Major retailer overstates profits forecast.

[cee-dee]

So, the largest retailer in the country has overstated it's profits forecast by around £250 million?

It's been admitted that the company has been losing business/customers to the two discounters with whom they're in competition but also I wonder if other factors have been at work contributing to the loss?

Over the past few months, a young lady who works for them has been complaining about the amount of fresh food that goes to waste because too much has been bought and the manager(s) have not made sufficient efforts to sell it before it goes off.

As whistleblowers get trodden on, it's difficult to get too specific but usually, when a product is nearing the time when it has to be removed from sale, the store attempts to sell it by reducing the price but that has to be done soon enough in order for sufficient customers to see that and take up the discount.

One product in particular has been subject to a large loss several times and just last week the same product was facing £500 worth going to waste.

It was repeatedly pointed out to the manager that with the quantity available for sale, the only way to shift that remaining was to drop the price considerably but the manager only consented 2 hours before closing leading to hardly any being sold and the remaining stock being consigned to waste.

That's only one fresh product in one store but I wonder if similar things are happening with many other products in the other 2700 stores?

[evoman3957]

http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-gambling-and-speculation/

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@evoman3957 wrote:

http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-gambling-and-speculation/

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That link is very good and simple - as it says the only real difference between gambling and speculation is that gambling depends on luck and as with gambling, for every winner there is a loser the same applies to share dealing.

To simplify things just look at a single share issued for £1 bought by A - it increases in 'value' and is sold for £2 to B - B sells it later for £3 to C and so on - these can be summarised as follows.

A)   0 share + £1 (£2 - £1)

B)   0 share + £1 (£3 - £2)

C) +1 share - £3

Add those together and you end up with 1 share and -£1 - the initial value of the share.

It doesn't matter how many deals are made on that share nor what nominal value is placed on it the overall sum of all the transactions will end up with 1 share at a cost of £1 - individuals in the chain will have made a profit or a loss on the deals but no actual money will have been made.  The exception to this is in the case of a takeover where the shares are bought but not reissued for resale.

[cee-dee]

Take a look here and switch to the 5-year view:-

http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=EBAY

How much would you have made if you'd bought shares 5 years ago and sold them today and how much would you make if you'd bought shares at the time they dipped to below $10?

[al**bear]

I can't be the only person who was in stiches, listening to London traders and stockbrokers, talking about how shocking these revelations are, saying  "The London markets are are based on truth and trust" 

No, they are NOT, they are based on conning everyone to either sell or buy at terms advantagious to THEM, they would lie to their Mothers to close a deal

[lambsy_uk]

I like self service checkouts, don't need to queue, don't have to wait for the people in front to sort themselves out and can go at my own pace!

[cee-dee]

But how'd you go on when all the self-service tills that are open are occupied by people all going at their own pace?

[lambsy_uk]

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@cee-dee wrote:

But how'd you go on when all the self-service tills that are open are occupied by people all going at their own pace?

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Never happened; have always found one available.

[joe_bloggs*]

I was at my local Sainsbury's a few months ago standing at the checkout behind 2 women,a shop assistant came over and suggested I use the self service checkout,I said I'd rather wait where I was,the women in front started chatting to me about how they purposely avoid the self service things as the purpose of them is to eventually have as less staff as possible,we had a good old blather with me agreeing with them,the checkout operator was a middle aged Scotsman who said you'll just have to get used to it as the store was installing more self service units,one of the woman put it to him that his job will eventually be at risk,he shrugged his shoulders saying he'd been made redundant a few times anyway,it might just be me and the 2 women making a stand but if a few more people did the supermarkets would soon reappraise their position.

[ed_blackadder_1]

Sadly the supermarkets say they are installing them for the benefit of the customer to make it a quicker shopping experience the company I work for have done surveys and apparantly it is what customers want.

We have got hardly any staff on the tills anyway, or any where for that matter. We now have half the staff we had 5 years ago. If it gets any less customers will have to stack the shelves themselves before they can buy anything.