rainbowcrab95772
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Jun 23, 2026 6:11 AM
rainbowcrab95772
39902
1306
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Gremlynn4023
Arizona iced tea has always also distributed cans without the 99 cent label for vendors that refuse to sell at that price
cousteau
Unrelated, but I just found out that KnowYourMeme finally loads on my phone. For some reason it didn't work on my mobile connection; the page didn't load.
noWhiteHorseHereJustBatturuPrinsu
So what was the last dollar for Loch Ness monster?
RubberChickenGoD
These two should hangout and eat hotdogs and drink iced tea.
bambinod
in the business they're called "loss leaders", meaning you sell some small popular item at a loss to attract business and hold onto your customer base. Not saying it's a bad thing, just pointing out they're not doing it to be nice, they're doing it because we have lizard brains that they are taking advantage of for their own benefit. (and we like it!)
AtmaDarkwolf
Thing is, they STILL make profit at those prices. This is something typical 'billionaires' do not have, or rather, these two (and others like them) lack. Billionaires have a greed for greed's sake 'gene' - If they can yank more from something they will, damned anything that was cut to get said extra profit.
squishybaker
Private companies with no shareholders?
Zeterai
And then there's Akagi Nyugyo. Source: https://www.youtube">QZoMWOoQ">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jdOQZoMWOoQ /LaBlgxa.mp4
mikeatike
They need to partner with Costco and make a hot dog flavored one.
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
🍧🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇
idiotsonfire
I really want some of those now.
Zeterai
I've never had one, but it's definitely triggering a degree of anemoia. Kyota Ko videos have that tendency, he's very good at evoking vivid impressions.
Recursiv3
It's crazy to me to think you could be making a billion in profit stable for years in a row and you'd be viewed as a failure in business
IDoNotWantAnAccount
When the revolution happens, they will be spared.
BeastofKnowledge
It pays to not be a dick.
probablywontbearoundlong
Arizona doesn't seem to print 99¢ on the cans anymore. So when you go to 7/11 they are a 1.50 and when you go to Walmart they are 88¢. And 7/11 is the only place I can find the Raspberry Ice Tea, which are my favorite.
Euchre
Last can I drank, yesterday, still has the 99¢ price printed on it. The ones I've bought at Walmart say 99¢, despite being 88¢. I suspect if a vendor chooses to sell above that 99¢ MSRP, they package cans without the price to avoid making the vendor look like the exploiting assholes they are.
Necrothean
A) The Arizona can retails for $1.29, contrary to the printed tag, in many many places in America.
B) Directly after the tariffs began, the recipe for Arizona Green Tea was changed, only at the tall can bottling location. The plastic bottle recipe remains the same, bottled at a separate location.
C) This is a common tactic in the bottling industry where you maintain two or even three product tiers, often having a separate recipe for canned, bottled, and fountain drinks.
Necrothean
They've both maintained the image of customer service. But they're billionaires, an unnatural happenstance, not a normal occurrence. At no point did they garner that sum of money through totally above board means. In fact, I can guarantee that both have bodies on their paperwork to gain that much power.
circlebreaker
Feels weird having to ask this, but I'm not sure how pervasive the graft has become. As much as I've been seeing a lot of Arizona cans with the 99¢ price ignored and stickered over to $2+ at some stores, I'm also seeing slightly smaller ones with similar prices (or higher ones along the lines of other shittier, more expensive brands of iced tea, etc.). Is this a continent-wide thing, or not? We talking Alaska/BC/Maine/PEI/Florida/Texas/Utah/Manitoba/Cali., or am I just getting ripped off local?
Euchre
The masters of shrinkflation, Dollar General, get specifically sized packaging that's considerably smaller than the regularly offered sizes, which DG sells for slightly less than those larger packages - but per unit of measure is notably more costly. I'm sure Arizona isn't immune to accommodating such vendors.
circlebreaker
That's about the only place that I can see as a logical sort of exception. Those stores have cut-rate prices, but aside from Arizonas even stuff like bags of chips have this weird sort of sizing, like slightly larger than the ones seen at Halloween, but somehow still smaller than the medium-sized ones seen at gas stations & corner stores. I'm talking about the standard-sized big cans though, not the ones that are 3/4's the volume or the tetra packs (like juice).
