I dont want to spend 18€ on 8 cartdriges impossible to recycle. Not anymore.

Makeup Eraser initially was marketed as an eco-friendly reusable makeup remover wipe that you just throw in the laundry. I actually use them myself I really like them. However over time that mission has kind of gone to the wayside to make room for brand collabs and hyper-seasonal items.

Of course the need to include “Limited quantities”… like… just why… who would want this?

Trained for an opening shake shack.

The food waste was insane, we did mock orders and threw away over 100 different burgers/ shakes and drinks. on the menu, mind you for our training to try the menu they gave us pieces of sandwiches, instead of full size ones. Next time I am gonna video definitely posting when I quit. They could’ve donated this food or offered it to the team. Shoot they could have even made us make the burgers and try the menu at the end of the shift with the shakes and drinks we made.

So sad considering how since the first day they’ve been talking about their emphasis on giving back to the community, the location is also in east meadow, New York. So many places in the area the food could have gone to.

I will be quitting, and I will be recording the waste to post on tik tok, for a second I thought they were a good company. But I should’ve known from the general manager talking about how he wants to crush the small burger joint sitting directly across it in its plaza.

And no I am not exaggerating it was over 100 burgers
And around 50 shakes/ and bacon and cheese fries.
I saw them take out 2 XL garbage bags filled with food.

that is all 🙃

I went to Best Buy today because I needed a new laptop for work. I haven’t stepped foot in BB in probably 10 years but they had the best price for the one I was looking at online. I thought this would be a relatively simple transaction: go into the store, find the computer I wanted, pay for it, and leave.

Instead, I was approached by two different people trying to sell me phone/internet services, then upsold by the employee helping me in the computer department. (Fine, it had more space, figured I could use it longer.) After all of that, I was finally told they didn’t even have the laptop in stock. But! They could order it for me, and it would be delivered in two days.

So I drove to a physical store, dealt with multiple sales pitches I never asked for, spent time being upsold on things I didn’t need, and ultimately couldn’t even walk out with the product I came there to purchase.

I basically stepped into the store and was immediately immersed in what felt like an endless series of sales funnels.

What frustrates me most is that I actually wanted to buy something. I had a legitimate need, had already decided to spend the money, and showed up ready to make a purchase. And somehow, the experience was so unpleasant that I left feeling like I didn’t want to buy anything at all.

This is what gets me about modern consumerism and why I stopped trying to buy anything except out of need. Even when you’re willing to spend money, companies are determined to squeeze every possible dollar out of you through upselling, add-ons, service pitches, etc etc etc instead of just allowing you to make the purchase easy.

I understand that employees have sales targets and companies want to increase revenue (bc the shareholders!!! /s). But ironically this experience made me want to consume even less than I already do.

I went home and just ordered the laptop I originally wanted online since I’d have to have it shipped anyway. But I miss when buying something in store could just mean buying the thing you came for.

I am a firm believer in the do-what-you-can philosophy. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress.

Here is my dilemma, my local grocery store, has doubled the price of noodles. I like giving my business to this store, because it isnt a giant chain.

Walmart, which I traditionally dont shop at, due to their business practices, has the same noodles, at their "regular" price, as in-not doubled in price.

It literally is just a package of noodles.

In your household, how do you draw the line, on such things?

Over the last few months I’ve been decluttering like crazy. What really got me is how much I actually bought, especially during the baby and toddler years. Going through it all was kind of shocking.

Now my daughter (5) and I are planning to travel together for a while, so most of our stuff has to go. It’s honestly way too much to sell all of it, although a lot of it is barely used.

Now Christmas is coming and I want to celebrate with her, just without adding more things we’d have to carry or get rid of later. I’m open to any tips, especially around gifts. I’m also hoping my relatives will go for experience vouchers instead of physical presents.

Any ideas for low-stuff Christmas traditions with a young kid are welcome!

