A Cartoon for Today: "Siempre Abierto"
I thought it would be fun to discuss this cartoon in English or Spanish (no moderator present). Share what you think the point of this cartoon could be, as well as if you agree or not with the message. Today I chose an economics cartoon in Spanish. I think this is a subject that affects all of us, wherever we may live, no matter what the language.
Pienso que sería divertido (o chido para los Mexicanos) discutir ésta viñeta en inglés o español (sin moderador presente). Comparte lo que piensas que podría serel punto de la viñeta, así como si estas de acuerdo o no con el mensaje. Hoy escojí una viñeta económica en español. Pienso que el tema nos afecta a todos (nosotros), dondequiera que vivamos, sea la lengua que sea.
15 Answers
It looks to like the big business are devouring the small businesses. I do agree that this is a huge problem in the world economy. Huge conglomerates control so much commerce, small businesses must buy from them and then compete against them to sell their products. Small business is, slowly but surely being ground away. Consumers are more than happy to buy cheaper goods, but what will happen when we have only a few companies to work for and buy from. The ultimate company "town" on a global scale.
Large online retailers like Amazon are hard to compete with for several reasons. It is only a matter of time before they take over the higher commission sectors like automobiles, real estate sales/title/escrow, and stocks/bonds/commodities futures.
Muy típico de lo que ha sucedido a la pequeña empresa aquí en OZ. Ahora sólo tiene cuatro bancos principales, y 3 cadenas de supermercado.
Very typical to what has happened here in OZ. We have only 4 major banks ,
and 3 Supermarket chains left. And people wonder why our food is the dearest in the
world ,in spite of being one of the great exporters of food. The power has left the
hands of the people and is now in the greedy grip of big business conglomerates.
The four major banks
Currently, the Australian banking sector is dominated by four major banks: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation.
The Australian government has a "four pillars" policy that prevents mergers between the four major banks. This is long-standing policy rather than formal regulation, but it reflects the broad political unpopularity of bank mergers. A number of leading commentators have argued that the "four pillars" policy is built upon economic fallacies and works against the nation's better interests. Recently, Australia's "big four" banks are in fact in the world's top 12 banks, due to recent collapses of large banking corporations
Nice Renae. I'm just suggesting a few corrections to your Spanish text.
Pienso que sería divertido (o chido para los Mexicanos) discutir ésta viñeta en inglés o español (sin moderador presente). Comparte lo que piensas que podría serel punto de la viñeta, así como si estas de acuerdo o no con el mensaje. Hoy escojí una viñeta económica en español. Pienso que el tema nos afecta a todos (nosotros), dondequiera que vivamos, sea la lengua que sea.
This cartoon is a graphic depiction of mega corporations "eating up" smaller mom and pop stores. It's meant to convey the message that the stores being eaten are being run out of business.
I think the message is on target, and I do believe mega stores are bad for America because if they don't have any competition, they can do anything they want to the customer.
No need to worry at all.
Walmart will "invent" the corner shop "for our benefit" when everyone has forgotten that they ever existed.
¡Naden más rápidamente, peces pequeños! Las empresas pequeñas no pueden escapar de la corporación gigante.
Swim faster, small fish! The small businesses can't escape from the giant corporation.
I live in a small city in the United States, and I've been around long enough to understand was is happening here. The large corporations along with the help of the politicians, are forcing many local business people to close shop, the competition with the WalMart's and Costco's is devastating to our local economy. I shop first at the neighborhood stores, if I must I'll go to one of the old " big box " stores. Never a WalMart. Global business is not good for my community. I have seen more businesses close in the last 5 or 6 years than in my entire life.
Only my opinion ....
¿Quizás esto es prueba que a veces se come el comida, y a veces se eres la comida? (o algo cómo eso...)
Maybe this proves that sometimes you eat the food, and sometimes you are the food? (or something like that...)
engullir algo - "to gobble up" something comes to mind -
soon there will only be places to buy things that need a car to get to.
pronto sólo habrá lugares para comprar cosas que necesitan un coche para llegar.
los pescados grandes comen los pescados pequeños
It looks like the cartoon shows big corporations eating up the little businesses. It's like Walmart killing off all the small business in a town when they show up. I think it might also be referring to the NAFTAs and CAFTAs and European Unions of the world making it difficult for trade in non-affiliated countries.
The big companies like Lidl (German Supermarket found allover Europe) are far more efficient and practical, that's why they are winning. It's not because they are evil.
Las grandes empresas como Lidl están granado porque son mucho más eficientes y prácticos. No son mal.
I thought I understood the cartoon to mean that big business is gobbling up small, family-run operations in general, but I did not understand the phrase "grandes superficies." Lo and behold, Wikipedia has an entry for it:
"Grandes superficies es el nombre que reciben las tiendas y mercados de gran tamaño localizados en un edificio o recinto techado, por lo general de varios pisos, y que venden un variado tipo de productos; en el caso de la venta de alimentos o productos de limpieza de forma casi exclusiva se denominan hipermercados."
So the cartoon is specifically about "hypermarkets" like WalMart, which can offer a greater variety of good at lower prices than small businesses can.
These businesses do personify human greed, which could be called evil. It isn't just that these businesses are more efficient that allows them to make money. They buy products in countries where wages are low, child labor is rampant, and working conditions are poor if not inhumane. In the US these businesses also treat their employees poorly, breaking US labor laws at every opportunity. In the law school my daughter attended, most of the case law they study regarding labor law involves Walmart. This is because they have been taken to court, both civil and federal, so many times and for so many things their cases cover just about every topic. Their stuff is cheap for a reason and they are the most profitable company in the world.
This cartoon represents, for me, the large-scale successful corporate business taking over the small businesses in a ferocious and somewhat calculated manner like a shark attacking its prey in a frenzy of blood.
One of the biggest problems small businesses face is that because they have less storage space they cannot provide such a wide range of goods to the consumer as, for example a large supermarket like Tescos, Sainsburys or Asda and the prices they charge tend to be more expensive which makes them uneconomical and so unattractive to use if you have a large family, or a small family on a low income or are a single person living on a low income.
What this means in practice is that people in the groups I have mentioned tend to favour using supermarkets as families usually have a car and consider it worthwhile travelling out of town, with guaranteed parking and lower prices. My grandomther's generation would have done the vast amount, if not all, of their shopping locally but with rising prices and people feeling the pressure financially this is becoming a less credible and attractive proposition.
The small corner store in England is generally, and sadly, becoming a thing of the past in some parts of the country or has been taken over by Asian families who have been willing to put in the long hours to make it a viable business. The only exception include companies like the Co-op or Morrisons which are national chain stores with branches throughout England/ U.K. These stores maintain higher profit margins to cover their costs eg rental of property from the council and /or taxes, insurance etc Many, if not all of these costs are passed onto the customer.in higher prices so is it really so surprising that more people with families are people on low incomes choose to buy propery near supermarkets and do their shopping there?.
One final point Yes there is a nasty side of business: the corporate greed of bankers with their bonuses and constant take overs of companies. The saddest example I can think of recently was the take-over of Cadburys, which has been a family business for over one hundred years, by Kraft...leading to the inevitable loss of jobs for so many of the loyal staff. It was tragic because the company taking over had lied about people losing their jobs /the scale of redundancies which would follow the take over.and the Staff at Cadbury;s had felt understandably betrrayed.
