What’s the ratio between “triple rolls” and “super mega” rolls of paper towels? And did you know you were on the schedule to work the checkout line today?
I occasionally shop at Walmart when I don't have other options but I hated the standard checkout lines--the cashier's were slow and maybe some folks tried to strike up a conversation while I'm melting with my caffeine infused brain, head tilted to the side, and arms fully resting on the cart.
Then they put in the self checkout, which for some time was also a disaster (as Target experience above). However, in the last year the bugs have been worked out, more self checkout lanes added, and I can breeze right through with no hassles now. I don't mind doing the checkout labor myself (my main shopping locale is WinCo where I have to bag my own groceries, but I do save money), I mean even in a regular line you still have to load them onto the conveyor belt. If self checkout gets me out the door faster I'm for it. Granted there are other places where you do want some good customer service and yes I share the frustrations of the current milieu.
The point here is if you do the work, why are you still paying full price as the implication is the cost of items includes labor. Should not there be a self-bagging discount? That would at least show the consumer that the store values their time and efforts?
Well how that relates to the Walmart bottom line I don't know but they are often in the lowe prices ranges. Let's just say that customer service is something I don't go there for. For me checking out faster is more important, even if I have to do the scanning and bagging.
Agreed. Walmart has never cared about customer's time...the assumption is you give up customer service for low prices. I get that. However, Target is 'upscale' and it seems to me they are moving towards Walmart customer service model but not cutting prices to match. Why would I go to Target at this point?
I had a massive full cart at target 2 years ago.... the last time I ever set foot there...I was supposed to go to self check out. I lost it... left everything and walked out... I despise that store
You nailed it perfectly with this one. My sentiments are pretty much the same. It's kind of like when you go to Walmart and buy groceries and they only have one human check out open and you have to use the damn self-checkout. First of all you need two carts, the one you are taking all your goceries out of and the other one to put them in after scanning them because there is no room anywhere else other than the floor! And you better not have cash because all the machines just take debit or credit cards. By the way, where's the discount for checking yourself out as you have saved them the expense of someone else's wages, social security, and health insurance. Linking as usual @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
It's nice to know I'm not alone in raving at the insanity of today's shopping experience! I figure the paper towels idiocy is a result of what's laughingly called math class and I can't wait until the next packaging monstrosity hits the shelves and I get to swear some more! Thanks for a good laugh!
Beautiful rant on the insufferable self-checkout experience! In CO, the bags would have cost you ten cents apiece as the state mandates “green” behavior modification to local rats.
The self-checkout machine asks "how many bags would you like to pay for" my honest answer is zero because I would not like to pay for any of the bags that I use.
Inflation is squeezing all of us working class people for sure. However in the Florida Panhandle, customer service still is pretty decent. If it isn’t, one can walk 10 minutes to soothe the soul at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
I am not waiting around to have an employee unlock a display case for me, no matter what item it is. I'll simply order that item online.
Conspiracy theory is that the legalize shoplifting/looting movement in places like CA is funded by internet retailers conducting economic warfare against their brick and mortar competitors.
The thing that scares me in the next 10+ years is the average retirement savings 70% or more America have.
You cannot live off social security - so you will have either people 80 years old trying to work or they will end up be homeless.
It was bad before - after 3 years of inflation is going to be a lot worse. Savings will be cut or even worse people are taking money out of their 401k for living expenses now.
Exactly. My sister is the sole proprietor of a house cleaning business. There is no way she is going to make it to 65 without her body breaking down. There is no way she will be able to pay rent, buy gas and groceries, and pay the electric / oil / phone bills on Social Security alone. I'm planning on buying land with enough room for her to come and stay with me when the time comes. There is no way she will be able to get into subsidized housing. That is being taken up by illegals. Maybe there will be senior housing, in her area. In many areas there is nothing. It's terrifying to think about being sick, old, and poor. My sister has no savings. Everything she earns goes to pay her current bills.
The idiocy you describe - of needing to interact with three employees vs previously needing to interact with one - is epidemic in corporate America. Unfortunately, it will probably take true adversity, in the form of our basic necessities not being met, for us to demand and regain some semblance of common sense.
People do not realize what insane damage was done to society due to inflationary money.