McBzz
Two guys that maybe didnt grow up stupid rich?
unluckyandbored
IIRC, the current CEO of Costco started in the company pushing carts in the parking lot.
Euchre
The outgoing CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon, was truck unloader at a Walmart DC. 'Throwing a truck' is pretty hard work. You'd think 'so what, he was probably paid a mint as CEO'. Amazingly, total compensation during his tenure was a bit under $30m a year. Yes, that's salary and stock options and bonuses. Walmart is surprisingly frugal with CEO compensation, considering the potential vs their revenue.
silverstilettos
In Australia i cant even buy the bun and dog and make it myself for $1.50.
Please help. We are dying over here with food prices
ConsesualSnuggler
They both wholeheartdly consume their products, not timidly like the McDs CEO, but with rawdog enthusiasm & corvettte owner energy
Beybeykukududu
Costco looses money on dogs. Arizona is $1.29.
urusername2
Well, it's certainly a start!
Quaxx
We don't have Costco, but the 1€ IKEA hot dogs (which have been 1 DM in the 80s and 90s). They recently raised the price to 2€, but it is still subsidized. Not because they are nice, but for postive customer experience and marketing.
l00ns
How can they be 2€ there when they are still only 0.5€ in Sweden? 2€ is pretty damn expensive for that?
t9dawg
IKEA also doesn't require a costly membership fee for customers to order cheap hotdogs. Like Costco does.
picklesue
You can eat there without a membership
cousteau
I once went to IKEA by bike just for a hot dog. 12 miles there and 12 miles back. Totally worth it.
Zeterai
There's a term for that, "loss leader" - stopping by for a cheap lunch gets you in the door, and might get you to buy something on display. Sort of the opposite of putting all the impulse-purchases like candy and drinks near the checkout.
kanybal
I mean I've seen mum groups organise meetings at Ikea because it's cheap and kid friendly. I've no doubt everyone a litte something or other on the way out
Zeterai
Yup. You wouldn't go all the way out to Ikea or Costco just for X or Y, but since you're already present and the things you happen to need are just right over there...
emu314159127001
Costco isn't being "nice" either, it's a symbol of their commitment to value, they literally called it a blood oath. They pay well, have great benefits, promote from within, and they have very low turnover (finding and training new workers is expensive, finding good honest ones is just luck) and almost no employee theft. They pay great dividends as well. They're immune from hostile takeover for this reason
Ghlargh
Those hotdogs were 5SEK (50 Euro cents) back in 2010 in Sweden.
My brother worked in their restaurant for a short while and said they charge basically what they cost to buy bulk and write off the staff, equipment and space costs as PR.
cousteau
I remember them being €0.50 back in the day.
googoogaagaa83
About 10 years ago, Ikea sold their famous hotdogs in Romania for 1 RON, about 18 euro cents now.
tentacularfleshscape
This is called a loss leader. In the states many grocery stores have inexpensive rotisserie chickens to fill this role, getting people in the store
Ghlargh
This has another secondary function. Note that this restaurant, at least in Sweden, is just outside the cash registers.
The regular restaurant in the store has regular prices but the one after checkout has just a few menu items really cheap.
This means you can take a bit more time in the store and get a snack on the way out if you don't want to actually sit down in the restaurant, it means people can spend an extra hour in the store, especially people with kids.
tentacularfleshscape
Smart
SnoiD
In Belgium that’s actually illegal I believe, it is not allowed to sell a product at a loss, so a loss leader, but I believe IKEA used some accounting voodoo or bribed the right people so we too have 1,50 euro hotdogs! 🥳
LtRooney
They probably just only accounted for the ingredients, not the labor to provide the hot dog.
dohcohv
Hot dogs are incredibly cheap. We used to buy bulk hot dog packs from Costco for our PTA fundraisers and then sell them for $2 with soda and chips and still make money.
