Gone very quiet

[GardeningEcomm]

Hah Dr.

We think alike regarding Amazon.
We only sell on Ebay/Amazon to keep products moving through and to keep our lovely workers busy.
(Amazon & Ebay Inc. takes the profit - but that's a whole different story)

Talking with my freight agent container rates should drop after the pre-Christmas rush.
But who knows?
Just wait until those Christmas retailers start getting their elbows out - after all it's still quite 'early days' for them.
Gonna be a right bun fight I reckon.
Could definitely see rates moving to $12,000 and beyond I think?

Makes it tricky when deciding on a sales strategy
It's a balance isn't it?
If you heavily discount now you'll probably be paying more for replenishment stock.
Our stock items don't have a 'fashion' element and in the main aren't perishable.
Happy to carry stock into next year I guess.

[anonymous-user]

I guess there might be some uncertainty over variation of the strength of the pound going forward, too.

[gotoPzero]

GardeningEcomm said:

Online gardening products here.
Consumer demand worst in our 20 years of trading - no year has come close!
(tbf we were something of a start-up during the 2008 collapse so were not hit as hard in that recession)

We're hanging-on in there and have just launched our summer sale.
A heatwave was forecast from June 15th but it just hasn't materialised.
Just got to keep positive and keep trading through it.

Cost rises are insane - especially the current $8100 cost of container freight (China-UK).
(Previously $1800 or so)
We sell bulky goods so landed costs can be +25% due to this change.
Nobody seems to know how long this transport cost will be so elevated.
Mainstream Media doesn't seem to be highlighting this dramatic inflationary news yet?

Good luck to all you grafters out there.

Its been a terrible year. All my old contacts are reporting similar.

Weather poor M/A/M/J prime time lost, then the election call and now the football.

If it helps we always had a poor year during world cups / Olympics so at least next year should be ok!!

[r3g]

Why are you buying from China when essentially your product is nothing more than some bits of rattan/willow/bamboo woven together into the shape of a chair, sprayed black and given a £500 price tag ? i reckon you could get it made for the same price or cheaper from eastern Europe and the transport costs would only be a fraction of what you're paying now as it would all go in the back of a tilt (European curtain-sider artic trailer) and shipped whenever you want.

Edited by r3g on Monday 17th June 19:02

[Digga]

Utterly staggering figures on business insolvencies.

https://www.cityam.com/firms-still-face-significan...

May was better than April and 20% down on May 2023, which was the highest since October 2008.

However, the CEBR reckons total for 2024 could be as high as 33,000 which surpasses 2023's 30 year high.

Great time to increase corporation and income tax, wasn't it?...

[Essarell]

Digga said:

Utterly staggering figures on business insolvencies.

https://www.cityam.com/firms-still-face-significan...

May was better than April and 20% down on May 2023, which was the highest since October 2008.

However, the CEBR reckons total for 2024 could be as high as 33,000 which surpasses 2023's 30 year high.

Great time to increase corporation and income tax, wasn't it?...

When you see the stark reality of these figures how on earth do they try and claim that the economy is growing? Stories in the news about the Woodsmith site nr Whitby, sounds like that’s getting mothballed……

[urquattroGus]

Digga said:

Utterly staggering figures on business insolvencies.

https://www.cityam.com/firms-still-face-significan...

May was better than April and 20% down on May 2023, which was the highest since October 2008.

However, the CEBR reckons total for 2024 could be as high as 33,000 which surpasses 2023's 30 year high.

Great time to increase corporation and income tax, wasn't it?...

And the NNM/NLW increase of Circa 10%

[classicaholic]

urquattroGus said:

Digga said:

Utterly staggering figures on business insolvencies.

https://www.cityam.com/firms-still-face-significan...

May was better than April and 20% down on May 2023, which was the highest since October 2008.

However, the CEBR reckons total for 2024 could be as high as 33,000 which surpasses 2023's 30 year high.

Great time to increase corporation and income tax, wasn't it?...

And the NNM/NLW increase of Circa 10%

It now costs a minimum of £24,612 to employ someone for 37.5hrs - thats just too much for a lot of businesses to afford, especially in low margin manufacturing, Whilst I agree workers need to be reasonably paid nearly 25K for a labourer to sweep the floor is madness!

[Digga]

Essarell said:

When you see the stark reality of these figures how on earth do they try and claim that the economy is growing? Stories in the news about the Woodsmith site nr Whitby, sounds like that’s getting mothballed……

urquattroGus said:

And the NNM/NLW increase of Circa 10%

Quite.

