• [NEWS] PB Tech Black Friday Sale starts this week

    From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Mon Nov 10 20:51:48 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp


    Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...


    PB Tech Black Friday Sale
    In-store only: 5:00pm - 9:00pm, Friday, 14 November, 2025
    Online: from 9:00pm, Friday, 14 November, 2025
    In-store & online: Saturday, 15 November - Wednesday, 3 December, 2025

    - Crazy deals on Apple
    - RTX 4050 gaming laptops from $1299
    - up to 40% off smartphones
    - big brand 40" 4K TVs from $499
    - noise cancelling headphones from $50
    - gaming monitors from $169
    - epic deals on PC parts
    - robot vacuum cleaners from $199
    - up to 30% off routers
    - plus thousands more Black Friday deals!

    The actual "deals" will be posted later this week at <https://www.pbtech.co.nz/promotions/black-friday>



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,nz.general on Mon Nov 10 21:03:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Mon, 10 Nov 2025 20:51:48 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...

    How dare they cut prices early to try to get an edge over other
    retailers!!

    They should all agree on a start date for Black Friday deals, and all
    start discounting together!!! Make the punters pay full price until then,
    so they canrCOt shop around!!!!!!!
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 10:54:03 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-10 21:03:30 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Mon, 10 Nov 2025 20:51:48 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...

    How dare they cut prices early to try to get an edge over other
    retailers!!

    They should all agree on a start date for Black Friday deals, and all
    start discounting together!!! Make the punters pay full price until then,
    so they canrCOt shop around!!!!!!!

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers, so if you're
    paying full price you either need the item *right now* or are
    an idiot. (This is especially true for places like Briscoes,
    where they never sell items at the "normal" price, so may as
    well just stop trying to con customers and just say "these are
    our normal prices".)

    B. Greedy retailers trying to move these events earlier and earlier
    is why we get Christmas stock on shelves in August and Easter
    eggs in January. :-\

    C. There are actually "rules" for these 'special days'. Black Friday,
    for example, is meant to be the Friday after US Thanksgiving, not the
    whole month of November (some twits even started in October!).

    D. Today is the equally silly "Singles Day", so they could just as
    easily have used that as the excuse for their current "sale" and
    then that would give them another excuse for a "sale" in two more
    weeks time.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.general,nz.comp on Mon Nov 10 22:27:45 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 12:34:51 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. And the
    Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.general,nz.comp on Mon Nov 10 23:45:55 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. And >> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as rCLgreedy retailersrCY.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 15:47:47 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. And >>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as rCLgreedy retailersrCY.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.general,nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 04:47:22 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. >>>> And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as rCLgreedy retailersrCY.

    The two aren't connected.

    You previously said:

    > Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...

    If your idea of rCLgreedyrCY had nothing to do with the duration of sales, then what was it to do with?
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 18:14:37 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-11 04:47:22 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round rCLsalerCY. >>>>> And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as rCLgreedy retailersrCY.

    The two aren't connected.

    You previously said:

    > Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...

    If your idea of rCLgreedyrCY had nothing to do with the duration of sales, then what was it to do with?

    I said *NEAR*-continuous sales

    You said "year-round" sales.

    There's a difference, which greedy retailers use to side-step the
    supposed enforcing of the law.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Crash@nogood@dontbother.invalid to nz.comp on Tue Nov 11 20:59:14 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:

    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And >>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting
    to get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.
    --
    Crash McBash
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 10:57:31 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And >>>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Crash@nogood@dontbother.invalid to nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 15:04:43 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:

    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And >>>>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily >excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.
    --
    Crash McBash
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mutley@mutley2000@hotmail.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 16:20:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And the >> Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    PB Tech is the Briscoes of the tech world.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,nz.general on Wed Nov 12 03:58:27 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily excessive ...

    So if they start discounting from that original price earlier in the year, doesnrCOt that reduce the time that they can charge the higher price? Is
    that rCLmorerCY greedy, or rCLlessrCY?

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically collude on a price.

    The Commerce Commission has collected quite a few scalps on its belt from prosecuting such cases.

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Does early discounting help with that?
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.general,nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 17:41:31 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-12 03:58:27 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive ...

    So if they start discounting from that original price earlier in the year, doesnrCOt that reduce the time that they can charge the higher price? Is
    that rCLmorerCY greedy, or rCLlessrCY?

    Obviously less since they haven't been charging teh full excessive
    price all along.



    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price.

