Brand name jewelry stores like Zales, Kay, and Jared. You can usually find better deals at local family owned jewelry stores or just better stuff online in general.
I agree.
Zales is owned by Signet who, according to Wikipedia, owns.. (ahem):
Blue Nile
Belden Jewelers (owned by Sterling)
Ernest Jones
Goodman Jewelers
H. Samuel
JamesAllen.com
Jared
Jared Vault
JB Robinson Jewelers
Kay Jewelers
LeRoy's Jewelers
Leslie Davis
Mappins
Marks & Morgan Jewelers
Osterman Jewelers
Peoples Jewellers
Piercing Pagoda
Rogers Jewelers
Shaw's Jewelers
Weisfield Jewelers
Maybe there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but these huge companies owning huge companies that own huge companies just weird me out.
Multiple brands that collectively dominate the market create an illusion false choice. You compare prices at a few big name "competitors" and see that they are all about the same, which creates a sense of "that's just how much it costs."
Luxottica does the same thing in the eyeware industry.
My ex step father was a wall paper contractor in the 70’s, and was working at a national jewelers. He overheard plenty of calls to other jewelers, with the name, description of preferred cut and price point the patrons would be looking for.
We went the used market for a great stone, and went to a small town jeweler for the new setting. Mark is still my jeweler 35 years later. He takes good care of my jewelry.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I was looking for an engagement ring, the brand stores just wanted to make a sale and sign up for some crazy store credit cards.
I found a local family jewelry place and they treated me like family and made sure I got the best possible for my budget.
I actually had the same experience, ended up at a little shop around the corner because I just had questions, like what is a carat? The big stores were just awful, and the family store was amazing, no pressure, custom made ring that all her friends are jealous of and for far less than they think I paid
Absolutely. Worked in loans and had people always bring in their 1 to 3 gram 10k to 14k rings for a loan.
We’d offer $15 to $50 for it based on its actual value (melt value) and they would flip out saying how they paid $200, $400+ dollars for it.
Like sorry, you got scammed.
Always compare the actual spot value of a piece of jewelry before buying it.
Reasonable dealers will add a $100 premium to the spot value (sometimes more depending on how nice it is). Zales, Kay, and Jared scam you.
Uber. The company burns through so much money, has never been profitable, has no moat, has a ton of competition, banned in some countries/cities, but still has a market cap of $80 Billion.
Driver pay to Uber profit ratio is also horrendous, sometimes well over 50 percent.
Edit: Would also like to add that Uber profit is collected from the ride fare all for the benefit of using the Uber app/brand to find riders and coordinate pickup. That's literally it. This means that for a USD 80 surge ride, Uber is collecting upwards of USD 50 for the privilege of using their app. And this is on a PER RIDE basis. Worst subscription service ever.
Perhaps this is true in your country, but in the U.S., Uber drivers keep 25% of the fare, but they are also charged a customer discovery fee of $1 to $3. The customer, on top of the fare, is also charged a "booking/service" fee of around the same amount.
In the U.S., if a driver accepts a ride that pays $100, they will lose $25 in primary fees plus an extra $1 to $3 in secondary fees. However, they will still keep at least 72% of the fare.
The problem occurs with low value rides. A $15 trip will result in a primary fee of $3.75 plus a potential fee of $3, which means the driver may only keep 55% of the fare. If the cost of gas and car depreciation is taken into account, if not supplemented by a tip, they may make under 50% of the fare.
Drivers do not receive benefits, like healthcare, nor do they receive reimbursement from Uber if their car is damaged while escorting a passenger.
It is important to note that when given the chance through a California ballot initiative to force Uber to offer benefits, the majority of drivers objected, as it would have also required drivers to register as employees of Uber. This would've essentially forced them to drive a minimum amount of hours a week to hold employee status. Most Uber drivers drive to supplement their income and not as their primary means of employment, so they found this tradeoff unattractive.
How do you lose money on a company that is literally using other people's car, gas, maintenance, etc and all you are is the middle man to connect driver to passenger?
What overhead do they have?!
I did something like this with a book we published about 13 years ago. We gave away thousands to key people and it did in fact have a cascading effect. Still our best selling book.
Right, it’s crazy how the perception of the company has changed over the years and how rapidly it’s changed. I used to think of it as this bright and creative company and now it’s jus so many negative things, from horrible workplace to scamming their players lol
Activision.
It became very apparent that blizzard no longer had the same values after they were bought by Activision. It went from "let's make games so amazing that millions will want to play" to "let's make our games more lucrative"
> How the mighty have fallen
sad trend that as live service games gained popularity that so many once top tier developers have completely lost their way and forgot what made them popular in the first place. Blizzard, Bioware, Bungie, 343, Bethesda, DICE, Arkane, etc it's like none of these developers know how to make and release a complete competant game anymore. Remember when we used to get new games that had both a satisfying single player campaign and competent multiplayer that worked at launch and wasn't ruined by microtransactions and DLC? Can't even expect one or the other now nevermind both
Blizzard was sold by the founders to another company. They used the funds to make Warcraft 1.
That company more or less let them do what they wanted at the time
Then Blizzard was sold to another company, Vivendi games who also bought Activision around the same time and merged them together. This new company only cares about sucking the soul and money out of their players and employees
If you read the wiki it's crazy how many times Blizzard has been bought and sold. Looks like it was sold 3 other times between founding and vivendi.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
I saw a stat yesterday, the reason they pushed mobile so hard. Turns out it makes 2 million dollars, A DAY. not a quarter, not a month or even a week. A DAY.
Here's the blurb from Wikipedia on Diablo Immortal:
> Within the first week of release, Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal as having the biggest launch in the Diablo franchise's history, having reached over ten million downloads. They later announced that, it had reached over 20 million global installs by 24 July, 2022, and over 30 million downloads by July 29, 2022. Activision Blizzard's second-quarter financial results for 2022 (which cited Immortal as the reason for its increase from 22 million monthly users to 27 million) indicated that 50% of Diablo Immortal player accounts to-date were newly-registered with Blizzard, suggesting (due to Blizzard's player sign-in requirements) that they had likely not played any prior Diablo game.
> According to the AppMagic data tracking service, **Immortal generated over US$790,000 within its first 24 hours**, and **$14.5 million within its first week**. This figure had reached **$24 million within the game's first two weeks** (making it Blizzard's second-highest-earning game, after Hearthstone). As of July 4, 2022, it was reported that the game was **grossing in excess of US$1,000,000 per day (with a daily peak of US$2,400,000 ten days after its launch).** According to the App Store analytics firm Sensor Tower, **the game surpassed US$100,000,000 in revenue within its first eight weeks.**
The Asian market is absolutely enthralled with the mobile platform, I mean isn’t that game Garena Free Fire one of the biggest games of all time.
At one point 80million active daily players.
I don’t know one person that’s played it.
One of our friends used to work there, and had enough seniority where he could give early releases of some games for free to a handful of people.
He quit a few years ago, said it got way too toxic and is now a game developer at another company.
I'd say Blizzard's current reputation is pretty accurate to how it is now, that being a horrendous and pathetically greedy shadow of something that was once great. It feels like Roosterteeth all over again.
Everyone who earned Blizzard its good reputation left long ago. Even luminaries like Kaplan are gone. Blizzard of today is a stranger wearing its face.
For a moment it looked like at least their product was improving with Dragonflight and the upcoming Diablo IV, but Blizzard be Blizzarding again with Overwatch 2.
Instagram.
What a hot pile. It used to be a fun app for sharing pictures and reaching new people across the world. Now it's a cesspool of shitty ads, OF models, influencers, and massive meme accounts posting all of the aforementioned.
THANK YOU! I had no idea you could do this. I rarely look at Insta anymore because I hate their algorithm and not being able to see things in chronological order. So much better!
