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Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

economist.com

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Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#581

Post by WalterBright »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #552
WalterBright wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: "Rite Aid, a pharmacy, closed a branch in Hell’s Kitchen in February after losing $200,000 worth of stuff last winter. And last week Target, a big retailer, reported that a rise in “shrink” (to use the industry jargon) had reduced its gross profit margin by $400m so far this year. The National Retail Federation says inventory loss, largely driven by theft, cost retailers a record $95bn last year." I…

Is it unprofitable or just not profitable enough for the capitalists who could get more return elsewhere? The cause in the increase is possibly an increase in poverty, or increase in wealth disparity?

Would you invest in something that returns 1% when there are 2% returns elsewhere? That is called the "opportunity cost", and a business is misallocating capital if the expected return is less than the opportunity cost.

> The cause in the increase is possibly an increase in poverty, or increase in wealth disparity?

I don't understand your question. Businesses have to have a return on their investment, or they go out of business. Shrinkage is a cost, so the price on the goods has to be raised to compensate.

    Profit = Revenue - Cost

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#583

Post by alkonaut »

Ekaros wrote: post #535
alkonaut wrote: post #518

A cheap deodorant (Dove/whatever) is like $2-3 in expensive parts of Europe. That's not worth stealing. What makes them $8 or $10 in manhattan? It's an expensive area and I guess there aren't many large stores to buy from but more smaller pharmacies, but that still doesn't explain why there is a 2-3x price difference for deodorants in particular.

Commercial real-estate. When your store cost at least 10k or even more in rent. You have to sell awfully many deodorants to cover it. And labour isn't exactly cheap either if you want to get some.

That's a good explanation of general price differences between an expensive and a cheaper area, e.g. that Manhattan prices would be 50% higher than more rural New York prices. But I was under the impression here that deodorants in particular were 2-3x more expensive on manhattan, but that the difference was smaller for other goods.

Usually the US (Even the most expensive parts) would be a lot cheaper than e.g. Oslo or Zurich. That's not the case unless there is something else going on here , e.g. that they aren't the same product due to different size and so on.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#584

Post by superhuzza »

adrr wrote: post #349
anonu wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who wants to buy a $10 deodorant from a NYC CVS when you can buy the same thing for much cheaper online. The thieves are only accelerating the demise of overpriced brick and mortar stores. Plus the experience of going into a CVS and having to press a button and wait for an employee to hand you a deodorant is horrible. (Not condoning theft, but at least the free market is speaking here somewhat)

I challenge you to find deodorant for under $10 on Amazon.

I just checked Amazon UK and I can buy 6 sticks of Sure deodorant for £6.

Or one stick for £3.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#585

Post by ilyt »

nradov wrote: post #315
bombcar wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just a database of serial numbers .

A database of serial numbers alone wouldn't be sufficient. Counterfeiters frequently copy real serial numbers and print them on fake products. There are more effective means such as tamper resistant RFID tags, but those aren't cost effective for cheap items. And often no one bothers to check anyway.

Just marking product with seller's ID would be enough. You don't care which exact product was counterfeited, you care which seller sold it

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#586

Post by ilyt »

nirimda wrote: post #556
kube-system wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon barely knows who is listing products on their site, whether the products are even legal, and sometimes they can’t even tell what a “product” is. https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.h... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-se... https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-r...

But that's because they deliberately chose not to know it. A responsible business would have processes in place to identify all of that information.

"responsible" doesn't earn them as much

The only pressure on them to do it would be money. And not in "someone decides to not use them to buy some stuff" but getting sued for hundreds of millions

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#587

Post by fosk »

partiallypro wrote: post #179

This is such a big nationwide problem that Target actually mentioned it during their earnings report (this is stated in the article.) Some states/cities have made it near impossible to prosecute these people, so the risk/reward is very favorable to stealing and reselling. Some stores have even closed down in certain areas because of it. When we talk about "food deserts" in some cities, it could one day be we have mas…

This is mostly a function of policies that explicitly allow and tolerate this sort of behavior as a sort of “pay back” and “release valve” for the poor, addicts or generally speaking under represented social classes.

As the wage gap and opportunity gap widens in the US, allowing shoplifting is actually an intentional release valve that is being tolerated and even outright legally permitted (California Prop 47), because - without it - we would see more home break-ins, kidnappings of wealthy people and more severe offenses. Instead, shoplifting is relatively harmless and prevents this type of escalation of crime.

“Panem et circenses” said the Romans, shoplifting is a form of “panem”. I think many don’t understand the incredible pressure pot that is the US at the moment with vast negative social pressures and inequality. If it explodes, all bets are off: the US could look a lot like South Africa and Brazil than what it is now.

This plus some political survivorship too: votes are all equal, and when most people are disadvantaged or about to become disadvantaged, politicians cater more and more to them (populism) in order to survive and dominate in the political arena.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#589

Post by npteljes »

gambiting wrote: post #579
magic_hamster wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a better solution?

And also - it's not like Americans are uniquely prone to opioid addiction, why isn't the rest of the world seeing this problem on anything approaching similar scale? What are they doing differently?

I think you'd want to look into the Opioid Epidemic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#590

Post by williamvds »

gambiting wrote: post #579
magic_hamster wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a better solution?

And also - it's not like Americans are uniquely prone to opioid addiction, why isn't the rest of the world seeing this problem on anything approaching similar scale? What are they doing differently?

I get the impression America is uniquely vulnerable among the wealthiest nations. Private healthcare providers, a defanged health regulator, and rampant corporate bribery/advertising. Purdue salespeople lobbied doctors directly to prescribe their opioids to patients, while Purdue suppressed knowledge their incredibly addictive nature, and later offloaded blame to the addicts they largely created.

Here's a long overview of the Sackler family and their involvement in creating the opioid epidemic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-dptkIZ7tI

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