TK421isAFK
There's no way those little bitty IKEA hot dogs cost that company anywhere near two euros, unless they are importing them one at a time from the US.
mikeatike
Hot food served is going to cost more in labor and maintenance than the food cost in raw materials. As it should.
TK421isAFK
Yes, but not that much. I ran a restaurant for 3 years, and currently work as an engineer in food manufacturing packaging. I know the industry very well. IKEA food does not cost much to produce, which is why their food court is so reasonably priced. The hot dog counter by the registers, however, is not in the same category as the restaurant that's usually deep within the store.
quasarvoyager2
I know this is going to sound crazy... but there a places outside the US making Hot Dogs. Ssssh... don't tell the Orange one.
sjleegketting
In europe people earn living wages that have to be paid from something, so wage cost and employer parts of insurances, social programs and pension are probably higher than in the US. Although the price is therefore higher, the employees do not need a second job to support themselves, which is something we Europeans like (in majority at least, I hope it stays that way).
TK421isAFK
No argument there, but that's irrelevant to the size of the hot dogs. It's also irrelevant to the profit margin on those very small IKEA hot dogs. If IKEA needs to mark up their hot dogs by 800% just to be able to pay a livable wage, they're doing something wrong. They don't sell anywhere near enough hot dogs to supplement their payroll department in any significant way.
sjleegketting
IKEA therefore doesn't only sell hotdogs, to circle
back to where we started ;)
BrdCdn
Even at living wages it shouldn't cost that much. It's a very small amount of meat and meat processing is not that labour intensive. Especially now days.
huffnpuff72
Billionaires got there on the backs of workers. Just because they do one good thing doesn't make them legends.
Strangeboke
I think the system that allows people to accumulate huge amounts of wealth while paying no taxes is bad, but people who run companies in amore ethical way (costco gives employees stock and pays waaay more than any other retailer) are still doing a good thing.
McMasterx
Arizona has been creating cans without price tags for years now, and as someone who has fo put Pallets of them on shelf racks; Holy hell did they find ways to cut costs without drastic prixe increases, the cans sometimes pop just picking them up, the Cardboard tray vanished from some of the flavors, now just a thin sheet underneath, the overwrap per case gets flimsyer every year.
PunnyTiger
Arizona Iced tea should make a special costco edition, if they haven't done so already
OfficialTrollInspector
The hotdogs are subsidized by the monthly fee...
RockTheBackblast
Arizona Iced Tea cans are 7 bucks each in the part of Australia I'm currently holding hostage. They're very tasty, but that price is nuts for a non-alcoholic drink.
KilroyLichking
the tea cans are now 2.50 at my local gas station
StephenDaniels
OP you should Google the term 'loss leader'
Zin7
but they are white
TheTaintinator
The cheap hotdog is a way to get you in the door to overspend while celebrating a billionaire. It's just PR. A soulless ad for a soulless corporation.
I don't know what the deal is with the other guy but when ever a for profit corporation does something it is to increase profit.
ignotoCiResto
even if what you say it's true, and I'm not denying it, mind ya, cuz loss leader is a thing, an hot dog is packed with calories. For 1.5$ homeless people can enter, buy just that one hot dog and eat enough calories to keep em going for another bit of time. Dog food aint that cheap. Even cat food aint that cheap anymore.
These hot dogs are prolly keeping alive a lot of people.
spittleteets
The other guy, Don Vultaggio, owns Arizona Iced Tea, which has maintained its $0.99 price tag on cans for decades. It's a privately owned, debt-free company with no shareholders demanding higher profit margins. Vultaggio "has chosen to accept lower profit margins to secure consumer loyalty and views the printed price as an accessible promise to his customers".