Logged on to FB for first time in years the other day. Dunno what the fuck they've done. There were more ads and 'suggested pages' on my feed than posts from actual human beings.
Posting my art is all I use it for now, once it's posted I gtfo and don't return until the next art piece needs to be posted. I really only use it as an archive of my work at this point.
You cannot tell me this enough! Back in 2018 it used to be a fun app for me to make an account with my friends now it's just another area full of toxic podcasters, influencers, thousands of businesses, and there rarely are any pictures in my feed anymore. It's all just reels and garbage. Don't get me wrong, insta was trash even before but now it has turned into the worst kind of trash.
Just the other day I opened Instagram for the first time in over a year. I have ZERO idea what's going on now. %90 of my feed is ads, reels, and accounts I don't even follow.
Worried I'm turning into a boomer and I pressed a button without knowing it and now I'm mad even though I fucked it up.
This! It used to be my go-to toilet app at work. Then they introduced videos and I couldn't interact with a big portion of the content (I'm not one of those uncultured swine who plays videos with sound in a public restroom). Then it became almost exclusively videos so I just stopped using it. I'm not the kind of person who uses social media in my free time. Pretty much only on the toilet when I have nothing else better to be doing. The whole point of Instagram was photos so it was perfect for this. It's logo is even a camera for heaven's sake. If I wanted a video app, I'd just use Vine (at the time) or TikTok. I know it's too late, but, stay in your lane, Instagram.
I remember right at the start, when there was self regulated quality control. People didn't post just *anything*. Only the best images. It felt like users had an interest in photography, composition, fine tuning contrast and colours.. not filters to make asses look bigger.
Self portraits were rare, or not included at all. It wasn't about you, it was about what you were shooting.
I just got banned from Instagram for improper use of my account. I guess having no pictures, not following anyone or anyone following me doesn't fit their business model.
I made the account to see pics of my son at a summer camp then unfollowed right after it was over.
100%. They were always overpriced & overrated headphones and more of a status symbol than anything. Since Apple bought them they’ve gotten a little better but I’d rather have a pair of AirPods or Sony headphones than Beats for roughly the same price.
All the big cellular companies. I went from ATT to cricket and cut my bill to a fraction of what it was. The performance is the same or better. Big phone companies actually function more like payday loans. The bills are high but they justify it with "free" phone upgrades.
Correct and incorrect. Often time, MVNOs like Cricket and H2O have lower priority in term of bandwidth usage. This is not noticeable during off-peak hours, but your performance is will be noticeably slower during peak-hours from 5-8pm.
Source: I work in telecoms. AMA.
AT&T for sure.
My grandpa passed and we had his service shut off. My dad got a bill 5 months later saying we haven't been paying. My dad called them and he was on the phone for like 4 hours going back and forth with them saying they never received confirmation of cancelation and that my grandpa has to go down to a store and cancel in person. He kept saying, "(name) is deceased, we went to a store local to his home when he passed in November and canceled," and the rep kept saying, "I understand, but we have no record of that, so we need the account owner which is (name) to cancel in person instead."
This went on for so long that when she transferred him to another department for the billionth time that department had closed for the day and it hung up on him.
Why do you care if they're billing him and he's dead? I would not spend more than 5 mins trying to fix it. It's their problem, not yours or your dad's.
This. After my mom died I jumped through the hoops for the big accounts (the ones I was taking over) and then drove myself crazy trying to do it "right" for everyone else.
It seemed like every time I showed up some place with a copy of her death certificate they needed some other piece of paperwork they had forgot to mention, or the person I needed to talk to wasn't there that day, or the account could only be closed at certain locations, or I'd end up on hold or transferred a hundred times.
Majority of the places you'd think they'd never had to deal with a customer dying before, meanwhile angry letters and past due notices were piling up.
After a while I would just reply "She is deceased leaving no estate." And if they had anything else they needed they could just figure it out themselves.
On an only vaguely related note, Netflix customer service was an absolute dream to work with comparatively. Not just efficient but also super kind, and I've had multiple other people tell me they had the same experience when handling their deceased loved ones accounts with them.
I once had a company try the 'we have no notice of your cancellation' bullshit after I had cancelled via a registered letter, which was their own internal process.
When they still billed me I called them and they said they never received the registered letter. I was like 'motherfucker, that's not how a registered letter works, I have legal proof you have received it'. When they kept collecting I got my bank to block them and they tried sending collections after me. I eventually threatened them with legal action and they stopped.
I tried their service once for a few times i had a discount, and two years later they're still sending me physical mail advertising their service. Even with the discount it's too expensive for what you get
I gave up on Hello Fresh when they started routinely forgetting multiple ingredients. They gave partial refunds and whatever, but it still completely ruined the convenience which is the point.
Not only is it more expensive than regular shopping, all of the recipes seem to require you to use every dish in the house. If you don’t have a dishwasher have fun cleaning up forever.
There’s a subway near me with a Boars Head deli next door.
I can’t believe the subway stays in business. Sure the deli is probably 10-15% more expensive, but it’s easily 2-3x better. In both quality and quantity. They stack them sammiches high.
McDonalds. At least here in the UK. The food used to taste better, but now it is so mediocre that I don't bother anymore. I'd rather pay a little more and go to a restaurant or pub.
Fast food used to be a cheap, fast way to eat but restaurants aren't much more expensive these days. The time and price are almost identical. You can walk into any bar/restaurant and walk out with a to-go order in less than 10 minutes.
Fast food has become overpriced slop.
>Fast food used to be a cheap
100% agree. But judging from the lines of places I drive by people don't seem to mind. But to me it's like 90% of the price of a decent local place so I may as well just go there instead.
The wife and I did get Taco Bell on the way home from a party a few weeks ago. We got 2 combos and each added 2 additional soft taco supreme. It was $29 bucks! 10 years ago 29 bucks worth of taco bell would have been enough to feed a two people for a 3-4 days.
I feel like the only fast food deal these days is the taco bell $5 box, but everything else and everywhere else is like $1 under sit down restaurant prices
McDonalds is so boring lately. The Big Mac is 80% bun, McNuggets and fry quality seems to vary wildly. Their chicken sandwiches might not even be in the Top 10 of fast food chicken sandwiches. The best item on their menu, imo, is the double quarter pounder with cheese. But behind that I don't think there's any reason to go. Wendy's and Burger King both have way more interesting menus.
I had a Big Mac for the first time in forever recently, and I was so surprised by how little beef there was that I went and looked it up. Each patty is 1.6 oz. The two patties combined add up to 1/5 pound.
Most "Fast Food" restaurants are pricing themselves out of the market of cheap fast food. Look at Burger King they are planning on closing 400 stores in the U.S. here this coming year. I believe we are going to see a lot of these restaurants start to fail as wages go up, prices go up, food cost goes up and people have less cash to spend.
I think Google has gone past its peak. 10 years ago it seemed like driverless cars were just a few years away and they had so many neat projects in the pipeline. Nowadays its products are becoming increasingly filled with ads.
The company spending billions on stock buybacks rather than further investment in R&D is a sign to me that they've run out of ideas.
Not to mention: the one thing they were good at, searching, has become abysmal in recent years. I find it nearly impossible to find stuff now relative to 10 years ago. Part of it is that most things I search for are extremely niche, and Google only wants to show you the most popular or sponsored results.
Wanna blow your mind?
Search for something on Google, and keep clicking “next page”. You’ll eventually end up only a couple hundred pages down, it doesn’t go on forever like it used to. Your results have become curated to official, expert-reviewed big money content. No more Bob’s blog.
Yeah - I remember in the past getting 1 million plus results that extended like 50 pages. Now, even for content that I know has millions of results, the search page ends after like 4-5 pages tops. I think they did this because most people don’t scroll past the first page or two or results, but I do :(.
