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Gear Grinding 10: F-You! F-You! F-You! You're cool! F-You! I'm Out!

RaceBoarder

RaceBoarder

Waiting for the Snow to fly...
Looks like the last thread was closed in the last data flush, so here we are...

So today's grinder is that I'm just feeling totally beat down and deflated as a consumer. With my local grocery retailers outside of Wal-Mart, it's reached a point where 80% of the "sale" prices are locked behind an app or a store log-in. And this has me feeling totally violated. Like, I'm feeling enough pressure swiping my card at the register as is. Adding the pressure of deciding if my personal info is worth the $10-20 in savings each and every visit is just a step too far.

It's like I'm being fined for not wanting my info out there. Let alone the fact that we all know that these stores will inevitably suffer a data breach at some point in the future.

F**K Corporate America!
 
Reach out to friends or family who have already given their data and use their phone number / QR code or however you do it. Every time I go back to the states to shop, I just put in my sister's number and get my sweet, sweet discounts.
 
cF[Authentic said:
;n3892262]Reach out to friends or family who have already given their data and use their phone number / QR code or however you do it. Every time I go back to the states to shop, I just put in my sister's number and get my sweet, sweet discounts.
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Yea, I know there are ways around it.

I'm just tired of the principle of it. Give us your info or pay $20 extra every visit. Either way the company makes $$$$.
 
RaceBoarder said:
Yea, I know there are ways around it.

I'm just tired of the principle of it. Give us your info or pay $20 extra every visit. Either way the company makes $$$$.
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Oh its ridiculous...but since we had groceries delivered during COVID they have all my info anyways.
 
RaceBoarder said:
Yea, I know there are ways around it.

I'm just tired of the principle of it. Give us your info or pay $20 extra every visit. Either way the company makes $$$$.
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Aldi, my good man. Have they entered the nastiness of humanity that is where you live?
 
Kepler said:
Weird fact: in Europe, Aldis are high end. I don't know why they decided to do them as ghetto here. Tiered marketing by hemisphere?
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Probably something to do with the opposing strategies of the separate Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud organizations. Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's, and IIRC, Aldi Sud owns the US Aldi stores. Aldi Sud probably saw an easier path to profit by going the ultra-low cost retailer route.
 
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FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Probably something to do with the opposing strategies of the separate Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud organizations. Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's, and IIRC, Aldi Sud owns the US Aldi stores.
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Correct. Both Aldi companies were started by the same family. Aldi Sud started after the original founder, their dad, passed away.

And Aldi’s is great when you find what you want/need there. A giant bottle of ketchup is $1.84 vs $5 at Target, bread is $2.19 vs $3 and up, and the list goes on like that. We usually order through the Instacart app, and pay the $2 to have them do the shopping for us.

That said, not everything is a killer deal there, and for some stuff we still shop Target or Cub.
 
Having my midlife crisis sidelined indefinitely because parts are on back order and the shop can't even provide an estimate grinds my gears. Doubly so when they said someone else had said they'd talked to me about it already, which obviously since i was calling them they hadn't. :mad::mad:

I thought the biggest issue with learning to ride would be not killing myself, didn't even think it would just be the ability to get on the road. Long story short, since the bike was inherited from my father-in-law, it had sat in a garage for three years. Knew it needed work just from having sat there that long.

Originally wife said she was gonna take care of it, but didn't. Then she found a guy but he flaked out. Eventually we got it up and running ourselves at the end of July after i threatened to just go buy one instead. So I got to ride it for about a month, which was a blast. But we knew we needed to take it in for a full inspection. Which I did last Tuesday. Among other things it needs new tires, but apparently one of them is backordered with no expected date. Which no one bothered to tell me till I called today, and the shop didn't offer any alternatives. So I'm left here twiddling my thumbs while the riding season passes away.

Not happy at all.
 
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There's 21 Aldi's here in Mass and I've never even heard of them until I did a drive by to see what's grinding peoples gears.
 
