Let’s review Cory Doctorow’s definition of the enshittification cycle:
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
His definition doesn’t quite capture the driver behind this cycle, which is the expectation by Silicon Valley investors that a company will control an entire market (“disruption!”) and generate billion dollar returns for million dollar investments. Still, he’s pretty much spot on about the disease if not the cause. The point that nobody makes about these enshittified Silicon Valley behemoths is that the invisible hand may strike a few of them down.
Since we’ve been traveling for the last couple of years, I’ve been a first-hand observer of the decline of ride sharing, house sharing and payment systems:
- Uber and Lyft were cheap in the beginning, now they’re about as expensive as a cab used to be. In smaller towns, I’ve had long waits for ride sharing since few drivers were working. This is because driving for L/Uber is a terrible deal, and drivers lose money when they figure in wear and tear on their car. In larger towns, the I’ve ridden with a U/Lyft driver who was renting the car from someone else and doing a shit job driving. After a concert, the L/Uber drivers showed me what a ride would cost on the ridesharing system, then offered to take a little less in cash if they drive you “off app”. All of this is sketchy as fuck and brand destructive, but since there’s no real alternative to L/Uber now that the taxis are gone, it’s gonna suck for a long time. I’ve only seen a non-L/Uber future in one place: Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is apparently too small for U/Lyft to colonize. Thunder Bay had an independent ride sharing company with its own software and payment system that worked fine. When all the AI bullshit is stripped away, L/Uber offer an app to connect you with a driver, as well as some minor guarantee that if the driver does something wrong, you’ll get your money back or insurance will pay out. It doesn’t take a billion dollar company to do that. Maybe if enough towns thrown them out, we’ll see a rideshare system that fairly compensates drivers and doesn’t put customers in danger, but I’m not holding my breath.
- Airbnb has priced itself out of the market. I’ve been on the road for a couple of years off and on, and I’ve stayed at about 3 Airbnb’s (and a lot of hotels). Airbnb properties just don’t make financial sense for a short stay for two people when compared to a hotel, due to the Airbnb fees and cleaning fees. As with ridesharing, Airbnb makes the property owner take all the risk. Owning an Airbnb property might make financial sense if the host is willing to do some of the work. But, many hosts have bought their Airbnb property as a “passive investment,” so they hire property managers and cleaning services to do the work of renting and cleaning their “investment.” There are too many middlemen taking a cut for this to be competitive. For longer stays, or families/parties where a whole house makes sense, an Airbnb can be financially competitive compared to a hotel. But for stays of a month or more, there are services like Furnished Finder that simply connect landlords to tenants and let them work out the financial deals. I thought that rising interest rates would be the death knell for Airbnb, because their hosts who are using Airbnb to pay the mortgage were going to get caught in a squeeze when their adjustable rate kicked in. But it looks like the lower interest rates of Joe Biden’s terrible economy (/s) are going to save Airbnb for the short term. Longer term, between cities hating how Airbnb contributes to the housing shortage, as well as the ability of hotels to undercut Airbnbs for some stays, I don’t see a bright future for a trillion-dollar Airbnb, but what do I know?
- Venmo, which was the most common way for people to split checks or pay a landlord, has shat itself spectacularly. The other day I tried to pay my landlord and my transaction was rejected, even though I’ve paid for other things successfully for years with Venmo. Searching online, this seems to be a common event. Apparently, Venmo’s “AI” for detecting fraud is broken, and their new owner PayPal isn’t motivated to fix it. I solved this issue by paying a few days in advance with a paper check — you may have heard of this new technology.
Anyway, my approach with all of these “disruptors” is to take advantage of them when they’re giving some of their billions away, and then avoid them if all possible when they start moving up the enshittification ladder. Sometimes you still have to take a Lyft or rent an Airbnb when traveling, but I also carry around a bike to ride instead of using a ride service, and stay in a hotel if at all possible. I don’t think I’m the only one, so I’m hoping to see at least one of these behemoths get slapped down by the invisible hand.
Sunday Afternoon Open Thread
J. Arthur Crank
This explanation seems to be spot on. I haven’t used Lyft in about a year, and I will avoid Air BnB after a bad experience last spring. It will be hotels and taxis from now on, not that I travel that much anymore.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
what’s the difference btwn Venmo and Paypal?
Was Venmo easier to use with a phone?
KrackenJack
One side effect of successful enshttification is it throws off a bunch of cash that allows them to buy competitors. PayPal and Venmo being a case.
NotMax
Paper checks good.
Although don’t know how one of the officers at a local bank manages to sign hers. The nameplate on her desk is 29 letters in length.
