Or “Rome Alone 7.”
I’ve never been more proud to be Swiss. And a cheapskate.
.
Argggh, how frustrating!
But come to think of it, I don’t do social media, but I can show up at the local bar* any time, and there are always people there.
*also true of my local coffee joint, and church. Between those three, I’ve made enough friends that I have to take a break once in a while.
< Picturing Kiernan Shipka being offered a leading role in a major international motion picture… possibly including staying at George and Amal Clooney’s Italian Palace after shooting scenes… with 7 course meals prepared by the worlds finest chefs nightly … and a wine cellar that is literally miles deep… >
“Where do I sign…?” - Kiernan Shipka
< Millie Bobby Brown tries to tackle her to grab the pen >
Why greed? Maybe it allows the service to pay for itself.
I’m Android too. I searched Air Tag for Android on Amazon and see several. I don’t know anything about any of them but I’m sure the Amazon reviewers will give you LOTS of info (and some of it might even be valid).
I just want to question this idea. Why is it good that each service pays for itself, rather than looking at things holistically (the airport should pay for itself)? Surely some services are too small or niche to be able to earn their own budget, while others have a surplus.
I’ve seen other entities ruthlessly pursue this model, and while I think it’s certainly easier for managers within hierarchical structures to operate within a known and controllable budget, I don’t believe it’s actually an inherently ideal model.
Not that you were arguing that it was: the comment just struck me.
London Transport does this as well; they want £5 before you get it back, and more if they have to send it to you.
I agree it’s dumb. But I doubt it’s so much a product of deliberate upper management strategy, as opposed to an emergent bottom-up behavior.
A point I often argue about government operations is that unlike a business, there is no inherent guarantee the resources provided are adequate to the customer demand. A business that flunks that by failing to earn enough to cover their costs shuts down and becomes invisible. A bureaucracy (say the driver’s license bureau) that doesn’t have enough budget simply has lines around the block all day and an ever growing backlog of unprocessed applications, changes of address etc. Meanwhile, the state legislature Does. Not. Care. This situation can fester for years or decades. cf. Crumbling civic infrastructure, interstate highway bridges, etc.
Most airports are government-funded operations. So the needs/resources interconnect is inherently detached. If the operating budget given From on High means they can only afford to be open 20 hours per week, some enterprising lower-level supervisor will realize that if we ask our government overlords for permission to charge a fee and thereby be open 8 hours/day 7 days/week, it’s pretty easy for the manager (& the budgeteer) to say “Yes”.
And thus do we get taxpayer + fee supported services.
If you still prefer to do your grocery shopping old-school style, the good parking spaces are never for you anymore. They’re mostly for curbside pickup and delivery drivers.
Our local Walmart has a parking area over on the right side of the store, where there’s almost no pedestrians or traffic. No drivers stopped in the middle of the row waiting for someone to leave. No able bodied people taking all the time in the world to stroll across, in front of you. Parking over on the side saves you that trouble. So when I’m ready to leave, I can just zip around the back of the store, which is generally deserted and leave via the back exit.
I showed up there yesterday, surprised to see that nobody seemed to be there. Four in the afternoon on a weekday, and this Walmart looks like a ghost town? So I pulled in and got out of the car, and that’s when I discovered it:
The last four spaces over on the side have now been reserved for curbside pickups. There still is a row of spaces over by the wild roses and creek, and that’s what I’ll be using now. But it sucks. Retail outlets should give a little more consideration to the people who are actually willing to go inside the store.
Special parking spots for the grocery pickup program have become a thing around here, too, but it hasn’t caused any problems. At my most frequently visited supermarket, I think there are four spots reserved for pickup. They’re one of the closest spots, of course, but the parking lot is vast. There are also (I think) about four wide handicapped spots, two for “expectant mothers”, and – happily for me – two for old farts. At least half the time one or both of the “old farts” spots will be free, and they’re one of the good ones, close to the entrance. I’ve never had to walk far.
Air Tags have a down side too. I remember reading a few local articles about how Exes, STBexes and Other Stalkers were using them to track/hunt their victims. Evidently there are places on cars (under license plates, etc. ) where they can be attached so that psychos can play cat and mouse with their prey.
I was just offering user supported service as an alternative to “greed”. I like users paying fees to support a service. Turnpike tolls, for instance.
Well, that’s not an argument against buying Air Tags for your own use, it’s more like an argument against their existence.
Personally I don’t really need them. Despite having a memory like a kitchen sieve, as elucidated upthread, I do tend to be obsessive about important things like wallets and cell phones. I always know where my wallets are (there are two, a regular one and one just for plastic cards). I sometimes don’t know where my cell phone is but it’s pretty much self-finding.
Now my glasses, which I don’t usually wear around the house, are not self-finding at all. But they might look strange with an Air Tag hanging off them. Lord knows I try to keep them in one of two predictable places, but I don’t always succeed.
My AirTag arrived yesterday and I set it up with my phone in seconds, it was very easy.
The moment I connected it with my phone, I was warned that it was a crime to use it to track anything but my own stuff.
What’s an “STBex” ?
I assume that’s “soon-to-be ex”.
Exactly.
( Some people are nasty pieces of work; control freaks who literally have to be escaped in order to live. It’s not fiction… shelters do exist. )
I think I may have mini-ranted about this a few months ago. Our local Target has something like 24 online pickup parking spots, and they’re in the row right in front of the doors. Now, if I order something online and I drive to the store to pick it up, I don’t care where I have to park. These are obviously for the convenience of the employees schlepping stuff out to your car, using up prime parking spots for in-store customers.
And it’s rare that I see more than one or two of them being used at any time, and most times it’s none. It seems like the same principle where they have twenty registers at the front of the store but I’ve never seen more than two or three open.
My boss’s 16 year old daughter passed away last Thursday. Her daughter took her own life. I knew something was really wrong because she always texts to let us know what’s up when she’s out. She didn’t this time. My heart is broken for her. I don’t know what I’ll say to her at the visitation. Probably something along the lines of “I’m sorry. Don’t worry about us, we have everything handled.”
I suspect that the worst consequence you can get for parking in one and just going into the store to shop is stink-eyes.