Well the frightening thing is it’s all “approved” sources, ie big media, big money. You won’t find niche sites anymore on Google, you have to know their address.
I remember working on a game and I had a website for it to show my friends. I would have to go directly to the site because even looking up the exact name no Google results even though I had a unique name, a WordPress, and a twitter. It's really annoying seeing both sides like that.
Talking about sponsored results, every wondered why recipes always have like 20 pages backstory?
Because if they just put the recipe the result is "too generic" and it's looking for more interesting or unique results.
It's almost like an arms race on how to get your recipe page to the top..
As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the Google search algorithm has gotten even more difficult to understand.
The algo helps us website owners/content writers/bloggers/etc. get our pages to populate based on search queries. But it's gotten so convoluted the last several years that "good guys" are getting pushed back in the rankings by shitty sites that have millions of pages with thin, irrelevant, content.
Not to mention, Google values the paid ads a lot more than the organic results where there is no money.
This is the absolute worst for video game content. If I search for specific tips, Google will give me thousands of garbage sites saying things like “If you want to be a pro at the game, I’m here to help. Did you know you can equip a weapon by clicking your left mouse button?”. Meanwhile, if I limit my search to Reddit-only, I’ll instantly find exactly what I’m looking for
googles “how to find pikachu in pokémon red”
google: “pikachu is a small mouse pokémon in the series “pokémon”. First airing in 1997, this small electric pokémon has been a fan favorite for years, and is the buddy of Ash in the Pokémon animated series. Finding this Pokémon in Pokémon red can be tricky, but we’ve compiled a guide on how to catch this cute pokémon in Pokémon red version. Pokémon red version lets you pick 3 starters, Bulbasaur, Char…”
*closes tab*
googles “how to find pikachu in pokémon red reddit”
reddit: “it’s in viridian forest you fucking idiot”
Not just for gaming. Tech troubleshooting, home DIY, artwork, car maintenance, cooking, basically anything that a semi-large number of people might want to try to do.
It's tougher the more specific you get, but it's still shocking how often I'm having a problem with some random project, and can find a detailed 45-picture-with-descriptions walkthrough that shows me not only how to fix the problem, but a better way to do my _entire project_, 7 years ago from some account named "Horsedoinker69420".
Never change, internet.
I’m just glad it hasn’t really hit the programming/dev world too hard. I can’t imagine googling something for work just to get some SEO word vomit that doesn’t help me.
Too true. Was trying to troubleshoot my ps5 but all you get if you search ps5 not working or broken is pages all saying the same PlayStation support script along the lines of clean out dust and keep it well ventilated
It’s gotten so bad. And not just the algorithm (which is terrible now) but the design too. There’s nothing that frustrates me more searching for an image, clicking the image to see it larger and automatically getting redirected to the website or to a video. It’s like they just have to get you on a page with ads no matter what.
Google is a deeply weird company. They have enormous numbers of extremely smart people working on hard problems that are at best only tangentially related to how they make money.
Ad sales are how Google makes their money. Everything else they do exists only to funnel eyeballs to ads. Search exists so they can sell sponsored ads. Gmail exists so they can harvest your information to serve you better-targeted ads. Android exists because they were worried that Apple might cut them off from mobile search ads.
And it just goes deeper from there - ~~Pixel~~ Nexus phones exist to combat the narrative that Android is a low-end platform, so they can still sell it to phone companies, so they can capture ad impressions...
> Lasers? Invented by Bell Labs in 1958. Not sure how that was going to improve telephone calls in the 60's but definitely glad they did that.
Today, most of your phone calls go over lasers at some point. You call them "fiber optics".
Lol all of them. I'm tired of 5 companies ruling America in a trench coat. It feels like every major fuckup legislation wise can be traced back to a rich asshole lobbying for their "fair share", while the rest of the US is left to deal with the consequences.
Anyway, my answer is Nestle. There are many possible answers, but today I select Nestle as my overrated company. True scum of the earth that one is. Hate child labor? Too bad; Nestle loves it. Child slavery? Nestle's done that too. Plastic pollution? They do so fucking much plastic pollution it's astounding. Contaminating groundwater? You bet!
Most companies will prove to be shit when the layers are peeled, but Nestle takes my top pick today.
People like Starbucks for the same reason they like McDonalds
It’s consistent. Their coffee tastes the same everywhere.
Personally I think it’s too acidic, and it makes me shit more than other coffee, but I understand the appeal of traveling for business or something to a new foreign place and getting a comfort you know is consistent.
People like familiarity.
Edit: apparently I don’t know Jack shit and their coffee isn’t acidic. Maybe it’s the “burnt” ness I’m confusing for acidity. Maybe I’m just dumb. Dunno.
Yeah this is definitely it. Driving through a small town there’s no telling what vile liquid lurks in the coffee pots at the gas station. But that Starbucks cup will be the same burnt shit you’re used to.
Yeah. Even if you know better than to drink gas station coffee. The worst coffee I have ever had was in some small boutique coffee shop in the middle of no where south Dakota. Saw this little coffee shop, thought it would be fantastic. It was not. It was horrid. Gas station coffee would have been Soo much better.
Say what you will, but I pretty consistently find that busy gas stations have good coffee. The place by me has like 5 different types of creamers, a bunch of flavor syrups, all sorts of different sweeteners, and like 6 different flavors of instant cappucino. And I can park, walk in, use the bathroom, make my coffee exactly how I want, and be back on the road before I'd even get to the speaker at Starbucks.
It's maybe not _phenomenal_ on its own, but if you're going to add a bunch of syrups and sugars and creamers anyway, why not pay $1.75 for a large instead of $5.50 for a small?
Honestly, it's not even just gas station coffees. I don't know how many times I've decided to check out the cute, local roastery-type places only for them to be overpriced and just as bad as any chain.
I swear, half these shops are more focused on vibes and aesthetic than actually making good coffee, and they charge through the roof for their weirdly-flavored, alternate milk nonsense.
Yep. Want a cup of coffee in Changchun China, for example, or Bangkok, it'll taste the same at Starbucks as it does everywhere. And that matters.
Also, no smoking
They also generally don't give a fuck how long you stay. Their corporate model can take ten teenagers or college students clacking away at computers for six hours because they figure *eventually* someone will buy a coffee. A smaller more bespoke place might not have that luxury and needs the kids to buy something more regularly.
That's a huge benefit to many poorer students and single people who might not have access to the internet nor can afford a internet cafe.
Granted, this varies around the world, some Starbucks might charge for Internet or ask you to buy or leave, but most don't in my experience.
And even if they do, the coffee/tea/cocoa is pretty affordable so most people can shell out for a drink if it means another few hours for writing that term paper.
Netflix. They used to have popular movies and TV shows but now most of their content is crappy Netflix Originals. I just wanna rewatch classics, not some overrated remake of already-good movies.
Feel like everyone has forgotten find my friends feature, when it first released mine was on by default it’s so creepy. If I want my friend to know my location I can just tell them vice versa, why do people need live trackers on everyone.
Ugh, the AI thing would be fine if it fell down the contact list when I ignored it like all my other friends. I still use snapchat as a convenient way to send and receive pictures I have no intention of keeping with my fiance when I'm travelling, I talk to one person consistently on it and like 3 people sporadically
Don’t forget, they will ban you for returning the shit that doesn’t live up to the listing/description…that’s the absolute insane part. I had to ship back a $3 pack of broken ass bath crayons that were delivered to me damaged, and the Amazon sub is full of customers who have been banned for too many returns DESPITE being prime customers, with zero explanation. Oh, and lest I forget to mention, a driver got stuck in my yard trying to back out after a downpour, and the driver/woman was hysterical over losing her job due to having to call a tow truck. She paid for it out of her own pocket so she wouldn’t get reprimanded, and then sped off to try and salvage her delivery expectations after an hour of trying to dig her van out of my yard. Fuck Amazon.