;)
Another Scott
Thanks for the post.
I’ve never ridden in an Uber nor Lyft (nor rented an electric scooter). I’ve never had issues with taxis here in NoVA. I’ve never stayed at an AirBnB.
I don’t like these things. My view is that their business models basically depend upon finding ways to go around regulations. Those regulations are in place for good reasons (public safety, preventing a race to the bottom on wages, etc.), and we let techbros break them at our peril.
As many places are finding out…
Yeah, taxis had problems, etc., etc. But I’m a fan of working within the system to make things better rather than expecting some rent-seeking techbro monopoly to have our best interests at heart.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
TheOtherHank
I live in a smallish town fairly close (10 miles) to San Francisco. The other day I locked my keys in the car and my spare was at home. I took a Lyft home (roughly 5 miles) to get the spare. One way the ride was $20 before tip. I don’t take cabs or use Lyft/Uber very often, so I don’t know what I should have expected to pay, but that seemed like a lot.
I suppose I could have taken the bus, but the SamTrans bus runs every hour or so and I had things I needed to do.
waspuppet
It’s the same principle as the media enshittification process: Make it worse; charge the same; coast on the increased profit margin; sell your stocks and/or retire before anyone besides a couple of pesky reporters really notices.
I sprained and fractured my ankle last month, and last week I was pretty well recovering, but I had to go about two miles so I looked up an Uber. The rate was $31. I pronounced myself cured enough to walk the mile to the Metro. F these people.
narya
Thank you for this. I’ve never used any of these platforms, and now I can continue to avoid them! The thought of getting into a stranger’s vehicle was never comfortable to me, and the same is true of someone’s house. I don’t write actual checks much any more, but I do have them if I wanted to stop doing electronic payments.
$8 blue check mistermix
@David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: For some reason Venmo caught on with the younger generation, maybe because you could use a cell # instead of an email to sign up (?). They all can be accessed via an app AFAIK.
@Another Scott: At least in my hometown (Rochester, NY), the taxis just failed to take on U/Lyft in any meaningful way. They would not agree to central dispatch of cabs, so each taxi company had their own app, which is madness. I tried to do it for a while (since I wanted taxis to survive) but after waiting forever for a taxi a couple of times, I went with U/Lyft.
narya
@Another Scott:
This.
TheOtherHank
All parents since the invention of cars: Don’t get into a stranger’s car
All parents since the beginning of the internet: don’t trust strangers you meet on the internet
This modern era in which we find ourselves: I know, I’ll meet a stranger on the internet, tell them where I am and get in their car when it pulls to a stop in front of me
Phylllis
A group of us used Uber in DC last year-ride was a Tesla sedan. I’d never been in a Tesla before & my first thought was ‘what a cheap piece of crap this is’ and my second thought was ‘is this guy living in this car?’. I wonder how many people are slowly going under trying to get ahead with these cannibalizing side hustles?
Morfydd
In Hamburg, Germany, the taxis can be scheduled/called/paid via app, and they’re real taxis. Also, the city subsidizes (I think) a company called MOIA , that runs electric vans around. You schedule/call/pay via app. Minor downsides are that you are in fact sharing with whoever else is in the van so you won’t have a direct route, and pickup/dropoff are not exactly door to door. But the drivers are real employees paid an hourly wage.
Also, of course, there’s a functioning mass transit system and a bunch of carshare companies.
This is not to brag, just saying there is hope for better!
Anoniminous
One of the great joys of having said “Take This Job and Shove It” is a sedentary life. I no longer have to travel to tell stupid people their stupid idea is stupid, e.g., Little Ronnie RayGuns’ Star Wars project that require eliminating the Inverse Square Law.
dexwood
@TheOtherHank: Not much longer before you’ll be running with scissors.
Almost Retired
From my understanding, in the early-ish years of Uber and Lyft (2016 or so), the companies were subsidizing the rides in certain areas, keeping the rates artificially low. This was evidently true in much of West Los Angeles and the South Bay, and for awhile I was using them liberally. Then, the subsidies stopped and the prices soared (along with the creepiness factor of some of the drivers). So I’m back to cabs and/or guilt-tripping my children into rides to LAX.
Same with Air BnB. It was great for awhile. And then the investors (and regulators) swarmed in. The quality of the properties went down and the bullshit fee factor went up. So we’re back to hotels, for the most part.
It was a thing while it lasted.
ETA. No rain yet. But the roof leak buckets have been deployed in the family room.
Yutsano
I don’t know if I told this story before, but it relates to both travel and ridesharing companies.