MadamPuddifoot
Tell me you don't know anything about Costco without telling me. A majority of Costco employees are shareholders, they all get paid well above minimum wage and have insanely good benefits (I know, I'm one of their benefits as a contractor there), the CEO started off as a cart pusher and is definitely not a billionaire, they promote from within... I could go on
BrdCdn
Yep. I'm not going to pretend Costco is going to ride to our salvation and fix things, but they are not part of the problem and if anything are an example of how we should want corporations to function more like. I'm sure they are not saints and do some shitty things somewhere. But there's a galaxy sized gulf of difference between them and say Amazon.
likerice
Differences of degree and method matter.
The Costco CEO selling cheap hot dogs is better, for example, than the Facebook CEO deliberately trying to addict kids to social media, or the Trump University CEO selling over-priced and worthless degrees.
Ignoring the difference erases the incentive to be different.
keyserv
That's not accurate.
PineappleLoopsBroether
Anyone can go inside for a hot dog, you don’t need membership… and if you work in a strip mall or an office park nearby and you have to save money to make things work…. That cheap lunch gets you through tough times.
ForlornHopeful
And aren't they the one with the backbone of cheap meals, the $5 rotisserie chicken?
ButtblasterMcAssmaster
That's not true. "Corporations are simple amoral profit machines" is the capitalist fantasy, not reality. Corporations are run by people, people with agendas, and they make decisions based on their (usually evil) beliefs.
Elon Musk didn't turn twitter into a right-wing haven for profit, he did it because he's a Nazi.
helmutk00hl
Thank you
OmegaRainbow360
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1b3V5bTd3c3NtZWQ2MjJ1OGhiNnVlN3h3ZXZrMGV6eGUwNjNvZGRvZSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/5QNQv6xmVEaabGsYrg/200w.webp
Sensiblyinteresting
Idk, seems like Elon turned Twitter into a right wing haven so he could get trump re elected and profit immensely. He probably wouldn't be a "trillionaire" right now if he didn't do that.
eetsumkaus
at the end of the day, a corporation is just a bunch of money and rules on how to use it. If there is one person determining the rules, then that's what happens.
spittleteets
Yes, and no. Costco is a publicly traded company, Twitter isn't. There are *big* differences in how private and public corps can operate both legally and moralistically. If a public CEO tanked the company's stock like Musk did, they would have been removed and sued by shareholders.
Yes, the idea that corps are amoralistic vessels is false, but neoliberalism dictates that a public corp's fiduciary responsibility to shareholders supersedes all other morals. Which is usually the deciding factor.
PubMed12927120suckssobad
Not to quibble, but US courts have held that when shareholders sue a corporation for doing things which are not in the best interests of the shareholders, the shareholders lose. There is no legal responsibility for a corporation to behave in a way that is in the best interest of the shareholders. Their legal recourse is to replace the board. Totally agree with the rest of it though, you go!
spittleteets
No, please, by all means quibble away! I live for the quibble!!
Yes, more often than not, the courts will rule in favor of the Corp bc of the Business Judgment Rule (Court's default postion presumes an Exec. choices are in the corps best interest), making the Plaintiff's burden of proof higher. However, the doctrine is intended to protect the C-Suite from being sued just for taking a business risk that didn't pan out.
That said, there are definitely laws requiring C-Suite act in their
(1/2)
spittleteets
[the shareholders] best interest, literally why the SEC was created: to protect investors, maintain "fair" and "efficient" markets, and facilitate capital formation. There are many examples such as Enron (2001), Disney (2005/6), and this past Jan. the court ruled in favor of the LA City Employees' Retirement System suit against eXp Realty's leadership for allegedly mismanaging assault claims and breaching their fiduciary duties. (2/2)
Onebigcanuck
Musk has since rolled all his companies into subsidiaries of SpaceX, including twitter. Well since the SpaceX IPO, we are about to find out what happens when a publicly traded company tanks their stock and what happens to the CEO. My guess, nothing.
spittleteets
Strangeboke
Yah well guess what, the PR worked. Paying employees well, keeping costs low (everything is low price) might be things you do to maximize profits but I'll take them over people who treat employees like shit and keep costs high.
