• jtrek@startrek.website
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    11 days ago

    This shouldn’t be allowed. We need to stop letting corporations consolidate.

    That aside, I don’t think I’ve ever used either of these. I used to use seamless for restaurant delivery, but not so much anymore. Shit’s too expensive.

  • Zephorah@discuss.online
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    11 days ago

    Because competition is bad.

    This feels like that bit about Taco Bell in Demolition Man. Idk, who would win each fight?

    One network TV: Warner.

    One US internet access, the utility and the equipment: FCC Inc.

    One social media: Meta (because Elon will get bored and Spaz will sell out, but Zuckerberg only knows how to be the asshole he is in one specific way). Probably.

    Blackrock, Health and Food divisions.

    One computing component manufacturer: Nvidia.

    Never mind how all of the above is supposed to be illegal.

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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    11 days ago

    I get my groceries delivered once a month from Instacart because I’m blind, so if I wanted to go grocery shopping myself, I would have to spend money on an Uber to take me there, then get a shopping assistant to help me pick up the stuff I need, and then pay for an Uber back home, so it actually ends up being cheaper to just get it delivered, and I can see what I’m purchasing in the app.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      11 days ago

      i see where its disabled people use apps like prime whole food shopping too. its useful for these people. also well off people use it to, so they dont have to spend time to go to the store when they are working at home.

  • 404found@lemmy.zip
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    11 days ago

    I’m no journalist, but something tells me ‘consolidation’ is the correct term for acquiring another corporation.

  • Toga77@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    How is this even possible?

    Door dash sucks ass. Instacart has been the only delivery service I’ve never had an issue with around my area and now it’s fucked too?

    I don’t get it

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      because the demand for these services is growing rapidly.

      where i live tons of people basically live off doordash and other delivery services. my own neighbors order it 1-2 times a day. on my block of maybe 50+ apartments, there are deliveries from drivers basically every 20m, during dinner/lunch hours often there are multiple drivers dropping off at the same time.

      many folks I have met are spending well over $1000+ per month on these services.

      I don’t know anyone who doesn’t use these services at least a few times a month. millions and millions of people are using them and many of those people are totally addicted.

      I ordered it last night because I had to work OT and didn’t get home until 7:30pm, and I was starving. and for $25 bucks I got two meals worth of delicious hot food at my door in 20m.

      • Toga77@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Thats wild. I instacart maybe 3 times a year but have done it for years in a pinch.

        Haven’t used any other food delivery for years because they’re a complete ripoff.

        $25 for two meals is kinda meh, it seems good relative to everything else now but you can make a weeks worth of food with $20 and the right veggies, noodles, and a protein.

        If you discount or coupon shop you can get even better.

        Unfortunately most people in the US don’t respect themselves enough to fight for the rights and wages to not have to work 60 hours a week and then they get convenient overpriced food.

        • Drusas@fedia.io
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          11 days ago

          $25 for two meals is kinda meh, it seems good relative to everything else now but you can make a weeks worth of food with $20 and the right veggies, noodles, and a protein.

          If you discount or coupon shop you can get even better.

          This isn’t very helpful when someone gets home unexpectedly late and is exhausted and hungry. $25 is a pretty good price these days for two meals delivered to your door. How many meals you could get out of that $25 if you had the time and energy to cook isn’t really relevant.

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          if you need to worry about that kind of money you are too poor to use these services. That’s fine, your not the target demo.

          The people using them typically make over 100K+ a year and for them time is money. They don’t shop in stores, they don’t cook, and they don’t do take-out either. They dine-in or do delivery. For every meal.

          For people making 10K a month, spending 2K a month on delivery food is 20% of their income. It’s entirely affordable. They are also spending 4-5K on rent/mortgage. A lot of them are young people making 100K and living with 3 roommates so they have like 8K+ in disposable income.

          I spend maybe $100 month on delivery, during the pandemic it was closer to $300 because I dind’t have the option of dining out anywhere.

          You can find it outrageous all you want, doesn’t mean it isn’t a growth industry. I don’t buy first class plane tickets or stay in $1000/night hotels, but those markets are also booming.

          • Toga77@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            Try again lol.

            Wife and I clear 6 figures easy.

            That shit is still a massive waste of money and it barely even saves time half the damn time because the drivers are awful.

            • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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              11 days ago

              so why do you care if other people use it? it saves them time and they have the money to burn.

              clearing six figures for a couple isn’t very much in 2026 dude. you’re not even in the top quartile of incomes. you only make more more than like 70% of americans. The people I am talking about are make 100K by themselves at like the age of 25, and are making 300-400K as couples in their 30s/40s. I clean 150K by myself and I am poor compared to most folks in my city.

              you can be angry about it all you want but other people have the money to ‘waste’. for those people time is the most limited resource and they would rather not spend 10 hours a week shopping and cooking.

              • Toga77@lemmy.world
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                11 days ago

                All I said was it’s a waste of money, if that feels like a personal attack, that sucks.

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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      11 days ago

      Funny, where i am, instacart constantly, like every single order, would get shit wrong.

      The last time before cancelling my subscription in my order i requested frozen prepared cannelloni. I received dry noodle tubes.

      And every dasher around here in the very poor part of the city drive bmw, Mercedes, tricked out subaru BRz, etc.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        11 days ago

        Did you select a preference for “What to do if this item is out of stock” or did you just wing it and get mad when it wasn’t what you wanted?

  • Janx@piefed.social
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    11 days ago

    Republicans in charge will do anything but dare to put up guardrails for these giant companies. They’ve long since decided not to regulate them, so corporations are free to merge, jack up prices, layoff workers, cut services, and create monopolies. The rich won’t suffer from it…

  • Malica@lemmy.zip
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    11 days ago

    Remember when we had functional anti trust investigations? I miss those days. I miss Linda 😭

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    11 days ago

    That’s fucking bullshit! Anti-competitive, monopolistic practices like this should be blocked by the anti-trust laws that we have in place to protect against precisely this!

    What the fuck.

    • ryper@lemmy.ca
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      11 days ago

      The article doesn’t say how they’re planning to pay for Instacart. They could be planning to take on billions of dollars in debt for all we know.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        11 days ago

        That still means the same thing though. If they’re planning to take billions of debt, they and their lender think they’re either making good money today or they’d be making it in the future. Or in other words they can either pay their workers more today or in the future. 😁

        • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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          11 days ago

          Or they are going to do the typical private equity thing and transfer the debt to instacart as soon as they are acquired and then use the debt as an excuse for instacart to go bankrupt in a few years (or months) and walk away one competitor less in the market.

            • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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              11 days ago

              Oh no they will, once you’ve enshittified the business you operate, you have to enshittify the entire business sector, during all of that you have to enshittify our government agencies in order to trade your corporate dumps on the populace for cash.

              “Capitalism! It’s working for someone!”

            • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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              11 days ago

              If they pull the private equity BS, door dash will make loads while instacart posts nothing but losses ‘for unknown reasons, probably just a downturn in the market or something’.