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Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

liamrosen.com

51–58 of 58 posts

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#51
I dislike the argumentative tone, especially when it seems to strawman rather than steelman the argument, i had to watch the original video.

I think the original video is misrepresented, it argue that Sysco is a local monopoly for restaurants in rural areas, not a global monopoly. And it does absolutely mention its two big competitors, especially when Sysco tried a merger with one, and the two of them are in a merger themselves.

I won't argue point by point since i really, really dislike this argumentative method, but to me, the main argument from OP is: consumer have choices, and chose low-quality (the part about the frozen line especially is interesting). The video argues that Sysco is a local monopoly and that in reality, few restaurant truly have a choice of what they serve, so they serve shit even if they don't want to , more and more expensive shit as Sysco's earnings are rising, and people are just now starting to notice.

Living close to an agri co-op, and being raised near a farmer's market (not in the US though), it does track, but local monoply power is not where i think those companies truly make their money. It's their local monopsony power. Coop like working with global logistic companies at first, since they propose the lowest prices and can buy in bulk, and work well with futures. But as soon as the local competion dies, restrictions start to happen on what the coop can do until even local restaurant have to use the logistic food companies instead of the local coop (luckily, here we have regulations and this was banned 25 years ago)

At worst, the original video inform consumers, and given Op's belief in information:

> The reality is if you’re an informed consumer, you probably aren’t. Sysco’s frozen food line is incredibly easy to spot, and is only available at low-quality establishments.

i don't understand why he argues against it. Yes, the fact are presented in an ideological manner, but isn't the consumers more informed after?

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#52
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I flagged it because: - It opens with clear derision of its opponents’ main point as a “meme”. Not a good look out of the gate. - It slips from talking about ‘them’ to talking about ‘you’, and ends with a direct challenge to the ego of those it disagrees with, suggesting their ability to provide, to “cook”, for their household is more at fault than Sysco. - It is oblivious to the continuous decrease in ef…

I disagree, and think it's usually better to discuss articles like this than to flag them, but I appreciate your excellent explanation. Flagged or not, your explanation would have been a great standalone comment on the article.

With apologies, I don’t intend to make a habit of this.

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#53
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is rooted in the assumption that capitalism provides what people want, rather than the worst that they will still accept. Can you really say people "want" more expensive/unique/non-frozen food when they choose the cheap one every time? It's like with flights. People complain about how shitty flying is, but most people are also sorting by price and buying the cheapest.

I think it's kind of a lemon market effect. I could pay 50 more for a flight but how do I know I'll have more leg room anyway? Maybe they'll just upcharge me. Same for restaurants if you're a traveler and don't have time to get familiar with the reputation. You can go off marketing, but every place will try to present it's food as unique and well crafted even if it's premade.

>but how do I know I'll have more leg room anyway?

google flights literally has a legroom indicator.

>Maybe they'll just upcharge me.

the common upchargeable items (eg. baggage) can either be found on google flights, or are easily searchable.

>Same for restaurants if you're a traveler and don't have time to get familiar with the reputation.

That's basically a perennial problem with tourist trap restaurants, no need to invoke "enshittification" or corporation bashing.

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#55
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most American small towns lean libertarian and espouse rugged individualism - wouldn't they have just opened a competing business with competitive prices instead? Or did they forget how?

Maybe they forgot, maybe the banks wouldn’t extend them loans to open the stores.

If that's the case, why not pool together to open a competing bank according to their values?

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#56
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one could say about Walmart that Walmart didn’t destroy small-town American main streets, consumer preferences did Except that’s not even true—Walmart doesn’t merely sell products, it does plenty of anticompetitive tactics itself, like opening a store in a town, waiting until smaller retailers nearby go out of business, then close that Walmart and open a new one in the next town over. People in the first town have…

Most American small towns lean libertarian and espouse rugged individualism - wouldn't they have just opened a competing business with competitive prices instead? Or did they forget how?

It seems like you’re making the same faulty assumption that a lot of libertarians do, which is assuming that just because that is possible and perhaps even economically incentivized, it will happen automatically and immediately to meet demand. Libertarian analysis often just ignores the longer scale passage of time and that institutions - even small businesses, a kind of local institution - take time and human effort to create and maintain.

It all discards way too much of the real world complexity to human systems. Analyzing economic systems in only short (quarter/year) time scales without looking at how one quarter or year affects the ones around it is a massive assumption that I don’t think most people generally have nearly enough respect for.

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most American small towns lean libertarian and espouse rugged individualism - wouldn't they have just opened a competing business with competitive prices instead? Or did they forget how?

It seems like you’re making the same faulty assumption that a lot of libertarians do, which is assuming that just because that is possible and perhaps even economically incentivized, it will happen automatically and immediately to meet demand. Libertarian analysis often just ignores the longer scale passage of time and that institutions - even small businesses, a kind of local institution - take time and human effort…

> It seems like you’re making the same faulty assumption that a lot of libertarians do, which is assuming that just because that is possible and perhaps even economically incentivized, it will happen automatically and immediately to meet demand.

I don’t think the person you’re replying to actually believes that—they’re speaking ironically.

Re: Sysco Is Not "Ruining Restaurants"

#58
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they forgot, maybe the banks wouldn’t extend them loans to open the stores.

If that's the case, why not pool together to open a competing bank according to their values?

You mean a socialist credit union?
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