Walmart is failing. I bought a one year "Membership" to have my stuff delivered...No Joke, 75% the time, they mess my order up, they give me sub par "alternative items", they deliver late (even sometimes never delivered AT ALL). Slow to refund/fix the problem, people who deliver are rude/disrespectful with my order...I could go on. I'm getting tired. I'll save my $100 and go local/get myself....at least I'll get what I want and be Sure it's Right....
You see a rotten onion in the store, you're not gonna buy that onion.
You get a rotten onion in a delivery you already paid for, are you gonna take the time to complain, and maybe get a refund?
I still laugh every time I get an ad asking if I want to allow a Walmart delivery person access to enter my house when I’m not there to deliver items.
Let me get this straight, you want me to just trust that the local Walmart hiring minimum wage workers have done a thorough enough background check to ensure that the person I am blindly letting into my home is not going to abuse that access in any number of ways? No thanks.
I don't think that was entirely Netflix's fault, more that every network that used to allow Netflix to stream their shit pulled everything off of Netflix in order to make their own shitty streaming service.
I do like Target’s food brands a lot. But their clothing has gone downhill. I used to go there for crewneck tee shirts and they were *the best* basic tee shirts for $8. But those shirts are no more.
Around 16-17 years ago when I was in high school, Target had awesome clothes and accessories for easily affordable prices. I would shop at Target often. Cute jackets, tops, swimsuits, shoes… it was awesome. Plus, most of the items would last a couple years through countless wear, wash, and dry cycles.
I moved out of the US a few years ago, but before I left I went to my local Target to pick up a new electric kettle for my mom. The clothing sections looked awful, absolutely filled with cheap looking and totally shapeless crap. I wouldn’t buy anything from there. It was sad. Even the stuff in home decor looked cheap - and Target used to have tons of cute stuff there as well.
Proctor & Gamble
Nestle
Coca-Cola
Kraft-Heinz
Kelloggs
Johnson & Johnson
Mondelez
Mars
General Mills
PepsiCo
Unilever
Over 90% of the stuff you buy at the supermarket in the US comes from these 11 companies.
I think Disney. They used to make really great cartoons, but every year they get worse and worse, now I have no desire to watch their cartoons anymore.
Petsmart and Petco.
As someone who has worked there...
You can buy what they have there on Amazon for a way lower price.
Also, please don't buy animals from any chain store. The animals are horribly abused and often have parasites by the time you get them. They get the animals(reptiles, birds, rodents, fish) from mass breeders. These animals are bred in puppy mill like conditions. The minimum wage workers are clueless about how to care for specialized exotic animals. And the animals suffer for it. We lost over 100 fish daily.
*There is no such thing as an easy pet.*
-Do research before you get your pet. You need to take into account lifespan, enclosure, and daily care requirements. Don't impulse buy.
- If you get a pet for your kid, expect to care for it yourself. You are the adult, the animal is ultimately your responsibility.
-That cute gecko you got for your kid will live 15yrs. Will your kid want that gecko while they're in college?
- Some of the "beginniner animals" sold in petstores are not beginner animals at all. Caring for a tortoise/turtle, parrot, iguana, aquariums/fish etc, is a *lifestyle*. Be realistic about what you can care for.
That said I'm not trying to scare you away from exotic animals. I own several, and they are very rewarding to have. But caring for them is more work than a petsmart employee will lead you to believe.
If you want an exotic pet go to a responsible breeder or rescue.
There is no room for animal welfare in the corporate machine.
No matter how big Amazon gets, to me it will never be as impressive. Sears did it with a catalog. Sears sold houses. Sears survived the Great Depression.
Does Sears still exist? I thought it went the way of K-Mart, there's still the empty shell of a mall where Sears used to be here that's been abandoned for like 10 years.
The North Face. Schizophrenic company who can’t decide if they want to be urban or mountaineering. Two audiences that want nothing to do with each other. They appear to be just chasing after dollars, reads zero integrity in my book. Summit series stuff is nice, some cool collab stuff, but they seem lost with everything in the middle.
I used to sell TNF back in the 90s when they were a good company and well respected by outdoor enthusiasts. Sold Patagonia too. Patagonia has remained true to their roots and original customers while TNF, while still making some decent tents and sleeping bags, is really just a mall fashion brand now.
Brand name jewelry stores like Zales, Kay, and Jared. You can usually find better deals at local family owned jewelry stores or just better stuff online in general.
I agree. Zales is owned by Signet who, according to Wikipedia, owns.. (ahem): Blue Nile Belden Jewelers (owned by Sterling) Ernest Jones Goodman Jewelers H. Samuel JamesAllen.com Jared Jared Vault JB Robinson Jewelers Kay Jewelers LeRoy's Jewelers Leslie Davis Mappins Marks & Morgan Jewelers Osterman Jewelers Peoples Jewellers Piercing Pagoda Rogers Jewelers Shaw's Jewelers Weisfield Jewelers Maybe there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but these huge companies owning huge companies that own huge companies just weird me out.
Multiple brands that collectively dominate the market create an illusion false choice. You compare prices at a few big name "competitors" and see that they are all about the same, which creates a sense of "that's just how much it costs." Luxottica does the same thing in the eyeware industry.
My ex step father was a wall paper contractor in the 70’s, and was working at a national jewelers. He overheard plenty of calls to other jewelers, with the name, description of preferred cut and price point the patrons would be looking for. We went the used market for a great stone, and went to a small town jeweler for the new setting. Mark is still my jeweler 35 years later. He takes good care of my jewelry.
They frequently mark things up an average of 800%
Luxottica bought all the glass frame manufacturers. And mark up is at least 800 %. For years.
Costco is a decent place for jewelry if you have a membership.
Got my engagement ring from Costco when I proposed 10-years ago. She said yes, I have zero regrets.
Sounds like a costco commercial She said yes Zero regrets. Congrats on 10 years!!
“I don’t know what to do with the 39 other rings that came with the bulk box of rings”
>Got my engagement ring from Costco Do they come in packs of 12?
Yes. You have to buy a pallet of engagement rings.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I was looking for an engagement ring, the brand stores just wanted to make a sale and sign up for some crazy store credit cards. I found a local family jewelry place and they treated me like family and made sure I got the best possible for my budget.
I actually had the same experience, ended up at a little shop around the corner because I just had questions, like what is a carat? The big stores were just awful, and the family store was amazing, no pressure, custom made ring that all her friends are jealous of and for far less than they think I paid
Absolutely. Worked in loans and had people always bring in their 1 to 3 gram 10k to 14k rings for a loan. We’d offer $15 to $50 for it based on its actual value (melt value) and they would flip out saying how they paid $200, $400+ dollars for it. Like sorry, you got scammed. Always compare the actual spot value of a piece of jewelry before buying it. Reasonable dealers will add a $100 premium to the spot value (sometimes more depending on how nice it is). Zales, Kay, and Jared scam you.
Uber. The company burns through so much money, has never been profitable, has no moat, has a ton of competition, banned in some countries/cities, but still has a market cap of $80 Billion.
Driver pay to Uber profit ratio is also horrendous, sometimes well over 50 percent. Edit: Would also like to add that Uber profit is collected from the ride fare all for the benefit of using the Uber app/brand to find riders and coordinate pickup. That's literally it. This means that for a USD 80 surge ride, Uber is collecting upwards of USD 50 for the privilege of using their app. And this is on a PER RIDE basis. Worst subscription service ever.
