|
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loathe Ajit Pai, the head of the FCC and the reeking pile of excrement who championed the end of net neutrality. I'm going to refrain from further comment apart from saying that apparently he received threats and derogatory literature & signs targeted at him, and as far as I am concerned he deserves every syllable.
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2018 01:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 01:16 |
|
|
I worked at Hollywood Video for like six months in high school, had to wear the hideously unflattering vest and bowtie combo and everything. It was sort of cool for a first (non-babysitting) job; the unlimited free rentals were great, and did a lot to get me interested in movies. Jesus loving Christ did it ever shatter any illusions I had about adults being somehow smarter, more reasonable, or more tasteful than people my own age, though. You haven't lived until you've been screamed at by man with a Rolex over a two dollar late fee. There was also a tweaker lady who once burst in two minutes before closing and demanded to see our adult section. She looked so disappointed when we told her we didn't have one I honestly felt bad for her, I'm pretty sure she'd ran a couple miles at 1130 at night to get there in time. Also, speaking of porn, a LOT of people "accidentally" returned cases with that in there instead of whatever they'd rented, once or twice even homemade stuff. We'd have to call them to inform them of their mistake, which is awkward as all hell when they're your parents' age or older.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2018 02:13
|
|
|
To hasten the decline of capitalism, anyone who misses browsing a wall of movies might be able to still do that at their local library.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 09:17
|
|
|
Some public libraries in not poo poo states that aren't run by private companies will rent steaming movies
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 17:53
|
|
|
Libraries are run by private companies in some states? Holy poo poo
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 20:09
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:Libraries are run by private companies in some states? Holy poo poo The Free Market can solve everything, friend, trust in the teeming squealing power of capitalism and the profit motive; and surrender to... oh gently caress I can't even type this poo poo as a a joke.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 20:31
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:Libraries are run by private companies in some states? Holy poo poo yeah mostly just to undercut librarians as a public sector employee worthy of decent wages and benefits https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 20:39
|
|
|
Crow Jane posted:I worked at Hollywood Video for like six months in high school, had to wear the hideously unflattering vest and bowtie combo and everything. It was sort of cool for a first (non-babysitting) job; the unlimited free rentals were great, and did a lot to get me interested in movies. Jesus loving Christ did it ever shatter any illusions I had about adults being somehow smarter, more reasonable, or more tasteful than people my own age, though. You haven't lived until you've been screamed at by man with a Rolex over a two dollar late fee. There was also a tweaker lady who once burst in two minutes before closing and demanded to see our adult section. She looked so disappointed when we told her we didn't have one I honestly felt bad for her, I'm pretty sure she'd ran a couple miles at 1130 at night to get there in time. Whenever we got one of those at the Blockbuster I was at our manager would play it on one of the TVs for a few seconds while she would make fun of the person's taste in porn no matter the context/whatever.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2018 21:46
|
|
|
A lot of modern retail shittiness is caused by the tension between shareholders, customers, and employees. A company has more than a fiscal obligation to maximize profits for their shareholders; they usually have a contractual, legal obligation to do so. They don't have a contractual obligation to maximize service foe their customers, but it stands to reason they have a practical one. This leaves companies with a fun choice; abandon your legal obligation, risk losing your customers, or hope your employees shoulder the burden for you, eg, be lovely to your eomployees. The market was a mistake; beleive it or not a lot of big stores still make a lot of money (in an absolute sense) but since its less money, it basically counts for nothing, doesnt pay debt, and gives shareholders the impression their investment is depreciating.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 14:19
|
|
|
Mendrian posted:A lot of modern retail shittiness is caused by the tension between shareholders, customers, and employees. I think that is partly true, but at some level front facing jobs just suck, something like a school or a library or whatever has no profit margin, no one is buying anything and no one is a customer but everyone in a front facing job is super abused. It's partly just baked in that even if only .5% of people are broken jerks that if you have a front facing job that faces a couple hundred people a day that you are going to rapidly hit a ton of bad interactions. Like I am sure there is an element that capitalism trains people to think of everyone like they think of store clerks and still influences things but just general non-profit front desk type people very don't get off any easier from bad 'retail' type experiance than other front facing jobs. Like librarians don't sell you books and don't make money off you checking out books, but people still absolutely come in non stop apparently with the goal to just go yell at librarians about stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 15:04
|
|
|
BrandorKP posted:Some public libraries in not poo poo states that aren't run by private companies will rent steaming movies If your library is part of the Hoopla network you can get movies, books, music and comics through the Hoopla app.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 16:22
|
|
|