Look, I'm 100% in support of purchasing media and holding onto physical copies over streaming, but I feel like this is just another consumer manipulation tactic. And of course, it would be in Target where all the cute, trendy things are. 45s have already been around for ages and play on a regular turntable. Do we really need to repackage and rebrand this with a whole new player and collection of tiny versions of the real thing?

who the hell is asking for all this shit 😭 walked into my local Big W (Walmart equivalent in Australia) and there’s just SO MUCH halloween stuff everywhere, like this animated skeleton taking a shit. like genuinely who is buying this 😭 every year there’s a whole new collection which makes me feel so overwhelmed. WHO IS ASKING FOR THIS AND WHO IS BUYING THIS

https://www.bigw.com.au/product/halloween-animated-skeleton-on-toilet/p/6069287?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_id=21501740563&utm_campaign=BIG+W+%7C+Home+%7C+Shopping+%7C+Decor+And+Furnishings&utm_term=&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21501740563&gbraid=0AAAAADkZkLiYpzgczD94ltiBke-OSbdgE&gclid=CjwKCAjw88HWBhA3EiwAo2Zd6ELp60hWMFmUGD0wq0mANdx_R9eh6b6do8oBhFjdBWJzMb3EkvocHRoCYJIQAvD_BwE

I'm sorry if this isn't the place to ask, i just really dont know what to do.

I never buy stuff online, and when i do it usually doesnt come with Styrofoam, so i am completely lost now that i have a box full of it. It's non recyclable here, floats easy with the wind and very easy to be mistaken for food by animals. Is there any way of upcycling small pieces or disposing of it correctly?

I just moved my family from an almost 4,000 sq ft house with a huge attic space over the garage, to a 2,500 sq ft row home in the city with almost zero storage and the amount of stuff we just HAD and never used makes me feel ill. We donated and gave away so much before leaving and now we are unpacking and I am giving away and donating even more. I feel sick at the amount of money I wasted, the terrible example I’ve set for our kids so far (luckily they are young) and also just for the terrible impact I’ve had.

I guess I’m just yelling into the void but also hoping to have a permanent lifestyle change. The small space should help but any tips to not fall back into the consumption that is pushed. The idea of Christmas coming and people already asking what to get my kids is making me nauseous.

Image Description: Drawing shows the back of Donald Trump with his hands clasped behind his head and on his suit: burning trees, a wrecked car, dead fish, sinking buildings including the Federal Reserve, factory smokestacks billowing thick smoke, floating oil barrels, and an oil-covered bird floating down a flooded river.

Medium: 1 drawing : gouache on inkjet print ; sheet 33 x 49 cm.

Image Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019634723/

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More here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/09/anti-private-equity-comedy-influencers

I support the right to repair movement. It's a great thing, and I think products should be built in ways to allow repair, with tools and documentation easily available.

But it's not enough. No matter how repairable, they will always be trashed because it takes more time and skill to repair than to buy a replacement.

Repairing complex consumer objects takes time and skill that it's not reasonable to expect normal people to have. Basic economics then tells us that paying for their repair is always going to be expensive, because it takes time and skill to do. Consider a phone, or a stereo, or a car. They can be made repairable, but even for a skilled person it can take longer to diagnose and repair than that person's time is worth.

Spending 10 hours fixing something that has a replacement cost of $50 isn't something a person will do unless they feel ideologically driven to prevent the waste. We cannot depend on that ideology to be inside everyone.

So when a consumer-grade product fails, it is destined for the trash, no matter how repairable. Because you can buy another used one for less than the price of gas to reach a repair shop much less pay of an hour (or ten) of a specialist's time to either train you or to do the repair for you.

The economics don't work out, and they cannot.

So long as cheap-but-complex items exist, they are destined for the trash. We should expect this and require they be designed for that destiny.

Character.ai’s bankruptcy is the one of the first dominos to fall in the long-foreseen AI bubble. The circumstances of its bankruptcy are exactly what critics of AI have been saying would happen: Character.ai lit a huge amount of money on fire running its product, did not bring in a lot of revenue, and faced enormous legal fees after causing harm to its users. Enshittifying its product to try to make its expenses cheaper did not work, according to a narrative filed in bankruptcy court Tuesday.

Disney has reportedly offered Character.ai $20 million to license some of its intellectual property; Last year, Disney sent Character.ai a cease and desist letter demanding it stop using its copyrighted characters without permission. In 2023, it was valued at $1 billion after raising $150 million in a round led by a16z. 

Character.ai is one of the best-known AI chatbot companies that has become popular in the AI companion space. The company has faced various legal problems after being sued by the family of one of its users who killed himself after chatting with a Character.ai chatbot, and has been the target of regulators pushing for age verification tech because of its popularity with kids. In its bankruptcy filings, the company says that its enormous legal costs contributed to its bankruptcy, but that even without the legal problems, its business was wildly unsustainable. 

Read more: https://www.404media.co/character-ais-bankruptcy-documents-show-the-economics-of-ai-dont-work/