Funky Buddha Joins Constellation Brands

In fairness to ABI, I am pretty sure that they never opposed minimum wage increases, as several big box retailers have (Not sure about Home Depot )

 

Personally I can't recall the last time I bought something from Wal-Mart. I do not boycott large chain retailers however. I also do not boycott big beer. I try to shop at small independent retailers in preference, and I prefer to buy independent craft beer. As it happens I find avoiding big retailers involves much more sacrifice than avoiding big beer.

 

Not sure what you mean by employing more of their neighbors? I am pretty sure that big box retailers employ fewer people, relative to sales, than small retailers do. That is one big reason they Are so cheap. Similarly, big beer employs fewer people relative to volume than small beer.

And that is related to the wage question. If you followed discussion of why Costco pays more than Walmart, you may recall it being pointed out That the Costco business model involvesvless labor.

 

I'm pretty unfamiliar with this. Were small businesses and independent breweries lobbying in favor of a minimum wage increase?

 

It is not logical to make a comparison in such a way. By doing so, you assume that in the absence of larger companies who sell a greater variety of products a commensurate amount of smaller companies who sell more specialized products would have sprung up to fill the void in overall product volume. The spectrum then involves large box stores with a great deal of product availability on one end and stores that only sell one product on the other. That might seem logical on paper, but that's not reality.

As to the Big Beer analogy, you'd have to assume that the products that large and small breweries sell are the same, which they are not.

 

I didn't say they were. It just strikes me as odd to praise big box retailers for wages, when several have lobbied against minimum wage increases. People have many reasons for shopping small, but I haven't heard higher wages for entry level employees as one.

 

Excuse me, I am not the one who started the analogy, others did by suggesting that big beer is "good" because it's wages are higher. I am merely pointing out that wages cannot be viewed independently of labor intensity.

 

I don't think that was ever said. Only that, and to paraphrase, "one of the reasons that working for a large brewery might be better than working for a small(er) one is your wages might be higher".

Indeed. Only parallel responsibilities should be compared.

 

The discussion of labor began with post 177 by cavedave. I do not read it as you do, though to be honest it's not explicit or clear about the point it is making.

 

Indeed, I said the word average for Big Beer vs. average for small independents, based on reading I have done.

I always hesitate to use the word average as there are people (not saying you are one) who ignore that word, and others who don't understand what it means.

 

Again, devil's advocate. In reality I have mixed feelings on the matter, which differ on a case by case basis depending on the business. Here, I was merely challenging the quoted poster's simplistic view that supporting big business is a slap in the face to the local community. Things are not so black and white, is the point I was trying to make. Big business is not necessarily bad business, and sometimes big business can be good for the local economy. I only used the Home Depot vs local hardware store analogy as that is what that user presented. It is far from a perfect analogy.

However, as a previous post mentioned, I don't think it's realistic to look at employment relative to sales volume. This assumes that had the big box store/brewery/whatever not existed, there would be multiple locally owned businesses accounting for the same volume and employing more people. That is too much to assume, and very well may not be the case.

 

From what I've seen in some parts of rural Indiana over a period of some years (my wife spent her early childhood living in Indiana so we have visited there more than once) is that the towns where box stored located there is in fact still a level of economic well being and a source of jobs, while in others with no box store located nearby the mom and pop stores are all gone anyway. (As are most of the younger generations.)