US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8546

On August 25 2017 09:17 Plansix wrote:


Don't let people fool you, the way pushing the debt ceiling is a dangerous game. Even more so than with Obama.

On August 25 2017 09:27 Danglars wrote:

More so than with Obama? Now this I gotta see. White man in the office, debt ceiling fight is a more dangerous game.

On August 25 2017 09:27 Danglars wrote:

More so than with Obama? Now this I gotta see. White man in the office, debt ceiling fight is a more dangerous game.

On August 25 2017 09:31 Gorsameth wrote:

Interesting you would think they were talking about a Black vs White comparison rather then an Intelligent vs Clown show comparison.

hm.

On August 25 2017 10:13 Nixer wrote:
Does "classical liberal" mean what I think it does?

On August 25 2017 10:13 Nixer wrote:
Does "classical liberal" mean what I think it does?

SEATTLE — The era of Whole Paycheck, the derisive nickname for Whole Foods, may be drawing to a close. Amazon, which takes control of the upscale grocer on Monday, intends to slash prices the same day.

The significance of the move goes well beyond the price of organic avocados, baby kale and rotisserie chickens, all of which will cost less on Monday than on Sunday. Rather, it is an outsize way for Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, to announce his plan to shake up the grocery industry and take on competitors like Walmart and Kroger.

“This is how Amazon operates,” said Michelle Grant, head of retailing at Euromonitor, a market research firm. “It’s all about speed, speed, speed.”

Mr. Bezos has always been willing to lose money, disappoint shareholders and start discount wars in his efforts to challenge and inflict pain on competitors. In the 23 years that Amazon has been in business, he has done it again and again — with books, diapers and now groceries — fundamentally changing entire retail categories.

“I absolutely think it’s the putting the rest of the market on notice,” Bob Hetu, an analyst at Gartner, the technology research firm, said of Amazon’s announcement on pricing.

Investors drove Kroger shares down more than 8 percent on Thursday; shares of Walmart, the nation’s biggest grocer, fell about 2 percent. Both companies’ shares also fell sharply when the deal was announced in June.

Amazon plans to weave together its online business and physical stores by turning its Prime membership program into a Whole Foods rewards program, providing additional savings to customers. Amazon Prime is a $99-a-year service that gives customers faster free shipping, video streaming and other benefits.

Whole Foods’ private-label products will be available through Amazon’s online services and Amazon lockers that will be installed in some Whole Foods markets. Customers will also be able to return online orders to Amazon through the lockers.

“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone,” Jeff Wilke, the executive who runs Amazon’s consumer businesses, said on Thursday in an announcement about the changes. “Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality.”

Discounts are not the only reason shoppers use Amazon — selection and convenience are others — but Mr. Bezos has never been shy about starting price wars that inflict pain on rivals. In the 1990s, the company tussled with Barnes & Noble to see which could discount books the most. Amazon and Walmart have been in an on-and-off price war in a variety of categories for years.

In its battle with Quidsi, a start-up that owned Diapers.com, Amazon put so much pressure on the company that it eventually agreed to be acquired by Amazon rather than by Walmart.

Ever since Amazon made the surprise announcement in June that it was acquiring Whole Foods for more than $13 billion, competitors have expected it to shake things up at the grocer, which has struggled in the face of competition from Costco, Walmart and others that have wooed customers with a growing selection of organic produce and kitchen staples. (Gabrielle Sulzberger, a private equity executive who is married to Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., the chairman and publisher of The New York Times, is the chairwoman of Whole Foods.)

Still, the speed with which Amazon completed the acquisition and embarked on a price-cutting campaign is stunning. Amazon completed the purchase in under three months — unusual for a multibillion-dollar transaction. The Federal Trade Commission approved the deal on Wednesday.

Amazon did not say how much it would cut prices in Whole Foods stores, 460 of which are spread across the United States, Canada and Britain. It promised that there would be further cuts in the future. People who have studied Whole Foods’ struggles in the marketplace said the reductions would have to be substantial to compete with other stores.

“I believe what we will see is Amazon and Whole Foods becoming aggressive on price,” said Brittain Ladd, a strategy consultant who previously worked for Amazon on its grocery business. “I won’t be surprised if some prices are lowered 15 percent to as high as 25 percent in some categories.”

Mr. Wilke of Amazon said in his statement that lowering prices would not compromise the quality of products at Whole Foods, the brand’s main selling point. The items the company said it would drop prices on include bananas, butter, crunchy almond butter, organic large brown eggs, responsibly farmed salmon and tilapia and organic Fuji apples.

On August 25 2017 10:16 OuchyDathurts wrote:


It's basically just an alias for Libertarian.

If you want to pretend your a liberal while being a conservative that's the code word you use. If you say you're a libertarian people will assume you live in a fantasy world, if you say you're conservative people will assume you're a 70 year old man. But if you go with "Classical Liberal" you get to try and pretend to be a "liberal" without being one at all. It's the Steve Buscemi "Hello my fellow kids" meme of being "liberal".

On August 25 2017 10:48 LuckyFool wrote:


I find it funny how average liberals have been pulled so far left in the past 8-10 years that classical liberals are now considered conservative/libertarian. I don't disagree with you here though but it's been interesting to observe.

On August 25 2017 10:48 LuckyFool wrote:


I find it funny how average liberals have been pulled so far left in the past 8-10 years that classical liberals are now considered conservative/libertarian. I don't disagree with you here though but it's been interesting to observe.

On August 25 2017 10:55 Nevuk wrote:

Nothing to do with drift, it is what they mean. They mean classical liberal in the sense of an 18th century definition. It meant the exact same thing 8-10 years ago too, I remember learning about it in like 2003.



Occasionally they will call themselves Jeffersonian liberals.

On August 25 2017 11:02 LuckyFool wrote:


Fair enough, I suppose I should clarify and say then it's been interesting to observe the widening gap between classical liberalism and what one would consider to be an average/modern liberal in recent times