TK421isAFK
Nope, not at all. My former roommate is a Costco manager, and he has worked at 13 stores in California and Nevada. At every store, 65% to 75% of food court sales are two customers that only went there to buy something from the food court, whether it is people on a lunch break, people grabbing dinner on the way home for themselves and/or family, or people grabbing food for a party. Most of the other food court sales are from customers that were already going to Costco anyway.
PubMed12927120suckssobad
or vegetarians cheating on their wives. Mentioning this for a friend. Do t judge him.
TK421isAFK
$3.74. that is the cost of a slice of pizza and a hot dog with a soda, including tax. I do not know that number because I don't have that for lunch a little too often...lol
wejustdontknow
Yeah I go to Costco often just for a two dollar slice of pizza and nothing else.
Kilo11
I stop by Costco just for the food court, if i ate enough hot dogs it will cancel out the membership fee
RandomNumbersAndLetter
You actually don’t need to be a member to go to the food court. When walking in you can just tell them your going to the food court and they will let you in.
Kilo11
Not at the ones here, you need a membership card to order food, whats to stop all the poor people without memberships from buying cheap food?
Gremlynn4023
Their POS system here doesn't require scanning the membership card for purchases like their checkout lanes do. The door man ain't gonna get up and chase you down for walking into the store without showing your membership card
RandomNumbersAndLetter
Oh man what a bummer
TK421isAFK
And if you get gas there once in a while, the membership will pay for itself pretty quickly these days. I drive a lot, and renewed my basic membership in May. The savings versus Arco we'll have paid for the membership by the end of July.
Kilo11
Here Costco and arco or Sinclair are usually a few cents apart, not a viable way of making up for the membership cost
StopStealingMyBlankets
Bummer. Its like 50 cents cheaper than most gas stations around most of the time in my area.
martineb72
Here they are 20 cents more a gallon than my local gas station.
EverNotRelevant
Billionaires are still billionaires. They didn't get that money by being good or moral.
quasarvoyager2
Aye, but these are two lads that understand you can make money with a sustainable actual business model of turning capital into value which is how capitalism supposed to work, rather than the endless spoofery of make share price number go up by laying people off every quarter or the private equity model of moving numbers around, destroying value and looting the proceeds.
EverNotRelevant
What is this "how capitalism is supposed to work," bs. The purpose of a system is what it does, and what capitalism does is extract and consolidate the wealth of labor. To that end, the "make number go up," is how capitalism is supposed to work. That doesn't change just because you want it to be nice.
quasarvoyager2
In the strict economic sense of the term, versus say mercantilism, which you definitely don't want to go back to. It's just a economic model, that's implemented in different ways. from Laisse-Faire US style at one extreme, through to European social democracies that mix free market capitalism with social policies, right through to State Capitalism in China. It does extract excess value from workers, but the social contract was supposed to be stability 1/2
quasarvoyager2
2/2 - what we have now is so far beyond that strict definition of privately owneed means of production it's no longer Capitalism and is something worse. It pretends to be free market, where non-viable business should fail and capital be redirected elsewhere - instead, we have privatization of risk, rentier economics, and accounting trickery like stock buybacks or buying companies, saddling them with the debt of their own purchase, then raiding the assets before destroying them.
EverNotRelevant
You're falling into this pit of "it's not really capitalism, it's something worse," but hey, that something else just so happens to be capitalistic. You can say the social contract of capitalism is stability, but that's just the social contract. That's what I'd supposed to happen under any economic system. Everything you're describing is an extension and outgrowth of capitalism. There is no point pretending it "should" be otherwise.
ropetopus
The point is these guys aren’t billionaires; they’re successful businessmen who appear to have a sense of morals.
JasonFndrbrkr
Nor by working hard
FPAlpha
THAT i will contest. Unless they inherited the billions those that do become billionaires work extremely hard and long. Might not be building houses in the middle of a heatwave but their hours are insane and they are constantly reachable, i.e. pure relaxation with no business in mind is luxury for them.
