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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
Woof. The logo was always a hint about what they were planning to do to the customers. First the K and the G came for the letter o…and I did nothing because I am not the letter o.
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Now would be a good time to start a line of headwear that has infrared leds to shield your face from cameras.
How will the camera categorize someone with an led cap?
As an asshole that deserves the highest price hahahaha
“Resistance Fingerprinting detected in Produce.”
+$3
The high cost of being poor strikes again.
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.
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.
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.
Right because this won’t spread…
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!
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
… or maybe customers don’t have much of a choice ?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Bit late for surge pricing concerns
The second-best time for concern is now.
Looks like I’m finally going to have to start wearing the ol’ anti facial recognition makeup
Curious to see if anti-recognition causes the prices to go down or up.
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)
Woof. The logo was always a hint about what they were planning to do to the customers. First the K and the G came for the letter o…and I did nothing because I am not the letter o.