And what page the twits at the Bank of England are looking at is anyone's guess. If ever there were an illustration of how outmoded and useless the MPC are, then this is it.

[skwdenyer]

classicaholic said:

urquattroGus said:

Digga said:

Utterly staggering figures on business insolvencies.

https://www.cityam.com/firms-still-face-significan...

May was better than April and 20% down on May 2023, which was the highest since October 2008.

However, the CEBR reckons total for 2024 could be as high as 33,000 which surpasses 2023's 30 year high.

Great time to increase corporation and income tax, wasn't it?...

And the NNM/NLW increase of Circa 10%

It now costs a minimum of £24,612 to employ someone for 37.5hrs - thats just too much for a lot of businesses to afford, especially in low margin manufacturing, Whilst I agree workers need to be reasonably paid nearly 25K for a labourer to sweep the floor is madness!

So how are people earning less going to keep a roof over their head? I don't know your political stance specifically, but a great many people have consistently voted in favour of destroying social housing, cutting education spending, cutting benefits, etc. How *precisely* is the square to be circled?

I agree £25k for somebody to sweep the floor is quite a lot. So why not buy autonomous machines to do that job? That would be the smart play - invest in productivity. But for some reason we British are very very bad at that, too.

So many people want something for nothing. In this case, they want a prosperous economy, ever-rising house prices, and yet want "somebody else" to cover the wages of staff. How is that supposed to resolve itself?

[urquattroGus]

People have to live and the wage amount is OK, we are the privileged ones here who don't know what it's like to try and live on this.

However, the timing and magnitude of the increase this time came when many businesses are struggling to stay afloat and has in my view compounded matters, also surely it is inflationary when every cup of Coffee, Gregs etc the price goes up and is passed on to the already struggling consumer.

A bigger issue for business has been all the people on just above that wage whom now also feel de valued and would like a similarly large increase in what is for many businesses a very tough year.

[skwdenyer]

urquattroGus said:

People have to live and the wage amount is OK, we are the privileged ones here who don't know what it's like to try and live on this.

However, the timing and magnitude of the increase this time came when many businesses are struggling to stay afloat and has in my view compounded matters, also surely it is inflationary when every cup of Coffee, Gregs etc the price goes up and is passed on to the already struggling consumer.

A bigger issue for business has been all the people on just above that wage whom now also feel de valued and would like a similarly large increase in what is for many businesses a very tough year.

But how would people on NMW have coped with inflation, especially in energy bills but also more generally, without an increase?

I'm like a broken record, I'm afraid - we needed to let the housing market collapse in 2008/9 and be rebuilt sustainably, with lots of investment in new units on (sanely-valued) land. It is the only solution to this problem if we won't accept the building of masses of new social housing.

Frankly I'd like to see compulsory purchase of land-banked sites. We've got to do something.

[Digga]

skwdenyer said:

So how are people earning less going to keep a roof over their head? I don't know your political stance specifically, but a great many people have consistently voted in favour of destroying social housing, cutting education spending, cutting benefits, etc. How *precisely* is the square to be circled?

I agree £25k for somebody to sweep the floor is quite a lot. So why not buy autonomous machines to do that job? That would be the smart play - invest in productivity. But for some reason we British are very very bad at that, too.

So many people want something for nothing. In this case, they want a prosperous economy, ever-rising house prices, and yet want "somebody else" to cover the wages of staff. How is that supposed to resolve itself?

INflation happened but did not necessarily coincide with an increase in SME profitability. And then they also raised corporation tax too.

So whilst I agree with the thrust of your argument, the logic that business can, in any way, suddenly 'afford' to unilaterally hike wages is flawed.

[skwdenyer]

Digga said:

skwdenyer said:

So how are people earning less going to keep a roof over their head? I don't know your political stance specifically, but a great many people have consistently voted in favour of destroying social housing, cutting education spending, cutting benefits, etc. How *precisely* is the square to be circled?

I agree £25k for somebody to sweep the floor is quite a lot. So why not buy autonomous machines to do that job? That would be the smart play - invest in productivity. But for some reason we British are very very bad at that, too.

So many people want something for nothing. In this case, they want a prosperous economy, ever-rising house prices, and yet want "somebody else" to cover the wages of staff. How is that supposed to resolve itself?

INflation happened but did not necessarily coincide with an increase in SME profitability. And then they also raised corporation tax too.

So whilst I agree with the thrust of your argument, the logic that business can, in any way, suddenly 'afford' to unilaterally hike wages is flawed.

NMW exists to stop businesses leaning on the lowest paid. If businesses cannot pay NMW then they will close. That's the "greater good" equation - it is more important to set NMW at a viable level than it is to not cause problems for businesses.

