Houlle “Who really likes used car salesman and real estate agents?”

Real estate agents are those who failed the ethics test to be a second hand car salesmen.

They exist for one good reason’

People freely choose to use their services.

You want a new car or a cheaper second hand car or buy or sell a house?....

You can use a car dealer or Real Estate agent or try to do a deal privately.

Your choice, no one makes you…

Unlike the ATO, who have the legal power to ensure your life is misery or all those pointless government departments..

the most useless of all being

Dept of Scorched Earth (DSE) – the blokes responsible for more bush fires than disgruntled country fire authority workers and professional arsonists combined

and

Dept of Hideous Stupidities (DHS) – that’s where those who claim to look after children give them back to their abusers to slaughter (but still claim to be doing a good job).

Don’t knock car dealers and real estate agents.. they charge for their services and you can either go elsewhere or do something different.. its up to you

Another good comparison are car mechanics and doctors…

What would you say to a mechanic, if you took your car in with a problem and he said

“we will try this, if it is no better by next Tuesday, come and I will charge you again for me to have another guess”

Well, it is quite obvious I am not getting my point accross. Perhaps I can't explain it properly.

By the 'middle man' I am more referring to 'sales staff' or 'the checkout staff'.

One small example is that of 'automated chechouts' now being used in selected supermarkets.

Sure, there are teething problems, but, once perfected 'they will cost jobs'.

Online shopping is another.

In retail you have staff and, we wait for customers to come in and buy. There is a lot of 'down time' for which staff are being paid. That's a good thing, it creates jobs as you may have three or four customers turn up at once so you need the staff to serve them.

My shop employs 5. Now if I took all the work involved in cutting, preparing, selling, packing and cleaning, I could do the work of all five myself, if there was no need to be polite to customers and display meats in a presentable manner and, there was no down time.

This is simmilar to what happens with 'on line shopping'. Orders are colated, cut and packed and shipped.

I could do the same amount of business and cut several jobs. But, is that a good thing in the long run?

You still haven't thought it through, rehctub.

>>Orders are colated, cut and packed and shipped. I could do the same amount of business and cut several jobs<<

Think about it again. You have a shop. You have suppliers. They deliver against the order you place. You have a place to store the product prior to its sale. You are all ready to "collate, cut, pack and ship"...

...but your door is shut. You have no customers.

How do you get customers in an online world, rehctub?

You need a web site. You need to find a way to attract people to that web site. You have to put your merchandise up on that web site. You have to make sure your prices are accurate, that you have the stock on hand that you display on the web site. You have to enable people to order, and pay, through the web site, and keep track of those payments. You also have to decide how far away your customers are, so as to add the right amount of shipping costs.

When you get an order, how do you fulfil it? Sure, you "cut and pack". But how do you ship? How far are you able to ship? Who will do it, and who will manage their delivery routes?

Then you have another problem, which is stock. Right now, you have a pretty good idea of the traffic through your shop, and their general buying patterns, so your experience tells you pretty accurately how much to keep on the shelf at any given time. And if you are out of stock, it's not a big problem, because the transaction is immediate - if it's there, you sell it, if it's not, you don't.

If you run out in an online shop, how quickly can you put up the "out of stock" sign? And if you do that too often, how many people will come back and visit you a second time?

Trust me, there are a lot of people involved in the business of online shopping.

And they all need to be paid.

*One small example is that of 'automated chechouts' now being used in selected supermarkets.
Sure, there are teething problems, but, once perfected 'they will cost jobs'.*

Shortterm perhaps Rehctub, but not long term. For what it will
mean is lower grocery prices, so consumers will have more money
in their pockets, which they spend elsewhere. That creates new
jobs, at the same time raising our standard of living. Only
gains in productivity can do that.

If you examine the books of the supermarket chains, which are
public corporations, profits only run at around 3% over all goods,
for say Coles. Overheads OTOH, total around 25%. Chains like
Aldi do it for less, because of overheads cut to the bone. Try
ringing at Aldi store, most don't even have a phone.

So all those retail staff standing around, picking their noses or
whatever, cost you the consumer money and a lower standard of living
then would otherwise be the case. That might not matter to you
personally, but it does to those on a tight budget, pensioners etc.

What many of you fail to recognise,is that the object of all Corporate Entities is to extinguish competition.

Globally the Corporate Elites have too much power.This is evident in the energy industries of petrol and gas.We are paying too much for it.

China is driving everything to the lowest common denominator.As we lose jobs in the West,so do our expectations of quality diminish with our incomes.

I'm appealing to the Italian producers of the product I buy from them, to maintain the quality or put out a generic inferior brand and give the customer choice.No,they are degrading all their product lines to compete with the Chinese.It is just insanity.The Chinese have them spooked and they will fall in line.

*This is evident in the energy industries of petrol and gas.We are paying too much for it.*

Arjay, most of the large reserves of energy, were in fact
nationalised, such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iraq etc.

I remind you that there are hundreds of small oil producers out
there, all trying to find some. It is not for the faint hearted,
as the costs are huge. They can blow 25 million $ on a hole
and find its dry.

If you think they are paid too much, you are free to take your
hard earned savings and invest them in the oil drilling game.

You might do well and you might lose your shirt. If you are not
prepared to risk your savings on drilling for oil, but want
others to do so, then clearly you have no reason to complain about
the price.