    The Commerce Commission has collected quite a few scalps on its belt from prosecuting such cases.

    That only works when the companies actively collude on pricing. On most
    cases the various brands simply match the prices of their competitiors.

    As an example, yesterday I got an email about a Toyworld 20% off sale
    on Thursday and, (no) 'surprise', in today's emails was The Warehouse
    having a 20% off toys sale on Thursday as well. No doubt Farmers,
    K-mart, etc. will all "suddenly" follow suit as well with their own 20%
    off sales.

    Another one is the supermarkets. Both Countdown/Woolworths and New
    World used to release their weekly sales brochures on Sunday night. Now Woolworths waits until Monday so they can see what New World has done
    and copy them. Sometimes one or the other will take a "massive" 1c more
    off the price to make it appear to be a better deal (e.g. one
    supermarket will have a price of $2 while the other uses $1.99).



    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Does early discounting help with that?

    Not really. They are still making massive profits at customer expense -
    that's how big business works, that's how the managers get obscene pay
    packets perks, that's how they can "sponsor" (i.e. tax write off)
    community organisations, etc.

    The most obvious example is wackjob Elon Musk is going to be paid US$1 trillion (assuming he "hits the targets"). That money comes from
    somehwere ... it's called the customer. Even just sacking the looney
    would save money (e.g. if they made 1 trillion products, reduce the
    price by $1 each).

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 17:48:23 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And >>>>>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than starving).

    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Crash@nogood@dontbother.invalid to nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 19:55:02 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:48:23 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:

    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than >starving).

    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price,
    so again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.

    That is not correct. Even with milk, there are multiple choices of
    brand and price point. I was in the supermarket yesterday and 500g
    butter was available under the Pam's brand for $8.50/500g. Anchor was
    available at $9.50/500g. There was also a French brand available for $7.00/200g.

    By definition, if Anchor can sell at their price when the same product
    is available cheaper, then the price of Anchor is fair because
    customers made that choice. Yes Anchor and Pam's are from the same
    source, but customers decided what the fair price was for them, even
    those who choose to by the French product.

    It is the customer who decides, given multiple choices. The same
    applies to milk.
    --
    Crash McBash
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Wed Nov 12 20:02:29 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-12 06:55:02 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:48:23 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary
    product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price,
    so again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.

    That is not correct. Even with milk, there are multiple choices of
    brand and price point. I was in the supermarket yesterday and 500g
    butter was available under the Pam's brand for $8.50/500g. Anchor was available at $9.50/500g. There was also a French brand available for $7.00/200g.

    By definition, if Anchor can sell at their price when the same product
    is available cheaper, then the price of Anchor is fair because
    customers made that choice. Yes Anchor and Pam's are from the same
    source, but customers decided what the fair price was for them, even
    those who choose to by the French product.

    It is the customer who decides, given multiple choices. The same
    applies to milk.

    I knew that was going to happen. "Milk" was simply an example product,
    not an actual product. Too many people take everything written on the
    internet as being 120% literal. :-\



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Sun Nov 16 18:42:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-10 07:51:48 +0000, Your Name said:

    Two weeks early, like many many other greedy retailers ...

    PB Tech Black Friday Sale
    In-store only: 5:00pm - 9:00pm, Friday, 14 November, 2025
    Online: from 9:00pm, Friday, 14 November, 2025
    In-store & online: Saturday, 15 November - Wednesday, 3 December, 2025

    They've now added more deals for "Cyber Monday" (early again). <https://www.pbtech.co.nz/promotions/black-friday>

    There is also a price promise, so if you buy something *for home use*
    and their price drops lower any time between 5 November and 3 December,
    they will give you a PB Tech gift card for the price difference
    (minimum $1, claims have to be made by 10 December, exclusions apply). <https://www.pbtech.co.nz/promotions/price-protection>

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Gordon@Gordon@leaf.net.nz to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 03:32:42 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-11, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round -osale-o. And >>>>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous
    sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.

    So it is more than you are pepaid to pay. Don't buy the goods, this is how
    it works in theory. Haggle, that is supposed to work.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a couple of dollars, all the others follow suit.

    Think about this. You are only going to sell at a lower price than the competition if you can make on volume. You are in business to make a profit.

    So we agree that the street value is the same in all shops.


    That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Gordon@Gordon@leaf.net.nz to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 03:42:45 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round -osale-o. And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Let the buyer be aware.



    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices
    are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.




