meridian man:
Hi all,
Just looking at the naim forum and wanted to know am i not alone in thinking that the top brass and moderator's in this company are living on an alternative planet?
When the economy is in free fall and people are loosing job's left right and center, and people who are employed are forced to take a pay cut and reduced working hours.
Utility companies and banks are reducing prices but NAIM thinks it OK to raise their's by 4/5 percent.
And before the naim sheep respond with a Question that has being drilled into them by Adam, NO my wages haven't gone up!
WHF team please show this post as it's about time people named and shamed these companies that think everybody should be recession proof!
Regards
Angry small naim owner.
Meridian man, you should think yourself fortunate that in times like these you are still able to go out and buy luxuries, i.e. things you WANT as well as things you NEED.
Many, many people are not so fortunate and are restricted to buying necessities only.
You yourself state that the economy is in freefall, people are losing their jobs left, right and centre and that those who are still employed are being forced to take a pay cut and reduced working hours.
Why do you think this is?
We are no longer an isolated island and manufacturers are now trading around the world. If prices for raw materials and utilities go up due to exchange rates then they have several options.
They could bear the cost increases themselves and risk going out of business which would put even more people out of work. This, in turn, would mean that even fewer people would have money to spend which, in turn, may put other companies at risk and the cycle would continue.
This appears to be the solution you are advocating in your original post.
Alternatively, they could pass on the FULL cost increases to the consumer which is likely to take many products outside the affordability of many consumers. This is likely to result in demand for those products falling even further, again putting the viability of the company at risk, resulting in more job losses, pay cuts, reduced working hours or the company closing altogether. This, in turn, would mean that even fewer people would have money to spend.etc.
They could however try and strike a happy(ish) medium. They could increase prices to partly offset cost increases and absorb some of the costs themselves. This would make their products more expensive but not as much as in the above option and hopefully demand would remain high enough to keep them ticking over through this difficult period whilst retaining as many employees as possible.
This is what I believe most companies are trying to do, and at 4-5% it certainly seems what Naim are trying to do.
In answer to your comments regarding the reduction in your mortgage interest rate, who is helping to fund that? Savers are! Those people who have been careful or those people who have saved and are now pensioners have seen interest rates tumble on savings to meaningless amounts. Who is subsidising who here?
I have neither the time, and this is not really the forum, to get into the workings of world economics but I hope this simplified post may make you think about it a little.
I will end where I started - Think yourself lucky that you can still consider buying luxury goods as many people are making decisions about whether they can put their heating on or not.