Links - 24th April 2020 (1)

A poor, Trump-voting Florida town opened a government grocery store to end its food desert, but it's "not socialism"
I don't know why Americans keep calling social democracy socialism
Under some Americans' use of the term, there is no non-socialist country in the world (since there is always some degree of government intervention)

Zoe Quinn & Anita Sarkeesian, twin queens of Gamergate, turned feminist victimhood into a career, then cheated their followers - "For the best part of a decade two women have parlayed supposed gamer sexism and death threat allegations into wealth, fame, and a reputation at odds with their actions. Will Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn ever be held to account?... she launched a Kickstarter for an erotic full motion video game. It would go on to raise a respectable $85,448... The last official update occurred over 500 days ago on August 30, 2018, when Zoe informed backers that the project had run out of money.Incidentally, at the very same moment she told the people who’d given her 85 grand that she was broke, she was in Japan, traveling in luxury. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the same media entities that were quick to boost her project to the masses have never once reported on the status of the game... One of the biggest media lies about Gamergate is that everybody who is supportive of it is a bigot who hates marginalized people. An ironic tall tale considering evidence shows the people most touting the importance of such folk are the ones most taking advantage of them.Following Gamergate, Zoe Quinn launched the Crash Override Network. It was built as a support group for victims of online harassment, and infused with money from Anita Sarkeesian’s nonprofit, Feminist Frequency, who took on the role of a financial sponsor.The network as a whole would only last roughly two years, and if former staff allegations are to be believed, not everyone got paid, and her trans members feel as if they were especially taken advantage of. Making matters worse is that allegedly, normal everyday people who came to the network seeking help were often denied service if they weren’t famous enough. Accusations range far and wide that Crash Override was just a ruse to help boost Quinn and Sarkeesian’s popularity. Statements which are believable when considering how Sarkeesian lives as opposed to those she is seemingly close with... A big portion of their funds came from corporations, and she was quick to take on an entitled sense of self and call them out on Twitter for not financially supporting her. The loss of Fem Freq funds hasn’t appeared to hit Anita too hard, as outside of her activity with the organization, she tours the world and gives speeches. This coming April she will be embarking on a mini speaking tour in Europe, which is a potential windfall as her average speaking fee is $20,000. Graced with the ability to travel at will, she even takes part in events like JoCo Cruise as a featured guest, and this past December she toured parts of Africa on what appears to be a trip of leisure.Her trans co-host Carolyn Petit is another story, however... A core argument of her content is the dishonest depiction of women, so it says a lot that her channel’s own art thins the hosts and makes them ten times prettier... Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian are enabled, emboldened and in essence bankrolled by a mainstream media that refuses to hold them accountable. Years of lies and manipulation have had no negative effects on their standing with the press. On Tuesday, both were featured in a Vox article about Gamergate, another litany of familiar accusations of “spreading hate” and “violence against women”... Most sickening of all is the lack of due diligence by those in the industry still providing them a voice. Whatever they say is taken as fact, a horrid display of unethical journalism as both individuals continue to purposefully cause outrage wherever they go, even at the cost of other people’s lives.There’s Alec Holowka that we know of, but how many people reached out to Crash Override for help, only to be turned away because they weren’t popular enough? And suppose that was their last desperate bid to find comfort, could they too have cut their lives short?"

The tricky economics of all-you-can-eat buffets - "it’s harder to “beat” the buffet than you might think... our analysis yielded an average buffet price of ~$20.Like most restaurants, buffets operate on extremely thin margins: For every $20 in revenue, $19 might go toward overhead, leaving $1 (5%) in net profit... Buffets often break even on food and eke out a profit by minimizing the cost of labor.Self-service allows a buffet to bypass a wait staff, and all-you-can-eat dishes (which are generally less complex and prepped in enormous batches) can be made by a “skeleton crew” of line cooks. “At a typical restaurant, a cook can service 25 customers per hour — and that’s at best,” says Joe Ericsson, a managing partner at the food consultancy Restaurant Owner. “In the same amount of time, a single buffet cook might be able to prep enough food for 200 people.”Because margins are so slim, buffets rely on high foot traffic... It is estimated that between 5% and 25% of any given dish will be wasted, either through the buffet’s miscalculation of demand or the diner’s overzealousness. Waste reduction is a key focus of any successful buffet and a frequent tactic is reusing food... Buffets are also able to save money by utilizing economies of scale and buying food in bulk...
By nature, buffets attract the very customers they wish to avoid: Big eaters with insatiable appetites. Buffets seek to “fill the customer’s belly as cheaply and as quickly as possible.” To do so, they employ a number of research-backed tricks to get people to eat less food:
They put the cheap, filling stuff at the front of the buffet line
They use smaller plates
They use larger than average serving spoons for things like potatoes, and smaller than average tongs for meats.
They frequently refill water and use extra-large glasses.
Even higher-end buffets, like the $98 brunch at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, employ these tactics: “They hide the truffles, the foie gras, and the oysters,” says Britt. “You literally can’t find them.”...
While the buffet might lose money on a small number of meat gluttons, it handily makes it back on those who under-consume or only eat the cheaper foods... The buffet owners we spoke with estimated that over-eaters like Larry only account for 1 in every ~20 diners... Buffets don’t stop there: Many beef up their margins by selling soft drinks separately. At a cost of $0.12 per fill, a $2 soda comes with a 1,500% markup... Over the years, buffets have made headlines for kicking out guests who eat too much... the real enemy of the buffet isn’t the occasional over-eater: It’s the steady march of technological progress, and the changing consumer preferences that have come with it... the number of buffets in America has fallen by 26% since 1998 — even as the total number of all restaurants in America has risen by 22%... By 2030, the National Restaurant Association projects that 80% of all restaurant items will be eaten at home — a trend that buffets can’t effectively capitalize on. Today’s health-conscious consumers have also shifted away from quantity in favor of experience-driven dining options."
I remember someone saying that restaurants will escape the factors killing retail because eating out is an experience

