Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

hi!! <3 I know I was just another annoying voice on the pile but old habits die hard. It really did make a big difference though.

to mookie’s original point, yes. I get so irritated by the “just buy a new machine” mentality. I miss buying a bigger stick of RAM (a thing I did once.. but it counts) I’d like to yell at the devs to ensure backwards compatibility but in solidarity I’ll turn my ire toward the PMs and people concerned about shareholders etc forcing feature bloat in the inexhaustible drive for growth

this has probably been a thing for years now but today I walked to the corner store to get Gatorade, only to see nobody at the counter. after about five minutes, this guy comes in saying the computers are all down, sorry, you'll have to go elsewhere. used to be they'd manually ring you up and you could pay cash, but nope - they were basically shutting down and forgot to lock the door.

this is a chain obviously so they probably use AI software to analyze the sales metadata and have it make automated store/region product purchase decisions without human input (I never see managers at this location anymore). as a result, instead of telling their employees "just write down what you sold, and take cash if you can", they tell them to close the store. while probably blaming them and insinuating they broke the computer system in the interim.

so the store just becomes a big paperweight until the computers come back on and their employees get mega stressed out as there are never managers on duty to help.

and the other thing about being a chain is sometimes this happens: https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/walmart-computer-glitch-halts-sales-and-returns-at-stores-02858f45

Yeah, have had this happen a few times in the past few years, usually at gas station/convenience stores.

Whereas at the Philly coffee shop chain that I frequent? Square goes down, they go cash or CashApp only.

Same with the gym where I work: when our POS system is on the fritz or updating, we just write down what people have bought and members sign in their names on paper, like they used to back in the day.

at Vue cinemas in the UK the staff can’t change anything about the projection, including the volume. it’s all set remotely. same for other aspects of the theatres, like air conditioning and lighting.

what if the wrong movie gets projected

imagining someone hacking into the theater's mainframe and showing Caligula

Xp my corner store is a 7-11 and several times I will show up as they are closing and have turned the registers off, and they totally take cash in that window of time before locking the door

Maybe not all 7-11s are owned by franchisees but the ones around here are… cigarette prices differ significantly

And maybe this qualifies as a backward step too! So the closest one is the price the yemeni market charges plus tax … as in the total I pay is the same as at the yemeni market… the second closest one actually adds tax to the amount the closest one charges for a pack plus tax … basically they double tax. The one in Berkeley across the street from the good donut shop actually does it as tax inclusive … so it ends up being 10% cheaper than most everywhere else except Walgreens… however I have to drive to el Cerrito to get to a Walgreens that sells cigarettes…

Yea smoking is bad and I should quit.