For me, one of the most annoying things about shopping in stores is that I’m forced to drive to a big box store like Target or Walmart because they’ve forced the local stores out of business, destroying traditional downtowns and walkable neighborhoods and making people need a car to get anywhere. Did they fix that?
The fix is to legalize the construction of more of these walkable neighbourhoods which are the most desirable places to live (so developers could make a lot of money with relatively small plots of land) yet are illegal to build because city governments have regulated them into oblivion.
I swear Home Depot and Lowe’s are the fucking worst when it comes to their checkout. That alone makes me go to a local hardware store let alone the fact that they know what I need most of the time.
Were those little stores actually affordable to people on the bottom half of the income scale? Grocery stores are a great example. I would go bankrupt trying to shop for groceries at the corner store. People complain about the chains but I don’t recall small grocery stores ever being affordable.
It’s true they can charge cheaper prices, and that’s why they’re able to put other stores out of business. The problem is, there are a lot of large-scale negative effects, but the decision of shopping there is usually beneficial on an individual level. It’s the “tragedy of the commons”.
For me, one of the most annoying things about shopping in stores is that I’m forced to drive to a big box store like Target or Walmart because they’ve forced the local stores out of business, destroying traditional downtowns and walkable neighborhoods and making people need a car to get anywhere. Did they fix that?
https://ilsr.org/articles/robinson-patman-groceries-atlantic/
Someone on here pointed me to this excellent article.
<s> As with so many wonderful things in the US and the rest of the planet, it can be traced to Reagan era successes in the class war. </s>
Great article, thank you for sharing.
The fix is to move to a super expensive walkable neighborhood in the city that everyone wants to live in and no one can afford
The fix is to legalize the construction of more of these walkable neighbourhoods which are the most desirable places to live (so developers could make a lot of money with relatively small plots of land) yet are illegal to build because city governments have regulated them into oblivion.
And on top of this, we have to ring up and bag our own stuff now. There’s always a line because someone doesn’t know how to use the machine.
Or the machine is having some type of stupid issues. I didn’t take anything off your stupid platform, why is the scale throwing a fucken fit?
“Did you bring your own bags?” “Yes.” “Please place bags in the bagging area… UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!”
I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten out of Home Depot without requiring assistance from the self checkout monitoring person. Their machines are horrendous.
I swear Home Depot and Lowe’s are the fucking worst when it comes to their checkout. That alone makes me go to a local hardware store let alone the fact that they know what I need most of the time.
How about an “email only” option for the receipt?
I’ve had a fair number of trips for individual bolt, washer and nuts because I just need a couple.
This morning the machine I was using decided to restart itself when I clicked “pay”.
Oh you’re trying to buy alcohol? Let me stop and fetch a human person to check you’re old enough. Siiiiigh.
laughs in European
and they never have exactly what you need either. the number of times i’ve come home empty handed and had to buy online anyway is rediculous
Were those little stores actually affordable to people on the bottom half of the income scale? Grocery stores are a great example. I would go bankrupt trying to shop for groceries at the corner store. People complain about the chains but I don’t recall small grocery stores ever being affordable.
It’s true they can charge cheaper prices, and that’s why they’re able to put other stores out of business. The problem is, there are a lot of large-scale negative effects, but the decision of shopping there is usually beneficial on an individual level. It’s the “tragedy of the commons”.
According to the article, independent grocery stores were only 1% more expensive than the chains when the act was being enforced.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/food-deserts-robinson-patman/680765/?gift=QFVDFKVE3HQ31cU_KmT1dMoNepnmHxqTbYqKlK_hiUE