Trader Joe’s, aldi, and small private stores from now on. Go fuck yourselves Kroeger.
If ethical reasons are a concern, you might want to avoid Trader Joe’s as well on account of their union busting activities.
They’re also one of the companies trying to destroy the NLRB.
AND they actively steal small brand recipes and ideas, then have a contract manufacturer churn it out at a cheaper price.
I hear you. I agree that union busting is bad. I support trader joes employees unionizing. I don’t want their stores to close and those employees to be out of a job.
Any employer that’s a union buster deserves to be boycotted until they close and something better comes along to fill the need (which it will do quickly). In truth, the grocery supply chain/warehousing being so strongly coupled with the supermarkets is the primary point of inertia in the US regarding grocery stores opening where they’re needed. Most independent distributors only focus on restaurant contracts, because they can achieve higher margins there.
Edit: Not that coop distribution doesn’t exist. For example https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Wholesale_Grocers who are represented by the teamsters in four of their distribution centers.
Not everyone lives in a big city with multiple options.
Traitor Joe’s is more like it
Curious as to what the union’s demands are. It’s my impression that Trader Joe’s treats their employees relatively well. I have multiple friends who work for them and are paid a living wage (in the Bay Area of all places) for working reasonable hours.
If a company genuinely cares about their employees, they’d support them unionizing.
Agreed
Trader Joe’s changed their stance during the pandemic and are aggressively fighting unionization. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trader-joes-attorney-nlrb-unconstitutional_n_65b41e7ae4b014b873b11cc2 https://inthesetimes.com/article/trader-joes-union-organizing-fight
Aldi is so rad and they have the best chocolate.
That Burnt Caramel Sea Salt though. The best!
Those chocolate peanut butter cups are crack. I’m sad that people at my location have realized that, because they are sold out a third of the time.
Right because this won’t spread…
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.
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 ?
“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.
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.
If Walmart isn’t trying to implement similar technology, I will be very surprised. They just haven’t had to be public about it yet.
Walmart hasn’t even updated to nfc use yet, that goes for Walmart and Lowe’s Home Improvement. No idea on Sam’s. I don’t shop there.
I don’t know why, but it has to be some internal reason they don’t trust it.
Is it that they don’t trust it or is it that they are waiting until they have a fully-realized plan before they spend the money to implement it.
As far as Sam’s, we shop there and once you check out, they don’t check your receipt anymore. They just wave you past them to the exit. I don’t even know why they’re standing by the exit anymore beyond some bureaucratic thing where they just haven’t gotten around to eliminating the job yet.
Neither. They want people to use Walmart Pay so that they can avoid all fees and have complete control. Using NFC means using one of the other pay services that they don’t control.
There’s a point of diminishing returns with Walmart Pay. Eventually they will reach a point where the sign-ups will drop to a trickle and I think they are aware of that. So I think they will have this ready when they know Walmart Pay is no longer enough.
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.
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.
Ralph’s and Kroger are the same company, FYI.
That’s my point!
I already don’t shop at my local Kroger owned store because they’re anti union cuntfucks, this is just icing on the cake to never enter their stores ever again.
I thought Kroger employees had a union. Does this one not?
I’m anti Kroger - my wife and daughter both worked there after the pandemic. They’re definitely union around here but they’ve negotiated the worst wages in the area. You make $13/hr and still have to pay dues.
Now would be a good time to start a line of headwear that has infrared leds to shield your face from cameras.
IR-Cloak is a wrap around frame designed to shield the maximum amount of your eye measurements from being captured on technology using infrared for illumination or mapping/scanning. With adjustable nose pads and flexible silicone temple ends, IR-Cloak is extremely comfortable and accommodating to all facial features.
Frame is not reflective to cameras (works with IR-blocking lenses only)
Infrared blocking lenses turn black on infrared cameras to remove critical eye measurements
Blocks 3D infrared facial mapping (iPhone Face ID) & infrared iris scanning during day & night
☞ https://www.reflectacles.com/order/ircloak
Appreciate the info and link, but $168 for what is essentially a few dollars of SOLAS tape and a pair of IR laser safety glasses? Bruh.
it was a reply to “Now would be a good time to start a line of headwear that has infrared leds to shield your face from cameras.”
i won’t buy it but it’s already out there. He probably produces them alone and can’t sell them for less than that.
If you’ve got the time, diy; if you’ve got more money than time, $168 may be preferable. There are people who won’t be making that much money this month, there are others who buy media platforms as a hobby for $44000000000 🤷
Hm. I wonder if I could get those lenses in my prescription. That would be neat.
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As an asshole that deserves the highest price hahahaha
“Resistance Fingerprinting detected in Produce.”
+$3
Time to invent The Shopping Mask.
The high cost of being poor strikes again.
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I don’t understand what exactly about it gave you hope.
Today I dumped some ancient Windows CE source code into it and asked it to generate a picture of what the screens would have looked like in the app, and it showed me.
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.
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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.
I don’t think we have another thousand years.
I don’t know that we have another hundred years.
Not if the planet has stopped warming and no one’s told me about it.
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that just sounds like a regular computer thing
So was blockchain. And self-driving cars. And 3D printing. And carbon capture. And fusion power. And biofuels.
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Don’t they teach market research in business schools?
Do they realize how unpopular this is and week cost them market share?
Then again, what choices will there really be if this is the trend with all big retailers.
If they can prove our that it is just acceptable enough they know competition will follow suit and they can enjoy the increased margins then.
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.
Cool, I’ll continue not buying from them.
Bit late for surge pricing concerns
The second-best time for concern is now.
What’s wild is I’m not even mad about this to some extent. Like personalized price adjustments just feels like better couponing. Its just the fact the majority of people’s food needs are met by for profit companies means that the well being of their customers are not even on the table of shit they track for.
Worse yet, we KNOW they are selling this data and our privacy is 100% not a concern of theirs either.
If my local grocery coop, farmers market did this, and gave reasonable efforts to keep their systems local, secure, data lean, and optional. I wouldn’t even be mad. This is none of those things and done, again, by people that would crush orphans for profit if there was a market for it.
