[Z Boss]

A point of info. from my dealer's general manager: "we are selling just as many vehicles pre-pandemic, the difference is we have little available inventory, the inventory is not sitting around and we are getting premium prices..." This all bodes well for the dealer's business operations.

Btw, I had to negotiate my butt off to pay just sticker price on a $75K Camaro ZLE that was ordered in June, finally produced in January and is still sitting in the parking lot at the Camaro factory in the winter weather awaiting transportation with an estimated delivery of March 29. Really??

[TXCSSU]

Originally Posted by 95 imp

First off... What companies specifically are "these companies"? The article makes no mention of ANY companies. They use "mystery companies". Whether real or imagined, we do not know.


Now, let's dive into the article...

Did you even verify any of the facts that were in the "article" you linked?

Right off the bat in the bullet points:

The ability to charge more is making some employers more comfortable with paying higher wages.

And further in the article:

"The upshot for workers of some of these price increases is that higher sales makes employers more willing to raise wages and compensation."

Kinda the same thing I said.

Except it's the other way around. Business currently needs to outbid the federal government for workers (unemployment vs wages). Those wage increases are, in part, driving costs up.


Moving on:

https://digital.com/

This site is an "click farm". Doubt you could get any type of scientific poll outta these guys.

Methodology

All data found within this report was derived from a survey commissioned by Digital.com and conducted online by survey platform Pollfish. In total, 1,000 U.S. retail business owners and executives were surveyed. Appropriate respondents were found viaa screening question. To qualify for the survey, each respondent had to own a retail business or be an employed executive at a retail business. This survey was conducted on November 18, 2021. All respondents were asked to answer all questions truthfully and to the best of their abilities. For full survey results, please email julia@digital.com.

You answer ONE question on the internet and BOOM you're in. No actual verification. For all I know high school kids answered this poll.

Then we have:

"Gas supply companies are paying less and making a lot more, and they do not seem to be passing that on to the consumers at the pump," Biden said last week. "Instead, companies are pocketing the difference as profit. That's unacceptable."

The key words are underlined. Magicians do things that do not seem possible.

Oil in November 2021 (when the article was written) was $70-$80 a barrel.
Gasoline was around $3-$4 (depending on the state).
That is in line with historical prices.

Further, the Biden Administration investigated oil companies and came back with nothing. Why? It was all smoke and mirrors to throw the gullible some red meat.

If there WERE any actual price gouging, the Justice Department would have paraded heads thru the streets. N-O-T-H-I-N-G came out of the investigations. Nothing.

It was all a head fake to throw people of the real reason.

The Government is printing money it doesn't have out of thin air and causing inflation by having too many dollars chasing too few goods and services.

(And to be fair, the Trump Admin. was dishing out "free money" to people as well)


Disclaimer:

This is not a political rant, nor should it be taken as such. The ONLY reason political parties were mentioned was due to the article and an attempt to be balanced.

This post is about economics. Please keep it that way.

Your question was specifically about companies making record profits in this current climate of inflation. I googled "Companies making record profits". There has been a discussion about raising minimum wage, as you pointed out companies are already raising prices to neutralize that minimum wage increase. I'm not sure why you might consider that to be "political", when it's just big companies doing "business as usual".

[SHessler]

Originally Posted by Allez

Is $25 a typo? For $25 extra I'd go for it . . .

$25K, typo indeed...

[95 imp]

Originally Posted by TXCSSU

Your question was specifically about companies making record profits in this current climate of inflation. I googled "Companies making record profits". There has been a discussion about raising minimum wage, as you pointed out companies are already raising prices to neutralize that minimum wage increase. I'm not sure why you might consider that to be "political", when it's just big companies doing "business as usual".

It was more as a general clarification since the last 2 presidents (politics) were mentioned.

And, for the record, companies are not trying to "neutralize" anything. Someone has to pay for the wage increases. I don't know if you've ever owned a business, but rest assured, labor is the #1 cost and, generally, there isn't a whole lot of profit to cover massive, across the board, pay raises.

