News

23409 readers

2609 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

159

From FedEx to airlines, companies are starting to lose their pricing power (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

After years of unbridled consumer spending on everything from home improvement to dream vacations, some companies are now finding the limits of their pricing power.

Shipping giant FedEx last week said customers have shied away from speedier, pricier shipping options. Airlines including Southwest discounted off-peak fares in the fall. The likes of Target and Cheerios maker General Mills have cut their sales outlooks as more consumers watch their budgets.

It’s a shift from the recent years when consumers spent at a breakneck pace — and at high prices — lifting corporate revenues to new records. But faced with weakening demand, more price-sensitive consumers, easing inflation and better supply, some sectors are now forced to find profit growth without the tailwind of price hikes.

The answer across industries has been to cut costs, whether it’s through layoffs or buyouts, or simply becoming more efficient. Executives have spent the past several weeks selling these cost-cutting plans to Wall Street.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know that I'm fully able to articulate my opinion on this, but I'll give it a try.

Overall, I feel like a lot of companies took "market conditions" for granted in the past 3 - 5 years. They didn't really make any significant improvements. In fact, some of them are notably worse. All that in spite of raising prices and lowering quality/standards. For a time, they may have been correct -- no matter how much they sucked, they'd still rake in the profits. Perhaps now the short sighted decisions are biting them in the ass?

I don't have a lot of experience with some of the companies listed, but Target and FedEx for sure have declined in the value they offer me, in my anecdotal experience.

FedEx is a decent shipping option for my area, with some caveats and annoyances. But in the past 5 years, nearly every time I've opted to pay for expedited shipping with them, they've failed to deliver on time. So I'm fine with their cheaper standard shipping options, but the more expensive stuff is a waste of money.

Target is an okayish retailer for what it is, but there are so few locations that my experience with them over the past 3 - 5 years is primarily online. Their e-commerce platform is alright, but the selection is noticeably limited compared to the alternatives. Initially the online site either didn't have 3rd party sellers or it was very limited. But now those have taken over a lot of categories and products, making the Target website as hit or miss as the others, so there's no real incentive for me to check them out when I'm shopping.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I agree with all your text but

Initially the online site either didn't have 3rd party sellers or it was very limited. But now those have taken over a lot of categories and products, making the Target website as hit or miss as the others, so there's no real incentive for me to check them out when I'm shopping.

I find this experience particularly annoying. I go to Target.com to find stuff sold by Target. I don’t need another place for random no-name companies to hawk their wares. Especially since a lot of it just seems like drop ship crap.