Most of them are workaholics, that's ok if it were just them but they tend to force that unhealthy lifestyle onto everybody else and that is a problem.
JasonFndrbrkr
That gap between wages and productivity is where the billionaires spawn. All those trillions have been stolen from people who actually earned it.
blindows1127001
The idea that you get rich without working hard is largely a myth, what is true is you don't get rich JUST by working hard.
JasonFndrbrkr
That gap between wages and productivity is where the billionaires spawn. All those trillions have been stolen from people who actually earned it.
apoliticalpanda
It's a business strategy called loss leaders. Take the loss or have low profit margins on your hot dog which gets people in the door. When you're in Costco you're definitely buying more than just the hot dog
ignotoCiResto
I agree with the first part, only partly with the second.
Yeah, loss leader is a well working strategy. I mean, if you are already in costco and have already bought the hot dog, it's not probable you are willing to walk for 150m to find the soda can machine. You will just say "fuck it, it's only X cents anyway".
On the other hand, a single hotdog is packed with calories. Poor and/homeless people can easly keep going for a bit more if they can get just 1.5$ to eat one. It's not worth a week of >
ignotoCiResto
food, of course. But while by the evening you are hungry enough, your body should still have leftover calories and manage to go on up to tomorrow, when you have to scrap togheter only another 1.5$
It's not a living strategy, mind ya, but it help buying time for cheap.
kriswinters
Realize that the only reason that Costco hot dogs are only $1.50 is because the man on the right told the next guy in line that he'd have him killed if he raised the price.
DaveSamsonite
The only reason Arizona continues to make massive profit margins is that cane sugar prices are a globally manipulated market due to price supports. In constant dollars, the price of white sugar has gone down steadily over the last 30 years. Diabetes in a can at discount prices. It's also not $0.99 any more.
DaveSamsonite
TheSecondPiewackit
No no no... he said "I'll fucking kill you". "Have him killed" implies a level of passionless detachment. This man is our champion.
PunnyTiger
I believe the exact transcript was "I'll fucking kill you."
PunnyTiger
it was a way of passing the torch, while reminding them that you own aerosol hairspray cans and gasoline.
emu314159127001
I thought it was he'd kill him himself. Damn, i just saw that interview, can't recall now
hwatL4bloopy
Yes so the alternative route that was taken was to require membership cards to eat at the food court and dropping certain condiments and the Polish dog.
TyrCarter
It's a loss leader. It's not magic. Serves a purpose
jayman0123
They insist that they still make money on it because they bought every step of production along the way to keep cost down
ProjectDA
also the arizona tea is a lie. they removed the 99c from every can here arpubd COVID, and they are closing in on 1.50$ if not slightly above that. depending where you go.
BrdCdn
That's still much cheaper than anything else at that volume.
ProjectDA
not arguing that, but it is a lie to pretend its still holding at 99c.
pyroshen
For people who don't know, a loss leader is a product sold at a heavy discount (losing money) to attract people to the store
cdlong
I usually get pizza, but that $2 piece of pizza usually costs me about $150
danimals847
How do you escape Costco with such a tiny cost?
cdlong
It's a finely honed skill from many years of spending $300+
bamblebimble
It didnt used to be, but it being one certainly doesnt send them into bankruptcy
ThereAreChameleonsEverywhereProbably
Sure, but I'd say that's more true of the Costco rotisserie chicken because you need a membership for that one. You don't need a membership to go to the Costco food court and get the $1.50 hotdog & soda.
hwatL4bloopy
Yes, they've required memberships at the food court to help mitigate the loss leader effect of the hot dog
dracklen
They actually started requiring membership for the food court now (atleast by me).
