this site is a fucKING NIGHTMARE

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

I explained very clearly to the manager my issue with the meat section not having the price tags listed, and they claimed it was only going to be for the meat, since meat is by weight, and the price of each item is printed on the packs of each item.

Sure. That’s how they get their foot in the door. Fast forward not even two weeks, and here we are:

Bar codes. No prices, no item descriptions. No price stickers on the individual items. Heck, not even the name of the item that is SUPPOSED to be there.

No. The only way to see the price is to scan it on your phone app, which is also recording what you looked at recently, as a way of gauging what you might be looking for in the future.

So here’s what we’re gonna do gang:

Every time you go into a store that has implemented these price-less tags:

Take 1-3 items up to the cash register. Ask the cashier for the price, or hit the price check item on the self checkout, which will likely call over the attendant.

Express that you didn’t actually want it, you just couldn’t see on the shelf how much it was.

POLITELY, AND WITH A THANK YOU FOR THE PRICE CONFIRMATION, Give the items to the cashier or attendant to put back.

When they inevitably try to push the app, politely decline. If pressed for why not, say you don’t want to have to carry your phone in-hand the whole time you are shopping in order to see how much things cost. (Not having cell service or data to use the app is NOT a valid excuse, as stores already often have complimentary WiFi AND more stores will provide WiFi rather than give up on this push for surveillance pricing)

If it’s a shelf-stable item, the cashier will have to set it aside, taking up room in their limited operating space, and eventually pass it off to someone to put in a holding area to put back later. If it’s a fridge/freezer item, it might have to get tossed due to food product sale regulations.

In either case, you are making it a pain in the ass for them to have these digital bar codes. Tie up the checkouts. Give the employees more busywork that the company has to pay them to do. Hurt their bottom line having to toss the pint of ice cream you carried around in your cart for 20 minutes before giving it back to the cashier.

No. Capitalism creates new avenues to extract wealth. If the new innovation doesn't make the company more money, they won't implement it.

Example: I worked in a family owned grocery store many years ago. Our closes competitor was a regional chain that switched to digital tags. This was really before the Internet of Things was in full swing. They had endless headaches with the tags dying and stuff but that isn't what I'm on about.

What I'm saying is, it has been possible to create digital tags for decades.

In theory, if used for good and not for evil these tags could be brilliant. My most recent retail gig had automated ordering based on inventory levels. Price changes were routinely sent down to the store level by corporate. In a perfect morning, the opening manager prints all the price changes. Some days, it is fully 90 minutes to two hours of labor that the company allots the same 30 minutes for (no surprises there).

If the morning manager doesn't check the price changes, they just don't get printed and replaced. You can already see the problem. Shelf tags are often wrong. Especially since the prices in the industry fluctuate a lot and our buys were not the same size all the time so the company would adjust the prices a lot. More than more retail stores.

Having digital tags would be brilliant. They could be hard wired, even, so no worrying about the tags dying like in that old grocery store. With full coverage wi-fi, the system could just update the prices at midnight every day.

It would probably take many years to break even on the saved labor and loss of revenue from price matching the tags if the company ever did break even.

Now suddenly, though, there is some huge value add to rush to digital tags because now companies can use device recognition to gouge customers.

Susie had a whole thing about hiding her tail, right?

And it's clear that Susie is actually empathising with Orange with her situation.

Susie trying to reassure Orange that it's okay they aren't human or look like the others...

And this one is the most interesting, because it seems the whole thing about "pretending to have the odd one fit in" clearly upset Susie here. Normally, Susie isn't someone that would resort to back to "beating up enemies" like in Ch 1, but its clear that she didn't like the direction of how things were going that she forces the group to act in this way.

We know that Kris' whole thing is about how they feel different from the rest of the town for being the only human in a town full of monsters, right? Orange seems to be a reflection of this, yet it's SUSIE, not Kris, who empathises with Orange the most here, out of all of the 7 Flowers. They even have a whole thing about them being HUNGRY when we first meet them, and Susie has food insecurity.

The whole hiding the tail thing, humans not having tails, Susie trying to reassure Orange that it's okay to be different.

Guys. Do you not realise what this is all implying?

Could Susie have lived with humans...?

That's why Susie was triggered when they tried to pretend to be a mouse to make Orange fit in. Because that's what happened to her. Susie says that those who usually tried to be friends with her often did it as a joke.

Holy shit.

Orange is a parallel to younger Susie just like how Aqua is a parallel to younger Kris. (And note that cyan and orange as considered opposites/complimentary in UTDR with the whole "moving vs staying still" mechanics of the two.)

There's also the fact that Orange is the one who ends up becoming besties with Pink. Pink being the Kris + Player parallel... Orange and Pink is Susie and Kris. oh my god.

Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.

So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.

But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.

It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?

So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:

Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.

And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.

So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".

So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.

My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.

Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.

Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.

Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).

Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues

According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.

Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.

For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.

Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life

Aaand a close-up:

HEY HI HELLO THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE

I’m talking showing scenes of something bumping the van in the middle of the night while they’re sleeping shoulder to shoulder under a single blanket covering everyone. Scooby tumbles across the four of them and insists it was something outside, not him chasing a rabbit in his sleep.

In the mornings the guys wash and dress on one side of the Mystery Machine and the girls on the other. They shout theories over the van, occasionally getting side-lined by debating who’s setting up the gas cooker to make breakfast.

While Fred or Shaggy drives Daphne tests Velma with questions from textbooks so she can stay up to date on schoolwork. Fred always claims they’re students from a nearby city on a road-trip for a school project whenever they’re pulled over by the cops.

Each time they get paid for solving a mystery they stock up on non-perishable food that can be stored in the van (including Scooby Snacks of course!). Then they make a budget plan for stretching their money, fuel and supplies long enough to get to their next paid mystery.

Sex and drugs can be an underlining thing, but it doesn’t need to be a cheap source of humour. While they’re lounging in the back of the van Shaggy could be shown casually rolling a blunt while trying to convince everyone they shouldn’t venture into that abandoned office building the mayor insists is closed for repairs. Fred and Daphne sometimes insist that Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma go search for leads for a few hours while they’d stay at the van and “talk over some trap plans”.

On top of that, if they wanted to go dark mature they could add in backstories of the kids having troubled home lives, hence why there’s no concern for them being essentially homeless and dropping out of school. Also an explanation on why their parents haven’t sicced cops on them to bring them home.

Sister Tasque Manager

I am not immune to Tasque Manager in a nun outfit.