In a deflationary money system (For instance in one where the amount of money is physically fixed, for instance because gold is money and gold quantities are relatively fixed or at least can only increase linearilly with mining or even asymptotically due to decreasing ore grades) people are incentivized to postpone purchases and acquisitions since the value of your money (gold) is increasing over time as technology makes us more productive and an increasing amount of goods and services is chasing the fixed (or only marginally increasing) physical money. What follows is an incentive to save, resourcefulness and efficiency, as people save as much as they can and spend as little as necessary.
Recycling everything and anything would not be a problem in this system, since waste, especially electronic waste contains gold and silver, so recycling every gram of waste would yield back a lot of precious metals. Lack of recycling would mean you are losing gold and silver (money) to waste piles of nothing, so leaving waste unrecycled and unused would simply not be economically viable. Recycling every gram of stuff would be a very viable business opportunity that even becomes more profitable over time as the value of gold and silver gained back from recycling is increasing. By the way, recycling stuff to the last atom has been a reality for over 100 years. I highly recommend looking into Sierra Energy for this topic:
Just one interesting statistic to this: electronic waste contains gold and silver at a concentration of over 100 times the ores these metals are mined from. Yet, electronic waste is not recycled, while we are opening up more and more mines every year to get gold and silver from them.
Compare this to an inflationary money system. NOTHING has permanent value. You either have to cycle your wealth continuously through assets and have to chase assets that due to a discrepancy or anomaly are temporarily undervalued or you have to become a professional trader to be able to increase your wealth. You have to spend ALL your money NOW to get the most value out of your purchases, since the prices of everything will be higher tomorrow, thus, if you don't spend it all now, you will suffer decreased purchasing power tomorrow.
It it any wonder we are turning the planet into a scrapyard? Consume NOW. Recycle NOTHING, get NEW stuff, now, in exponentially increasing quantities, or you will be poorer tomorrow. It is all down to money.
I never dreamed our small business would have a powerful weapon that no big company has. We answer the phone.
I manage an RV Park and I'm amazed at the number of callers who thank me for simply answering the phone!
My new favorite Substack...
I occasionally shop at Walmart when I don't have other options but I hated the standard checkout lines--the cashier's were slow and maybe some folks tried to strike up a conversation while I'm melting with my caffeine infused brain, head tilted to the side, and arms fully resting on the cart.
Then they put in the self checkout, which for some time was also a disaster (as Target experience above). However, in the last year the bugs have been worked out, more self checkout lanes added, and I can breeze right through with no hassles now. I don't mind doing the checkout labor myself (my main shopping locale is WinCo where I have to bag my own groceries, but I do save money), I mean even in a regular line you still have to load them onto the conveyor belt. If self checkout gets me out the door faster I'm for it. Granted there are other places where you do want some good customer service and yes I share the frustrations of the current milieu.
The point here is if you do the work, why are you still paying full price as the implication is the cost of items includes labor. Should not there be a self-bagging discount? That would at least show the consumer that the store values their time and efforts?
Well how that relates to the Walmart bottom line I don't know but they are often in the lowe prices ranges. Let's just say that customer service is something I don't go there for. For me checking out faster is more important, even if I have to do the scanning and bagging.
Agreed. Walmart has never cared about customer's time...the assumption is you give up customer service for low prices. I get that. However, Target is 'upscale' and it seems to me they are moving towards Walmart customer service model but not cutting prices to match. Why would I go to Target at this point?
Yeah, I bailed out of Targe’ long ago for that reason.
🙌
I had a massive full cart at target 2 years ago.... the last time I ever set foot there...I was supposed to go to self check out. I lost it... left everything and walked out... I despise that store
So where do you now buy your tuck friendly bathing suits? /sarc
Lol, that sealed the deal for me
You nailed it perfectly with this one. My sentiments are pretty much the same. It's kind of like when you go to Walmart and buy groceries and they only have one human check out open and you have to use the damn self-checkout. First of all you need two carts, the one you are taking all your goceries out of and the other one to put them in after scanning them because there is no room anywhere else other than the floor! And you better not have cash because all the machines just take debit or credit cards. By the way, where's the discount for checking yourself out as you have saved them the expense of someone else's wages, social security, and health insurance. Linking as usual @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
It's nice to know I'm not alone in raving at the insanity of today's shopping experience! I figure the paper towels idiocy is a result of what's laughingly called math class and I can't wait until the next packaging monstrosity hits the shelves and I get to swear some more! Thanks for a good laugh!
