At least the restaurant saved on wage costs. That’s often the most important thing, that the expenses aren’t too high…
6 Likes
Peculiar comment. So, do you think disabled people should not be employed at all? Every person should have the opportunity to participate in society’s activities, and disability or anything else should not be an obstacle to that. Employing partially able-bodied people, etc., certainly pays for itself many times over. For the Kesko retailer couple, the costs would have been minor. However, supermarkets generally have a turnover of 6-10 million euros and an operating profit of 100,000 euros upwards.
5 Likes
I guess that comment was precisely related to the commotion caused by the termination of work activities.
If the activity is so profitable for entrepreneurs, one would assume there is a severe labor shortage in that field. But never mind, we seem to live in a world full of things where, according to sideline commentators or beneficiaries, the money comes back to the payer many times over. You should probably start a business where you exploit this fairytale opportunity to get rich?
So what?
Supported employment for disabled people is undoubtedly a commendable activity, and it would, of course, be great if entrepreneurs operating in this way also received feedback and encouragement from customers. Instead, it’s quite disheartening to see that this would be some kind of obligatory matter for entrepreneurs, and when the work activity ends, war axes start flying on social media and inappropriate comments are directed at entrepreneurs.
15 Likes
I thought it was important that this was brought up. Why should this have been ignored? If this matter had no significance for Keskola, then why did they contact the retailer?
Regarding the idea that it pays for itself, you wanted to misunderstand the matter. Employing people with partial work capacity produces many things that money cannot buy. Increasing inclusion among the hard-to-employ would be important. In Finland, there is too much of a dichotomy where you are either unemployed or employed. If you consider, for example, S-ryhmä, it employs more immigrants and thus also helps with integration, etc. Keskola does not have the same mindset to the same extent; instead, in every situation, they aim to accumulate more profit, and many burn out, etc. I feel that my own efficiency was at a very good level, but even that was not enough, and they still tried to extract more, which was of course good for the retailer, but it hardly showed in my own paycheck. I think it said something that most of the retailer’s employees did their shopping at S-ryhmä stores or similar, and not in their own store, even though they received an employee discount.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I have witnessed these retailer changes up close, and Keskola, as an organization, still has a lot to learn from them.
5 Likes
Today I went to pick up a small accessory from Verkkokauppa.com’s Jätkäsaari store. Admittedly, the store is quite out of the way for drivers, but I realized that a rather large district has grown around it, which was surely in the management’s mind from the very beginning. This potential customer volume probably shows in their brick-and-mortar store.
The website and pickup service are indeed implemented beautifully. Ordering and paying online, which clearly states what options there are for pickup, how it works, etc. A text message quickly followed, stating that the order was ready for pickup, and the woman in the store was in such a good mood that it put me in a better mood too! If I now think of a Gigantti, where young men annoyingly force you to “look into subscription matters” and try to sell some extra warranty even for a pot holder, then compared to that, Verkkokauppa.com’s, or Verkkis’s, customer experience is superior. Who knows, I might even consider investing in this, given the feeling it left!
25 Likes
Continuing on this online store thing, their “Wolt delivery in an hour” for small products is an excellent service. I’ve used it a couple of times and will surely use it in the future as well. I live about 15 km from Jätkäsaari, and at least the promise of one-hour delivery has held true this far.
7 Likes
Let’s continue with Verkkis. I’m just under 15 km away. The “selected hour delivery” has worked excellently. The price used to be 3 euros, but it has probably risen to 5 euros now. Still, the value for money is good.
7 Likes
From a customer’s perspective, the online store’s strategy is puzzling when user accounts are a prerequisite for ordering from the online store. This time I chose a competing company as the supplier only because registering as a customer was not required there to place the order.
3 Likes
Same here, I wouldn’t really even think about physically going to the store anymore, when you can get collection + home delivery so affordably.
It is, of course, a big question mark how this can be so cheap. I can’t understand why anyone would bother physically going to the store at these prices, when you can get these delivered to your doorstep for a few euros.
5 Likes
Customers are different. I understand quite well why, for example, busy parents in a family with children order large quantities of groceries once a week or every couple of weeks. On the other hand, I, for example, go to the store almost every day to do a little shopping at a time in connection with other errands, and in the city, there’s always a local store along the way. Nor do I want to have to wait at home for when the grocery delivery happens to arrive – if I order online, it can take a maximum of an hour from order to delivery, and preferably significantly less. From Wolt Market, I think I’ve sometimes received a grocery bag in under 15 minutes.
