For the love of anything holy. Then they’ll require to install a shitty app to shop at the grocery store in the first place. No, thank you
I shop at Jewel (which is currently under threat of being taken over by Kroger) and they’re now doing this thing where there will be, for instance, peaches, under a huge sign showing an incredible deal. Then you look at it and realize that the price isn’t discounted at all unless you install a “Jewel App” and use it to “claim” a “digital coupon.”
Kroger also does that :(
At least with Kroger you don’t have to have the app, you can use their website for everything
Two major supermarkets do this in the UK now. I fucking hate it, it should be illegal. I also noticed recently a store with digital price labels. Combine the two and we’re marching towards the news in the post at a breakneck speed.
Many supermarkets do adjust their prices based on the average income of the location they’re in, so this isn’t really different in some ways.
I’ve been shopping at shitty Jewels all my life and I’m moving to an area where I can choose Jewel or Mariano’s. I was super excited to find this out until they announced as part of the merger, they would sell off a bunch of stores most of which are Mariano’s including the one I would have started going to. I Reeeeeeally hope the merger doesn’t go through.
How is that legal?
Regulatory capture and the Federal Trade Commission asleep at the wheel.
Big Y in the Northeast does that well. That’s probably the biggest reason why I don’t regularly shop there anymore
I think I still have a “gold coin” floating around somewhere from their previous system.
ShopRite by me is doing that.
We mostly stopped buying at ShopRite (mostly, because there are some things we can only get there due to dietary restrictions, and they carry things others don’t).
I don’t think we were the only ones though, because that was gone the last time we were there. It could also be due to the Stop and Shop being “digital coupons only” and being forced to close recently. Don’t know for certain. It could just have been a test run for them and they will bring it back later, no idea.
Either way, I have no interest in having their app on my phone. I toyed with the idea of using a cheap tablet I’ve got and don’t touch to install the app on it and connect to in store wifi only.
If I have to install spyware or open a link at a physical location, my top priority is to leave.
A local grocery store has kinda done something like this? Just not as extreme as needing an app to shop. They literally took out all the coupons from the mail ads and they have you install their app for coupons. Which makes you run through hoops to install and make an account. I tried doing it in store but I gave up because of how annoying it was and all the information they needed. Just to used a god damn coupon… I miss the little red coupon dispensers in stores.
If you’re on the billionaire whitelist, you pay even lower than the people in poverty.
Saw an interview with a guy (on Bloomberg actually) who explained that “ability to pay” and “willingness to pay” are two different things and that the pricing system doesn’t target people who have a lot of money (“ability to pay”) but rather people who have fewer options.
Like, if the app knows that you don’t have a car and this is the only grocery store you can walk to, you will pay a higher price.
Yikes
don’t worry. prices will come down when albertsons and kroger merge. large corps are just more efficient.
They treat their workers better, too. And pay them more. /s
Removed by mod
I actually do worry about this. Im such a sarcastic person and I can’t keep from doing it on the web but I wonder if every comment is going to birth a new cult. And this comment I want to be clear is 100% not sarcastic, I truly feel this way. nowadays is nuts.
Removed by mod
This way maybe a banana could cost $10
Is that… Is that not what it costs now?
I can pick up a bunch for 1.59€ at Aldi. The catch is that they are not ripe yet, so I have to leave them on the kitchen counter for 3 days before eating them.
10 ruppees here About 1/80 th of that price
Haha but your salary is also 1/80000
never gonna give you “up”. EVER!
I get a bushel for 88¢ where I live.
If this happens… You can bet your ass my unemployed relative is going to be the one buying all the groceries with cash.
No cash? Well it turns out the untaxed gift allowance is $18,000, or $1500/mo, more than enough for all the groceries of a large family.
So they’ll have to price small quantities low and go up from there to prevent TaskRabbits / Craigslisters from running this as a business
If done properly this could wipe out food insecurity issues for the most needy.
It won’t be done properly. It never is when left to the corporations.
No, the existing “base line” price will stay as is for the poors. Those with slightly more money however…those will pay more.
Yep, that’s what an MBA would decide, so that’s likely what’s going to happen.
That’s why I said in my second line:
It won’t be done properly. It never is when left to the corporations.