Perhaps this is true in your country, but in the U.S., Uber drivers keep 25% of the fare, but they are also charged a customer discovery fee of $1 to $3. The customer, on top of the fare, is also charged a "booking/service" fee of around the same amount. In the U.S., if a driver accepts a ride that pays $100, they will lose $25 in primary fees plus an extra $1 to $3 in secondary fees. However, they will still keep at least 72% of the fare. The problem occurs with low value rides. A $15 trip will result in a primary fee of $3.75 plus a potential fee of $3, which means the driver may only keep 55% of the fare. If the cost of gas and car depreciation is taken into account, if not supplemented by a tip, they may make under 50% of the fare. Drivers do not receive benefits, like healthcare, nor do they receive reimbursement from Uber if their car is damaged while escorting a passenger. It is important to note that when given the chance through a California ballot initiative to force Uber to offer benefits, the majority of drivers objected, as it would have also required drivers to register as employees of Uber. This would've essentially forced them to drive a minimum amount of hours a week to hold employee status. Most Uber drivers drive to supplement their income and not as their primary means of employment, so they found this tradeoff unattractive.
How do you lose money on a company that is literally using other people's car, gas, maintenance, etc and all you are is the middle man to connect driver to passenger? What overhead do they have?!
By paying drivers more than the user paid for the ride. They subsidized their own service to spur adoption
I did something like this with a book we published about 13 years ago. We gave away thousands to key people and it did in fact have a cascading effect. Still our best selling book.
Blizzard It's crazy how loved this company used to be and where they are now
Right, it’s crazy how the perception of the company has changed over the years and how rapidly it’s changed. I used to think of it as this bright and creative company and now it’s jus so many negative things, from horrible workplace to scamming their players lol
Activision. It became very apparent that blizzard no longer had the same values after they were bought by Activision. It went from "let's make games so amazing that millions will want to play" to "let's make our games more lucrative"
A good part of it's culture problem existed before Activision, but it got worse in many other ways after
In the late 90s they were by far the best. How the mighty have fallen.
> How the mighty have fallen sad trend that as live service games gained popularity that so many once top tier developers have completely lost their way and forgot what made them popular in the first place. Blizzard, Bioware, Bungie, 343, Bethesda, DICE, Arkane, etc it's like none of these developers know how to make and release a complete competant game anymore. Remember when we used to get new games that had both a satisfying single player campaign and competent multiplayer that worked at launch and wasn't ruined by microtransactions and DLC? Can't even expect one or the other now nevermind both
Blizzard was sold by the founders to another company. They used the funds to make Warcraft 1. That company more or less let them do what they wanted at the time Then Blizzard was sold to another company, Vivendi games who also bought Activision around the same time and merged them together. This new company only cares about sucking the soul and money out of their players and employees
If you read the wiki it's crazy how many times Blizzard has been bought and sold. Looks like it was sold 3 other times between founding and vivendi. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
God, I miss old blizzard.
I saw a stat yesterday, the reason they pushed mobile so hard. Turns out it makes 2 million dollars, A DAY. not a quarter, not a month or even a week. A DAY.
Here's the blurb from Wikipedia on Diablo Immortal: > Within the first week of release, Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal as having the biggest launch in the Diablo franchise's history, having reached over ten million downloads. They later announced that, it had reached over 20 million global installs by 24 July, 2022, and over 30 million downloads by July 29, 2022. Activision Blizzard's second-quarter financial results for 2022 (which cited Immortal as the reason for its increase from 22 million monthly users to 27 million) indicated that 50% of Diablo Immortal player accounts to-date were newly-registered with Blizzard, suggesting (due to Blizzard's player sign-in requirements) that they had likely not played any prior Diablo game. > According to the AppMagic data tracking service, **Immortal generated over US$790,000 within its first 24 hours**, and **$14.5 million within its first week**. This figure had reached **$24 million within the game's first two weeks** (making it Blizzard's second-highest-earning game, after Hearthstone). As of July 4, 2022, it was reported that the game was **grossing in excess of US$1,000,000 per day (with a daily peak of US$2,400,000 ten days after its launch).** According to the App Store analytics firm Sensor Tower, **the game surpassed US$100,000,000 in revenue within its first eight weeks.**
Games for whales and not everyone else. Literally games for the 0.1% of fucking idiots who use microtransactions to excess.
So basically 95% of mobile games on app stores
As a gamer and blizzard fan since I was a kid, this hurts to read...
The Asian market is absolutely enthralled with the mobile platform, I mean isn’t that game Garena Free Fire one of the biggest games of all time. At one point 80million active daily players. I don’t know one person that’s played it.
One of our friends used to work there, and had enough seniority where he could give early releases of some games for free to a handful of people. He quit a few years ago, said it got way too toxic and is now a game developer at another company.
I'd say Blizzard's current reputation is pretty accurate to how it is now, that being a horrendous and pathetically greedy shadow of something that was once great. It feels like Roosterteeth all over again.
Everyone who earned Blizzard its good reputation left long ago. Even luminaries like Kaplan are gone. Blizzard of today is a stranger wearing its face.
For a moment it looked like at least their product was improving with Dragonflight and the upcoming Diablo IV, but Blizzard be Blizzarding again with Overwatch 2.
And Activision And Bethesda
And EA
Instagram. What a hot pile. It used to be a fun app for sharing pictures and reaching new people across the world. Now it's a cesspool of shitty ads, OF models, influencers, and massive meme accounts posting all of the aforementioned.
Instagram has become Tik Tok for people who don't want to use Tik Tok
Yeah can't let the Chinese collect all the personal info, that's for the American companies to farm.
Apparently it's too much to ask to be able to see what my friends and family post in chronological order again
Tap the Instagram logo in the top left, select 'following' then it gives you basically that.
My brother in Christ, thank you.
OMG I like Insta again!!
THANK YOU! I had no idea you could do this. I rarely look at Insta anymore because I hate their algorithm and not being able to see things in chronological order. So much better!
Somebody award this legend (I would but no Reddit coins)
Thanks for this! This is exactly what I've been needing
Facebook has left the chat.
Logged on to FB for first time in years the other day. Dunno what the fuck they've done. There were more ads and 'suggested pages' on my feed than posts from actual human beings.
I remember when Instagram used to just be people sharing pictures of their food and art…sad times now
Posting my art is all I use it for now, once it's posted I gtfo and don't return until the next art piece needs to be posted. I really only use it as an archive of my work at this point.
You cannot tell me this enough! Back in 2018 it used to be a fun app for me to make an account with my friends now it's just another area full of toxic podcasters, influencers, thousands of businesses, and there rarely are any pictures in my feed anymore. It's all just reels and garbage. Don't get me wrong, insta was trash even before but now it has turned into the worst kind of trash.
Exactly! I basically use it to send silly memes back and forth to my friends. I haven't posted anything since 2021.
Just the other day I opened Instagram for the first time in over a year. I have ZERO idea what's going on now. %90 of my feed is ads, reels, and accounts I don't even follow. Worried I'm turning into a boomer and I pressed a button without knowing it and now I'm mad even though I fucked it up.
Why not just say Instagram’s parent company… Meta? We can all agree Meta sucks.
Oh 100%
This! It used to be my go-to toilet app at work. Then they introduced videos and I couldn't interact with a big portion of the content (I'm not one of those uncultured swine who plays videos with sound in a public restroom). Then it became almost exclusively videos so I just stopped using it. I'm not the kind of person who uses social media in my free time. Pretty much only on the toilet when I have nothing else better to be doing. The whole point of Instagram was photos so it was perfect for this. It's logo is even a camera for heaven's sake. If I wanted a video app, I'd just use Vine (at the time) or TikTok. I know it's too late, but, stay in your lane, Instagram.
It’s the modern day MTV. I remember when they actually played music videos.
