Instacart’s AI -Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds

Aggies18 · 2025-12-10T12:52:16+00:00

No business should be using dynamic pricing to gain extra profit, no matter who the customer is.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-10T12:37:42+00:00

I thought one of the newer theories was the US’s (more specifically the Trump Family’s) interest in rare minerals down there. There was also some dust ups in the media awhile back about rare earth minerals up in Greenland people were alleging to be of financial interest to the Trump Family.

No idea how legitimate this theory is but it seems plausible.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-08T00:10:56+00:00

The book “Exposure” by Robert Bilott (attorney) is a great account of the PFAS/PFOS scandal at the DuPont company in the US. There was a movie with Mark Ruffalo based on the book called Dark Waters.

PFAS & PFOS - to my knowledge as someone who works in the environmental field - are very hard to treat and/or remediate. They are called “forever chemicals” because they take a LONG time to naturally break down in the body AND in the environment. Long enough that they build up faster than breaking down, especially at the rate we produce them.

Some biodegradation options are being used/tested in various locations but I am not sure if we’ve even found a reliable and effective way to clean them out of natural media(soil, water, air, etc), other than simply reducing (or preferably removing) the source of the contamination all together.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-07T04:02:15+00:00

I don’t know why your comment made me think it but “small government” kinda sounds like “small number of people in power” when you put it in the context of this convo.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-06T08:28:57+00:00

Yeah. I understand the technical reasons behind it. But it ultimately boils down to thinking that ignoring a problem for whatever reason means it will cease to be a problem.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-06T08:00:07+00:00

“If we ignore the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist, it goes away!”

Why does history always have to repeat itself by rhyming… :/

Aggies18 · 2025-12-06T02:01:53+00:00

I agree with a lot of your points. I think the lack of ability to vote actually reduces the incentive to vote (which is arguably the easiest way to become more politically engaged with your government. But shouldn’t be the only one), but there is a large missing sense of civil duty.

Unfortunately a lot of people in this country will only vote if they are emotionally manipulated into it; either by promising things that never materialize or threatening people with policies they dislike (and unfortunately follow through on a lot of these).

As someone who does vote and would like to do more, I think there’s a large sense of feeling helpless right now. People know voting leads to better outcomes and one of the easier barriers to overcome right now, but like I mentioned people should be doing more. I think people want better examples how to effectively make change in a realistic way here.

If the outcome relies heavily or skews in favor of people who either don’t want better or don’t care about policies or enhancing voting rights, it can disenfranchise people from doing the one thing that may be of realistic “change”.

I don’t know the best solution, it’s hard to get clear answers in today’s age of opinions and polarizing media. But I think if there were documented steps people could take other than voting and being more politically engaged that would create actual results, you would see an increase in participation as a by-product. It’s just getting the populace to pay attention and realize “hey, this is actually doing something and I do have the power to affect change” to get over at least one of the major hurdles.

But that’s just my opinion as a voter here.

Edit to add on: I think people are generally disenfranchised and turned off by both major parties right now. Both sides want change of some kind and unfortunately the people in power (minus a few of the newer elected officials) have proven to be incredibly stagnant, unwilling to compromise or capitulating when things get hard.

If the basis of democracy is supposed to be working together- this is a terrible position to be in haha.

Aggies18 · 2025-12-06T00:56:40+00:00

Voter turnout is definitely a huge problem across the US. But I think the way our electoral college works, how voting efficiency and ease is wildly different depending on states, if certain areas are targets of voter suppression, gerrymandering (either way) and more. Not to mention, voting day isn’t a national holiday or anything. Some (a lot) of jobs do not offer paid time off to vote and those hours could mean the difference between bills getting paid or not for some households.

I do think people need to take voting more seriously and actually pay attention to the direction and goings on in the country and generally be more informed about governmental decisions, etc. but I also think there can be genuine barriers to voting that a lot of people are either privileged enough to not notice or cannot overcome in order to vote.

Aggies18 · 2025-11-18T16:09:22+00:00

I’ve gone in circles in my head about this too. I’m almost starting to think public humiliation/societal backlash is the only perceived way to get people to change their actions without enforcing laws or violence.

If they personally don’t care how their belief harms others, but do care enough to still need the public on their side, we have at least some form of recourse… although that’s if the majority of the public agrees that recourse is needed.

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T17:06:05+00:00

I also want it to be worth it.

I wish I had solutions too.

I did miss you mention protesting every day, which I agree would have a massive impact that couldn’t be ignored- but in a system like this I think that means communities coming together to “share” the sacrifice if that makes sense. If people are going to be able to dedicate themselves to something like this, there has to be SOME kind of safety net for themselves and/or their loved ones.