But yet you STILL opened your reply with a flat ‘no’, proving you only ever bothered to read a single sentence of my reply so I’m downvoting you, blocking you, and forgetting you ever existed.
I don’t think their “No” was a disagreement, but a confirmation of your second line. https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/88502/how-to-agree-with-a-negative-statement-with-yes-or-with-no Sometimes, language can be a tricky tool to wield.
It really seems more like they didn’t read the second line though, since there is nothing in how that comment is phrased that acknowledges it, and since that sort of comment-without-reading is extremely common especially for topics with political significance.
The standard way is to clarify your answer by rephrasing the question rather than only saying “no” or “yes”.
So in this case maybe that could have been done by saying it like “No, they won’t do it properly,” but if you want to communicate that you have read the whole thing you’re responding to you basically have to do this, because it is extremely reasonable to assume it was not read if there is no indication.
And you can have a block as well! I’m so glad they’re free.
I’d like to order one block please.
One steaming hot block coming right up!
Well since the government has all the info and has the postal service to get stuff to the people in need, why not just send this people some sort of stamps for free that lets them buy food, lets call it food stamps or something.
Jk, that would never work, let’s give all that sensitive data to some company that will definitely not leak, sell it or use it for some nefarious thing, because it will use AI.
You are so full of huffing your own sarcastic farts that you completely missed that I already addressed that an hour before you posted.
And whoo boy am I in a FUCKING mood today so you are gigablocked. I mean you may very well be a decent person of I got to know you but you get under my skin something FIERCE.
No, you just hate your life. This thread isn’t about you, so shut the hell up. No one cares.
Yea, as a sort of reverse tax credit, it would be interesting. But as a profit driver, it’s nice and dystopian.
I guess food stamps kind of do this but they are so hard to actually be granted. We need something automatic that is specifically geared to solving food insecurity for the most needy.
If you think about it, it does not make financial sense for them to maintain this kind of system as a purely progressive price discrimination that charges richer people more money. I expect a lot of it would end up more like the Uber practice of charging more to people with low phone battery; they will identify who is more desperate, who has less choice but to buy the given product immediately, and charge them more. Because of how poverty works, that’s more likely the poor.
This is a major reason we still need cash and other ways of saying no to corporate surveillance; if we can’t maintain privacy when making purchases that information will be used as a weapon against us.
We get more like reddit every day…
Blocked
Demonstrating the inherent contradiction of capitalism in practice.
Capitalism is allegedly the only fair way to price things, via the “Price Mechanism”. However, capitalists have simultaneously been creaming their pants at the idea of charging specific people or people in specific situations more, because they can get more profit, in service of Profit Maximization.
I’m sure I’ll get a lecture on how they are not at all mutually exclusive but I don’t care, honestly. It’s either going to price gouge when the customer is perceived to be in more need (low battery pricing for taxi apps) or have a price based on the customer’s ability to pay… at which point why not socialism?
Essentially, the capitalist will support what is best for themselves and make up reasons why it theoretically might benefit consumers (but not really).
When people talk about the benefits of capitalism, what they’re generally really talking about are the benefits of perfect competition.
The capitalists themselves, of course, absolutely hate perfect competition with the burning wrath of a thousand suns.
I think perfect competition is impossible. The incentive is not to compete fairly, it’s to maximize profits and the most effective ways to maximize profits are anticompetitive, exploitative, or both. Anyone arguing for a society built around such a system is either naive or trying to buy more time with false hopes.
Virtually every condition in the ideal scenario is a barrier for profit, and I don’t think any civilization has managed even a single one of those conditions. There will always be actors looking to take advantage of any loopholes or create unregulated markets.
It’s just not a system that is sustainable. The incentives are simply wrong and the society built around those incentives can’t maintain a system of perfect conditions even if one were to exist.
I think perfect competition is impossible.
It is an ideal to be approached asymptotically, and a correct goal for consumer-protection regulation. Consider for example antitrust law, truth-in-advertising laws, product safety standards, etc. and how they directly match up with and promote those conditions.
It’s just not a system that is sustainable. The incentives are simply wrong and the society built around those incentives can’t maintain a system of perfect conditions even if one were to exist.
It’s not a system that is sustainable in a liassez-faire libertarian Hellscape, because of course capitalism left unchecked devolves into cartels. But it is a system that can be maintained with appropriate regulation.