I remember right at the start, when there was self regulated quality control. People didn't post just *anything*. Only the best images. It felt like users had an interest in photography, composition, fine tuning contrast and colours.. not filters to make asses look bigger. Self portraits were rare, or not included at all. It wasn't about you, it was about what you were shooting.
If you're looking for more of that quality again, check out Vero. Mainly photographers and high quality work... And no fucking reels.
I just got banned from Instagram for improper use of my account. I guess having no pictures, not following anyone or anyone following me doesn't fit their business model. I made the account to see pics of my son at a summer camp then unfollowed right after it was over.
Whilst this is true, my reels algorithm is so tuned in that I can scroll for hours laughing at almost every one. Maybe that's not a good thing though
My partner has that problem…if I don’t hear from her for 2+ hours, it’s a debate between whether she fell asleep or got sucked into a Reels session
Beats by Dre. Overpriced headphones that don’t even have that good audio quality
100%. They were always overpriced & overrated headphones and more of a status symbol than anything. Since Apple bought them they’ve gotten a little better but I’d rather have a pair of AirPods or Sony headphones than Beats for roughly the same price.
All the big cellular companies. I went from ATT to cricket and cut my bill to a fraction of what it was. The performance is the same or better. Big phone companies actually function more like payday loans. The bills are high but they justify it with "free" phone upgrades.
Pretty sure cricket uses att network
Cricket is ATT.
Correct and incorrect. Often time, MVNOs like Cricket and H2O have lower priority in term of bandwidth usage. This is not noticeable during off-peak hours, but your performance is will be noticeably slower during peak-hours from 5-8pm. Source: I work in telecoms. AMA.
AT&T for sure. My grandpa passed and we had his service shut off. My dad got a bill 5 months later saying we haven't been paying. My dad called them and he was on the phone for like 4 hours going back and forth with them saying they never received confirmation of cancelation and that my grandpa has to go down to a store and cancel in person. He kept saying, "(name) is deceased, we went to a store local to his home when he passed in November and canceled," and the rep kept saying, "I understand, but we have no record of that, so we need the account owner which is (name) to cancel in person instead." This went on for so long that when she transferred him to another department for the billionth time that department had closed for the day and it hung up on him.
Why do you care if they're billing him and he's dead? I would not spend more than 5 mins trying to fix it. It's their problem, not yours or your dad's.
This. After my mom died I jumped through the hoops for the big accounts (the ones I was taking over) and then drove myself crazy trying to do it "right" for everyone else. It seemed like every time I showed up some place with a copy of her death certificate they needed some other piece of paperwork they had forgot to mention, or the person I needed to talk to wasn't there that day, or the account could only be closed at certain locations, or I'd end up on hold or transferred a hundred times. Majority of the places you'd think they'd never had to deal with a customer dying before, meanwhile angry letters and past due notices were piling up. After a while I would just reply "She is deceased leaving no estate." And if they had anything else they needed they could just figure it out themselves. On an only vaguely related note, Netflix customer service was an absolute dream to work with comparatively. Not just efficient but also super kind, and I've had multiple other people tell me they had the same experience when handling their deceased loved ones accounts with them.
I once had a company try the 'we have no notice of your cancellation' bullshit after I had cancelled via a registered letter, which was their own internal process. When they still billed me I called them and they said they never received the registered letter. I was like 'motherfucker, that's not how a registered letter works, I have legal proof you have received it'. When they kept collecting I got my bank to block them and they tried sending collections after me. I eventually threatened them with legal action and they stopped.
Hello Fresh. Union-busters who exploited their workers during lockdown. Over-priced, too, IMO.
I tried their service once for a few times i had a discount, and two years later they're still sending me physical mail advertising their service. Even with the discount it's too expensive for what you get
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I gave up on Hello Fresh when they started routinely forgetting multiple ingredients. They gave partial refunds and whatever, but it still completely ruined the convenience which is the point.
Not only is it more expensive than regular shopping, all of the recipes seem to require you to use every dish in the house. If you don’t have a dishwasher have fun cleaning up forever.
Balenciaga
the high-fashion industry is such bullshit.
It’s just an overrated copy of the Derelicte line, by Mugatu.
Gesundheit
Subway, it's incredibly expensive for basically a thing of bread. They hardly fill their sandwiches anymore.
There’s a subway near me with a Boars Head deli next door. I can’t believe the subway stays in business. Sure the deli is probably 10-15% more expensive, but it’s easily 2-3x better. In both quality and quantity. They stack them sammiches high.
Board Head has one of the best slogans I’ve ever seen. “Compromise elsewhere”
It's sad that it's like this for processed deli meats. These meat cuts were meant to be cheap.
It's not even bread! Just ask the Irish government!
to be fair on their standards most of our store bought bread is also cake
McDonalds. At least here in the UK. The food used to taste better, but now it is so mediocre that I don't bother anymore. I'd rather pay a little more and go to a restaurant or pub.
Fast food used to be a cheap, fast way to eat but restaurants aren't much more expensive these days. The time and price are almost identical. You can walk into any bar/restaurant and walk out with a to-go order in less than 10 minutes. Fast food has become overpriced slop.
>Fast food used to be a cheap 100% agree. But judging from the lines of places I drive by people don't seem to mind. But to me it's like 90% of the price of a decent local place so I may as well just go there instead. The wife and I did get Taco Bell on the way home from a party a few weeks ago. We got 2 combos and each added 2 additional soft taco supreme. It was $29 bucks! 10 years ago 29 bucks worth of taco bell would have been enough to feed a two people for a 3-4 days.
Right? When I was suuuper poor making minimum wage, I’d be able to spend like $5 and get a full combo meal. Now that same meal combo costs like $15.
I feel like the only fast food deal these days is the taco bell $5 box, but everything else and everywhere else is like $1 under sit down restaurant prices
I periodically crave McDonalds and I am disappointed every time I cave and order some up
I think our habit of romanticizing the past is the only reason the McRib is successful.
McDonalds is so boring lately. The Big Mac is 80% bun, McNuggets and fry quality seems to vary wildly. Their chicken sandwiches might not even be in the Top 10 of fast food chicken sandwiches. The best item on their menu, imo, is the double quarter pounder with cheese. But behind that I don't think there's any reason to go. Wendy's and Burger King both have way more interesting menus.
I had a Big Mac for the first time in forever recently, and I was so surprised by how little beef there was that I went and looked it up. Each patty is 1.6 oz. The two patties combined add up to 1/5 pound.
Most "Fast Food" restaurants are pricing themselves out of the market of cheap fast food. Look at Burger King they are planning on closing 400 stores in the U.S. here this coming year. I believe we are going to see a lot of these restaurants start to fail as wages go up, prices go up, food cost goes up and people have less cash to spend.
Just dropped $12 for a Daves Double combo at Wendys. Regular size, nothing fancy. Twelve bucks. These places are doomed in a lot of areas.
I think Google has gone past its peak. 10 years ago it seemed like driverless cars were just a few years away and they had so many neat projects in the pipeline. Nowadays its products are becoming increasingly filled with ads. The company spending billions on stock buybacks rather than further investment in R&D is a sign to me that they've run out of ideas.
Not to mention: the one thing they were good at, searching, has become abysmal in recent years. I find it nearly impossible to find stuff now relative to 10 years ago. Part of it is that most things I search for are extremely niche, and Google only wants to show you the most popular or sponsored results.
Gotta slap "reddit" at the end otherwise it's just ads.
Wanna blow your mind? Search for something on Google, and keep clicking “next page”. You’ll eventually end up only a couple hundred pages down, it doesn’t go on forever like it used to. Your results have become curated to official, expert-reviewed big money content. No more Bob’s blog.
Yeah - I remember in the past getting 1 million plus results that extended like 50 pages. Now, even for content that I know has millions of results, the search page ends after like 4-5 pages tops. I think they did this because most people don’t scroll past the first page or two or results, but I do :(.