15 Likes
I would also change stores if the pickup service stopped. I haven’t used deliveries for a long time because in our remote area, the price is as high as 16€/delivery. However, remote work makes it quite possible to pick up within the time slot I’ve reserved, and there are plenty of slots available. The price for picking (the order) is constantly rising; sometimes it has been 2.5€, but nowadays it’s almost always 5.50€. Still, it’s a cheap price for
6 Likes
I am also a happy shopper type of person. Daily, planned, and just right so that the groceries fit in my backpack, as I don’t have a car. I hate remote work because it’s important to me that home and work are at different addresses, and because of this, as a car-free person, I get daily incidental exercise (at least approx. 11 km).
I never go to the local store, but always prefer a “distant store” instead. That’s why after work, I often cycle in a completely different direction from where my home is, just to get to a Prisma or K-Citymarket on the other side of the city. In other words, I like to cycle to large hypermarkets that many car owners dislike. In my hometown, there are three K-Citymarkets and also three Prismas, so there’s plenty of choice, and variety is refreshing. There’s a K-Market 100 meters from my home, but I visit it less than 3 times a year, and even then, mostly out of necessity if I’m sick.
To keep my message on topic, Kesko’s stores, K-Citymarkets being at the forefront, are naturally more expensive because they have a so-called “Kesko tax” included in the prices. However, I still like to visit them for variety, even though S Group’s stores, Prisma most often, are my primary choice. K Group’s Plus offers are a nice bonus that I often take advantage of. I am also a relatively new Kesko shareholder, so in the future, I will receive increasing “extra Plus money” in the form of dividends. This way, it compensates for the additional cost brought by the “Kesko tax” and the minor annoyance of grocery expenses.
7 Likes
This might also fit into the solar panel thread, but it concerns the company itself more. I wonder how home batteries are being sold in Elisa’s name, which cannot be connected to the reserve market. Savings are generated only from the electricity price difference and timing of consumption. This will never pay back the investment, unless something unusual happens. The seller justified the absence of the reserve market with its unpredictable future and a payback period of approx. 10 years.
A seller from another company had exactly the opposite view. 9 different reserve markets and the return is certain, but according to this seller, price steering will never pay back the investment. No deals were made with this one either. Very secretive, and only general documents were provided.
3 Likes
First, all disclaimers. I own Kesko shares and am a member of the S Group, and I also have the LIDL app. I use City Market as my local store for most of my shopping and it has been my primary store for years. Within the last six months, the situation has changed slightly because LIDL has opened right next to City Market, and on the other hand, it’s possible to visit Prisma when driving children to hobbies.
The point about tomatoes mentioned above was excellent based on my own experiences. Especially with vegetables and fruits, there can be significant differences between stores, which greatly changes the total amount if the purchase is even slightly larger. The same applies to fish, meat, and cheese. By being price-aware, one saves significant sums. As an example, in the last quarter, I bought tomatoes at LIDL for €0.99/kg, but I also found the most expensive tomato at €4.49/kg in the same store, as well as the most expensive cucumber at €4.49/kg. LIDL was the only store to have cucumbers for one week when there was a shortage due to drought. It was mentioned above that Polish tomatoes were €0.99/kg. With the LIDL app, I can get domestic tomatoes for €2.99/kg. I suspect that when I buy, I end up with domestic ones and buy 4 pieces instead of 5, ensuring they get eaten and don’t go to waste. I agree that with K Group’s offers, one can certainly do well. For me now, an example is 500g grapes for €0.99 as an offer. I am reasonably sure it’s 50% cheaper than elsewhere. But I have noticed that LIDL sells, for example, washed bagged salads for under a euro, and they are just over a euro in other stores. My purchases of vegetables and fruits from Prisma have decreased; the price-quality ratio simply hasn’t been pleasing. Bread has been cheapest at the local City Market.
There was a discussion above about expanding abroad, and here I have particularly noticed that Prisma has started carrying Coop products and then “cheap products” from other countries. It strongly appears that Finnish price competitiveness is not very strong, meaning that procurement and chains should be built in the countries where one intends to expand. It’s not an easy task. COOP, for example, having recently visited Sweden, is a quite affordable store for a Finn.
If one centralizes purchases and is a buyer, like many families with several children, then Plus points (Plussat) and bonuses (bonukset) start to play a role, and these then accumulate sums if one needs to buy larger items or if they come from insurance, petrol, and hobby equipment. LIDL then falls behind in these areas, as its selections are narrower. Quickly, with a home appliance, a year’s insurance, or a larger hobby equipment purchase, one can max out the Plus points or bonuses, and percentages start to play a role in grocery shopping.
Overall, I think the new stores attract people well, and Kesko’s stores in my local areas are perhaps newer and attract people well. In my opinion, the S Group in this region even needs to do something about its position. The losers are also visible, and they are the older stores, and it looks difficult, for example, on Tokmanni’s food side.