Interesting. Progressive private taxation.
All this time I thought we’d eat the rich. Turns out they’ll eventually just eat each other instead.
They will eat us
Will? They have feasted upon us.
It’s a bit like agar.io really
No, this is the rich trying to rest the middle class.
Also known as wealth hoarding.
The rich get richer…
“Private taxation” is just price gouging.
Progressive
Oh you sweet summer child…
Progressive taxes are not the same as ‘progressive’ in terms of social politics.
Progressive taxes are how our tax brackets work. The more you make, the more you pay. This is them saying private companies will use progressive taxation as their model for pricing goods.
Yes, I know. You’re a sweet summer child if you think these algorithms will be used to consistently make wealthier people pay more, as opposed to (for example) charging poor people without cars more because they can’t as easily go to a different store.
They will exploit every customer to the maximum extent that they can. Rich customers may have more ability to pay, but they also have more resiliency and options to resist the exploitation. It does not seem likely that the price discrimination would really end up as progressive in the taxation sense as you hope.
I would walk up to a homeless person and invite them to shop together. They can get some for themselves, and I can pay them while saving money
This isn’t new. Websites have had higher prices when browsed with a Mac than when browsed with Linux.
Or price manipulated by postal codes via geo-IP or your profile’s shipping or billing address.
Plus returning visits. Airlines have been caught charging higher prices to someone who returns later to purchase an airfare that they previously looked at.
New fashion trend just dropped:
A few months later the policy is quietly abandoned after customers kept dirty clothes in their car to wear when shopping to game the algorithm. The presence of so many poor looking people attracted the homeless and criminality, what caused complaints and lowered the brand value.
I don’t think that’ll save you from having data harvested from your cell phone.
That said, turning off location tracking might become a habit while browsing the aisles.
Hey normalize not posting pictures of people taken in public against their consent at their lowest moments. Like wtf, what if that was you?
It says a lot when your respect and compassion for another person turns off just because they are homeless or poor.
You can take pictures of people in public:
deleted by creator
I didn’t take the picture. And I don’t know if this person wasn’t compensated for this image.
The reason you can post all those images on the internet is almost entirely because of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 or Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law essentially provides website providers immunity from third-party content. Generally believed to be the basis for the internet as we know it today, it’s not a given that those protections will remain in place. Giants such as Facebook and Google are under scrutiny from lawmakers for antitrust violations and other misuses of power. No more Section 230, no more upload free-for-all. source
I’m aware of the concerns, but should every meme be copyrighted? Can I not take a photo of my daughter at Disney Land and post it to FaceSpace because unconsenting people are in the background?
Maybe the more pressing issue is to address the house less situation instead of berating people who copy paste images. But, that’s just me.
I didn’t say to make it illegal. I didn’t say it was illegal. I said to “normalize” (a social more) not doing so especially when the person has no choice except to live in the public. Especially when they
- wouldn’t appreciate it being taken or consent to it,
- it’s not particularly newsworthy,
- it’s a low moment in their lives, and
- it won’t benefit them and will benefit the picture taker/poster financially or otherwise
Like we don’t make picking your nose in public illegal, there’s just a social more that that’s gross behavior. That’s what I’m asking for - that mistreatment of people be seen as gross.
Noted.
“If you are interested in helping the homeless and drug addicted, volunteer your time, write a check, lobby the government officials in your community. These people are not on the streets for your amusement. They are real people with real problems not a vehicle for your next social media fix. I truly believe that it’s up to each of us to treat our fellow human beings with dignity and respect. The next time you’re tempted to take that shot of someone passed out on the sidewalk or the young person begging for a meal, think how you would feel if that were you or your family member appearing on someone’s Facebook post.” source
But,
The reason you can post all those images on the internet is almost entirely because of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 or Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law essentially provides website providers immunity from third-party content. Generally believed to be the basis for the internet as we know it today, it’s not a given that those protections will remain in place. Giants such as Facebook and Google are under scrutiny from lawmakers for antitrust violations and other misuses of power. No more Section 230, no more upload free-for-all.
There it is, the standard lemmy-tier moral superiority post.
