_number8_

I mean, that’s 4 years of our lives taken! 4 years of opportunities that were more challenging because they wanted a number on a computer to go up! 4 years of feeling worse than necessary about my finances and management of them and general personhood because i felt like i couldn’t afford anything because everything was priced egregiously!

And now they’re saying ‘oh well we fixed it now’. Fuck you!!! Get over yourselves! Holy shit, I can’t wait to happily be friends with the giant corporations again!! Just the arrogance that we’re happy to once again be at their beck and call because they changed the numbers they could’ve always changed. Sickening.

And I feel like I have a brain disease because i’ve been worrying and posting for years about how disgusting it is that they’re just cranking the numbers up to see what’ll happen and obviously no one will stop them because this is an oligarchy — and i kept getting well-ackshullyied into the ground by esteemed logical posters explaining how supply chains work. Well look at this shit you motherfuckers!

Just the amount of incredibly deep and sophisticated social engineering is so disgusting:

It’s a savvy play for shifting perceptions of value, crucial for consumers in the decision-making process of where to shop for bread and eggs. Customers benefit by saving some money; retailers possibly benefit even more by being known as the company that magnanimously trimmed prices.   

Go to hell, stop shifting my value perception. I should be able to decide what I feel about milk or zucchini. When I think about a croissant I should be thinking about France, not Target pricing strategies.

Most importantly, the theater of making grand pronouncements about lower prices is great for retailers’ reputations. Forget about all the price hikes grocery retailers and food brands implemented in the last few years — now companies would like consumers to focus on the savings they’re offering. “They’re all leaning into this inflation-oriented messaging,” says Stambor, which he notes is interesting because food inflation isn’t high at the moment. It’s the accumulation of past inflation that we’re still feeling the sting of; the prices just didn’t come down.

And we’re meant to thank them for this! I hope to god they can’t put the genie back in the bottle with this. I won’t forget 2020, I’ll hate these bloodsuckers til the day I die.

For the most part, Bowlero doesn’t build its own centers. Instead, it purchases existing ones and makes them over in the Bowlero style: dim lights, loud music, expensive cocktails. At Bowleros, bowling isn’t bowling. It’s “upscale entertainment.”

But for serious bowlers, the lived experience of Bowlero’s rise has come with a marked deterioration in conditions. Someone in Big Mike’s crew warns that lane 26 tonight is sticky right where you step up to bowl: “The approach! The actual approach!” Someone else says it’s no surprise: “They spend a couple million dollars putting in screens but can’t clean the place.”

In its initial acquisition wave, Bowlero bought up prominent centers in large population areas from New York to Los Angeles. As it continues to expand, it has promised to hoover up centers everywhere else in the country. There are roughly 3,500 independent bowling centers left in America. For Bowlero, that’s 3,500 potential acquisition targets. “This industry,” Bowlero executive Brett Parker has said, “is fragmented and ripe for roll-ups.”

“A lot of guys are worried that in five years, seven years, you’re only gonna have a Bowlero,” Big Mike says. “And when that happens, what happens?”

i love how everything is getting shittier in the same awful belittling way

i've always felt somewhat different than everyone else growing up, in terms of just...sensibility, or how i'd act or react to things, and especially with who i was attracted to. lots of straight girls, sure, but also this meme (sorry for reddit --> https://www.reddit.com/r/pansexual/comments/nw4fmv/ahh_who_can_relate/). it's good to know there's a real framework behind it and i'm not just some lecherous monster

i already feel this noticeably difference sense of presence, of comfort and ease with myself; just having a label like this makes so many little things click into place that i never even realized were making me feel different or self conscious before. similarly, i thought i might've been trans for a summer, but transitioning felt maybe too drastic or scary and too much of a departure from a body i had some level of peace and experience with.

but yes that's me, typing words. it's a lot to process

first off, i live in a small apartment. bed, bath, kitchen, living. there's no great place to put it in the first place [it's in the bathroom rn]

every time i see it it feels like a chore. it gives me anxiety, it is a constant chore, endless, does not stop. it will never stop. i cannot finish the chore, ever.

^ and to that point -- if i were to scoop every day or even less frequently, it is disgusting 100% of the time, no matter what. touching it at all is disgusting, putting my face or body near it is disgusting, i don't want to see or interact with it in any way. every time i interact with it, it's a mental barrier to break down. no amount of cutesy names or molded plastic will make it not fucking disgusting.

none of the self cleaning ones really work properly, do they?

it's bad for the cats if you don't maintain it properly

i mean ok whatever. if this is the worst part of their lives, fine, they don't have to work or pay rent or worry.