We live in a capitalist dystopia

[Anonymous X]

We have those self-service checkouts in our supermarkets too… I’ve noticed that all it usually does is create longer queues at the remaining staffed checkouts, and leaves pensioners confused and stressed when they try and use the automated lanes. I don’t like self-checkouts because it’s blatantly a “let’s abolish a whole tier of worker” move.

 

[Ungnome]

Of course my introverted tendencies make me prefer the self checkout. I won't lie, I'll miss them if they are phased out.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

As the 0.001% of shoppers who goes into Costco to only buy 1 or 2 items, i have to say I really do love their self-checkout.

There's nothing quite so irritating as waiting in a queue of 10 people, each with a FULL Costco-sized cart while all I want to do is checkout with my 2 things, grab a hot dog from the food court and make my escape. Those self-checkouts have been a godsend.

 

[Anonymous X]

Aren’t Costco those huge warehouse places, rather than a regular supermarket? Google reveals we have Costco in the UK now, but the ‘nearest’ outlets to my location are few and distant.

(Serious question, in North America do you have national supermarket chains? I know that the giant warehouse chains seem to be widespread, but no idea about the more traditional supermarkets, whether they’re purely regional or not. We have national chains in the UK: Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons are the largest. Aldi and Lidl the budget places Waitrose for the affluent. Obv. because we have such a small landmass, national chains are logistically possible.)

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Aren’t Costco those huge warehouse places, rather than a regular supermarket? Google reveals we have Costco in the UK now, but the ‘nearest’ outlets to my location are few and distant.

(Serious question, in North America do you have national supermarket chains? I know that the giant warehouse chains seem to be widespread, but no idea about the more traditional supermarkets, whether they’re purely regional or not. We have national chains in the UK: Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons are the largest. Aldi and Lidl the budget places Waitrose for the affluent. Obv. because we have such a small landmass, national chains are logistically possible.)

Yeah, Costco is a members’ warehouse retailer, like Sam’s Club or BJ’s. I’m not sure I’d call them “widespread”, though. Nearest ones to me are about an hour drive, and when I lived in Iowa, either chain was 2-4 hours away.

The supermarket question is…complicated. There is no, true, “national supermarket chain”. Each region has its dominant players though two have the most coverage: Kroger and Albertson’s are the biggest players (either as named branded stores, or acquiring smaller regional chains). Some markets have other key players (the upper Midwest has a well established player in Hy-Vee).
But honestly? Walmart is probably the biggest “supermarket” vendor in the states. Depending on where you go, I’ve found it easier to access Walmart than a traditional supermarket.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I've got like four costcos in easy driving distance from me. Roughly equidistant too, so other than preference, there's nothing stopping me from going to any of them. Well, one of them is in montreal, so traffic is a bitch. And of them is the "corporate" version of the store, so it bulkier bulk stuff meant for stores and offices.

Yeah, canada has several supermarket chains, both regional and national. But the actual number of companies that run them is miniscule, with each company owning several of the "brands". For example, Sobeys owns safeway, thrifty foods, IGA (independent grocers association. Well, they were once.) Freshco and a couple of others. Loblaws owns the self titled store, provigo, maxi... It's nothing but megalithic corporations all colluding to maximise profits.

 

[Anonymous X]

@wonko the sane? I remember we had Safeways here. Closed down about 20 years ago, and Morrisons bought up the former stores to expand southwards, when they were primarily a northern supermarket chain.

Also heard of IGA, somehow. Quick research reveals that it exists in the States too, so I guess I saw it in a film or documentary sometime.

Nearest I’ve been to a CostCo type store in my own country is Makro, which is a Dutch chain that has (had?) branches of, well, the warehouse type retailers with supermarket segments inside.

 

[Pale Rider]

FB friend:

Does money buy happiness? No, but it does buy a sense of being valued. That's the unspoken truth of the consumer economy: you feel most valued when you are spending money.

When you're a customer, especially one who is buying big-ticket items, you are God. People you've never met before will hurry over to talk to you, introduce themselves, smile, and act like you're their best friend. Your every whim is catered to.

But when you aren't spending money, that feeling disappears. Nobody wants to talk to you. Nobody even wants you there.