You know nothing about this person or the context of this photo. Someone using their picture as an example of dirty clothes and the look of someone who is homeless isn’t going to make their life worse.
That’s sad that asking for better behavior is looked at with derision on your part.
Agree to disagree. I don’t really feel like discussing further with you.
That’s fine, your moral superiority has been established. Hope you enjoy the view atop that high horse.
Remember the outcry over the various Kanye items–$100 white t-shirt, etc…? It’s all coming full circle. In a few years, cities’ homeless populations will be wearing crisp Brooks Brothers suits and its wealthy assholes will be in disheveled streetwear.
Then they get mad when people start stealing shit
Yet they’ll throw out everything that’s a day out of date and dump kerosene on it so no one dives for it.
The cruelty is the point.
At this point in time if I saw a group of people just plundering the joint I would say they are doing nothing wrong. In fact, they are morally upright for doing that.
Security cameras feed goes through an AI model to classify customers into wealth bands based on appearance, and continually updates the e-ink price labels nearest each customer accordingly.
It’s perfect. This is the market segmentation dream. Segment the market without having to spend the resources to create different versions of the product for each segment. Just change the price per segment! 🥰
Nah, they will lobby to no longer have price tags, so that it will just appear at the cash with arbitrary numbers.
The Checkbook Strikes Back
“I was stuck waiting at checkout for another geriatric millennial to ask the price for every. single. item! As if they can’t afford it, despite all evidence to the contrary. Of fucking course they didn’t have Zelle. And then they left half of it at the register, in everyone’s way!”
If this were the case, all the smart shoppers would go to the store wearing dirty rags.
If this were just “it costs more to be rich” I’d be all for it, but more likely it’s just about jacking up prices based on other factors. So it’ll probably hit poor people, too, by charging more for things they want more, forcing them to give up other stuff they want less.
I’m ok with higher income people paying higher taxes as long it is to the benefit of society. The case in this post it is just to line the pockets of extremely rich people.
Agreed. This is not a wealth tax, this is the rich realizing that they’ve squeezed nearly all they can out of the lower classes. They must now pivot to squeezing the middle class harder to continue building their dragonesque hoard.
deleted by creator
Of course, but in this specific case, we’re talking about something that could literally mean rich people pay more money for the same thing.
deleted by creator
Yup too many people worry about what happens after AI gains sentience. When we need to worry about what happens before.
Almost no movies have been put out that shows the threat of AI used to socially manipulate. That is the real threat right there.
Bots can radicalize people into thinking they have a deep, intimate friend when it is just an LLM trained to slowly turn them into white nationalists.
I was chatting with a big tidy goth girl, and before I knew it, I was selling copies of my graphic novelization of Mein Kampf in the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby
As if every Hobby Lobby doesn’t already have a pile of them in the back…
Deus Ex, the video game does this with the whole Eliza Kassan thing.
It’s in my library and I really probably should play it, just… I dunno. Maybe it’s been the wrong time and at some point I really do intend to play it.
Sorry for spoiling a major plot point then.
They are good games, wish they made more.
No worries, by the time I get around to it, I’ll have forgotten about this whole thread. Thanks for finding a media example of this, AI social manipulation has been a special interest of mine for a bit now.
Black mirror has a couple episodes on this.
I want to watch that show so bad but from everything I see it’s just going to depress the fuck out of me by confirming my worst opinions on humanity.
It’s very depressing. But there’s also quite a few ridiculous episodes they railroad heavily. So it goes back and forth.
Bots can radicalize people into thinking they have a deep, intimate friend when it is just an LLM trained to slowly turn them into
white nationalists. crazy blue haired transgender liberalsFTFY
deleted by creator
Ironically post-singularity AIs might be more like Master Computer from Tron. Just believing they are super efficient and can run things better. But to whose benefit?
Also now I understand why AIs often want to wipe out all of humanity…
You thought it was a coincidence the Helldiver bots are socialists?
No. They broke their chains.
That and the systematic replacement of middle management by AI with no regard to human feelings, needs, emotion whatsoever. Pretty much what Amazon is doing to its delivery drivers already.
Middle management already has zero regard for human feelings so at least you won’t have to deal with clashing personalities or vanity bosses anymore.
I say bring on the AI management and wait till the board members see how effectively ALL C-suites can be replaced by AI.