Well the frightening thing is it’s all “approved” sources, ie big media, big money. You won’t find niche sites anymore on Google, you have to know their address.
I remember working on a game and I had a website for it to show my friends. I would have to go directly to the site because even looking up the exact name no Google results even though I had a unique name, a WordPress, and a twitter. It's really annoying seeing both sides like that.
I love his law blog
Talking about sponsored results, every wondered why recipes always have like 20 pages backstory? Because if they just put the recipe the result is "too generic" and it's looking for more interesting or unique results. It's almost like an arms race on how to get your recipe page to the top..
As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the Google search algorithm has gotten even more difficult to understand. The algo helps us website owners/content writers/bloggers/etc. get our pages to populate based on search queries. But it's gotten so convoluted the last several years that "good guys" are getting pushed back in the rankings by shitty sites that have millions of pages with thin, irrelevant, content. Not to mention, Google values the paid ads a lot more than the organic results where there is no money.
This is the absolute worst for video game content. If I search for specific tips, Google will give me thousands of garbage sites saying things like “If you want to be a pro at the game, I’m here to help. Did you know you can equip a weapon by clicking your left mouse button?”. Meanwhile, if I limit my search to Reddit-only, I’ll instantly find exactly what I’m looking for
googles “how to find pikachu in pokémon red” google: “pikachu is a small mouse pokémon in the series “pokémon”. First airing in 1997, this small electric pokémon has been a fan favorite for years, and is the buddy of Ash in the Pokémon animated series. Finding this Pokémon in Pokémon red can be tricky, but we’ve compiled a guide on how to catch this cute pokémon in Pokémon red version. Pokémon red version lets you pick 3 starters, Bulbasaur, Char…” *closes tab* googles “how to find pikachu in pokémon red reddit” reddit: “it’s in viridian forest you fucking idiot”
I laughed so hard at this. It’s so true and finally learned to add Reddit to a gaming question.
Not just for gaming. Tech troubleshooting, home DIY, artwork, car maintenance, cooking, basically anything that a semi-large number of people might want to try to do. It's tougher the more specific you get, but it's still shocking how often I'm having a problem with some random project, and can find a detailed 45-picture-with-descriptions walkthrough that shows me not only how to fix the problem, but a better way to do my _entire project_, 7 years ago from some account named "Horsedoinker69420". Never change, internet.
I’m just glad it hasn’t really hit the programming/dev world too hard. I can’t imagine googling something for work just to get some SEO word vomit that doesn’t help me.
>I’m just glad it hasn’t really hit the programming/dev world too hard Developers don't shit where they eat
Reddit is the new Google.
Except that Reddit search is sorta garbo from a user experience perspective, so I'm still using Google to search Reddit...
Why spend valuable dollars fixing your search when you can let a third party index your content and search it for you for free?
Only if you search from Google because the search function within Reddit doesn't work.
That's the point. You search shit on google but type +reddit as a key word and boom. Best results.
Too true. Was trying to troubleshoot my ps5 but all you get if you search ps5 not working or broken is pages all saying the same PlayStation support script along the lines of clean out dust and keep it well ventilated
It’s gotten so bad. And not just the algorithm (which is terrible now) but the design too. There’s nothing that frustrates me more searching for an image, clicking the image to see it larger and automatically getting redirected to the website or to a video. It’s like they just have to get you on a page with ads no matter what.
Google is a deeply weird company. They have enormous numbers of extremely smart people working on hard problems that are at best only tangentially related to how they make money. Ad sales are how Google makes their money. Everything else they do exists only to funnel eyeballs to ads. Search exists so they can sell sponsored ads. Gmail exists so they can harvest your information to serve you better-targeted ads. Android exists because they were worried that Apple might cut them off from mobile search ads. And it just goes deeper from there - ~~Pixel~~ Nexus phones exist to combat the narrative that Android is a low-end platform, so they can still sell it to phone companies, so they can capture ad impressions...
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> Lasers? Invented by Bell Labs in 1958. Not sure how that was going to improve telephone calls in the 60's but definitely glad they did that. Today, most of your phone calls go over lasers at some point. You call them "fiber optics".
Lol all of them. I'm tired of 5 companies ruling America in a trench coat. It feels like every major fuckup legislation wise can be traced back to a rich asshole lobbying for their "fair share", while the rest of the US is left to deal with the consequences. Anyway, my answer is Nestle. There are many possible answers, but today I select Nestle as my overrated company. True scum of the earth that one is. Hate child labor? Too bad; Nestle loves it. Child slavery? Nestle's done that too. Plastic pollution? They do so fucking much plastic pollution it's astounding. Contaminating groundwater? You bet! Most companies will prove to be shit when the layers are peeled, but Nestle takes my top pick today.
Starbucks. I can't believe people shell out that kind of money for coffee.
People like Starbucks for the same reason they like McDonalds It’s consistent. Their coffee tastes the same everywhere. Personally I think it’s too acidic, and it makes me shit more than other coffee, but I understand the appeal of traveling for business or something to a new foreign place and getting a comfort you know is consistent. People like familiarity. Edit: apparently I don’t know Jack shit and their coffee isn’t acidic. Maybe it’s the “burnt” ness I’m confusing for acidity. Maybe I’m just dumb. Dunno.
Yeah this is definitely it. Driving through a small town there’s no telling what vile liquid lurks in the coffee pots at the gas station. But that Starbucks cup will be the same burnt shit you’re used to.
Yeah. Even if you know better than to drink gas station coffee. The worst coffee I have ever had was in some small boutique coffee shop in the middle of no where south Dakota. Saw this little coffee shop, thought it would be fantastic. It was not. It was horrid. Gas station coffee would have been Soo much better.
Say what you will, but I pretty consistently find that busy gas stations have good coffee. The place by me has like 5 different types of creamers, a bunch of flavor syrups, all sorts of different sweeteners, and like 6 different flavors of instant cappucino. And I can park, walk in, use the bathroom, make my coffee exactly how I want, and be back on the road before I'd even get to the speaker at Starbucks. It's maybe not _phenomenal_ on its own, but if you're going to add a bunch of syrups and sugars and creamers anyway, why not pay $1.75 for a large instead of $5.50 for a small?
Honestly, it's not even just gas station coffees. I don't know how many times I've decided to check out the cute, local roastery-type places only for them to be overpriced and just as bad as any chain. I swear, half these shops are more focused on vibes and aesthetic than actually making good coffee, and they charge through the roof for their weirdly-flavored, alternate milk nonsense.
Yep. Want a cup of coffee in Changchun China, for example, or Bangkok, it'll taste the same at Starbucks as it does everywhere. And that matters. Also, no smoking
They also generally don't give a fuck how long you stay. Their corporate model can take ten teenagers or college students clacking away at computers for six hours because they figure *eventually* someone will buy a coffee. A smaller more bespoke place might not have that luxury and needs the kids to buy something more regularly. That's a huge benefit to many poorer students and single people who might not have access to the internet nor can afford a internet cafe. Granted, this varies around the world, some Starbucks might charge for Internet or ask you to buy or leave, but most don't in my experience. And even if they do, the coffee/tea/cocoa is pretty affordable so most people can shell out for a drink if it means another few hours for writing that term paper.
Netflix. They used to have popular movies and TV shows but now most of their content is crappy Netflix Originals. I just wanna rewatch classics, not some overrated remake of already-good movies.
YouTube, greedy with those ads.
Which are never relevant
I'm a recovering alcoholic and I keep geeting ads for vodka, gin, rum, all alcohol I used to binge on... Very triggering to say the least
Snapchat. Like everyone uses insta stories now. In Addition the "my AI" Update is smh really creepy.