I'm not saying that's right. But businesses are only one part of the political equation.

More broadly, we've got all-but full employment. This isn't a situation in which NMW is likely to put millions out of work.

[Digga]

skwdenyer said:

NMW exists to stop businesses leaning on the lowest paid. If businesses cannot pay NMW then they will close. That's the "greater good" equation - it is more important to set NMW at a viable level than it is to not cause problems for businesses.

I'm not saying that's right. But businesses are only one part of the political equation.

More broadly, we've got all-but full employment. This isn't a situation in which NMW is likely to put millions out of work.

Erm... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-11...

Not sure it all scans.

Anyway, whilst I agree with the ethos of raising NMW, as I say, there is no way many SME businesses can reorganise, in the current environment, to assimilate it.

[Paddymcc]

classicaholic said:

It now costs a minimum of £24,612 to employ someone for 37.5hrs - thats just too much for a lot of businesses to afford, especially in low margin manufacturing, Whilst I agree workers need to be reasonably paid nearly 25K for a labourer to sweep the floor is madness!

I had this conversation with my accountant recently when he asked was i interested in taking on some more labour so i pointed him at my profit margin % and how much i would have to increase turnover to cover that 24k a year.

Simply not worth the hassle.


With regards the housing posts above i cannot understand how and why local councils are not flat out building those pre-fab bungalows to solve things. My local town still has quite a few of those tin ones constructed after WW2 and they are still perfectly serviceable and liveable.

The solutions are there its just no one wants to do anything about it.

[anonymous-user]

The NMW is what it is. Businesses will raise prices to accommodate. Those that can't would have a question mark over their viability.

What it might have done is displace older workers who are full price, replaced by younger ones whose MW is lower.

[skwdenyer]

Paddymcc said:

classicaholic said:

It now costs a minimum of £24,612 to employ someone for 37.5hrs - thats just too much for a lot of businesses to afford, especially in low margin manufacturing, Whilst I agree workers need to be reasonably paid nearly 25K for a labourer to sweep the floor is madness!

I had this conversation with my accountant recently when he asked was i interested in taking on some more labour so i pointed him at my profit margin % and how much i would have to increase turnover to cover that 24k a year.

Simply not worth the hassle.


With regards the housing posts above i cannot understand how and why local councils are not flat out building those pre-fab bungalows to solve things. My local town still has quite a few of those tin ones constructed after WW2 and they are still perfectly serviceable and liveable.

The solutions are there its just no one wants to do anything about it.

Local councils for many many years were forced to sell off stock and banned from building more with the money. Today, where will they get the cash, when central Govt still mandates what they get and what it is to be spent on (and have slashed the funding).

Easy to blame local Govt - that's what central Govt wants you to do. Doesn't scan, however.

[skwdenyer]

Digga said:

skwdenyer said:

NMW exists to stop businesses leaning on the lowest paid. If businesses cannot pay NMW then they will close. That's the "greater good" equation - it is more important to set NMW at a viable level than it is to not cause problems for businesses.

I'm not saying that's right. But businesses are only one part of the political equation.

More broadly, we've got all-but full employment. This isn't a situation in which NMW is likely to put millions out of work.

Erm... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-11...

Not sure it all scans.

Anyway, whilst I agree with the ethos of raising NMW, as I say, there is no way many SME businesses can reorganise, in the current environment, to assimilate it.

And I've been saying for a long, long time that our economy is broken, a fact only hidden by a variety of smoke and mirrors and Govt policy (including de facto subsidies for low-paid workers). So many on here shouted me down.

Yet here we are. Productivity is terrible. Housing is extortionate. Taxation is high, yet investment is low and falling. The birth rate is dropping, the educational and training of our future staff is awful, and so on. Disposable income is low and dropping.

This isn't new. If raising the NMW makes it clear to a few more people how utterly awful has been the management of our economy for so long then that's all to the good IMHO.

[Dr Interceptor]

Forester1965 said:

replaced by younger ones whose MW is lower.

My local pub does this... Only employs bar staff between 18 and 20 to save £2.84 per hour per staff member. The problem is they're (generally) unreliable, grumpy, moody, don't speak properly, and generally not very good at their job. You do get the odd good one of course.

We'd rather the landlord put 10p on a pint and employed some proper staff, but he just doesn't see it.

A bit like the fact the wine he sells is st, so the ladies either don't go, or when they do go drink a half of lager and lime, because the wine is st. If he spent an extra £2 a bottle, he'd sell a lot more of it.