I was on my way home from Milwaukee. My friend had just dropped me off at the airport. I had gotten my tags out of the Delta kiosk, then suddenly realised I had forgotten my passport at the hotel. I immediately called the hotel and told them I had left my passport in the nightstand drawer in my room and would be back as quickly as possible to retrieve it. The couner people at Delta said I didn’t need my passport to check in for my flight. This was an hour and a half before my flight. I checked in, went outside to the rideshare area, and immediately called for a Lyft. For 10 minutes I waited for the driver to move and they didn’t but there was another car sitting in front of me. He happened to be an Über/Lyft driver who’s fare didn’t show up. He offered to take me back to the hotel off book for $40. I agree and we load up and booked it to the hotel. The security people at the hotel had found my passport and agreed to meet me outside the hotel to hand it to me. I offered another $40 to the driver if he would take me back to the airport and he agreed. We rushed back to the airport and since I was already checked in all I needed to do was have an assistor get me through security (only took 10 minutes) and my gate wasn’t far away. It cost me $100 in total (I tipped him $20 also because he was amazing through this whole affair) and he said that would be the most money he would make all day. Made my flight right by boarding time and everything worked out in the end.
Gig economy sucks and I really should tell any rideshare drivers in the future to get on filling out the form SS-8 and let the IRS decide if they’re actually contractors or should be considered wage employees.
Brachiator
Taxi service in the Los Angeles area is almost uniformly crap. No easy solutions here.
Also, taxi cabs and later rental cars were disruptors of the transportation industry, displacing horse drawn carriages.
Soprano2
What the people who think breaking these things will make them better miss is that there’s a reason things are the way they are. Streaming is going to become just like cable – it’s already happening! There is a reason for taxi companies and hotels.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Yeah; I put it in the printer, scan the numbers, then the computer sends a transaction to the bank, asks for a signature, and writes void all over the check for me to hand back to the patient.
It’s like a debit card with extra steps.
Doug R
@Another Scott: Yeah, as a courier for most of my life with time spent as a “contractor” and and an employee.
As “contractors” the company took 40-50% of what the customer was billed. But that paid for an office, telephone answerers, dispatcher(s), a radio license, a radio network and accountants.
What does Uber’s vig even pay for? A little server space and a billing app?
Don’t get me started on how Airbnb has managed to enshitify BOTH the hotel business AND the rental market.
Mingobat (f/k/a KareninGA)
I only use Lyft when traveling for work, anywhere where a rental would be more expensive. It goes on the company card, so it’s fine by me.
I used one AirBnB once, near Lake Jocassee in SC. No hotels around there, and it had reasonable cleaning fees,* so I’ll go back. Otherwise I much prefer a hotel.
*I mistyped “fees” and my phone autocorrected to “geese.” I would gladly pay extra for cleaning geese. Honking feathery chaos!
Elizabelle
Here is an article that made me smile, and I hope the link works for you all. It’s “subscribers only”, and I don’t know how strict that is.
LA Times:
Palm Springs capped short-term rentals. Now some home prices are in free-fall
And now there are some deals for people who actually want to buy and live in the home. This is problem why?
AirBnb was an OK idea for those who wanted to rent out a room or suite in the house they lived in. When the “investors” are grabbing all the real estate they can, and actual residents are getting priced out or cannot find homes — screw ’em.
A lot of localities are cracking down or banning short term rentals.
This story was music to my ears.
PST
@Another Scott:
Regulation often doesn’t serve the interests of consumers. The initial impetus may be good, but agency capture is real, and regulatory regimes often deter market entry and enable price fixing. Ride sharing only exists because the taxi business became absurdly corrupt. When right to do business is limited and only has to be purchased once, the profit from increased demand is shunted entirely to the original owners. The result was medallions that traded in some cities for $1 million or more. Drivers rented for 12-hour shifts and took all the risk. I strongly believe that they had a worse life than ride share drivers.
John S.
You missed the real enshittification that has happened in recent years in payments.
After several mega-mergers and acquisitions, only 3 major payment players emerged: FIS, Fiserv and Global Payments. They are all imploding in their own unique and spectacular ways for different reasons. Merchants have been running to smaller players like Stripe and Square, but even there M&A has consolidated what few options remained.
I recently left Fiserv after 10 years, and that place is a dumpster fire. Much like what happened to Boeing when they “acquired” McDD, First Data (a truly shitty company hollowed out by a KKR engineered LBO) was “acquired” by Fiserv, and then all the management from First Data took over, turning Fiserv back into First Data.
It’s a sector that is in serious distress.
Ohio Mom
Uber is a bright light in Ohio Son’s life. The County Board of DD Services set up an account that pays for his rides (it comes out of his Medicaid Waiver budget).
