The state of the economy at the street level

[Dona Ferentes]

On a similar theme I was told McWilliams Wines recently went into administration even after a capital raising last year. .. Non-drinker so at that level it's of no interest to me.

liking a red wine though not McWilliams, in conversation with wine retailers (plural), they bemoaned the appearance of new brands, no provenance, jokey labels, aimed at the hipster market. Brand and margin destruction, by McWilliams. Last throw of the dice, was the impression I got.

 

[tinhat]

I was really shocked by the McWilliams news given it has always been a family owned stalwart of the industry. Their Mount Pleasant wines, pioneered by Maurice O'Shea are a personal favourite.

https://mountpleasantwines.com.au/pages/about-maurice-oshea

 

[sptrawler]

The MIL will be devastated, she has been drinking McWilliams cream sherry for as long as I've known her and that is 45 years.
Jeez I think I need a drink.

 

[qldfrog]

On a similar theme I was told McWilliams Wines recently went into administration even after a capital raising last year. I haven't checked if it is true or not. Non-drinker so at that level it's of no interest to me.

Yes , in administration indeed

 

[sptrawler]

On the same theme, Jeans west has gone into administration.
.

On further reading, Jeans West is an Aussie original, that is now Hong Kong owned.
Which doesn't make it any easier for the aussie workers, but might reduce predatory buy outs in Australia, because obviously legislation wont.

 

[jbocker]

I haven't heard whether rents have dropped at commercial, shopping sites. Anyone heard of such? I have baled out of Scentre (SCG) a while ago thinking Shopping centres might suffer. An unjustified fear it would seem as their price has held quite stable.

 

[sptrawler]

I haven't heard whether rents have dropped at commercial, shopping sites. Anyone heard of such? I have baled out of Scentre (SCG) a while ago thinking Shopping centres might suffer. An unjustified fear it would seem as their price has held quite stable.

I would think shopping centres, will suffer from the online sedentary lifestyle choices, that seem to be engulfing the World.
Why walk and interupt your minecraft game, when you can pause and order your $hit between cones, just the way it is going at the moment, no doubt it will change when their feet turn blue.
But I personally have backed out of discretionary companies, except for WES.
Just because there are too many sellers, chasing the same buyer and more entering the same market place.
Picking winners is getting difficult. IMO

 

[sptrawler]

My mate rang me tonight, he is a 64 year old who works on the council verge collection, well he is beside himself with despair.
He takes the job seriously, never takes a sickie unless he is really crook always tries to fit in, to get the job done.
Well he reckons the job is going to $hit, because all the younger workers just walk off the job when it gets hard and say they have family issues. The problem is the job doesn't go away, it just gets further behind, he says they are already one week behind and they are only two weeks into the new year.
The problem is, all that will happen is the council rates will increase and the work output will decrease.
It really is all becoming a problem, will it end?
He is so fed up with the younger guys being lazy, he is going to pull the pin, when he wanted to work untill 67.
Australia has lost the plot. IMO

 

[sptrawler]

By the way I couldn't say much, I retired 8 years ago, so I just thought he had done well to hang on so long.

 

[jbocker]

My mate rang me tonight, he is a 64 year old who works on the council verge collection, well he is beside himself with despair.
He takes the job seriously, never takes a sickie unless he is really crook always tries to fit in, to get the job done.
Well he reckons the job is going to $hit, because all the younger workers just walk off the job when it gets hard and say they have family issues. The problem is the job doesn't go away, it just gets further behind, he says they are already one week behind and they are only two weeks into the new year.
The problem is, all that will happen is the council rates will increase and the work output will decrease.
It really is all becoming a problem, will it end?
He is so fed up with the younger guys being lazy, he is going to pull the pin, when he wanted to work untill 67.
Australia has lost the plot. IMO

I admire your mates integrity. Many could dismiss that job as being unworthy of their commitment. He is fine example of integrity to society. While he remains in that position I truly hope he is an inspiration of integrity and a commentator of the importance of their role to his co-workers.

 

[Smurf1976]

My mate rang me tonight, he is a 64 year old who works on the council verge collection, well he is beside himself with despair

I'm one of those. Get the job done.

The deal was always pretty simple. Smurf will do it, pay to match, if I've got a question then I expect an answer no exceptions.

Never caused any real drama and I was always willing to give literally anything a go including things that were totally unrelated to my actual job. If it needs to be done well it needs to be done.

 

[PZ99]

My mate rang me tonight, he is a 64 year old who works on the council verge collection, well he is beside himself with despair.
He takes the job seriously, never takes a sickie unless he is really crook always tries to fit in, to get the job done.
Well he reckons the job is going to $hit, because all the younger workers just walk off the job when it gets hard and say they have family issues. The problem is the job doesn't go away, it just gets further behind, he says they are already one week behind and they are only two weeks into the new year.
The problem is, all that will happen is the council rates will increase and the work output will decrease.
It really is all becoming a problem, will it end?
He is so fed up with the younger guys being lazy, he is going to pull the pin, when he wanted to work untill 67.
Australia has lost the plot. IMO

The plot is lost because employers discriminate against people like your mate in favour of
younger workers simply because of their age whilst overlooking their commitment.

