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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 183 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The problem is the way the system is rigged.

Kroger is a publicly traded company, their stock price right now is 46.71 / share.

You can see their most recent earnings report here:

https://ir.kroger.com/news/news-details/2023/Kroger-Reports-Third-Quarter-2023-Results-and-Updates-Guidance/default.aspx

Operating Profit of $912 million; EPS of $0.88

Now then... for NEXT quarter... It doesn't matter if they are profitable or not. Because they are publicly traded, they are going to be expected to make MORE profit than they did this quarter.

Let's say next quarter they "only" have $890 million in profit... Most of us would KILL to be that profitable.

The stock market analysts will look at it and go "yeah, but you 'lost' $22 million from last quarter..." and they will punish Kroger for failing.

Even worse...

Let's say Kroger raised their prices and pulls in a profit of $915 million next quarter... they can STILL get punished if the market goes "Yeah, but our analysts expected you to bring in $921 million in profit."

Failing to meet or beat "expectations" is just as bad as raking in less of a profit than last time.

So prices go up, because they have to make more money than the same time last month, last quarter, last year.

[-] _number8_@lemmy.world 63 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

abolish the stock market. put these hogs on a fucking island with no natural resources but sand and salt water. set up a camera and let us watch.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 32 points 5 months ago

It's interesting how recent the stock market really is:

https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/history-of-the-stock-market/

"The first modern stock trading market was created in Amsterdam when the Dutch East India Company was the first publicly traded company. To raise capital, the company decided to sell stock and pay dividends of the shares to investors. Then in 1611, the Amsterdam stock exchange was created. For many years, the only trading activity on the exchange was trading shares of the Dutch East India Company.

At this point, other countries began creating similar companies, and buying shares of stock was popular for investors. The excitement blinded most investors and they bought into any company that began available without investigating the organization. This resulted in financial instability, and eventually in 1720, investors became fearful and tried to sell all their shares in a hurry. No one was buying however, so the market crashed.

. . .

Although the first stock market began in Amsterdam in 1611, the U.S. didn’t get into the stock market game until the late 1700s. It was then that a small group of merchants made the Buttonwood Tree Agreement. This group of men met daily to buy and sell stocks and bonds, which became the origin of what we know today as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Although the Buttonwood traders are considered the inventors of the largest stock exchange in America, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange was America’s first stock exchange. Founded in 1790, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange had a profound impact on the city’s place in the global economy, including helping spur the development of the U.S.’s financial sectors and its expansion west."

[-] normalexit@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago

I don't know if my highschool education is failing me, but the US declared independence in 1776, so I feel like the US not having a stock market until the late 1700s makes a lot of sense.

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[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 37 points 5 months ago

they can STILL get punished if the market goes "Yeah, but our analysts expected you to bring in $921 million in profit."

This happened to the company I'm in. We had record profits, were positive for the first time in years, and beat our goals by a decent bit. Stock prices tanked anyway because "the best we've ever done" wasn't good enough for the shareholders.

[-] jettrscga@lemmy.world 36 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The "expectations" aspect became especially apparent when Tesla was valued higher than the next top 10 auto manufacturers combined.

It was literally that Tesla is new shit that we can bet on. It has nothing to do with Tesla's actual value.

It's also the issue with buying stocks based on a company's performance. If you do that, you're already too late because investors with more information have already bought based on a prediction of that performance (or insider information).

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[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 34 points 5 months ago

It's all so dumb. I'm sorry for the language, but it's just really, really dang dumb. There, I said it.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago

Try working for a publicly traded company and having stock shares.

I had a decent chunk of stock. One quarter we failed to meet expectations by 0.23%. The stock price went down 30%. Grrr!

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I worked for awhile at a private investment firm. Still can't muster much more than it's all so, so dumb.

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The shit part is even with private companies if they're run by a bunch of fucking idiot owners, they do not want to back off their bottom line, so they'll just let people go vs having savings to weather a down turn. Very few of our companies that employee everyone are run by intelligent people... it's mostly fucking idiots driving the ship like crack heads looking for their next fix.

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[-] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

I always imagine the stockholder that trades off quarterly expectations to be someone sitting in an overly large home getting all bent out of shape because someone else's labor didn't make them enough money RIGHT NOW!

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[-] Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Visited a friend in VA, she went to Kroger's to pick up medicine and I decided to grab snacks.