Beautiful rant on the insufferable self-checkout experience! In CO, the bags would have cost you ten cents apiece as the state mandates “green” behavior modification to local rats.
The self-checkout machine asks "how many bags would you like to pay for" my honest answer is zero because I would not like to pay for any of the bags that I use.
Brilliant! After all, honesty IS the best policy.
Same in NM. Or as we should rename it. The state of Dominion!
I have long found it frustrating to shop at Target… And have avoided the store for years.
You know it's bad because I own TGT stock and still complain...
Inflation is squeezing all of us working class people for sure. However in the Florida Panhandle, customer service still is pretty decent. If it isn’t, one can walk 10 minutes to soothe the soul at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Fantastic article. Something I feel all-the-time and you captured it well.
I am not waiting around to have an employee unlock a display case for me, no matter what item it is. I'll simply order that item online.
Conspiracy theory is that the legalize shoplifting/looting movement in places like CA is funded by internet retailers conducting economic warfare against their brick and mortar competitors.
Devaluation of the currency always leads to devaluation of the humanity.
The thing that scares me in the next 10+ years is the average retirement savings 70% or more America have.
You cannot live off social security - so you will have either people 80 years old trying to work or they will end up be homeless.
It was bad before - after 3 years of inflation is going to be a lot worse. Savings will be cut or even worse people are taking money out of their 401k for living expenses now.
It is sad.
Exactly. My sister is the sole proprietor of a house cleaning business. There is no way she is going to make it to 65 without her body breaking down. There is no way she will be able to pay rent, buy gas and groceries, and pay the electric / oil / phone bills on Social Security alone. I'm planning on buying land with enough room for her to come and stay with me when the time comes. There is no way she will be able to get into subsidized housing. That is being taken up by illegals. Maybe there will be senior housing, in her area. In many areas there is nothing. It's terrifying to think about being sick, old, and poor. My sister has no savings. Everything she earns goes to pay her current bills.
Preach.
The idiocy you describe - of needing to interact with three employees vs previously needing to interact with one - is epidemic in corporate America. Unfortunately, it will probably take true adversity, in the form of our basic necessities not being met, for us to demand and regain some semblance of common sense.
People do not realize what insane damage was done to society due to inflationary money.
In a deflationary money system (For instance in one where the amount of money is physically fixed, for instance because gold is money and gold quantities are relatively fixed or at least can only increase linearilly with mining or even asymptotically due to decreasing ore grades) people are incentivized to postpone purchases and acquisitions since the value of your money (gold) is increasing over time as technology makes us more productive and an increasing amount of goods and services is chasing the fixed (or only marginally increasing) physical money. What follows is an incentive to save, resourcefulness and efficiency, as people save as much as they can and spend as little as necessary.
Recycling everything and anything would not be a problem in this system, since waste, especially electronic waste contains gold and silver, so recycling every gram of waste would yield back a lot of precious metals. Lack of recycling would mean you are losing gold and silver (money) to waste piles of nothing, so leaving waste unrecycled and unused would simply not be economically viable. Recycling every gram of stuff would be a very viable business opportunity that even becomes more profitable over time as the value of gold and silver gained back from recycling is increasing. By the way, recycling stuff to the last atom has been a reality for over 100 years. I highly recommend looking into Sierra Energy for this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6g4Da1ZMuY
Just one interesting statistic to this: electronic waste contains gold and silver at a concentration of over 100 times the ores these metals are mined from. Yet, electronic waste is not recycled, while we are opening up more and more mines every year to get gold and silver from them.
Compare this to an inflationary money system. NOTHING has permanent value. You either have to cycle your wealth continuously through assets and have to chase assets that due to a discrepancy or anomaly are temporarily undervalued or you have to become a professional trader to be able to increase your wealth. You have to spend ALL your money NOW to get the most value out of your purchases, since the prices of everything will be higher tomorrow, thus, if you don't spend it all now, you will suffer decreased purchasing power tomorrow.
It it any wonder we are turning the planet into a scrapyard? Consume NOW. Recycle NOTHING, get NEW stuff, now, in exponentially increasing quantities, or you will be poorer tomorrow. It is all down to money.
Preferred price inflation indexes?
Chapwood index
Shadow Stats
CIY (Calculate It Yourself)
The Chapwood Index is great.