The main problem is how a user’s age is verified for laws like this. Why not just make the same law apply to the entire platform? I think all of us could benefit from less addictive social media.

I’m lucky to have an Aldi within driving distance, but their cheapest stuff I used to buy has gone up over 150% since covid while other grocery stores around here went up 70-90% for similar food. Aldi is still cheaper, but not by as much.

Yes but you can’t help with that part. My goal with this post is to find lesser-known websites or chains that treat its customers like people.

Luckily there are some thrift stores around here, and one nice thing is they’re always small enough they have real people working instead of some AI robot. Although you never know for sure what they have so shopping takes longer. I’ll just need to plan for a day when I’m less busy.

I’ll be honest I heard of mercari but it just seemed like an eBay clone and I didn’t want to make another account just so it coulf leaked in a data breach, but I never bothered to look into them. Thanks for the recommendation, I think it’s finally time I check them out.

Yep I think so too. Once companies get so big they have more money than they know what to do with, so why not expand into tracking customers and selling their data for a few extra cents?

Target partners with Flock Safety and famously has one of the most sophisticated security systems to where they’ve partnered with the FBI to help them solve crimes. https://thehorizonsun.com/features/2024/04/11/the-target-forensics-lab/

Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world and they build profiles on users and track people across other websites, plus they own tons of smaller companies to help in this regard. They also own Blink and Ring which have partnered with Flock and ICE to identify and track people in the real world as well as report them to the police if they are believed to be here illegally or potentially involved in a major crime. I will add Ring cut its partnership with Flock and ICE because they ran a dumb Superbowl ad telling people about it, but they will do the same type of thing again, just more secretly next time. https://hrnews1.substack.com/p/ring-cameras-join-flock-and-amazon

Amazon is also starting to make delivery drivers record everything with smart glasses. https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/amazons-delivery-drivers-are-getting-ai-glasses-and-thats-the-least-unsettling-ai-in-the-job

Amazon is also rolling out drone deliveries at the same time, which will be more cameras in the sky. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-expansion

Walmart partners with Flock, and therefore ICE as well, but I don’t know as much about them. I’m sure they also do some data tracking online like everyone else. I know I don’t want to give them money so I don’t bother looking up new stories on them. https://www.gadgetreview.com/fact-checking-the-whistleblower-what-walmarts-official-alpr-notice-actually-says

I assume they get paid for serving me ads, and is that the case even when I don’t click on any ads?

EBay is not ideal, but like you said sometimes they can’t be avoided. Bah indeed.

Thanks for reminding me about them! I remember shuffling through their catalogs a long time back.

Plus it would open the door for even more tracking.

That’s my plan: consume less, support physical stores, and use more cash.

I didn’t realize Ace hardware is a co-op, I’ll have to check out the one by me. Thanks!

Yeah, plus Amazon uses dark patterns to get you to sign up for prime, and then prime isn’t even fast shipping anymore…it bothers me enough I can stand to pay a little more somewhere else.

Heh I’m sure you’re right but I’m also hoping to stay away from the cheap plastic stuff. With everything getting more expensive, I’m trying to slow down and only buy things I actually need.

I didn’t think about using amazon to search for an item to buy on another site, that could work well! Like the other user said, Costco might be my best bet as far as chains go, and for any other physical stores I’ll just have to try harder to find local ones.

Costco seems like a good option. I don’t need a ton of choices and I’m sure I can find space for the extra bulk. Thanks!

I wonder if it’s related to all the people migrating from California after covid? Or maybe those people were super red and drawn to Texas because of it.

I can see why stocks related to Musk would fall, but shouldn’t other tech stocks do the same if they will all be held to the same laws? And why would the value of the dollar fall? Isn’t it essentially a reflection of how trustworthy the government is?

Maybe the open source stuff would exist, after all there will always be nerds doing this stuff for the fun of the game, and some companies would be using the open source models to build customer chat bots or in-house troubleshooting agents. Things that help them move faster or more efficiently. I don’t think the audio, video, or code generating models would be far enough along to be useful at all.