The Economists Who Studied All-You-Can-Eat Buffets - The Atlantic - "Buffets are now big businesses, particularly in Las Vegas. The buffets in Vegas are no longer the dollar bargains they once were in the late 1950s. They're fancy productions with Kobe beef and king crab legs that can cost over $50. New research shows that paying that much for a buffet might actually make the food taste better... at places like AYCE shabu-shabu or Korean barbecue places, businesses save further on cooking costs as customers cook their own food as part of the experience... buffet operations don’t have to deal with finicky guests sending their orders back to the kitchen... “We specifically refer to our ‘all-you-care-to-eat’ items in this way because we do not want to encourage our guests to intentionally overeat,” says Kerry Kramp, chief executive of Sizzler. “Sometimes guests misperceive these types of promotions and they take it as a challenge to potentially overconsume"... It helps that buffets appeal to groups... Ovation Brands collects data weekly on waste in its restaurants. From there, the numbers are plugged into a computer for modeling based on time of year. Projections are made for the number of customers expected, along with what they’ll likely eat.“We know pretty well how much food will be consumed on any particular day,” says Gessner. “We use far more fish products on the weekends, more salads at the beginning of the year. Meatloaf and fried chicken are the most popular items.”"

It’s official: Canadians have abandoned U.S. outlet malls - "You know it’s getting bad when even employee discounts can’t get customers through the door.New numbers published by BMO Capital Markets Friday show just how steeply cross-border shopping has tumbled out of favour with Canadians now that the loonie is nearing peso-like levels.Day trips into the United States this year are down 26 per cent, rivalling some of the sharpest drops on record. The loonie’s historic slide over the past year or so “has completely reversed the tide of cross-border shoppers”... The numbers back up what retail execs have been noticing this year along the U.S.-Canada border, home to scores of outlet malls that Canadians spent freely at just a couple of years ago but have virtually abandoned as the CAD has plunged in value against the U.S. dollar... “Big shifts in cross-border travel tend to occur when the loonie falls below the mid-80 cent US range”"

U.S. premium outlet malls coming to Canada — will it live up to the hype? - "A comparison of income growth also shows why Canadian shoppers may hold more promise than their U.S. cousins. Per capita disposable income has risen 14% in the last 10 years in Canada, adjusted for inflation, while U.S. disposable incomes are up just 9%... Sales at shopping centers in Canada average about US$580 per square foot, compared to US$309 in the United States... Sonshine said there are about 135 premium outlet malls in the United States — with a population of some 311 million — but none in Canada, home to 34 million. Canada also lacks the large luxury malls which are common in the United States and thus seems ripe for expansion... "The average visit to an outlet lasts for three and a half hours by a consumer whereas the average visit to a typical shopping center is less than an hour. So it’s more of an outing"... While Canada has just half as much retail space per person as the United States, he thinks the lesson may be that Canada is not as under-retailed as the U.S. is over-retailed... While he admits the premium discount mall format will likely appeal to the healthy segment of the market that treks south of the border for deals — the destination shoppers — Stephens said consumers have also become more savvy, realizing that the goods sold in outlet malls are not the same as sold in regular stores.“If you’re going to a premium outlet mall really anticipating that you’re going to be able to buy high-end designer fashions that you would normally get in a full-line store and you’re going to be able to get them at 50 to 70% off, then you’re really deceiving yourself.”... “As we see more U.S.-styled factory outlets open on our doorstep, there will be less incentive to make the trip across the border. But it will all come down to the trade-off between convenience and price,” Hernandez said in an email.Retail prices for identical goods are typically 10 to 50% higher in Canada than in the United States, a much-resented differential that experts blame on import duties, transportation costs, government regulations and simple retail mark-ups. If the new outlet malls have the same price differentials, cross-border shopping may still win out. Porter said the success of the venture may ultimately come down to the Canadian dollar and new, more generous limits for what Canadians can bring home duty-free after a U.S. trip.The Canadian government in June doubled duty-free limits for Canadians to C$800 (US$780) for a trip lasting two to seven days. It boosted the limit for some shorter stays to C$200 from C$50."
From 2012

20 Things Canadians Pay Less For - "1. Healthcare
2. Medicine
3. Some new cars
4. Utilities
5. Tertiary education
6. Cappucino
7. Cheese
8. Preschool
9. Mortgages
10. Hotel rooms
11. Tourist attractions
12. Beef
13. Potatoes
14. Bread
15. Apples
16. Oranges
17. Internet
18. Movie tickets
19. Rent
20. Inexpensive restaurant meal"

10 Things That Canadians Pay More For - "1. Cars
Tariffs on imports from non-NAFTA countries run higher than the U.S., but it's our safety regulations that also contribute.
2. Gas
Blame the weak Canadian dollar. Gas prices in Canada are based on global market rates, using American dollars, even when it is produced and refined in Canada
5. Electronics
Most consumer electronics are imported from Asia and subject to tariffs. Once Canadian technical standards are factored in, the price is hiked even further.
6. Books
The low Canadian dollar plays a factor but it's the country's copyright rules, which grant Canadian distributors exclusivity, allowing them to add up to 10 per cent to the price of U.S. books.
7. Appliances
Damn those safety and energy efficiency standards, which cost manufacturers hundreds of thousands of dollars"