I agree. Writing is one of the jobs tailor-made for remote work.

Last time I mentioned it, I got a lot of people telling me "how important it was for everyone to be physically in the same room to write" as if that isn't the same load of bullshit middle managers around the country are trotting out right now.

I can maybe, possibly see a case could be made for fast-turnaround stuff like SNL or The Daily Show where you have to interact quickly and frequently with the actors, but by and large I think it's all horseshit.

> Too many new shows, not enough good writers or good plots.

Not true. There's thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of perfectly talented writers that could easily produce some amazing television.

Unfortunately, the entertainment industry refuses to let you try unless your return address is in LA, and thus have to already have a bunch of money to live in one of the most expensive cities which gatekeeps a lot of talent.

As others have said, grocery stores (even small ones) have this down to a science. They have a good idea what demand is going to be, they know how long specific foods will keep on the shelf, and they place orders accordingly.

Even if they are off, it's easy to discount goods to get them off the shelf.

They have a large inventory because margins (for the most part) are very thin on groceries, so they make money by making a penny on millions of transactions. Most stuff that has bigger margins (think fresh bakery items) have drawbacks (they go "bad" quickly). By and large grocery stores go through it pretty quick so the large inventory is justified--people buy a lot of groceries.

> is there an economic reason to do this?

Yes--they have to make a small amount of money off of a large amount of goods.

> How much of the food ends up going bad?

Note as much as you think. Grocery stores have an incentive to reduce waste, since that's money they spent they'll never get back. There's a reason a lot of stores have a "hot foods" bar where they can recycle soon-to-expire foods, like produce, into soups. Aggressive sales to get food off the shelves is commonplace if the demand forecasting was off.

From the BLS website (this would be the US, but applies to other countries as well):

> Some businesses do not produce goods for sale, but instead provide services. It is more difficult to count the number of units of output in such businesses. > > legal services > haircuts, beauty salons > mechanics and repairs > medical and dental services > > Often, businesses produce more than one good or sell more than one service. It is difficult to add up, for example, 300 chairs, 60 tables and 100 beds to express the total output of a furniture business. > > Therefore, for most goods and services, we measure output by the dollar amount sold. Expressing output in dollars makes it possible to measure goods and services that are difficult to count, and to add up different types of goods and services.

Public sector jobs (such as teachers and bus drivers) would normally be excluded.

But...bilk is a word?