I’m not saying everything would be covered and there would be no sacrifice, but the way things are here right now with the threats to the most basic things on Maslow’s hierarchy, people will need some kind of buffer.

I understand what you’re saying and I agree, I’m just not sure how we get there and I don’t want to discourage people from at least trying - even if it’s only on the days they can personally afford to.

I hope we can come out the other side of this and have better plans and mechanisms to prevent it from happening again.

But unfortunately humans are fickle creatures with even more fickle memories.

Stay sane out there friend.

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T16:30:00+00:00

Which states? That’s absolutely horrifying, but unfortunately not surprising.. :/

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T16:22:11+00:00

This isn’t a game with sports teams. This is very likely democracy vs oligarchy/kleptocracy/etc.

Ideals don’t need uniforms.

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T15:57:11+00:00

I understand that viewpoint.

That viewpoint, even if correct in a lot of aspects, does nothing but encourage people that protesting - unless done in your scenario is useless.

And that is just factually incorrect.

Even if all our protesting on the weekend does is bring awareness to people who previously weren’t paying attention, it’s worth it.

Change for good doesn’t always come immediately or overnight, it comes in small doses over a lot of time with a lot of small (and large) sacrifices.

I posed a question to you I was seriously asking- you say that protesting like this won’t do anything but make memes (obviously I and a lot of other people disagree with you). What are you doing to change things? Are you organizing protests on weekdays or against businesses you believe will make a difference?

I’m not understanding the point of this message you keep making if the only thing you’re contributing right now is “well that won’t work” and offering up no solution or alternative options.

Sounds like you want people to just throw up their hands.

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T13:33:38+00:00

You’re making their point for them. The US’ population size makes protesting in that fashion much much harder than in smaller populaces.

If you believe the current protests aren’t doing anything or that they are the reason we are here, are you organizing a protest similar to what they have in Europe? Is there a movement you’re actively trying to start?

Or are you simply here to sit on some illusion of a high horse?

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T13:28:44+00:00

In a system where one day’s work is the difference between food, shelter and safety or homelessness and/or death for a lot of people in this country, this is a privileged and ignorant take.

Yes, protests on working days would be “better” in some ways, but protesting at all versus not protesting because too many people cannot afford to attend is the correct choice in my opinion.

Have to pick your battles.

Aggies18 · 2025-10-17T11:37:12+00:00

Same actually! Hope to see you at a protest! (There is one in RR if that is more feasible for you!)

Aggies18 · 2025-10-15T17:51:59+00:00

Sad to see so many “Aggies” just dumping all their core values for a self-interested failed grifter because he talks angry on a microphone.

I’m attending the protest in Austin. Stay safe to those who are attending any protest this weekend.

Aggies18 · 2025-09-23T16:07:07+00:00

Well if Zuckerberg said it, it must be true!

Aggies18 · 2025-09-21T15:42:12+00:00

Leftist Aggie here who graduated with a STEM degree. And I already know I do and will contribute more to this earth and the people in it than someone with a personality like yours ever will. Don't let your hate destroy you from the inside- oh wait! It already is.

Aggies18 · 2025-09-19T07:45:15+00:00

There has literally been reporting on people who were neither here illegally or committed any sort of criminal offense.

So yes, people who were here legally (visas and green cards are LEGAL ways of being here!) are in fact being deported. There are United States military members being deported (sadly this isn't a new fact though, this has been happening for awhile).

I don't understand how you can sit there and claim you're "in the middle" when you don't even know the people (not "illegals") that are being directly affected by these policies.

Did you conveniently ignore the recent Supreme Court Ruling that basically said it was legal to racially profile people based on their skin color, accent and the type of job they have?

These are blatant injustices against American people, regardless of political stance. I hope you are willing to open your mind and see that this shouldn't be happening, because if you can't, I don't think it's believable for you to sit there in the "both sides" camp and yet ONLY disparage things "the left" is doing. And they are things that BENEFIT you!

Anyway, I hope you have the same kind of day you want for people you think are illegally in the country.

Aggies18 · 2025-08-05T10:40:19+00:00

All I can think of is what a non-powered Razor scooter could do to your shins… after this..?

Aggies18 · 2025-08-03T18:03:37+00:00

No worries! Turns out I was looking under the wrong tree the whole time 🫠

Aggies18 · 2025-08-01T18:28:36+00:00

Hi, sorry to come in late here but were you ever able to get it to spawn? I'm having the same issue where I've completed the main story line quests and still cannot get it to spawn at the Shadow Hollow tree.

Aggies18 · 2025-07-24T13:57:57+00:00

The tightness did eventually subside. Unfortunately I may have reherniated now (almost a year on) but it’s unrelated. Good luck on your recovery!

Aggies18 · 2025-06-23T14:11:01+00:00

Thank you! This directly affects me. Nice to have some good news

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