4 ms·

Not all stores are McDonalds. Walmart, McD's, etc. have the volume, logistics, and scale to absorb these wage increases. They're also very nearly monopolies in

Not all stores are McDonalds. Walmart, McD's, etc. have the volume, logistics, and scale to absorb these wage increases. They're also very nearly monopolies in some ways - nobody else sells a Big Mac, and of course we should all be aware by now of the complications of allowing a Walmart into a smaller town, seeing what it does to small businesses. The real impact is on the smaller burger joint that does less business and has higher costs on everything already. Now their burger - which was already more than the McD's one - is even more expensive, so fewer people go there, so profits drop, and the business owner either has to drum up business, raise prices further and hit a death spiral, or fail....

jimmaswell 7y ago
A price increase of 4% on an already-premium-priced burger isn't going to drive away all your customers. Nobody stops going to a burger place because a burger went from $13 to $13.52.
- core-questions 7y ago
  I don't really buy the 4% number in this context. I could believe it for a large enterprise like McDonalds that can absorb the cost increases by virtue of a huge, vertically integrated chain of production, but smaller businesses usually have far more middlemen in their supply chains, each of which adds overhead, along with the actual restaurant staff. Plus, it's not just the burger costing more - it's a ton of items, and in the end it may not be financially prudent to have the luxury burger anymore. (Of course, this is me pretending that people who earn minimum wage are often financially prudent; in reality they'll just buy the burgers on a credit card and worry about it later)
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    If your supposition is correct, why should we, as a matter of public policy, protect the businesses that aren't efficient enough to pay employees adequately? It's often argued that nobody can afford to, but here you seem to be assuming that it is possible, but it's important to preserve the companies that are uncompetitive.
weldeini 7y ago
Walmart has many resources. They are growing fast in recent years. Now all Walmart employees can make use of Walmartone portal to get all the benefits. Login to it from https://walmartone.me/ https://walmartone.me/

jimmaswell 7y ago

A price increase of 4% on an already-premium-priced burger isn't going to drive away all your customers. Nobody stops going to a burger place because a burger went from $13 to $13.52.

core-questions 7y ago
I don't really buy the 4% number in this context. I could believe it for a large enterprise like McDonalds that can absorb the cost increases by virtue of a huge, vertically integrated chain of production, but smaller businesses usually have far more middlemen in their supply chains, each of which adds overhead, along with the actual restaurant staff. Plus, it's not just the burger costing more - it's a ton of items, and in the end it may not be financially prudent to have the luxury burger anymore. (Of course, this is me pretending that people who earn minimum wage are often financially prudent; in reality they'll just buy the burgers on a credit card and worry about it later)
- perl4ever 7y ago
  If your supposition is correct, why should we, as a matter of public policy, protect the businesses that aren't efficient enough to pay employees adequately? It's often argued that nobody can afford to, but here you seem to be assuming that it is possible, but it's important to preserve the companies that are uncompetitive.

weldeini 7y ago

Walmart has many resources. They are growing fast in recent years. Now all Walmart employees can make use of Walmartone portal to get all the benefits. Login to it from https://walmartone.me/ https://walmartone.me/