Regal Theater Chain Cuts Employees’ Hours To Avoid Obamacare

So much for the myth of "job creators". These executives are really showing that creating jobs doesn't matter to them. What they care about is more and more money for themselves.

Soulshiner wrote: So much for the myth of "job creators". These executives are really showing that creating jobs doesn't matter to them. What they care about is more and more money for themselves.

Yes, lets ignore economic reality, give part time employees full time medical benefits and pay them $20 an hour, right? A living wage.

BTW, your movie theater ticket is now $30. I think your audience will stay home and watch an internet download.

FredHayek wrote:

Soulshiner wrote: So much for the myth of "job creators". These executives are really showing that creating jobs doesn't matter to them. What they care about is more and more money for themselves.

Yes, lets ignore economic reality, give part time employees full time medical benefits and pay them $20 an hour, right? A living wage.

BTW, your movie theater ticket is now $30. I think your audience will stay home and watch an internet download.

Agree. Again there is the impression that businesses can absorb any and all new regulations and taxes that the government can come up with without putting those costs back on the consumers thus slowing the economy even further and killing jobs.

Rick wrote: There's going to be so many businesses doing the same thing that these boycotts will just be a joke after a while anyway.

After a while? They're a joke right now.

PrintSmith wrote:

Rick wrote: There's going to be so many businesses doing the same thing that these boycotts will just be a joke after a while anyway.

After a while? They're a joke right now.

yup

Forbes reported on the aftermath of the decision by Regal Theaters.

“In the last couple weeks, managers have been quitting on a daily basis from various locations to try and find full-time work. Regal up until now has never restricted anyone to anything below 40 hours.”

Sure, Regal can take advantage of the current economy to keep hiring, training and losing employees, but is that the most cost effective way to run a business. By the time the cost of recruiting, interviewing, background checks, training, then losing employees is factored in, how much do they save?

Contrast the actions of Regal, Walmart, Darden Group (Red Lobster, Olive Garden) and other entities that believe in squeezing their employees for every cent with that of Costco. Costco pays its employees on average $17 per hour with great benefits ( best insurance coverage in the industry and pay only 12% of the premiums) compared to its direct competitor Sam's Club who pays $10 per hour with little or no benefits ( those lucky enough to get health insurance pay 40% of premiums).
Guess which company is more profitable, gets more production from the employees, has very little turnover, very little theft, higher customer loyalty?
Costco reports 8% increase in earnings this year compared with 1.2% for Sam's/Walmart and .4% for Target.

Trader Joe is another company that follows the Costco model of providing livable wages and benefits to it's employees and is reward for doing so high employee retention, great customer service and high customer loyalty with industry leading earnings.

A few other Costco tidbits:
Even part time workers get health insurance benefits after 6 months. Costco even allows their workers to unionize they choose, although only about 10% have chosen to be union members. 91% of Costco employees are covered by retirement plans.

Even with higher employee costs, Costco makes a profit of $13,647 per employee compared with $11,039 per employee for Sam's.

So which is the better business model?

Pay your employees a livable wage with benefits, or squeeze them for every cent and run them off?

FredHayek wrote:

Soulshiner wrote: So much for the myth of "job creators". These executives are really showing that creating jobs doesn't matter to them. What they care about is more and more money for themselves.

Yes, lets ignore economic reality, give part time employees full time medical benefits and pay them $20 an hour, right? A living wage.

BTW, your movie theater ticket is now $30. I think your audience will stay home and watch an internet download.

Looks like the Costco model blows your "theory" out of the water.

Different business models like comparing apples and oranges. Find me a successful movie theatre chain that uses the Costco model.

Something the Dog Said wrote: A few other Costco tidbits:
Even part time workers get health insurance benefits after 6 months. Costco even allows their workers to unionize they choose, although only about 10% have chosen to be union members. 91% of Costco employees are covered by retirement plans.

Even with higher employee costs, Costco makes a profit of $13,647 per employee compared with $11,039 per employee for Sam's.

So which is the better business model?

Pay your employees a livable wage with benefits, or squeeze them for every cent and run them off?

First of all you are kind of off topic here because both Costco and Sam's Club provide their employees with group health insurance. People with group insurance probably won't see huge changes with Obamacare unless they have a really great plan where they could face a huge tax on their coverage.

Regal has a different market model (for better or worse) and has a lot of employees without health insurance. Obamacare will affect them in a much greater way.

And I don't know how you can compare Costco to Sam's Club. Sam's Club is owned by Walmart and Walmart does not release separate statistics for Sam's Club. So I think you are really trying to compare Costco to Walmart.

Comparing Costco to Walmart is really apples to oranges because they are entirely different market models. Walmart is much better compared to Target.

I could do an apples to oranges comparison and compare Costco to a high end jewelry store and make Costco look bad by comparison too.

If you really think Costco has hit on to something, why doesn't Costco just use their great hiring ideas and go compete directly against Walmart and put them out of business? If their hiring models work in Walmart's market, it would be a win-win for everyone!

Here is a link that explains it in more detail...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/26/why-can-t-walmart-be-more-like-costco.html