Owlofcreamcheese posted:I think that is partly true, but at some level front facing jobs just suck, something like a school or a library or whatever has no profit margin, no one is buying anything and no one is a customer but everyone in a front facing job is super abused. It's partly just baked in that even if only .5% of people are broken jerks that if you have a front facing job that faces a couple hundred people a day that you are going to rapidly hit a ton of bad interactions. Part of the reason is that America has trained people to be lovely to the face staff. If you bitch, scream, kvetch, and abuse enough you'll either get your way or get something free. The way to get a store to do what you want isn't to be nice; it's to be a raging rear end in a top hat. Now consider that we've also created a society that admires narcissism and sociopathy and...yeah. If places would actually go to bat for employees in "no, it is not OK for you to verbally abuse the cashier until the manager shows up to give you something free to make you go away" then this wouldn't be as much of a problem. Like was said, though...there isn't much incentive to be nice to employees but there's actual obligations to be nice to shareholders and customers.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 16:54
|
|
|
ToxicSlurpee posted:Part of the reason is that America has trained people to be lovely to the face staff. If you bitch, scream, kvetch, and abuse enough you'll either get your way or get something free. The way to get a store to do what you want isn't to be nice; it's to be a raging rear end in a top hat. Now consider that we've also created a society that admires narcissism and sociopathy and...yeah. If places would actually go to bat for employees in "no, it is not OK for you to verbally abuse the cashier until the manager shows up to give you something free to make you go away" then this wouldn't be as much of a problem. You seem to be person who never left United States, or maybe only short vacation. Bad habits of attribute thing to "America" that we have so much in many European country. Was not fun in work at market as young person for me, much customer abuse. But I suppose none of them ever had 5 guns on them in plain view like some American love?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 20:46
|
|
|
nepetaMisekiryoiki posted:You seem to be person who never left United States, or maybe only short vacation. Bad habits of attribute thing to "America" that we have so much in many European country. Was not fun in work at market as young person for me, much customer abuse. But I suppose none of them ever had 5 guns on them in plain view like some American love? I'm also a European who now lives in the US, and while 5 guns in plain view is an exaggeration, it's not uncommon here to see non-military, non-law enforcement people openly carry a deadly weapon. Also, it's generally legal to carry a completely hidden firearm as well, so you never know who else is carrying a ranged weapon that can kill numerous people with no effort. It makes people tense and frightened, but it's the American way! People will tell you that it's their 2nd amendment "right", but mostly firearms sales is huge business here and the industry will do anything to keep the status quo. The fact that firearm-related violence is much lower in states with stricter regulations is conveniently ignored.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 21:39
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:It makes people tense and frightened It seems to make you tense and frightened. I'm aware of some other people who feel this way. The vast majority of people do not.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 22:31
|
|
|
ToxicSlurpee posted:but there's actual obligations to be nice to shareholders and customers. There usually isn't. It's just that both sides are greedy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2018 23:14
|
|
|
Motronic posted:It seems to make you tense and frightened. I'm aware of some other people who feel this way. Nah, lots and lots of people are scared when a guy with a gun is yelling at them and that is like 90% of the reason people openly carry guns.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 00:02
|
|
|
Mendrian posted:A lot of modern retail shittiness is caused by the tension between shareholders, customers, and employees. It's not just that, it also comes down to metrics. A company is judged on it's metrics over the year before. No one cares that you're a multibillion dollar company with millions of workers if your sales are flat vs next year, or labor costs haven't been on a downward trend this quarter, or if you didn't hit the right percent of online sales to ward off Amazon. It's kind of hosed, because it pushes behavior that at some point is unsustainable. You can't keep wringing the numbers, there's still an absolute amount of say, labor you have to spend to keep customer service up. The investors don't care. Almost a decade ago I worked for a burger company that was leveraging gas stations to expand its market share. By all accounts, we were good gas stations, and I ran a pretty good ship. We made the company money. However, c-store business is a different beast than burger sales. Your profit margins are a lot lower, because burgers are super cheap to make, and gasoline is sold on a margin, sometimes just a nickle a gallon. So after 10 years the investors made the company sell off all it's c-stores. Not because they weren't profitable, but because they brought the return for dollar spent down. This is becoming more and more common, investors will cut off their noses and pass up on making millions just because those millions cost more to make. Like if you could have 5 dollars for spending 2, and also get another 5 for spending 4, you'd want both, right? But that makes your metrics look bad, and you'll get more stock appreciation off ditching the latter and just getting the former. Market is hosed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 01:13
|
|
|
Owlofcreamcheese posted:Nah, lots and lots of people are scared when a guy with a gun is yelling at them and that is like 90% of the reason people openly carry guns. I wasn't going to respond to the obvious
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 01:30
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:I wasn't going to respond to the obvious You should reconsider, friend. If you are legitimately so terrified of the people around you that the thought that they might have an object in their possession that could be used to hurt someone fills you with existential dread, you should seek counseling before your anxieties start to damage your day to day life.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 04:09
|
|
|
C'mon that's obviously a misreading of what the guy said, he is talking about people who visibly DO have a weapon on them. It's fine if you don't feel any anxiety around someone with a gun and I usually don't either but don't act like it's so hard to understand why someone would nowadays.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 04:38
|
|
|
