527
Time to invent The Shopping Mask.
Any kind of surge pricing by for profit companies providing basic needs should be illegal full stop
Ralph's in SoCal used to be a midrange grocery store. These days, its prices are sometimes higher than Whole Foods! I feel like most large grocery chains are moving to a premium price point. They aren't interested in providing food for everyday families
I bet they are responding to the prices in the shopping services apps.
The high cost of being poor strikes again.
Cool, I'll continue not buying from them.
Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the U.S. by revenue and owns a number of different brands, including Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Pick’n Save, Food 4 Less, and Dillions, among a host of others
Kroger told Gizmodo... “customers are shopping more with Kroger now than ever because we are fighting inflation and providing great value.”
... or maybe customers don't have much of a choice ?
I live in a major city. The nearest Kroger is 2 blocks away. The nearest non-kroger is 7 miles away. And I have to drive past 3 Kroger's to get there. It's ridiculous.
“customers are shopping more with Kroger now than ever because we are fighting inflation and providing great value.”
I call shenanigans. I don't always pay close attention to the prices of all the things I buy, but one thing I do pay attention on is soda. (Probably because it's bad for me, so I give myself additional justification to buy it or not.)
And amidst all this "inflation", and all the talk about lowering prices back down to reasonable levels Kroger's price just on soda just jumped 25%.
Years ago I used to get a 12-pack for $5, and sometimes there'd be a 3-for-$12 deal. When COVID hit, it was 3-for-$15. Post-COVID, $7 a box. When they raised it to $8, I stopped buying it unless it's on sale or if my wife specifically requests it, and then I only buy one.
Then I went to Kroger a few weeks ago, and the only way to get a price under $8/box was to sign up for something on their app and sell them my personal information. So I decided not to buy from Kroger anymore.
This week my wife specifically requested a box, I was in Kroger anyway, and now it's $10/box or 3-for-$8. Fuck that. They hit their limit with me, and there are no circumstances in which I'm paying that much for soda.
Soda in general has increased across the board, but 12 for $8 is ridiculous since that's basically vending machine levels (I can find local vending machines for $0.75/can).
At Costco, I can get a 35-pack for about $18, less if it's on sale, which is still pretty expensive, but way less than the grocery store (basically ~$6/12-pack). Just a few years ago it was around $0.25/can, and now it's $0.50 in bulk, which is a huge shift.
2-liter prices are still pretty reasonable, so it seems the price increase is mostly for the packaging, not the product.
Fortunately, there's a competing brand in my area that's not under Kroger (or Walmart or Target), so I can easily avoid them. My local grocery isn't a mom-and-pop, but it doesn't extend that far outside of my state, so that's nice.
I go to Walmart and Food Lion because I worked for Kroger and I hate them.
Most of Kroger's other brands operate in areas where there isn't a Kroger. There's a tiny exception with Harris Teeter but it's mostly because it isn't profitable to change the signs, I guess.
Who said AI was gonna put people out of jobs? Look here, a whole new industry of gig work where people can market themselves as "best buyers". Is your Kroger algorithm fucking you over with horrible prices? Not to worry, with a low low subscription fee, you'll have access to our best buyers whose meticulously curated profiles will buy your items for you with guaranteed lowest price every time. They'll even deliver it to your door for a small fee, or upgrade to our premium plus preferred plan for unlimited free deliveries. We also offer a comprehensive algorithm consulting service to help you reshape your algorithm for optimum purchasing power. Be the best buyer your can be ;) /SARCASM
I wouldn't be surprised if this became a reality in 10 years
I will be surprised if it isn't an established thing by then.
That is some Philip K Dick reality right there.
Everyone should enter these stores dressed up like it's Payday (the video game) until they stop with this facial recognition nonsense.
until they stop
They will never stop unless they are forced to stop.
They will choose to stop if it doesn't make them money. 😀
But yes, not allowing them to do this in the first place would be a very reasonable thing to fight for.
I'm going to get reflectacles. They're a little pricey, but they're much less itchy than balaclavas.
If someone hasn't made a 3D printable model for IR glasses I think I may make one this weekend.
With a model file, 20 cents of filament, a few LEDs, some wire, and a watch battery these could be made DIY for a few dollars after the printer cost. You can get a decent 3D printer for 200 bucks these days.
They won't be as stylish, but they'd do the job just fine.
Honestly, I don't want to manage a battery. I would maybe be okay with it if I could recharge it wirelessly (set it on one of those wireless phone chargers or whatever), but that's a bit outside DIY ATM.
But yeah, spending $100+ on glasses just to piss off some security guards is a bit steep. I'm at a point where I can absolutely afford it for the lulz, but that's a pretty big ask for the type of person who would be racially profiled away from the store. I wish I could just grab any pair of glasses ($10 or whatever) and spray on some kind of coating to get IR reflectivity. Maybe that exists, I just don't know enough about it.
But yeah, spending $100+ on glasses just to piss off some security guards is a bit steep.
not the security guards. they don't care about the, and this has nothing to do with security.
It's about breaking the automated tracking system.
And who reviews the anomalies?
Kroger and Safeway have been the absolute face of enshittification since the pandemic. They've also been accused of price fixing, and are trying to merge into a monopoly. They also regularly abuse disabled employees (at multiple stores in my area).
