Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

bigtechnology.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 343 posts

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#321

Post by rsj_hn »

dave5104 wrote: post #63
akiselev wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They take on the vast majority of the inventory risk, which is the fundamental detail everyone seems to miss. They own what they sell. The complications come from trying to manage that risk - manufacturers who have better products or marketing can afford to pay for prime shelf space which also means it'll move faster.

I don't believe this is true in all cases. Maybe for some products, but at least other commenters here are confirming that some manufacturers refund the grocer for any unsold product. (So, Safeway only pays for the inventory that gets sold.) Seems risk-free for grocers on the products they have those sorts of deals with.

Not only in grocery stores. Bookstores can return books that don't sell, and since the books are heavy, the front page is often stripped only that is returned. That is why some pulp paperbacks have warnings to buyers to not purchase stripped books. In the world of fashion, clothes are often only paid for when they sell, and there are similar arrangements to book stripping.

Really the modern world allows many optimizations and creative contracts.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#322

Post by yumraj »

andreilys wrote: post #205
ethbr0 wrote: post #54

I've come around and landed more on the opinion that we're now enabling our jailors. Light tech regulation was exactly the correct approach in the 1990s (and arguably the 2000s). It enabled mind-boggling rapid and stunning innovation. ... However, the massive corporate fortunes built by the winners of those times are now primarily enabling rent seeking. Google and Facebook's other work is interesting in the same way…

IMHO, everyone will be better off if Facebook, Google, and Amazon are shattered into small enough independent pieces that (1) "get bought" is no longer the startup win condition & (2) they have peer level competitors in all markets in which they participate. I’m sure Chinese Tech co’s would absolutely love to have their Western competition knee-capped by their own governments. Will make it a lot easier for them to do…

Well China doesn’t let US companies freely do business there, so just block Chinese companies from the US market - that problem is solved.

We’re talking regulation here, so that should definitely be on the table.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#323

Post by crazygringo »

jsjohnst wrote: post #270
crazygringo wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I wasn't thinking of more "upscale" stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, good point. But in my part of Brooklyn everything's extremely local -- FoodTown, Western Beef, Associated, etc. And in Manhattan I indeed always shopped at Gristedes, Westside, Fairway (which looking up their ownership, is at most regional if not local -- and even Shoprite is regional, not one of GP's 3 national chains). But the main po…

> But the main point stands -- across all 5 boroughs, the vast majority of grocery stores are local chains. I’m not going to do like others and say your main point is irrelevant because NYC is unlike the rest of America (although arguably it is an outlier in almost every way), but the fact remains your main point is incorrect, the ‘vast majority’ of grocery stores in NYC are not local chains. I’m not invested in this…

There are 1,100+ grocery stores in NYC.

There are only ~16 Whole Foods and 9 Trader Joes. And only one Wegman's. And not even a single "Acme", so I don't know where you got that from.

So no, I stand by my claim that the vast majority aren't national chains at all. You haven't "disproven" anything at all -- to the contrary, your list is actually a perfect demonstration of just how tiny of a market share these chains have. And I don't really care about nitpicking between local and regional chains.

My whole original point was that there aren't 3 major national companies that control the majority of grocery stores, and therefore it's totally different from Amazon. And that point still stands entirely.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#324

Post by crazygringo »

stephenhuey wrote: post #279
jsjohnst wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the main point stands -- across all 5 boroughs, the vast majority of grocery stores are local chains. I’m not going to do like others and say your main point is irrelevant because NYC is unlike the rest of America (although arguably it is an outlier in almost every way), but the fact remains your main point is incorrect, the ‘vast majority’ of grocery stores in NYC are not local chains. I’m not invested in this…

Those 5 boroughs are pretty unusual compared to a majority of the USA. There are about 5,000 towns in the USA with more than 5,000 people and Wal-Mart has about 5,000 stores with $340 billion in grocery sales. Kroger and Costco both have over $100 billion in annual revenue with over 3,000 stores between them. Wal-Mart has over 40% of grocery stores in the country and these 3 stores together have over 70%. https://www…

Your statistics aren't adding up.

There are 38,000+ grocery stores in the US.

There are less than 5,000 Wal-Marts. So if Wal-Mart is the largest grocery store, it's still less than 15% market share. Kroger has 2,800, and Costco has a little over 500.