Unfortunately, prices HAVE TO go up.

The government, thru the generous unemployment benefits (that BTW has caused business unemployment tax rates to go up) are really a de facto minimum wage increase which has circumvented Congress.

[TXCSSU]

Originally Posted by 95 imp

It was more as a general clarification since the last 2 presidents (politics) were mentioned.

And, for the record, companies are not trying to "neutralize" anything. Someone has to pay for the wage increases. I don't know if you've ever owned a business, but rest assured, labor is the #1 cost and, generally, there isn't a whole lot of profit to cover massive, across the board, pay raises.

Unfortunately, prices HAVE TO go up.

The government, thru the generous unemployment benefits (that BTW has caused business unemployment tax rates to go up) are really a de facto minimum wage increase which has circumvented Congress.

If a business owner can't afford to pay living wages to their workers then they don't have any business being in business. And lol@ "generous unemployment benefits", I bet if you asked those claiming unemployment insurance if they'd rather be working, they'd tell you yes.

I tend to look at Costco as an example of a company that does right by its employees. The CEO doesn't pay himself obscenely large amounts of money and pays their workers an actual living wage. The problem we tend to run into is that we are ok with idolizing greed when we should be treating it the same way we treat any type of gluttonous behavior.

But back to the thread, based on what I'm seeing out of a lot of posts, it seems like a lot of people wouldn't like pure capitalism if we lived in a pure capitalist society.

Originally Posted by Z Boss

A point of info. from my dealer's general manager: "we are selling just as many vehicles pre-pandemic, the difference is we have little available inventory, the inventory is not sitting around and we are getting premium prices..." This all bodes well for the dealer's business operations.

Btw, I had to negotiate my butt off to pay just sticker price on a $75K Camaro ZLE that was ordered in June, finally produced in January and is still sitting in the parking lot at the Camaro factory in the winter weather awaiting transportation with an estimated delivery of March 29. Really??

I wonder if this dealership is the exception or the norm. I guess it could be the norm as there tends to be a lot of inventory sitting on dealers' lots (under normal conditions). It makes me wonder how this might change the landscape of the dealerships. I wonder how Tesla's model is holding up in this climate with their dealer-less business model.

[95 imp]

Here is Milton Freidman explaining money and inflation.



That being said "a living wage"? Or living within your means?

I owe you nothing. It's your responsibility to earn a living.

[TXCSSU]

Originally Posted by 95 imp

Here is Milton Freidman explaining money and inflation.



That being said "a living wage"? Or living within your means?

I owe you nothing. It's your responsibility to earn a living.

That could be the mantra of a lot of dealers that are marking up prices.

[MR's 2SS]

Im not shedding a tear for any of them. Consider all the junk 4 cylinder "Cross over suv" eggs they had sitting years on the lots. All manufacturers had all this crap that should have had 6 cyl engines and would almost be cool with a small 8... But in pursuing CAFE averages they put 4s in and built toaster ovens no one would buy.
Im thinking they moved every single worthless one of those clunkers for a nice profit while the shelves were otherwise bare.
We had been leasing my wifes car for 3 vehicles in a row from Infinity. All wheel drive sporty cars as a commuter for her that would be capable in any weather.
A 4 door sedan, 6 cyl.a 2 door coup. 6 cyl. and a small SUV 6. The cars were great rear drive dominant relatively powerful cars. The SUV was front wheel dominant and it was a squirrel as a result. We would have bought another car from them but everything under 60 grand was a 4 cyl. Sorry... not happening.
Luckily my wifes commute has changed. So we bought the 2SS vert. Dec. 31 2020 for $7,000 under MSRP.
Now my wife understands why I hate under powered vehicles and front wheel drive.
With the market this way... no one who has any choice should buy anything other than necessities.
Camaros and Vettes are not.