    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Gordon@Gordon@leaf.net.nz to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 03:48:23 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 06:55:02 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:48:23 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ... >>>>>>>>>>
    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round -osale-o. And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with. >>>>>>
    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their >>>>>> suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their >>>>>> margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily >>>>> excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products >>>>>> through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary
    product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price,
    so again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.

    That is not correct. Even with milk, there are multiple choices of
    brand and price point. I was in the supermarket yesterday and 500g
    butter was available under the Pam's brand for $8.50/500g. Anchor was
    available at $9.50/500g. There was also a French brand available for
    $7.00/200g.

    By definition, if Anchor can sell at their price when the same product
    is available cheaper, then the price of Anchor is fair because
    customers made that choice. Yes Anchor and Pam's are from the same
    source, but customers decided what the fair price was for them, even
    those who choose to by the French product.

    It is the customer who decides, given multiple choices. The same
    applies to milk.

    I knew that was going to happen. "Milk" was simply an example product,
    not an actual product. Too many people take everything written on the internet as being 120% literal. :-\

    Milk is not an actual product. Ask any dairy farmer, he/she will tell you
    that it is, as they produce and sell it.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Crash@nogood@dontbother.invalid to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 18:15:29 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:48:23 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:

    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round osaleo. And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ogreedy retailerso.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than >starving).

    There are a vast number of suppliers of bread. While most dairy
    products are sourced from Fonterra, there is significant choice
    available in pricing even for simple products like butter and milk.
    There are also independent companies competing with Fonterra.


    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.

    What evidence do you have of collusion?

    While there is limited options for milk and butter, for other food
    products there is significant differences in price and quality, and
    many are not sold in supermarkets. My personal choice is never to buy
    anything from a supermarket unless there is no other affordable
    option. I shop at markets, butchers and fruit and vege vendors
    wherever possible.
    --
    Crash McBash
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Crash@nogood@dontbother.invalid to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 18:19:46 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 17 Nov 2025 03:32:42 GMT, Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:

    On 2025-11-11, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round ?sale?. And >>>>>>> the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too.

    And yet you complain about it as ?greedy retailers?.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale"
    price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of
    The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or
    more likely both.

    So it is more than you are pepaid to pay. Don't buy the goods, this is how
    it works in theory. Haggle, that is supposed to work.

    Good luck with haggling at a supermarket. Staff have no discretion in
    this area and the owner is rarely in the aisles to talk to. Your
    point about not buying stuff you consider priced too high is valid. I
    would add that I prefer to buy from a small vendor and only buy from a supermarket as a last resort.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically
    collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a
    couple of dollars, all the others follow suit.

    Think about this. You are only going to sell at a lower price than the >competition if you can make on volume. You are in business to make a profit.

    So we agree that the street value is the same in all shops.


    That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some
    brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive).

    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as
    much as money you can get away with.



    --
    Crash McBash
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony@lizandtony@orcon.net to nz.comp on Mon Nov 17 17:51:56 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ...

    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round -osale-o. >>>>>>>>>And
    the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with.

    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their
    suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their
    margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily
    excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products
    through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Let the buyer be aware.



    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary
    product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the "exessive" >prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices
    are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.
    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism has ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few years with poverty and oppression being the result.



    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Tue Nov 18 11:02:56 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
    wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ... >>>>>>>>>>
    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round -osale-o.
    And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then
    obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with. >>>>>>
    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their >>>>>> suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their >>>>>> margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily >>>>> excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products >>>>>> through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to >>>>>> get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming
    retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't
    really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Let the buyer be aware.



    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell
    your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary
    product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the
    "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is
    too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices
    are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism has
    ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few years with poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system *properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc.
    were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming
    off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually
    true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either.
    As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."




    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most
    of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while
    still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then
    sell the most.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony@lizandtony@orcon.net.nz to nz.comp on Tue Nov 18 02:25:06 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ... >>>>>>>>>>>
    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round >>>>>>>>>>>-osale-o.
    And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then >>>>>>>> obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with. >>>>>>>
    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their >>>>>>> suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their >>>>>>> margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily >>>>>> excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products >>>>>>> through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming >>>>>>> retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't >>>>>> really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Let the buyer be aware.



    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell >>>>> your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >>>> product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the
    "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is >>> too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices >>> are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism >>has
    ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few years with
    poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system >*properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc.
    were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming
    off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually
    true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either.
    As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."