Employment agencies are even worse in this regard - once you're over 40 you've got buckley's chance of even being accepted into the agency - let alone be offered any work.

One of the things I did like about the Abbott 2014 budget was a policy to sponsor employers a few thousand to take on the older workers. Mot sure what came of it though.

 

[qldfrog]

I do believe the policy still exist..50y+ i think
My view is that past a certain age, you have to go independent: contractor ir own business:
You are too old aka expensive, you ask questions...difficult ones as relevant and common sense, you can not fit within the employee mould as preferred..
So you get out, you let the youngsters **** a big way usually with full management support, then you get a call...
You sort the crxp and delivery vs high dollars
Next time, if mgt is wise, they call you first for consulting, if not: rince and repeat
For you, higher income, less workload, less commitment and you can move to what you like and choose your customers
But you still need some customers..so companie doing some actual technical work, and profitable....not just coffee shops and online shoes

 

[Johny5]

The plot is lost because employers discriminate against people like your mate in favour of
younger workers simply because of their age whilst overlooking their commitment.

A friend working for one of the big four banks had the retrenchment broom come through middle of last year, he escaped the broom but many older employees didn't (he's in his early 40s) and were replaced mostly by under 30s. He is gradually been driven crazy by other employees incompetence, he has to fix their errors constantly, he is called even on his days off to answer inane questions from his coworkers. He has started looking around for another job but as he has spent almost all his working life in banks he will probably only be able to get a job (well paying) in another bank, which could very well have the same inexperienced staff problems.

 

[jbocker]

The Thread Retail Wreckage is akin to this thread in my view, so a little undecided where to place this comment.
Anyway a Bakers Delight store closed in my local shop district, and I wondered if this was a more widespread issue. As it turns out I was listening to a late afternoon ABC radio program (Perth) where the talk back was about a number of franchises were closing down in Perth suburbs. Interesting phone ins followed by some shop owners about the problems of the franchise model and so on. However the underlying fact that there are closures because of lack of customer support. I must admit I was surprised to see this particular shop vacant as it was in a very popular small shopping district.
To hear the issue is more widespread seems to indicate that people are not spending those dollars on more 'upmarket' produce here in the west.
Is this the case with Bakers Delight over east?

 

[Smurf1976]

To hear the issue is more widespread seems to indicate that people are not spending those dollars on more 'upmarket' produce here in the west.
Is this the case with Bakers Delight over east?

I'll sum up my own spending there by saying that until I saw your post I'd completely forgotten that BD even exist.

 

[ducati916]

C&I loans are way down in the US, which indicates an inventory unwind, which will follow with an increase in jobless claims unless something changes.

The CapEx cycle is pretty much non-existent, all new debt has gone into share buybacks (hence no real growth). No CapEx, no productivity, again, falling employment.

Global debt +/- $128T
Global GDP +/- $27T

There is less and less of an effect.

Additionally, this is at the 'top' of the cycle. A serious recession is on the cards, not really if, just when.

jog on
duc

 

[sptrawler]

A friend working for one of the big four banks had the retrenchment broom come through middle of last year, he escaped the broom but many older employees didn't (he's in his early 40s) and were replaced mostly by under 30s. He is gradually been driven crazy by other employees incompetence, he has to fix their errors constantly, he is called even on his days off to answer inane questions from his coworkers. He has started looking around for another job but as he has spent almost all his working life in banks he will probably only be able to get a job (well paying) in another bank, which could very well have the same inexperienced staff problems.

This seems to be a problem going through many work areas at the moment, experienced staff leaving, inexperienced supervisors coming in sometimes from completely different areas, then trying to re invent the wheel and generally stuffing up and adding costs.

 

[sptrawler]

Is the the beginings of a turn around for the economy?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/australian-house-prices-rising-every-230000031.html
From the article:
Australia’s property revival is spreading across the country with prices now rising in every major city.

Sydney and Melbourne continue to lead the rebound, with prices climbing 1.1% and 1.2% respectively in January, according to CoreLogic Inc. data released Monday. Even Perth, where a 5 1/2-year downturn has hammered property values, is seeing positive movement, with prices up 0.1% in the month, and 0.4% in the past quarter.

All up, prices across the eight state and territory capitals rose 0.9% in January, CoreLogic said.

Hooray, at last, go Perth.

 

[moXJO]

Walking around one of our large shopping centers yesterday and it was lucky to have 30 people in there.
I noticed one dessert place had hocked off half their shelving off the wall and only had 3 flavours of ice cream left. Couple other stores had shut down. Big W was lucky to have 5 customers. Really quiet. I would not want to be paying those rents.