1 Like
As a former employee, I have a bit of a bone to pick with a certain Finnish listed company. This week, it was confirmed that we are going to court to fight these matters.
I can tell you that even if you are very good, and for over ten years straight, you easily generated over a million euros in revenue, which in this company is an excellent result for an individual salesperson, it doesn’t matter at all if you are the “wrong kind” of person in the eyes of new supervisors. It is intolerance and envy. I will document this legal battle at some point, and I am now ready to offer an opportunity to some major media outlet to join me on my journey. Welcome!
29 Likes
Please tell me more. That sounds interesting.
7 Likes
At this point, I have nothing more to say than my own emotional outburst, because I am a human being. It could also be that I am completely crazy and would throw such things into the air out of nowhere. I would start throwing out some names. That is not the core of this matter.
I don’t want to stigmatize the company, because it is an excellent company! The vast majority are true professionals, and overall the company performs well. So there is nothing wrong with the company - quite the opposite.
I will eventually tell where and when the first court hearing will take place (once it becomes clear), because at certain levels, in my opinion, the certain kind of feeling of loyalty important to an employee was not understood (interaction did not work)… and worst of all, Finnish legislation was not recognized.
I will tell you when the matter starts to be debated. This is based on Section 21 of the Constitution and the Act on the Publicity of Court Proceedings in General Courts. Court proceedings and sessions are public, and anyone can come to observe the proceedings in person. Welcome in due course! I will not say anything more than that.
Edit. I read through my message after publishing it. By no means a well-formulated message. I am annoyed by the reference to the law as “ass-backwards,” so to speak. What was left out: “Section 21 of the Constitution and the Act on the Publicity of Court Proceedings in General Courts (370/2007).”
2 Likes
Danske Bank. I received an attractive investment opportunity from a reliable source. The projected return was 9-11% p.a. The only difficulty was that the security could only be held at Danske Bank, of which I was not previously a customer. After consideration, I decided to make the investment and open an account with Danske. Becoming a customer was relatively effortless, but opening a securities account was not as easy. I received conflicting instructions and advice from the bank on how to proceed, but in the end, I had to wait almost a week for an identification key sent by snail mail. After this, I was able to open the securities account and made a bank transfer to my new account from another bank last Friday. An instant transfer was, of course, not possible, so I made a regular bank transfer. I called my own bank, which promised the money would transfer by the next banking day at the latest. So, no worries, as the funds were only needed at Danske for the investment by Tuesday. We were one day ahead of schedule. The money disappeared from my own bank account on Friday as it should have, but nothing appeared in the Danske account. Well, surely it will show up on Monday? Monday came, Tuesday came, but the money still didn’t appear in my account. I checked the account number three times; it was entered correctly. I tried to get in touch with Danske; it was very difficult. Finally, on Wednesday, I queued on the phone with Danske for 55 minutes and was on hold for another 10 minutes while the customer service representative went to ask a colleague for advice. The money transfer had apparently arrived already on Friday, but they had stopped it because “the sum was suspicious.” When asked when the money would be released, I received a vague answer, stating that they first needed to get answers to certain questions from my own bank. Which questions? “Well, those are these interbank questions.” Today, Thursday, the money is still missing, the investment opportunity slipped away, and I’m pissed off. I already sent a message to Danske that a criminal complaint for embezzlement is now being filed with the police.
For my part, this was it; I would never in my life want to have anything to do with this outfit!
40 Likes
I have now been looking at what kind of stock analysis one can get from elsewhere than Inderes, and I must say that OP’s analyses were a really big disappointment. Inderes does not do analysis on Assa Abloy, so I noticed that OP has its partner do it. I read the analysis and my experience was:
- The analysis was really short, it was only 2 pages (okay, there were 9 pages but 7 of them were just a glossary and various disclaimers, etc.)
- A good thing was that there was a short SWOT analysis of the company
- Another good thing was that the analysis costs nothing for OP’s owner-customers, at least I would assume so
- I can’t really think of anything else good, there wasn’t really anything in that analysis. Just basic information about the company, a target price, and a recommendation. The analysis was almost as good as nothing.
This was the level of OP’s partner analysis; I really missed Inderes when reading it. Hats off to Inderes for their high-quality, comprehensive, and transparent analyses. (This is not a paid advertisement but an opinion. 
)
16 Likes
Very positive experience today at the Elisa store in Kuopio when I happened to drop by to look at phones, and at the same time, I switched subscriptions (mine and my son’s) from DNA to Elisa. I also bought a new phone, the OnePlus Nord 5, which was on offer for €329, and I got an additional €100 discount when I switched subscriptions to Elisa 
The subscriptions were scheduled to start in March, as my fixed-term DNA subscription ends then. The new subscriptions cost €17.90/month with a 100Mbit/s speed.
4 Likes