    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most >>>> of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while >>>> still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then >>>> sell the most.
    Well Cuba and Iraly both tried and failed. Karl Marx believed communism (marxism) would work and it failed.
    Some countries have tried - all failed.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony@lizandtony@orcon.net.nz to nz.comp on Tue Nov 18 02:26:05 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:
    On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:57:31 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-11 07:59:14 +0000, Crash said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:47:47 +1300, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> >>>>>>> wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 23:45:55 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:34:51 +1300, Your Name wrote:
    On 2025-11-10 22:27:45 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:
    On Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:54:03 +1300, Your Name wrote:

    A. There are near-continuous sales at many retailers ... >>>>>>>>>>>
    There are laws in NZ against that kind of bogus year-round >>>>>>>>>>>-osale-o.
    And the Commerce Commission does enforce the law.

    Obviously not very well since many retailers have a near-continuous >>>>>>>>>> sale. Briscoes being the most obvious, but there are others too. >>>>>>>>>
    And yet you complain about it as -ogreedy retailers-o.

    The two aren't connected. Plus, if they can sell them at the "sale" >>>>>>>> price while still making a profit (which they mostly do), then >>>>>>>> obviously the "normal" price is greedily excessive to begin with. >>>>>>>
    Except that the large retailers extract reduced pricing from their >>>>>>> suppliers to support their sale prices. This is particularly true of >>>>>>> The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, PB Tech et al. They don't drop their >>>>>>> margins, their suppliers do.

    Doesn't really change the point that the original price was greedily >>>>>> excessive - whether that's due to the retailer or the manufacturer, or >>>>>> more likely both.



    There are 2 angles for this: a supplier who wants to move products >>>>>>> through their retailers, and retailers looking for suppliers wanting to
    get their products included with competitive pricing in upcoming >>>>>>> retailer sales.

    "Competitive pricing" is largely a myth. All the store brands basically >>>>>> collude on a price. If one store drops the price by a couple of
    dollars, all the others follow suit. If one brand raises the price by a >>>>>> couple of dollars, all the others follow suit. That's why you don't >>>>>> really find much savings by 'shopping around' (although there are some >>>>>> brands like Noel Leemings that are pretty much always more expensive). >>>>>>
    That's the first rule of greedy big business: scam your customer for as >>>>>> much as money you can get away with.

    Let the buyer be aware.



    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell >>>>> your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive
    only to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >>>> product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than
    starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the
    "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is >>> too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices >>> are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism >>has
    ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few years with
    poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system >*properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc.
    were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming
    off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually
    true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either.
    As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."




    And, as I said, since the companies basically collude on pricing, most >>>> of the milk (or whatever) products are pretty much the same price, so
    again, no actual choice. If there was real competitive pricing, then
    some company would come along and sell milk (or whatever) for $2 while >>>> still covering all their real expenses, instead of $5 to cover
    excessive greed like all the others ... guess which company would then >>>> sell the most.
    Well Cuba and Iraly both tried and failed. Karl Marx believed communism (marxism) would work and it failed.
    Some countries have tried - all failed.
    Sorry - Italy.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Tue Nov 18 18:23:55 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-18 02:25:06 +0000, Tony said:
    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:

    <snip>

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell >>>>>> your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive only >>>>>> to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >>>>> product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than >>>>> starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the
    "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is >>>> too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices >>>> are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism >>> has ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few
    years with poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system
    *properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc.
    were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming
    off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually
    true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either.
    As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

    Well Cuba and Iraly both tried and failed. Karl Marx believed communism (marxism) would work and it failed.
    Some countries have tried - all failed.

    Cuba and "Iraly" ;-) are / were in reality the same as USSR and China -
    in reality all socialst countries with a "communist" government
    creaming off the wealth for themselves.

    There has never been any country that was *truly* communist. None of
    those countries western people use the terms for actually even
    described themselves as being that. The simple fact that there is a
    ruling class, government, etc. means it is not actually communism.

    Whether or not true communism would work or simply be highly chaotic is
    very different question. :-)



    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony@lizandtony@orcon.net.nz to nz.comp on Tue Nov 18 07:51:54 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-18 02:25:06 +0000, Tony said:
    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:

    <snip>

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell >>>>>>> your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition, >>>>>>> if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive only
    to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary >>>>>> product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than >>>>>> starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the
    "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is >>>>> too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive prices >>>>> are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to capitalism >>>> has ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after a few
    years with poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system
    *properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc.
    were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming
    off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually
    true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either.
    As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

    Well Cuba and Iraly both tried and failed. Karl Marx believed communism
    (marxism) would work and it failed.
    Some countries have tried - all failed.