StillNotYouTube
The guy on the right is Ron Vachris, the 3rd CEO of Costco. The hotdog death threat was allegedly made by the first CEO, Jim Sinegal to his successor, Craig Jelinek. Anyone interested in business should read as much as they can about Jim Sinegal. He was really all about making a profit without screwing people over.
mikeatike
Even as a CEO and founder in late 70s still wearing an id badge clipped to his shirt. I duno why I have mad respec.
Also TIL he is from Pittsburgh.
jayman0123
From what I've read it, the exact words were basically, "Figure it out, because if you raise the price of the hotdog combo, I'll fucking kill you."
StillNotYouTube
And while I think they still lose money on the hot dog, Jelinek did figure it out. Mainly by making the hot dog themselves, but also some other things. I don't know why Sinegal was so hell bent on keeping it at $1.50, but it seems to be working out for them.
gumshoe99
You know an awful lot about hot dog lore.
StillNotYouTube
More Costco lore, but I've always found the hotdog fascinating. Why is the best hotdog I've ever had also the cheapest?
Gremlynn4023
Best lore there is
truthader
I call dibs for my trivia team.
ChazzK
That's the most depressing part. It's been proven absolutely possible that you can get crazily, undeniably rich without actively destroying as many lives as you can... But you can't become *infinitely* rich. And for too many people, "infinitely rich" STILL isn't enough.
RainierAlt
Their brains work differently at that level of money, and on some level they can't really slow down even if they did want to. At their level, money just begets more money (through investing, etc.) For anyone who didn't change, they'd realize the physical benefits (being able to own a crazy expensive house, yacht, or go on a space flight...) become pocket change after a certain point and (probably) start helping other people with it. Gov'ts haven't adequately disincentivized getting this rich.
Thcksl
I think it's due to the nature of ppl who are able to climb the corporate ladder. The higher you are, the more sociopathic you have to be to get higher. These two must be exceptions, but are not the norm, unfortunately.
SchuKadaj
Those don't know how to be happy, at all. They just want others to not have anything.
SisyphusRollin
If you look there was a study done about like "how much money makes you happy" and there was a common theme about the upper limit being a LOT lower than people thought. Who knows how serious the study was but I get the logic, being super rich doesn't mean he isn't a worthless sad son of a bitch.
tychog99
They have never experienced what it's like to have to work to meet your needs rather than just have wants met whenever
FPAlpha
And proving it can be done. Maybe not as much as a true exploiter who penny pinches his employees and everybody else but in the end once you pass a certain number on your accounts you have won at capitalism so why the need to increase that number beyond all reason when you can make other people, chief amongst them those who do the actual hard work, happy.
Goldensands
There will never be a need to prove that. It's fking obvious.
StillNotYouTube
I may be optimistic, but I think the true exploiter is doomed in the long run. They might make a greater profit now, but it will eventually catch up with them. I guess the only problem is there isn't enough people doing the right thing and this can take decades to play out.
SpikesGuns
Because sociopaths
Thehcxx
Most publicly traded companies are more or less legally required to. Which leads to the fucked up scenario of a company making making $10b profit but that's "bad" cuz they were supposed to make $12b and the stock price tanks... yay capitalism!
marsilies
Not actually "legally required to," but the board is going to boot any CEO who isn't, and a majority of shareholders are going to boot board members that don't, so it pretty inevitably ends up that way.
Martellus
Don't they also believe in "Infinite Growth" or something? Which, by its essence is basically impossible, even in the long run. Especially without screwing people over.
tentacularfleshscape
I'd argue that to REALLY win at capitalism, you make a business whose product or service is of such quality you don't need to fuck anybody. If the only way your business can stay afloat is through exploitation, buddy your business is dogshit and deserves to die
SisyphusRollin
This used to be a common thought throughout America, before everything became box stores. The local hardware store was always in business because he would always hire kids from the local school and spend extra time teaching them stuff. Basically work/shop class. He didn't just help them and pay them well, he taught skills and the community respected it. He can't sell wrenches as cheap as Amazon though. So thats gone.
