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At about the same time as when the government phased out high-power analog TV, Netflix was offering a DVD service via the mail. We used that and we were very impressed with that service.
But after a year, we noticed an issue. Sometimes when we returned a DVD their website would acknowledge that it was returned the same day, but other times it would take as long as a week before Netflix acknowledged the returned DVD. We eventually figured out that our rural mail carrier was holding some DVDs for her home viewing.
We could keep a long queue of DVDs ready to be sent out to us, but when we were returning a DVD I had to drive into town and drop off the DVD directly at the Post Office.
In our area, the low-power digital TV peaked out at one station. But at that time, our ISP connection [dsl using the phonelines] got much better. We eventually dropped the DVD thing completely and shifted to viewing shows online.
The lesson that we learned was that rural mail carriers have an opportunity to hold the DVDs for their private viewing.
From learning this, we have completely stopped sending outgoing mail with our mailbox.
Well don't shop at Walmart then, because that's the way they are going. Hell, they are working on robots to do what employees currently do. ........
I DON'T!
There are very few things I need at Wally World these days which makes it the absolute place to go. The decline of their quality over the years has driven me away.
And it's 2023...a $300 supermarket purchase is not MASSIVE.
You didn't say how many people are in your household or how often you go shopping, but my husband and I spend $700 a month on groceries, excluding wine, and that includes an average of $200 on steaks and fresh seafood, but we cook 95% of our meals "from scratch". Anyway, I am sure that many retirees get by on spending $100 a week or less for groceries (and so could we if forced to do so), so for them, a grocery budget of $1,200 a month would be massive.
Again, this shows the difference between "old" and "new" thinking because I am quite sure that many young couples could not get by with less than a $100-a-week food and grocery budget (which includes grooming and cleaning products) without some minor "trauma" in having to forego fast food, Starbucks, and ready-to-go deli meals. But, once again, if that is what they want to do and can afford it, I have no problem with that.
Last edited by katharsis; 10-19-2023 at 11:57 AM..
LOL, $300 at the supermarket now means you bought some seafood and a few steaks
Well, as someone who briefly worked retail, many customers with $300+ tallies have tons of smaller items, some of them perishable, that add up to $300+. Really fun when they (1) leave the cart sitting right at the self checkout register, or (2) leave with the full cart without paying. They do it all the time. Employees are supposed to catch them, but how? Employees are not allowed to confront. It's a stupid, asinine system. Self checkouts is a failed experiment but it's not going away. In the meantime they're paying a fortune to design/build engineers and IT people to have robots do most if not all of the work. Don't be surprised when in the future a robot is checking you out at the cash register. I'm not kidding.
Yes, and a great many people seem to do that -- not just US (you and me).
But to be clear, I think there is more of a divide between rural and urban than between many other groups. That is just my opinion, of course.
But it does seem to me that it is the young that is trying to push their ideas onto the old than the other way around, but this hasn't changed -- I know that I thought the old were hopeless in their way of thinking, too, 50 years ago. But, again, the difference between then and now is that the young could not force their ideas on the old and that the old back then could refuse to get and use the new technology, if they so wished. My grandmother, for example, never did get a microwave oven or an answering machine even though she lived in her own home until 1994, when she died.
Last edited by katharsis; 10-19-2023 at 12:14 PM..
Yes, and I asked that of the poster who tried to help an oldster with an Apple app, as I thought that CCs and cash were still good at checkouts. As long as these can continue to be used, I don't have a problem with that at all except that there are several/many stories about people being falsely accused of stealing and of problems with scanning some items. Again, as long as there is a human available for assistance, I don't have a problem with it.
The poster hasn't yet replied, but I just didn't understand why an Apple app was even involved in helping the oldster with self-checkout.
As a side note
“Walmart is stripping some stores of self-checkout lanes and bringing back cashiers. Walmart is pulling self-checkout lanes from at least three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company is also testing varying degrees of hands-on employee assistance with self-service kiosks.”
I’m seeing more self check outs being slightly changed to one cashier going to each customer cart and scanning then customer is loading onto belt, then paying and bagging.
Our experience at Aldi was the self check scanner was too sensitive and kept scanning out items 2 or 3 times and we had to call for help. I think some technology is great but some goes by the wayside , not due to people being luddites or too old to learn, just that they are more trouble that it’s worth.
I don't understand your second paragraph. There aren't any belts on self checkout stations.
The store I worked at had 17 stations at one end, and 5 stations at the other end. It is impossible during a rush (which is frequent) to help customers and prevent theft. Thieves love self checkout because they know they won't be apprehended. All those cameras and screens are mostly for show. The only thing an employee can do is watch a known shoplifter. It's not always possible to do that. The Walmart closest to my home always has at least 2 cashiers open, and often 3-4. The huge irony is that they get far fewer customers than the store I worked it (very briefly, thankfully). Walmart has their head you know where when it comes to almost everything. Maybe they can save themselves by using robots.
Why on earth should someone be forced to spend $1,900 a year for a personal item that they don't want?
I spend less than 10% of that.
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