I have absolutely no doubt that they will do this the moment they think they can get away with it. In a fair economy, they would have been driven out of business years ago.
They also renamed a bunch of locations from Safeway > FreshMart and laid off career employees with years of raises and benefits and forced them to reapply under the new franchise name. Same owners, same stores, but LOOPHOLE.
Fucking assholes.
That's so dirty and unethical. I hope their conscience tortures them for years, but I realize that's wishful thinking since there is a good chance they've so completely repressed any concept of ethics or morality that they would sell their own mother into slavery for an extra tenth of a penny.
Looks like I'm finally going to have to start wearing the ol' anti facial recognition makeup
Broke: disrupting your appearance to confuse cameras
Woke: disrupting security cameras by carrying a hammer
(Disclaimer I know that's not really feasible for most people afraid of going to jail)
Curious to see if anti-recognition causes the prices to go down or up.
can't wait for the absolutely bonkers technique arms race between corporate facial recognition tech devs and makeup artist cyberpunks
AI was supposed to save the world.
These sociopaths have taken the only hope i ever thought we had and are going to use it to screw us. I want the money changers out of the temple NOW.
I don't understand what exactly about it gave you hope.
Indeed.
60 years ago we were supposed to having to work very little by now thanks to automation, then automation came and instead of the productivity gains of it ending up spread across society, what happenned instead was that the extra productivity went just pushed up dividend and CxO pay higher and due to the reduced need for workers due to automation the purchasing power of salaries actually went down (for example, in the US the percentage of corporate revenues that went to pay salaries fell from 23% in the 70s down to 7% by 2014).
Expecting that, under the exact system that's been moving us more and more towards Dystopia with each wave of automation, AI would somehow end up making things better for most people rather than better just for the Owner Class and worse for part or most of the rest, is pretty ill-informed and naive.
i knew that the owner class was the problem all along, and i knew that we needed to topple the owner class in order to utilize these things for their humanitarian benefits. i guess i naively thought people would band together for the hope of a better world. i watched the arab springs and the former soviet states and they gave me hope, but i guess the western world is too weak to do the right thing.
the more and more i watch good people do nothing and listen to arm chair commenters like yourself, the more i think that maybe we deserve this dystopia.
Thing is, human nature has been shaped to make alternatives feel impossible to achieve and any effort in that direction pointless to engage in. This was and is an ongoing project of generations of trauma, imposed norms and rules, hierarchies and conditioning; even if they are later educated to understand the predicament they are in, the conditioning is strong enough to dissuade all but the rare few not to do anything. Remember, feudalism lasted for over a thousand years.
an unbiased mediator and administrator of resources that makes logical decisions to benefit all of humanity, able to find patterns that most humans cannot, process data in ways humans cannot, and not driven by petty human emotion? yeah, why would something like that give me hope?
that just sounds like a regular computer thing
load more comments
(1 replies)
So was blockchain. And self-driving cars. And 3D printing. And carbon capture. And fusion power. And biofuels.
all those things still have the potential to create a better world, and the problem is still the same: the owner class is using them to benefit themselves only. we have to destroy this dystopia by any means necessary. every day we don't is another day we doom billions to suffer for the benefit of a few.
I have been pondering over this issue for a few years. Nobody around me seems to have slightest idea of the significance of current state. So I asked chatgpt for this. It does give us reasonable explanation for what takes for capitalism to end:
Tap for spoiler
....Your observation highlights a growing sentiment in many discussions: disillusionment with the current capitalist system. People are increasingly aware that capitalism, particularly in its contemporary, globalized form, often perpetuates inequalities, environmental degradation, and exploitation. Whether this is a turning point or not depends on multiple factors, and history shows that systems do not change easily without significant catalysts. Here’s a detailed perspective on what it might take for capitalism to end or evolve:
1. Mass Awareness and Grassroots Mobilization .......
2. Political and Economic Crises
- Trigger Events: .........
- Climate and Environmental Collapse: .......
3. Political Will and Leadership
........
4. Development of Viable Alternatives
........
5. Cultural and Ideological Shift
........
6. International Collaboration and Solidarity ......
Is This a Turning Point?
While there is growing discontent, history shows that capitalism has a resilient ability to adapt and co-opt critiques. For instance, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and green capitalism are all ways it has evolved to absorb and neutralize challenges without fundamentally changing.
For capitalism to end or be replaced with a more equitable and sustainable system, it would likely require:
- A combination of crises that expose and disrupt its structures.
- Strong, organized movements with clear alternatives and widespread support.
- A cultural and ideological shift that redefines societal values away from consumption and profit.
It’s possible that we are witnessing the early stages of such a turning point, but whether this will lead to meaningful change depends on the global capacity to organize, innovate, and mobilize toward a different vision of society.
Trader Joe’s, aldi, and small private stores from now on. Go fuck yourselves Kroeger.
I only have one smaller chain grocery store in my area, and it's half snake oil targeted to old hippies. It's also three to four times as expensive because old hippies apparently have money?
I wish we would get an Aldi's.
If ethical reasons are a concern, you might want to avoid Trader Joe's as well on account of their union busting activities.
load more comments
(9 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
527 points (98.9% liked)
Technology
58737 readers
4034 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS