privatebydesign said:
CanonFanBoy said:
privatebydesign said:
Before we all get on a burn them at the stakes vibe I would point out that this kind of thing is the inevitable result of things like no sales tax paid by most people, 'free shipping', and my perennial annoyance, unlimited no fault returns.
These things cost money, if you want the price kept down this is one of the ways the savings are made. Can you imagine buying three lenses at your local shop, using them all for a week then taking two of them back for full refunds? Yet not expecting anybody else to have ever opened the box of your three!
Not condoning anything that smacks of bad, unsafe, or discriminatory practices, just pointing out it is the customers demands for price and speed and service that puts pressure on retailers to do this kind of thing.
I fail to understand how B&H not charging sales tax to out of state buyers keeps prices down. B&H doesn't pay sales tax on those sales either. It has no bearing on the cost of doing business for B&H.
B&H having separate bathrooms for other races doesn't save money either. It costs more.
Promoting whites over other races also costs nothing.
None of this has to do with B&H providing returns or free shipping. None.
That is because you are taking a myopic view of the the situation. Sales tax is an important component of local government revenue, health and safety inspectors are local government employees. If we all avoid sales tax then employee conditions get worse. It isn't a B&H specific thing, it is an endemic problem we have pushed retailers into and law makers can't or won't keep up. If I was a retail customer and bought from B&H and didn't pay sales tax the employees working conditions in Florida get worse.
Nothing has nothing to do with anything.
Separate bathrooms only cost more if you build them, if the building already has more than one toilet putting a sign on them costs very little, verbal instructions cost next to nothing. I have worked in installations with 'segregated' bathrooms, in that instance the bathrooms had keypads, no signs and I suppose the keypads cost a small amount. Have you ever heard of executive bathrooms? I'd say they smack of segregation, financial segregation, yet nobody hears anything about that. There is a grey area between maintaining a separate bathroom for people who need to maintain a higher level of cleanliness and appearance and 'segregation'.
Promoting is another sticky wicket. Take this example, it takes six months to train somebody for a position, the job can be done by a male or female. Your historical statistics have shown 80% of women you train to do that job leave within 2 years due to pregnancy, yet 80% of men stay in the job more than 2 years. Do you set a policy of sexual discrimination or do you just trend to training men to fill future positions?
How about a communications position? If people have English as a second language they might be stronger in multilingual positions, or weaker in predominately single language situations. If you find people with a strong accent take an average of 30% longer per call at a call center what implications does that have on future hires?
Nothing has nothing to do with anything.
So if B&H (any retailer) had a bigger margin they could pad these seemingly discriminatory issues, they don't, we the consumer have pushed retailers to ever smaller margins, Amazon work on a 1% profit margin of turnover, that 10% increase in an employees efficiency across the board adds up to real differences in operating costs. We, the consumer have to take some responsibility for these situations we find terrible when they are pushed in our faces, just like factory farming, GM crops, military spending waste etc etc.
Nothing has nothing to do with anything.......
1. New York has a State Department of Health and Safety. But, let's take your position that not paying the sales tax causes employee work conditions to get worse. That's an assumption and with no proof that it costs B&H anything. Your stated position is that not collecting sales tax from out of state buyers costs B&H. It doesn't. B&H wasn't forced to segregate bathrooms, or promote whites over minorities, because of not collecting sales tax. Besides, this is a federal case. Even if it was a State Department of Health and Safety case, you position doesn't hold water on that count. The New York City Department Health and Safety only manages mayoral agencies.
2. More bathrooms cost more to maintain than fewer bathrooms. However, I will agree with you; the cost is minimal. So again, it has nothing to do with the bottom line at B&H. I has nothing to do with sales tax or returns.
3. Sales taxes, when they are collected from out of state buyers, are collected for the state the buyer resides in. So I, living in Nevada, pay no sales tax in N.Y. when I order online. Again, a savings for B&H administratively because it doesn't have to keep books for 50 different state sales tax collectors. It has nothing to do with returns, free shipping, segregated bathrooms, or promotions of whites over minorities.
4. You assume the minorities being passed over do not speak fluent English and have thick accents. A multilingual person is an advantage for a company from a communications standpoint.
5. You assume that B&H pays for the shipping. Nope. The consumer pays the shipping. It is hidden in the price of the products and the costs are spread out into the margins of the products. It just isn't added on to the final price of the products. The end user pays for everything.
6.
"Seemingly discriminatory" issues due to poor profit margins? Please. If you can call
segregated restrooms based on race, and minorities
being passed over for promotion because of race "seemingly discriminatory", then you have a real personal problem. Especially when you blame it on competition, not collecting sales tax, free shipping, and returns. You want to say, "There is a grey area between maintaining a separate bathroom for people who need to maintain a higher level of cleanliness and appearance." You want to compare that to race based bathroom access? You want to say that inoperable and unsanitary race based restrooms are the same thing as the superior restrooms provided for white workers?
Tell me, were segregated drinking fountains, bathrooms, dining areas, business entrances, bus seats, etc. "seemingly discriminatory" in the Jim Crow law segregationist south? Was all that due to poor tax collections? Shipping costs? Competition? Returns of some kind? No. It was due to racism... just like that practiced by B&H. That is far different from Amazon and Walmart my friend. Shame on you. BTW: It wasn't the bus companies that segregated the bus seats, etc. It was the law.
Maybe I am myopic, but you are blind.
I am Latino. I speak English just fine, but have been genuinely (not "seemingly") discriminated against. My dad is Latino. He speaks English as a second language and has zero Spanish accent when he does. He had to sit at the back of the bus when he was a kid. He has been genuinely discriminated against.
Again, shame on you for trying to pin this on profit margins. That is just sick. You can keep trying to defend your blind position all you want. You are still wrong.
The problem is not returns, sales tax, competition, or low margins. The problem is racism. That is plain as day to me. Separate bathrooms isn't racism? It's because of the business climate? My gosh. You have the nerve to call somebody myopic? You want to compare that to executive bathrooms?
"Upon information and belief, Hispanic warehouse workers had no option but to use unsanitary and often inoperable restrooms, which were separate and apart from superior restrooms used by the white warehouse workers."
The company settled a similar discrimination case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $4.3 million in 2007. That case alleged the store paid Hispanic employees less than non-Hispanic workers and failed to promote them or provide them health benefits "based on their national origin."
B&H has a history of this that goes way back.