So I was buying tickets to an event that is running locally at a smaller venue. Tickets through AXS. I got into 2 different presales one Wednesday, one Thursday. The tickets available in each of the presales were not worthy of pre-buying (none in orchestra just balcony) and I know from experience they usually hold off tickets in all sections for the normal sale. I logged in this morning 2 minutes after it opened and all the tickets in the orchestra are gone (minus 2 not together) and most of the presale tickets are still around. This act has a decent following but I have seen bigger acts in that same theatre that didn't sell out this way. Oh and of course as I am looking and seeing nothing Stubhub already has tickets in all the orchestra sections up for $20 above face. (just checked now they are $130 above face and you can tell it is the same seller selling blocks) Just a friggin joke...

No one hates Ticketmaster as much as me but when we buy tickets to shows in Minneapolis through the Hennepin Theater Trust we never have issues and they get way bigger acts than this. The places run by First Ave are all AXS and it is always a problem. Now I can't even afford to go to a show I really want to because First Ave would rather scalpers make money. Screw that noise.
 
One of my co-workers is starting to really grind my gears.

Backstory: back in 2021 my then boss gets railroaded by management at our engineering company into quitting. Finds a big firm that wants to break into Chicago market and hires him. Old firm becomes Lord of the Flies and a few of us want out. Couple months later, new firm with old boss makes offer to four of us to join. We jump.

Two and a half years later, all old boss has is lots of relationships he carried over, but hardly anything to show. Two subconsulting projects he was able to get us on after they were started, and one minor subconsultant win. Zero "big wins" his reputation should have gotten us, bit Illinois is fickle and state agencies are shy to new firma in their "first" few years in market. We are *close* to breaking in and starting to be recognized in selections by the state.

One of the board members from out of state sees the balance sheet of our emerging market and thinks he could do without our boss eating overhead with zero "big wins," fires boss this past spring.

So our team keeps pursuing work all summer and fall. We all have our own repuations as well and firms want to still work with us, but their relationship with old boss is stronger, so they're gunshy in partnering.


Here's the gear grinder. The project manager I work with basically has both feet out the door. He's convinced that because our company fired our boss he needs to find somewhere else to go. Because at the industry social events, he keeps being asked why he sticks around. Partly because some companies want to poach us, others because he's been seen as old boss's right hand guy.

I like the company, and think it could still work. I dont want to just go hopping around from company to company. My gear grinding is that this co-workers attitude is basically manifesting that we all leave this place.

The kicker is when I've talked to the old boss, he still thinks they're a good company, his complaint is that he felt blindsided by the firing because he was told weeks before the firing not worry about being overhead, the company knew it would take a bit to break into the Chocago market. And he was actually being very mindful of the bottom line and wasn't abusing being overhead while pursing work.
 
SonofSouthie said:
Moving SUCKS!!! But it's done; with a shout-out to my daughter and my 2 grandkids
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How many times did you vow never to accumulate so much sh-t again?

Just looking around, I can see where my willpower got me this time. Next move I'm just going to drop a match and lock the door.
 
Kepler said:
How many times did you vow never to accumulate so much sh-t again?

Just looking around, I can see where my willpower got me this time. Next move I'm just going to drop a match and lock the door.
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Years ago, I remember a coworker telling me that a house fire is a terrible thing, but at least it forces you to get rid of all the stuff you never should have had in the first place.

I have no idea if he spoke from experience...
 
Blinker comes before Brakes in the dictionary. It should on the road too.
On the way to work tonight, at least three cars slowed down and didn't put on their blinker until they were at the road they turned on. 2/3 turned right and I could have easily passed them if I had a clue as to what they were planning on doing. This is becoming far too prevalent lately.
I'm not sure what upsets me the most, these moron drivers doing this or the fact that the vehicle I recently picked up doesn't have photon torpedoes as an accessory.
 
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