 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1120.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1120.pdf)
- smileysteve 8y agoIn order to take the tax deduction of an expense to a charity they have to first recognize the income the customer just gave them. Since the income and the deduction directly offset each other, this is a zero sum maneuver.
- asntbqjkwbucaa 8y agoAh, okay. Thanks!
- loosetypes 8y agoIt doesn’t work like that with regards to taxing. What they do get is a good PR image at no cost to themselves (many places don’t match any donations[0]). Worse, some even keep a percent in “administrative fees” [1] And there is concern that these checkout charities are replacing more traditional means of corporate giving, reducing net contributions. Whether or not they make you feel ambushed, due diligence is worth hope before giving, as some companies (and the non-profits they give to) are more worthy than other. [0] Such as walgreens. But there are some places, like Costco, that will match customer and employee giving. [1] Petco
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Kephael 8y agoI never donate via proxy, I don't want to give some corporation a tax deduction on my behalf. I am sure they are doing this for PR purposes.