The overall picture is clear: the long tail of supermarkets is long, and even the largest grocery chains command only a small percentage of overall market share.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#326

Post by crazygringo »

Terretta wrote: post #310
crazygringo wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean using it wrong? The article is using it in exactly the way I described. "Throw the kitchen sink at something" is a widely used, valid expression these days. People are using it to mean expending every effort, so people seem to be using it right . And the wonderful thing about language is that however most people are using it is by definition what it means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_des…

Wonderful to academics? Yes, academics study what is, but at any given moment there are prescriptive rules and norms for what should be, Elements of Style if you will: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription Or even if you won’t: https://www.chronicle.com/article/50-years-of-stupid-grammar... Such take downs are often lamenting a lack of rule following in the style guides! “What’s wrong is that the gram…

> at any given moment there are prescriptive rules and norms for what should be

But according to who?

That's an entirely serious question. Because different "authorities" disagree about the rules and norms, and on top of that people disagree on who the "authorities" are or should be.

That's the whole point.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#327

Post by iammisc »

fighterpilot wrote: post #305
sbacic wrote: post #11

I remember reading once that tech companies, on average, lobby less that traditional industries, such as fossil fuels and finance. I wonder if the lesson they will take from this is that, rather than reform, they should invest more in lobbying. Considering how much money and influence on the public opinion they have, that's a rather scary thought.

They're the only industry that is on the bad side of the extremes of both political parties. The left because of anti-trust and anti-ultra-rich sentiment, and the right because of perceptions of social media censorship. If they were acting properly in their own cronyistic self-interest, they would've cozied up to the right. But the demographics of their employees precluded that.

Don't know why you're being down voted. You are correct. There are many Republicans sympathetic to business but by making them the enemy, you alienate the entire political system. Oops.

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#328

Post by jsjohnst »

crazygringo wrote: post #323
jsjohnst wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the main point stands -- across all 5 boroughs, the vast majority of grocery stores are local chains. I’m not going to do like others and say your main point is irrelevant because NYC is unlike the rest of America (although arguably it is an outlier in almost every way), but the fact remains your main point is incorrect, the ‘vast majority’ of grocery stores in NYC are not local chains. I’m not invested in this…

There are 1,100+ grocery stores in NYC. There are only ~16 Whole Foods and 9 Trader Joes. And only one Wegman's. And not even a single "Acme", so I don't know where you got that from. So no, I stand by my claim that the vast majority aren't national chains at all . You haven't "disproven" anything at all -- to the contrary, your list is actually a perfect demonstration of just how tiny of a market share these chains…

> So no, I stand by my claim that the vast majority aren't national chains at all.

Shifting goal posts (now it’s “not national chain” vs “everything is local”), dismissing factual information that doesn’t align with your views, yep, all classic signs of “I’m right no matter what” mentality. Have a nice day!

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#329

Post by cercatrova »

andreilys wrote: post #242
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we protect out markets from all monopolies, foreign included, we'd end up with tons of competitive companies all scrapping to be the best. Instead what we've got now are monoliths that will gradually ossify into cable-company levels of innovation and customer service. Breaking up domestic monopolies would be one of the best things we could do to compete internationally.

Breaking up domestic monopolies would be one of the best things we could do to compete internationally. International monopolies will be able to expand into the US and burn cash to acquire users and grow market share. Then when they've run all domestic companies out of business, they will raise prices.

Why do you assume that the US wouldn't block foreign monopolies as well?

Re: Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech

#330

Post by machello13 »

betwixthewires wrote: post #243
paulpauper wrote: post #53

>The bills may change before they’re introduced, and they’ll inevitably go through a political process that will water them down. But even if only a portion of what’s written gets passed, the tech giants will lose several advantages they’ve exploited in recent years. Yeah that is the rub. It's like in 1998 "we're gonna break up Microsoft!" 2002: "ok Microsoft will agree to make some some changes to their business but…

Normally I'd agree with you, but I've been thinking on this for a while and when you look at history this is not the case. Prominent examples are Southwestern Bell and Standard Oil. The elected officials in the US government are happy to take campaign contributions and play the game and let the monopolies run wild, but when their behaviors threaten the monopoly of power the US government has or threatens political st…

I think the problem there is the assumption that the US government of today will behave the same as the government of 1911 or 1982.
Post reply on HN