[MR's 2SS]

As for gas producers.... Im sure the $100/bbl oil is good for profit compared to the $40/bbl of 18 months ago.
As for NG... lack of pipelines causes high prices where pipelines do not exsist.
As for unemployment bennies. I know several restaurant owners who lost most of their wait staff during mandatory shut downs. I know of many local businesses which have failed. I know the restaurants wait staff is different and they lost them due to the mandatory shut downs. And they claim the former employees refused to return due to it paying better to stay home. Although I believe those bennies have run out now.
We have mom in a nursing home. Understaffing has altered the field. It seems underpaid overworked staff didnt want a mandatory spike so that was the last straw. Now dramatic understaffing is the result.
Then theres printing money.
All of this is political. These are not market driven issues.
Its pathetic leadership from top to bottom. government and corporations. They continue to thrive while the public falls behind.
The only thing I can say is dont pay inflated prices for crap you can do without. And look at the results of elections and vote accordingly.
All this crap is being done. Its not just happening. And if you fault capitalism you are not paying attention.
Its a coordination between authoritarian government and certain large corporations.

[95 imp]

Originally Posted by TXCSSU

That could be the mantra of a lot of dealers that are marking up prices.

No one is forcing anyone to buy the car though....

And, as it was argued by someone else, it is the same mantra we all have selling our cars to the dealers.

I never understood all these people who say, "the 1% is greedy and has all the money and we should take it from them and give it to the poor".

But somehow, they aren't greedy (and jealous) for wanting to take another's money.

[Chevelle vs Camaro]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

Dealers can survive these times by selling at MSRP. Selling at over MSRP is pure greed.

New car dealers….. no they can’t. Not enough inventory and if your not selling new ones then no ones trading in old ones. I don’t know what all dealers make at MSRP but most cars don’t have over 2k in profit.

They make most money of residuals from manufacturers which have triggers by amount of vehicles you sell….. which they can’t hit….. because low inventory.

My local chevy dealer is only afloat due to service department and auto repair….


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[Chevelle vs Camaro]

Originally Posted by GOC

You might be misunderstand how this works.

The issue Chevy is taking with dealers stems from MSP or market selling price. They are selling above suggested retail on new vehicles - they don’t want them doing that.

Used cars don’t have MSP - they have average market selling price. Which varies by demand amongst other things. You can buy or sell for whatever you like if it works.

Nobody’s trying to undermine capitalism or enter a political debate. I just don’t and won’t pay more then retail for what I buy. So I didn’t and suggest others do the same.

And i’m sure these dealer would listen to Chevy if they could fill there orders so the could meet volume needs….. but they can’t. Is chevy giving those dealer ships there residuals they’d normally receive for the number of cars they would sell if chevy could supply them….. probably not…

So telling them to sell the cars they can get them at the price they set….. but not incentivize them to do so but also not fill there orders just ain’t cutting the mustard.


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[CamaroBody]

Customized my early Lightning reservation on Ford.com for $42k and paid a $500 deposit. The next day the dealer wants me to sign for $10,000k over and apparently Ford can't change dealers once you order. They literally can't do anything and will tell you to cancel your order through the dealer or abide by the dealer. Terrible customer service. Fortunately I have an early Silverado reservation through a reputable dealer.





.

[GearheadSS]

Originally Posted by Chevelle vs Camaro

New car dealers….. no they can’t. Not enough inventory and if your not selling new ones then no ones trading in old ones. I don’t know what all dealers make at MSRP but most cars don’t have over 2k in profit.

They make most money of residuals from manufacturers which have triggers by amount of vehicles you sell….. which they can’t hit….. because low inventory.

My local chevy dealer is only afloat due to service department and auto repair….


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Umm, I've been in the new car business for 22 years. Our dealership sells at MSRP(or below in some cases) and we're doing just fine. All while stocking around 25-35% of the new vehicle inventory that we used to stock.