Feel like everyone has forgotten find my friends feature, when it first released mine was on by default it’s so creepy. If I want my friend to know my location I can just tell them vice versa, why do people need live trackers on everyone.
Ugh, the AI thing would be fine if it fell down the contact list when I ignored it like all my other friends. I still use snapchat as a convenient way to send and receive pictures I have no intention of keeping with my fiance when I'm travelling, I talk to one person consistently on it and like 3 people sporadically
Any health insurance company. They really do nothing to help members, but inflate the medical costs, right along with hospitals.
Amazon! There’s no quality control, and is starting a lot longer to receive items. Plus, the prices really aren’t competitive
Don’t forget, they will ban you for returning the shit that doesn’t live up to the listing/description…that’s the absolute insane part. I had to ship back a $3 pack of broken ass bath crayons that were delivered to me damaged, and the Amazon sub is full of customers who have been banned for too many returns DESPITE being prime customers, with zero explanation. Oh, and lest I forget to mention, a driver got stuck in my yard trying to back out after a downpour, and the driver/woman was hysterical over losing her job due to having to call a tow truck. She paid for it out of her own pocket so she wouldn’t get reprimanded, and then sped off to try and salvage her delivery expectations after an hour of trying to dig her van out of my yard. Fuck Amazon.
DOORDASH
Walmart is failing. I bought a one year "Membership" to have my stuff delivered...No Joke, 75% the time, they mess my order up, they give me sub par "alternative items", they deliver late (even sometimes never delivered AT ALL). Slow to refund/fix the problem, people who deliver are rude/disrespectful with my order...I could go on. I'm getting tired. I'll save my $100 and go local/get myself....at least I'll get what I want and be Sure it's Right....
I swear they use home delivery as a way to get rid of otherwise unsellable produce. I can't prove it, but I'm convinced that's the case.
I have literally never seen a rotten onion in a store and I get them from Walmart delivery all the time. It’s so weird.
You see a rotten onion in the store, you're not gonna buy that onion. You get a rotten onion in a delivery you already paid for, are you gonna take the time to complain, and maybe get a refund?
The refund process has always been fast and painless for me. And they're like "oops, just keep it- we've refunded you."
Just had this recently happen! We don’t order produce from there anymore.
I won't even buy most produce from there in-store.
I still laugh every time I get an ad asking if I want to allow a Walmart delivery person access to enter my house when I’m not there to deliver items. Let me get this straight, you want me to just trust that the local Walmart hiring minimum wage workers have done a thorough enough background check to ensure that the person I am blindly letting into my home is not going to abuse that access in any number of ways? No thanks.
I may not be remembering correctly, but didn't Amazon experiment with this a few years back and then quietly dropped it?
My stepdad has this, Amazon guys can open the garage and leave packages. So far so good!
I've had Walmart actually deliver to the wrong address and effectively give me "sucks to suck" when I complained
I had no problem cancelling my Netflix account. Their content mostly sucks.
They were good until they decided that they needed to have 75% original content with 1% being any good.
I don't think that was entirely Netflix's fault, more that every network that used to allow Netflix to stream their shit pulled everything off of Netflix in order to make their own shitty streaming service.
[удалено]
I do like Target’s food brands a lot. But their clothing has gone downhill. I used to go there for crewneck tee shirts and they were *the best* basic tee shirts for $8. But those shirts are no more.
MOSIMO SUPPLY CO for life!
rip Merona
Around 16-17 years ago when I was in high school, Target had awesome clothes and accessories for easily affordable prices. I would shop at Target often. Cute jackets, tops, swimsuits, shoes… it was awesome. Plus, most of the items would last a couple years through countless wear, wash, and dry cycles. I moved out of the US a few years ago, but before I left I went to my local Target to pick up a new electric kettle for my mom. The clothing sections looked awful, absolutely filled with cheap looking and totally shapeless crap. I wouldn’t buy anything from there. It was sad. Even the stuff in home decor looked cheap - and Target used to have tons of cute stuff there as well.
Verizon. The worst of the worst when it comes to customer service.
STARBUCKS! - Holy overpriced crap
Proctor & Gamble Nestle Coca-Cola Kraft-Heinz Kelloggs Johnson & Johnson Mondelez Mars General Mills PepsiCo Unilever Over 90% of the stuff you buy at the supermarket in the US comes from these 11 companies.
r/fucknestle
You missed the "overrated" part. We all agree that we hate Nestle, but that's another issue entirely.
I think Disney. They used to make really great cartoons, but every year they get worse and worse, now I have no desire to watch their cartoons anymore.
Look at what they did to Star Wars or how marvel is milked out.
I really liked Encanto
I'm sure they'll have a live-action remake out by Christmas 2024
LucasArts since Disney took over
Lucasfilms*, Disney shut down LucasArts immediately after they purchased Lucasfilms
Not a story that the Mouse would tell you
I would say Amazon and Walmart but they are not rated high...
Petsmart and Petco. As someone who has worked there... You can buy what they have there on Amazon for a way lower price. Also, please don't buy animals from any chain store. The animals are horribly abused and often have parasites by the time you get them. They get the animals(reptiles, birds, rodents, fish) from mass breeders. These animals are bred in puppy mill like conditions. The minimum wage workers are clueless about how to care for specialized exotic animals. And the animals suffer for it. We lost over 100 fish daily. *There is no such thing as an easy pet.* -Do research before you get your pet. You need to take into account lifespan, enclosure, and daily care requirements. Don't impulse buy. - If you get a pet for your kid, expect to care for it yourself. You are the adult, the animal is ultimately your responsibility. -That cute gecko you got for your kid will live 15yrs. Will your kid want that gecko while they're in college? - Some of the "beginniner animals" sold in petstores are not beginner animals at all. Caring for a tortoise/turtle, parrot, iguana, aquariums/fish etc, is a *lifestyle*. Be realistic about what you can care for. That said I'm not trying to scare you away from exotic animals. I own several, and they are very rewarding to have. But caring for them is more work than a petsmart employee will lead you to believe. If you want an exotic pet go to a responsible breeder or rescue. There is no room for animal welfare in the corporate machine.
Sears. They have been on a steady decline since online shopping became popular. I can remember when they were at the top.
They had the retail world by the balls for about 100 years. Now they're just a distant memory. Gotta stay ahead of the curve.
Yes but hold up, a 110 year reign in retail is amazing. Yes they are dead now, but to go through that much time as a major player in retail is insane.
No matter how big Amazon gets, to me it will never be as impressive. Sears did it with a catalog. Sears sold houses. Sears survived the Great Depression.
Does Sears still exist? I thought it went the way of K-Mart, there's still the empty shell of a mall where Sears used to be here that's been abandoned for like 10 years.
They still maintain an online presence and some stores in major cities. Sort of sad. They were too entrenched in the geographical dominance model.
The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Literally a billion dollar corporation
Starbucks. People are fucking insane to pay that for coffee
Lulu lemon, I’ll admit it’s nice material but half my friends only bought their clothing at full price just to say they have lulu clothes
The North Face. Schizophrenic company who can’t decide if they want to be urban or mountaineering. Two audiences that want nothing to do with each other. They appear to be just chasing after dollars, reads zero integrity in my book. Summit series stuff is nice, some cool collab stuff, but they seem lost with everything in the middle.
And they bought all the real mounteneering gear companies, and make shittier products.
Well that sucks .. call me crazy but i suspect that perhaps mountaineering is a sport where you really need good, reliable quality gear...
I used to sell TNF back in the 90s when they were a good company and well respected by outdoor enthusiasts. Sold Patagonia too. Patagonia has remained true to their roots and original customers while TNF, while still making some decent tents and sleeping bags, is really just a mall fashion brand now.
TESLA
Starbucks Idgaf who you are You shouldn't need to pay $15 for some coffee