Myer's today announced profit downgrades for their current period, claiming that their January stocktake sales failed to meet their expectations.
They also claimed that this was because they offered similar pricing in November last year, and the consumers concern about rising interest rate rises

What this does prove, is that Myer's whacked its prices up at Christmas.
This type of discretionary pricing is the bane of all Australian consumers today.

This detachment of pricing compared to the actual cost of the goods supplied, is a direct result of changes made to the Trade Practices Act
during the Howard years.

To compounded this problem, changes made to the Workplace Relations Act ensure that a pay rise does not compensate for the rising price of things, caused largely by discretionary fee's, charges and pricing and the general greed of business more than increasing cost's.

Ethical barriers to excessive profit taking (or at least, what we once considered excessive)
have been legalised by edict.

Also I cant remember the last time I, or any other employee in my industry had a pay rise.
I can remember getting tax cuts.

This is when "you," (the taxpayer), fund your own pay rise, instead of your employer increasing your salary, your tax money is being used to keep cost's down for your employer, while your actual wage fails to keep pace with inflation, driven by, or dependant entirely upon, that very same employer/businesses discretion.

In addition your job security probably extends to whether they want you or not, and this can reduced to a day to day proposition, governed by your employers discretion alone.

So, too Myers and others selling non essential items, I expect that you can expect more of the same profit downgrades, because the average battered Australian family consumer doesn't have the money anymore to buy the things that we really don't need, because we are just trying to budget for our elastic fuel bill, our electricity, our mortgages etc .

Perhaps you should consult with your compatriots in the essential services sector and ask them if they are taking their fair whack.

Profits down does not mean no profit. Corporations have gone quite mad in relation to profit margins - Myer still made a big profit maybe not enough to satisfy the shareholders, but the world does not exist to serve shareholders alone. Consumers can no longer fund the excesses of business and they will make wiser and more careful economic choices as costs of other commodities rise.

Perhaps a cut in the millions of dollar salaries paid to the executive body might help with a falling profit margin. I am sure senior executives could learn to budget household expenses with a 50% pay cut. Stop paying models more than $5M per year for representing business and you have another substantial saving. But I suspect that is idealistic, the cuts will be at the customer service end which will in the long term reduce business even more.

I had to wait ages the other day to find a human being in David Jones to serve me, most of the cashier desks were empty and I ended up in a completely different area to be able to make my purchase. People will walk if the service gets too sloppy, even though we have become almost immune to it, there is a fine line.

The cost of housing, energy and fear of rising interest rates will mean variations in spending. Spending on luxuries will and should come last in a household where budgets are managed well and spending does not in the main exceed income.

Perhaps it is a good sign that rampant consumerism is being restrained and there is a shift to sensible approaches to managing personal debt.

There are always shifts and changes in the employment sector, jobs lost in retail will be made up elsewhere like building sector (in response to rebuilding infrastructure due to natural disasters), some in mining and the community and health sector where there is increased demand particularly in medical/affiliated medical, aged care and child care.

It is swings and roundabouts.

The average Aussie battling consumer never walked in the doors of that shop in my view.
And we have always like the sea,had up waves and down, in NSW at least that brand was never other than top end.
The battlers battle some times even in good times.
But selective spending may see some prosper others fail,I feel no pain for Myers.
They do have other shops but the top end may well be the loss maker.

There is a huge problem looming for the retail sector (small end of town) as wages and overall running costs are simply to high and represent to larger portion of turnover.

Wages:
Wages are simply to high for small employers, yet, they are to low for employees to live on. It's a catch 22!

So the end result of increased running costs will be a further shift to the multi national retailer who is able to get better returns on thier employment dollars, which of cause will result in decreased competition. But we did warn you.

They are also the retailers who sell more and more imported goods.

We, the consumers, are signing our own death warrents!

Running costs:
Most leases have a built in annual rental increase. Problem is, most small retailers are experiencing reduced turnovers, which means running costs are getting out of hand as they are representing a larger portion of turnover, which squeezes profit margins.

The effects are reduced standards, essecially in the restaurant industry. When was the last time you thought you received value for money dining out?

It's all because dollars have to be saved somewhere, so food costs suffer resulting in a poorer meal.

Resuarants used to allow a third food cost, now they are approaching the 25% mark.

Remeber, a gourmet pizza is made from flour, water and a few toppings, yet, they commonly sell for up to $25 each but cost around $4 to make.

Now as for pay rises. Many received a $26 per week pay rise this financial year. So I'm not sure what that's about.

the elites..[anyone who earns over a million per year]
believe the poor should serve them..pay all the costs

believe the poor can survive all these new taxes
[that could easilly be removed/replaced by a capital gains tax
death duties tax and a transaction tax]

well the thing is they cant/wont

see we been paying it all on credit cards
paying minimum payments..at ursurous intrest rates

when the credit cards stop...the game is over
inflation is theft from the poor

we been over this time and time again

the wrong people are getting credit
and the wrong people are paying for everything

its funny/sad how the workers pay
is nothing like the ceo's pay
they dont even relate...arnt linked to each other

we can live /survive without bosses
but not without skilled workers

bah
im saying the same things
and nothing ever changes

rehctub you make a good point about wages being too low in some cases to live on but too high for some small businesses.

I have noticed that there has also been a huge rise in commercial rents and the cost to business much higher % wise than in the past. As soon as one link in the chain (landlords, banks, suppliers) gets greedy there is a snowball effect which ultimately impacts the employees, consumers and small business owners in a cycle of greed that eventually can do nothing but implode.

The GFC was evidence of that phenomenon.