    Cuba and "Iraly" ;-) are / were in reality the same as USSR and China -
    in reality all socialst countries with a "communist" government
    creaming off the wealth for themselves.
    Not to start with and that is exactly my point. They became corrupted by their greed, but before that the leaders genuinely wanted a fairer system. That is historically correct.

    There has never been any country that was *truly* communist. None of
    those countries western people use the terms for actually even
    described themselves as being that. The simple fact that there is a
    ruling class, government, etc. means it is not actually communism.
    As above, that happened after the corruption. The original ruling classes started out with good intentions. (not true in Russia or China of course, they were never after a fair system).

    Whether or not true communism would work or simply be highly chaotic is
    very different question. :-)
    I personally believe it could never work, it is based on the idea of human beings all wanting to be equal, and that is not the case - we are a greedy bunch.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Your Name@YourName@YourISP.com to nz.comp on Wed Nov 19 08:23:35 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On 2025-11-18 07:51:54 +0000, Tony said:
    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-18 02:25:06 +0000, Tony said:
    Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-17 17:51:56 +0000, Tony said:
    Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
    On 2025-11-12 02:04:43 +0000, Crash said:

    <snip>

    Lets put that a little differently. The first rule of business: sell >>>>>>>> your product for the highest price you can get for it. By definition,
    if a product sells to a willing buyer, then the price is excessive only
    to socialists or communists.

    Except the buyers only have two choices: buy the product at an
    excessive price or don't buy the product at all. When it's an necessary
    product like bread, milk, etc, there is no actual choice (other than >>>>>>> starving).

    This is when competition should arrive on the scene and attack the >>>>>> "exessive" prices with the buyers all making it clear that the price is >>>>>> too high.

    Unfortunately the buyers do not act with "force", so the execssive >>>>>> prices are paid.

    I'll agree that capitalism does not scale well.

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to
    capitalism has ever worked. All attempts at an alternative failed after >>>>> a few years with poverty and oppression being the result.

    There is no other country that has tried any other alternative system
    *properly*. The so-called "Communist" countries like USSR, China, etc. >>>> were / are really just the greedy selfish fat cats at the top creaming >>>> off wealth for themselves while every else suffers - it's not actually >>>> true communism and not a lot different to the western countries either. >>>> As the saying goes: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."

    Well Cuba and Iraly both tried and failed. Karl Marx believed communism
    (marxism) would work and it failed.
    Some countries have tried - all failed.

    Cuba and "Iraly" ;-) are / were in reality the same as USSR and China -
    in reality all socialst countries with a "communist" government
    creaming off the wealth for themselves.
    Not to start with and that is exactly my point. They became corrupted by their
    greed, but before that the leaders genuinely wanted a fairer system. That is historically correct.

    There has never been any country that was *truly* communist. None of
    those countries western people use the terms for actually even
    described themselves as being that. The simple fact that there is a
    ruling class, government, etc. means it is not actually communism.
    As above, that happened after the corruption. The original ruling classes started out with good intentions. (not true in Russia or China of course, they
    were never after a fair system).

    Whether or not true communism would work or simply be highly chaotic is
    very different question. :-)
    I personally believe it could never work, it is based on the idea of human beings all wanting to be equal, and that is not the case - we are a greedy bunch.

    Yep, greedy, selfish, and stupid pretty much sums up the human race on average. :-(


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,nz.politics on Wed Nov 26 03:45:14 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    On Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:51:56 -0000 (UTC), Tony wrote:

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to
    capitalism has ever worked.

    Communist China seems to be giving that paragon of Capitalism, the
    good ole US of A, a bit of a run for its money these days.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tony@lizandtony@orcon.net.nz to nz.comp,nz.politics on Wed Nov 26 07:48:14 2025
    From Newsgroup: nz.comp

    Lawrence D Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:51:56 -0000 (UTC), Tony wrote:

    Yes, some countries struggle with it, however no alternative to
    capitalism has ever worked.

    Communist China seems to be giving that paragon of Capitalism, the
    good ole US of A, a bit of a run for its money these days.
    Communist China is one of the most capitalist countries in the world (as well as other things of course). Hence my comment, there is no workable alternative. --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2