Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
No, not whatever the reason. It seemed as though you were implying that these prices had anything to do with full/self serve. It's because of taxes, which are irrelevant to this discussion.
No, they're not irrelevant. The statement made was that self-serve in NJ is cheaper than full-serve in other states. Period.
Yes, but what I am trying to make clear is that the extra money it costs for full service will turn into extra profits for the gas stations rather than savings to the consumer.
Your argument, as I understand it, is that reduced costs would not be passed on to the consumer.
If this is true, then why is it the case that prices at the pump go down when the underlying commodity prices drop ?
The fact that gas prices do drop with commodity prices undermines the contention that gas prices are "sticky", as your thesis seems to imply.
Is there are reason that one type of cost would be passed onto the consumer, whereas another type would not ?
I think full service stations are great, it creates a fountain of jobs.
You could create a "fountain of jobs" by paying people to build sandcastles too. Or perhaps by forcing every gas station to hire someone to build sandcastles at the beach.
"Creating jobs" is only useful if those jobs add value to the economy.
"Creating jobs" by forcing people to pay for services that they do not want, is wasteful.
Prosperity depends not just on the production of goods and services -- the production must be in appropriate proportions, otherwise there is inevitably either waste or shortage. Finding appropriate allocations of labor is something that the market place does very effectively, and central planners do very poorly.
Would those "fountain of jobs" pumping gas be part of the great job/career opportunites continually listed as a reason to move to New Jersey ? If a job springs forth from a fountain I'm expecting more than a gas pump attendant...........otherwise I'm getting a new fountain !!!
Gas attendant jobs are no different than other low-skill jobs out there, it just provides the state of New Jersey with an extra source of jobs that other states do not. No need to insult people that are making a living as gas attendants, the state needs all level of workers. That is very pompous of you.
You could create a "fountain of jobs" by paying people to build sandcastles too. Or perhaps by forcing every gas station to hire someone to build sandcastles at the beach.
"Creating jobs" is only useful if those jobs add value to the economy.
"Creating jobs" by forcing people to pay for services that they do not want, is wasteful.
Prosperity depends not just on the production of goods and services -- the production must be in appropriate proportions, otherwise there is inevitably either waste or shortage. Finding appropriate allocations of labor is something that the market place does very effectively, and central planners do very poorly.
Has the price of groceries gone down because there are now self checkout lanes?
I like the people to pump my gas as I won't smell like gasoline for about 5 hours. I think if you took a poll the overwhelming amount of New Jersians are happy that someone pumps their gas. I dread leaving the state and pumping my own gas.
Has the price of groceries gone down because there are now self checkout lanes?
I don't carefully track the price of groceries, so I don't know. But that's not really the right question anyway. There are many factors that affect the price of groceries. These include the raw commodity prices, the cost of transporting these goods, the operating costs of the supermarket including rent, theft of stock, aging of non-durable goods, electricity and wages, financing costs, and the profitability of the supermarket (which depends on consumer spending).
To so much as begin to answer the question about what kind of impact self-checkout has on consumer prices, one would need to carefully analyze and compare the efficiency of businesses who used them, and those who didn't (there are costs to implementing such an infrastructure, and it may impact other costs)
If it is more cost effective for supermarkets to implement self-checkout lanes, the savings have to go somewhere. Now you appear to assume that it automatically goes to "profits" for the "greedy supermarkets", but if that really happened, then supermarkets would all of a sudden become an exceptionally profitable investment, leading to more investment dollars chasing the supermarket industry, leading to expansion of the industry to the point of diminishing returns on those investment dollars.
One thing I can say for self-checkout is that I have found that it often results in substantially faster service, which means that as a customer, I save time when I purchase from supermarkets that offer self-service. So even if it provided no cost savings, it is a good value proposition.
I prefer to pump my own gas whenever I need to. NJ deprives me of that and I am happier whenever I'm in other states where I'm not treated like a child who can't do anything for themselves.
I would prefer to have the option to pump my gas or have someone else do it. I miss not having to touch the filthy gas pump and getting a receipt without going inside because the machine is out of paper. On the other hand, since moving to SC I never wait in line and get in and out very quick when I do it myself.
To answer the OP, of course everything they heard is not true but if you go to NJ and hear opinions of people from the south they are probably not all true either. I miss NJ and dislike a lot of things here but no place is perfect. I do not miss the cold and snow or taxes & tolls. I'm surprised the OP has heard that from people that have moved south from NJ because everyone I meet down here that's moved from NJ says they miss it and the majority would go back if they could. Yes the weather is a lot better here, the taxes are very much lower but with that comes things a person might not be happy with. What makes one person happy may not make another happy. My SO loves it here and I would move back in a second if they would lower the taxes and stop the snow. : )
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