Winty posted:C'mon that's obviously a misreading of what the guy said, he is talking about people who visibly DO have a weapon on them. To give you a little context. Bolding mine. JustJeff88 posted:I'm also a European who now lives in the US, and while 5 guns in plain view is an exaggeration, it's not uncommon here to see non-military, non-law enforcement people openly carry a deadly weapon. Also, it's generally legal to carry a completely hidden firearm as well, so you never know who else is carrying a ranged weapon that can kill numerous people with no effort. It makes people tense and frightened, but it's the American way! People will tell you that it's their 2nd amendment "right", but mostly firearms sales is huge business here and the industry will do anything to keep the status quo. The fact that firearm-related violence is much lower in states with stricter regulations is conveniently ignored. Open carry is a terrible idea, I'd agree, but JustJeff there clearly has some anxiety issues that he should probably talk to someone about, especially for someone who says they're ex-military.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 05:53
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:Open carry is a terrible idea, I'd agree, but JustJeff there clearly has some anxiety issues that he should probably talk to someone about, especially for someone who says they're ex-military. Would you care to point out the part where he's wrong? Most states do have concealed carry of some kind.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 06:00
|
|
|
Customers are lazy, retailers are exploitative, both are cheap and greedy, staff don't give a poo poo because it's a dead-end career, retail sucks.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 06:14
|
|
|
WampaLord posted:Would you care to point out the part where he's wrong? The part where he's saying the mere possibility of concealed carry makes people tense and frightened, the way aggressive open-carrying can. It might be true somewhere, maybe, but I've never even considered it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 07:57
|
|
|
Xae posted:The Family Video near my house is shutting down. They're selling the fixtures and everything. The Marcos is staying in business. Probably because we're in an absurd deadzone where none of the national chains will deliver to, despite being 1-2 miles away. the final video store (a Family Video) in my town has closed down and is being replaced by, no poo poo, a bar where you can throw hatchets. i know it's a sort of popular thing atm but it's still one of the dumber things i've ever heard of, business-wise. (the former K-mart is turning into a consignment store, a thrift store, and a trampoline park, which is a much better use of floor space IMO)
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 08:05
|
|
|
DC Murderverse posted:the final video store (a Family Video) in my town has closed down and is being replaced by, no poo poo, a bar where you can throw hatchets. ...it is? drat, I gotta find one of those that sounds fun.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 08:09
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:You should reconsider, friend. Have you never heard that wonderful line from 2nd Amendment folk that "An armed society is a polite society." Making other people think twice about you is part of the goddamn point of being armed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 11:37
|
|
|
Yes as we all know the Wild West was a very polite place where people would show each other their guns and then tip their caps to each other and shake hands.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 12:34
|
|
|
If everyone was a professional gun juggler like  , it would probably be pretty cool.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 12:57
|
|
|
I'm all for creating a wasteland and calling it peace, this will happen more readily if everyone has a gun.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 13:14
|
|
I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
|
You haven't lived until you've had to stand up to a tomato-faced moron wearing a shoulder holster who wants a stupid discount on something. He doesn't have to brandish for you to wonder how far he'll go to push you around.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 15:59
|
|
|
I’ve literally never seen anyone who isn’t a cop open carry a gun, but that’s because I live in LA which doesn’t allow it. Legal concealed carry is also not really permitted here. It’s all down to where you live.Owlofcreamcheese posted:Nah, lots and lots of people are scared when a guy with a gun is yelling at them and that is like 90% of the reason people openly carry guns. Well, at least since they’re not a cop they actually cannot just shoot you if they feel like it and are subject to the law.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 16:35
|
|
|
Mendrian posted:A lot of modern retail shittiness is caused by the tension between shareholders, customers, and employees. Companies do not have an obligation to maximize shareholder value. They choose to at the expense of consumers and employees
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 16:53
|
|
|
But certainly the shareholders want to maximize their investment...
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 16:58
|
|
|
Dylan16807 posted:The part where he's saying the mere possibility of concealed carry makes people tense and frightened, the way aggressive open-carrying can. That's exactly the part of his post I was responding to. I didn't think it was all that confusing, and several of you seemed to figure it out just fine but..... I guess it makes me a sociopath because I'm not constantly in fear of the people around me because one of them might be concealing a weapon? Motronic fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Jun 30, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 17:32
|
|
|
Concealed carry deez nuts
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 17:36
|
|
|
Lol if you don’t just presume everyone is strapped at all times of the day.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 17:39
|
|
|
Malcolm XML posted:Companies do not have an obligation to maximize shareholder value. The US has bullshit about maximising rich fucknugget's value going all the way back to 1919
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 17:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 01:16 |
|
|
Killer-of-Lawyers posted:This is becoming more and more common, investors will cut off their noses and pass up on making millions just because those millions cost more to make. Like if you could have 5 dollars for spending 2, and also get another 5 for spending 4, you'd want both, right? But that makes your metrics look bad, and you'll get more stock appreciation off ditching the latter and just getting the former. Market is hosed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 17:43
|
|