Endless cycles of repetition burn the pattern into your brain: money means people want you, and lack of money means people want you gone. And so you learn to associate money with your own self-worth, and by extension, the worth of other human beings to.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

The Buffalo region of the US just south of me has several Topps Friendly Markets, which I think is some kind of local chain. I like going in there during my monthly trips across the border to pick up some items. My impression of the US market has always been what Steevy Maximum just confirmed up above, though. Food prices in the US are much more reasonable than Canada due to much greater competition there. I wish Canada had more of that.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I've seen the in-store prices. Canada is terrifying.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I've seen the in-store prices. Canada is terrifying.

And it gets WORSE depending on where you live. PEI and newfoundland? Yeah, worse, much harder to get stuff in and out. Quebec? All that language law bullshit really makes moving product hard. BC? Unless your jive is coming from the wet side, getting over the rockies is a giant, slow assed pain. Saskatoon and Alberta? Smack middle of the country and neither of those assholes thought "Hey, let's keep the trains running", so trucks for everything. Unless it's locally made, and unless you like BREAD and FERTILIZER: hard and slow to get jive.

Canada: we're exactly like the US... except we deliberately made everything as hard as possible for no other reason than we could. But at least we did it politely... till it was time for war crimes.

 

[KidTDragon]

I've seen the in-store prices. Canada is terrifying.

If that Kroger/Albertsons merger goes through, you won't have to go to Canada to see prices like that.

 

[Stepwise]

If that Kroger/Albertsons merger goes through, you won't have to go to Canada to see prices like that.

I live in the northwest - I try to be a little careful about giving away my hometown, but we have Albertsons and Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger). We have multiple Albertsons, and they have limited selection and high prices. The grocery side of Fred Meyer has the same problem. The clothes are more expensive there, too, and their toys are older stock that's ridiculously over-priced. I wouldn't want to shop at the love-child of that merger.

 

[Pocket]

Oh, and Aldi also exists in the US. (And yes, I checked; it's the same Aldi they have in the UK, and not the one they have in most of mainland Europe, although that also has a presence here under the Trader Joe's brand.) Definitely the cheapest way to buy a lot of things around here. I assumed it was nationwide since it's already an international company, but maybe not? They bought out Winn-Dixie and Harvey's recently which suggests they didn't already have stores in the areas those cover.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I recently switched to Aldi. It's definitely cheaper than Winn-Dixie in my area.

 

[NovaSaber]

Big publishers don't want libraries to work properly for digital books.

Publishers’ brief in Hachette v. Internet Archive: First Impressions

Dave Hansen and Kyle Courtney jointly authored this post. They are also the authors of a White Paper on Controlled Digital Lending of Library Books. We are not, as the Publishers claim in their bri…

www.authorsalliance.org

 

[NovaSaber]

In Nigeria, a corporation got someone arrested for expressing a negative opinion of their product. WTF?!

Woman faces 7 years in jail for saying tomato puree was too sweet

Chioma Okoli, 39, wrote in an online review that a can of Nagiko Tomato Mix, made by Nigerian company Erisco Foods, was 'too sweet'.

metro.co.uk

 

[Pale Rider]

FB friend:

Remember when the Sackler family committed fraud to sell opioids and cause thousands of deaths, and their only punishment was a slap on the wrist?

THOUSANDS OF DEATHS. And not one day in jail. Even the fine is a slap on the wrist, because it was spread out over 10 years and the yearly payment was reduced to the point that it's less than their investment income each year, which means they will actually be richer after paying the "penalty" than they were before.

This is what happens when the American legal system confronts a billionaire. The system is great at crushing the little people underfoot, but it was not really designed to go after powerful people.

 

[Fullstrength Motleypuss]

So I guess maybe this kinda goes here. Thanks to last nights Daily Show we now know why Jon left his Apple show - he wanted to do an episode on AI and also an episode with FTC chair Lina Khan but Apple denied them because it would make them look bad.

 

[Pocket]

Interesting. I didn't know Apple was getting into the AI thing. I mean I guess I'm not surprised, but they haven't been plastering ads for it all of their computer screens like Microsoft does.