Ah, I see I misunderstood what “dollar store” meant.
As mentioned “pound shops” (also often people just say the brand: Poundland) in the UK literally sell most things for £1. Also, here in China, there are 10 kuai stores (kuai is the measure word for currency) which sell things for 10 RMB, apart from select items like bluetooth speakers say.
Thirty or so years ago, it was possible to sell many of the things in dollar stores in the U.S. for a dollar or even less. Prices have risen enough that that’s no longer possible. Some items in dollar stores still sell for a dollar or less, but it’s not typical. There’s a chain called Five Below that sell everything for five dollars or below (although they often have a section for a few products that are ten dollars or below). There has always been inflation, so it’s too difficult to keep prices below some arbitrary point. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were a lot of five and dime stores, because at that point it was possible to sell things at five to ten cents. Gradually those stores had to increase prices too, so the name fell out of use.
I understand that some televisions in Europe can record programs (onto a flash drive?) for viewing later. No fussing with an internet connection or streaming service is necessary. This feature has not been available in the United States.
The closest thing available are “digital television tuner” set top boxes with recording capability.
(TCL televisions might have some sort of reduced-feature recorder.)
Dollar Tree is - unless it’s changed since the pandemic started - an exception. Everything’s a dollar or less plus tax. The downside is the stuff is cheaply made and looks it* and the food is often really close to expired.
*Oddly I’ve gotten some nice looking picture frames there, though.
Dollar Store. Where hundreds of items worth twenty seven cents are sold for one dollar.
Everyone (well, not everyone. But people who have spent a reasonable amount of time to most of their lives in a system that charges sales tax that’s added on at the cash register) knows.
It’s not a surprise.
It might be kind of a surprise the first time you go shopping with your own money when you’re 5 or 6 and the toy that you want is more than the number it says on the sign. But by the time you’re buying things on a regular basis this is just how it works.
There’s no reason to put it on notice.
But yes, at the dollar store when I see a sign that says “all wine glasses $1,” I will need to hand over $1.10 to take the wine glass home with me.
Pretty much all TV’s in the UK come with that feature as standard. Plug in a memory stick, format it then record to it.
They are often “locked” to the TV in question though, you can’t record a load on the stick and then unplug it to play on your laptop or another device.
Why wouldn’t they give a cashier a chair to sit down in? That seems highly unreasonable to me.
Alas, chairs for cashiers are not a thing in America. Apparently California requires them to be available on request, but where I work you need a doctor’s note or an ADA accommodation to be able to sit down while checking.
Cashiers at Aldi get chairs.
I nominate the metal roller shutters that are ubiquitous in France and seem to be built into the construction of most residential buildings. You have a handle inside next to the window (or a patio style door) and you can roll down a big metal shutter. The shutter rolls down to the floor with gaps but if you keep winding the shutter will compress and completely black out the window. And I mean a total black out. Great for sleeping, security, noise reduction and for keeping a room cool from the morning sun.
The shutter is hidden completely in the wall above the window so it doesn’t ruin the look of your property.
If I was building a property from scratch I’d get one of these fitted.
My house (in Michigan) has in-wall mixing valves for the showers. For each shower, the backside of the wet wall has a removal panel that facilitates access to the valve for service/replacement; no “tear up the wall” is necessary, the access panel is held in place with a few screws. My house is about 27 years old, but I suspect it’s common to a lot of houses; I saw the same thing on a previous house I lived in that was much older.
Trust me, if you’re on Weight Watchers, that’s exactly what you do.
But the most important and valuable point to the consumer is, by every packet stipulating how many calories are in 100g, you can easily compare products. You don’t need the maths, you just need to know that pack of cheese A has less calories per 100g than pack B.
Positively cruel! It’s been the practice for some time amongst major supermarkets in the UK to employ otherwise retired people as cashiers (they are more reliable, and do it for the extra pocket money and social life). Not giving them chairs would discriminate against them.
Also, in places such the UK (can’t believe I’m bigging up my home country so much; normally moaning is a national obsession), they’re color coded too.
So you might pick up a pack of granola bars, say, notice that the fat and sugar boxes are both red, and immediately realize that this brand is not as healthy as you’d normally expect for this kind of product.
See, that is something I’d hate to see adopted worldwide. Arthritis means that it’d be really hard for me to get to the sink - the same goes for many other disabilities and heavy pregnancy. Shorter people (and kids) might not be able to reach it at all.
If it were on top but accessible from the side that’d be a different matter.
U.S. cashiers don’t have time to sit. “Time to lean, time to clean” is a common motto. When I was a cashier I was also supposed to shelve and price merchandise, keep the two aisles closest to me neat and clean, mop the floor around my checkstand, clean the glass on the front doors, salt the doorstep and sidewalk in winter, stock the coolers, answer the phones…when could I sit? (And that’s not even a complete list of duties.)
Think I’m exaggerating? Ask your clerk what their side duties are next time you go to Walmart, CVS, Dollar Tree, McDonalds, Wendy’s or anywhere else, really.
I saw a video from an unknown country where they had a guy whose entire job was to whack people with sticks for not wearing their masks in public. I’d support global adoption of this policy. In fact, I’ll volunteer for the position!
It’s totally accessible from the side if there’s not a wall there. Also, the tank tends to be pretty tall vs a non-sink toilet, probably for ergonomics, which would help.
I think they’re the only chain where I’ve ever seen this.
Personally, I’ve worked a buncha retail jobs. At every one, chairs or stools were absolutely verboten. NO SIT FOR YOU!