SisyphusRollin
Because at the end of the day when we struggle, we look inwards to our own to protect. Its natural, its genetic. When his prices didn't drop as much as say Walmart, oh and at Walmart you can get a shirt and a cd player and... Capitalism can be great, if regulated. Capitalism can be a social uplifter, if handled with respect for the community (like Anza hardware did). It doesn't have to be a vile evil, its the vile and the evil that are the issue. Well, nothings as simple as "it does work" layers
t9dawg
It's also effective marketing to convince people that if they pay a big membership fee they get to buy cheap hotdogs and tell everyone else about it while ignoring that high fee.
breakingcode
The fee works out in favor of the customer w/out even remotely trying hard.
You'd have to be a highly infrequent very selective "grab and go" shopper for it to ever be a negative.
Gremlynn4023
The register where you order their hot food doesn't require a membership card, and since you need one to check out at the main store anyway the door man isn't gonna chase you down if you confidently breeze past him without showing your membership card
DaveSamsonite
$65 per year and well worth it. How much does one meal at a restaurant cost?
PunnyTiger
I would be delighted to get a costco hotdog from a street vendor for 3 bucks, and would be content to pay 5. Basic membership is 35 bucks. I save $1.50 to $3.50 per hot dog, so 10 to 24 hotdogs and you break even. every hotdog after is profit.
license2kilt
That $60 fee pays for itself in the gas discount alone. My opinions are my own.
TheSecondPiewackit
If you spend ~$4k a year there, the executive membership literally pays for itself. Guess where I grocery shop.
Primatebuddy
It really does.
pyroshen
Ya it's an obvious trade off of value but it's easy to reach the savings if you have a big family
Primatebuddy
Family of four here. I can confirm this, we reach equilibrium around 3-5 months in even on the exec membership.
pyroshen
3-5 months on a year membership? That's quick
Rhewin
I wish that was a true story, but it is not
SedatedSl0th
Let. Us. Believe.
Please.
GeneralAnubis
Wikipedia so grain of salt, but the story seems to be true.
"If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco_hot_dog
LuminoZero
The best part of this story is that when the price got too high for them to do effectively, they BOUGHT A HOT DOG PROCESSING PLANT to make the dogs themselves.
ImGoingToGoFallAsleepOnABench
The best part of this story, to me, is that it's gained enough notoriety to merit its own dedicated Wikipedia page.
yamsonyamsonyams
Uh no it’s true except he said “I’ll kill you”
DukePhelan
Even in that he's a stand up guy. He could easily pay to have it done but said he would just do it himself. Legend.
yamsonyamsonyams
Wellll he also knows is great marketing- so it’s not strictly altruistic
I mean, we’re all still talking about it…
TheManWhoStaresAtTurtles
Very confidently stated when I can't really find anything offhand that corroborates you. Story does appear to have happened. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/costco-founder-kill-hotdogs/ This, among other things, point to it having happened.
Where did ya hear that it didn't?
phalanaster
From everything I read. It’s true. But the ceo asked about raising the price and then sinegal replied with the kill comment
redundancy
at least the Costco CEO can eat his own hotdog, unlike McD's Ceo who spat his tiny bite of burger into a napkin
Larktonguesinadicecup
I can't wait to get my Jaws on that product
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
he didn't do that either that we know of - he just took a tiny bite (skip past half if you're interested)
Evenmoreuselessname
"Here, put the camera on the burger to prove I took a single bite... for the camera." *Meanwhile, Costco CEO absolutely houses a whole giant dog without even putting toppings on*
DukePhelan
Mmmm delicious product. It is like watching an alien wearing a man's skin. Super rich people are all really weird in normal settings.
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
it's not so much about being rich as thinking in corpo mode all the time - I doubt Paris Hilton would say "product"
seriously, you should hear the amount of lingo that comes out in a marketing meeting
nosadpandas
Product, product… the dude can’t say burger or sandwich. His eyes look like he’s dead inside. There’s a “Petty Way” sign behind him. This is so forced.
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
he's been an exec for so long that he should've brushed up on his Normalese