A case of soda and 3 bags of chips was like $40,

When I got home, I went grocery shopping at Martin's.

A gallon of nature's promise milk, 3 pounds of fresh mozzarella, 2 loafs of bread, a pint of ice cream and another case of soda came out to be about the same price.

This may also be a message about how weirdly expensive junk food has gotten, but dairy is usually the most expensive items on my list

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[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 100 points 5 months ago

Did he say anything about the Albertsons+Kroger merger that’s in the works? ‘Cause that’s not going to make things better and they are acting like it’s a done deal.

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 66 points 5 months ago

Through the magic of capitalism, removing competition will drive prices down! No further questions

[-] IDontHavePantsOn@lemm.ee 21 points 5 months ago

Corner the market then lower your prices. It's basic economics!

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[-] mlg@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

Microeconomics: "Hey so we should like have a functioning econ-"

Macroecnomics: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha no"

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[-] asteriskeverything@lemmy.world 85 points 5 months ago

accusing the stores of reaping excess profits and ripping off shoppers.

Thanks now can you do this with all the other companies? All.

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[-] snownyte@kbin.social 66 points 5 months ago

Eggs are again steadily rising in price. Wal-Mart "great value" prices isn't all that 'great' to begin with, with most of it's products.

But can we stop calling things inflation? Call it for what it really has been - G-R-E-E-D

[-] transmatrix@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago
[-] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

I call it increasing motivation to start fires.

[-] yumpsuit@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago

Eggs are again steadily rising in price.

This one can still be pinned on poultry farming greed, but it’s not a pure price gouge.

Avian flu devastates California’s poultry farms as new wave of outbreaks roils industry

[-] rdyoung@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

Let me preach about the holy sites known as Costco stores.

Also look for locally sourced eggs and meat, dairy, etc. You can probably find some small farms that sell direct to consumer.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago

Costco is great... But not everything works best when bought in bulk, and not everything freezes well. Eggs for instance, most people probably aren't going to go through 72 eggs in a reasonable timeframe. But it's great for shelf stable items and things you use a lot of.

Yes it is cheaper per unit because you're buying a larger quantity, but nearly every item is going to be $20+. This also assumes that you can afford the membership cost and the up front budget to be able to start to build that bulk stock, and that you have room for holding that bulk stock at home,

These are things that many people take for granted with so many more people living paycheck to paycheck now with increases in so many other costs now as well.

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[-] Fermion@feddit.nl 15 points 5 months ago

After hearing so many people singing their praises, I finally got a membership.

I used it precisely once. Their prices really were not very good on 90% of what I looked at. Plus they really encourage overconsumption.

Aldi ends up being more convenient and generally cheaper for groceries for me.

I'm not trying to yuck your yum, I just wanted to express an unimpressed opinion for other fencesitters.

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[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Jobs are starting to dry up in some industries because interest rates are so high that larger companies can no longer borrow cheaply to take a chance on side projects. The rates are high to combat this "inflation", and of course it won't work, because we aren't seeing real inflation. We're just seeing companies charging more because every industry is now an oligarchy. It's a bit of a death spiral.

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[-] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 43 points 5 months ago

Publix absolutely has fleeced it's customers since the pandemic.

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago

Government grocery stores would solve this and food deserts...

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago

What are you, some kind of Communist? You can't have government run retail outlets. It would be inefficient! It would prevent innovation! It would desaturate the market! It would cause millions of farmers to go bankrupt overnight! The employees would all be rapists and arsonists and unionists, while the managers would be bloated government bureaucrats who only care about their cushy government jobs!

You would cause famine and poverty across the entire nation. It would be the worst thing to happen to the country since the Postal Service!!!

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[-] pro@kbin.social 20 points 5 months ago
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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 5 months ago

In Canada, people think this is an exclusively Canadian issue happening specifically only at Loblaws and their affiliates.

ITS AN INDUSTRY WIDE SCAM.

[-] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 18 points 5 months ago

More in the news: government official complains about matters within their jurisdiction.

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[-] imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 18 points 5 months ago
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[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Why does Biden go after anything but minimum wage? Just because min wage isn't a winning issue doesn't make the problem go away.

[-] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 35 points 5 months ago

Because only Congress can change the minimum wage. You know, the one half controlled by Republicans.

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[-] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 11 points 5 months ago

There is like two links in that "grocery chains".

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[-] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 months ago

Old man wags finger

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this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
592 points (97.4% liked)

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