He uses it to get to his day program and his volunteer gigs and he revels in his independence. I follow along (often nervously) on the “Share my ride” app, which shows the car chugging up a map of Cincinnati and the arrival time.
Now there are some catches. One is that the County won’t pay for tips so we keep a stack of five dollar bills, and that’s what every driver gets no matter what the fare.
The other catch is, yes, it is expensive and eats a hole in the Waiver budget. But here in suburbia, it’s a half hour hike to the bus stop and an hour ride downtown (where Ohio Son’s destinations are). Compared to an average of a ten minute wait for the Uber and a twenty minute ride.
This isn’t a sustainable long term option; once Ohio Son is living on his own (a mammoth project we haven’t started), he’ll need more of his limited Medicaid budget for aides. Moving closer in and on a bus route that has frequent buses will have to be part of the plan (I’d say him earning more money could be part of the calculus but that is another can of worms).
One tantalizing possibility is Cincinnati’s bus system’s new pilot project. In several select neighborhoods, a van is available through an app (like an Uber) for a mere $2 (the same price as a regular bus fare).
You can take the van anywhere within the (very limited) service area, and the pilot areas all include areas with shops and grocery stores, and bus stops serving major routes.
Our neighborhood did not make the list of pilot sites so I don’t know how well this works, and there is the possibility that the pilot project will be discontinued. But I am cautiously optimistic this will solve the infamous last mile problem.
Sister Golden Bear
Definitely agree.
OTOH, one reason Uber/Lyft got traction in the SF in the first place was that taxi service was so incredibly shitty. Enough so that for years, city officials turned a blind eye toward Homobiles — a community taxi service that was the inspiration for both Uber/Lyft — because regular taxis routinely refused to transport people who were visibly queer/trans.
I’ve only stayed in an AirBnB once, when I spent a month in Buenos Aires for surgery a few years ago. Compared to the alternatives, it was a godsend for finding a safe and comfortable place to stay. While it’s not a huge market, there is a definitely a need for a service that can help people with month-plus stays. While Furnished Finder does that, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of it, and I’m a pretty savvy traveler.
TBone
The enshittification and crapification of the nation is a topic that makes me unhinged with rage because I am an old and I remember when we had some nice things. Therefore, I can’t shake my fist at this cloud as hard as I’d like to, but will merely wag a finger (guess which one).
Elizabelle
A friend who lives on a secure military base has sometimes been having a devil of a time getting ride shares. Tells me it turns out the drivers couldn’t pass the Real ID license check, have DUIs on their record, don’t have authorization to work at all.
A neighbor whose license was suspended, and who has been in multiple auto accidents in the last 3 years, was driving for a delivery service app under a friend’s name.
You do not know who is going to be driving that vehicle, or even if they’re safe.
Ohio Mom
@Morfydd: That German set-up with vans transporting small groups of people sounds very much what the Cincinnati bus system is trying out. I bet a lot of places are experimenting with this general approach.
Tom Levenson
Broadly speaking, everything in the post is true: the Silicon Valley approach to economic and social life has been to ask “how can we insert ourselves into the middle of a transaction and profit while making every aspect of it worse.” There’s a good Rebecca Solnit essay in LRB that goes into some of this stuff and its effect on her (and my) in memory-beloved SF.
In my experience in Boston, Uber/Lyft haven’t become completely unusable yet. But they’re definitely not the service they were. (My family has gone to one car + an electric bike, so there are occasions when I need to get somewhere in bad weather or on not-comfortably bike-able routes; hence the odd Uber.)
I’ve had good experiences with AirBNB/VRBO–but only for holiday travel. But so much of the use case blows up neighborhoods.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’ll make two notes about Athens:
AirBNB has made a mess of property ownership in places like Athens, where too many residences have been bought up by outfits doing bulk homestay-type rentals. There are several in my own apartment building – and what ends up happening is that people looking to buy are priced out of the market, and competition for actual home/apartment rentals gets cut-throat. I own my apartment, but I got in before AirBNB took off.
As for rideshares, you can use Uber here in Athens, but it only works as a dispatch system for medallion cabs, and there are other systems that are better integrated with the cabbies. I don’t use Uber, but the dispatch system I use, FreeNow, simply charges a small surcharge on top of whatever the meter reads. Then again, taxi fares in general have gotten pretty high around here in the past five years, which makes the slowly-expanding subway system more attractive despite my still-present fears about COVID.
randy khan
I was in Vegas recently and used taxis when I was solo (my work colleague is addicted to Uber). There were plenty of them and the wait was minimal or nonexistent at my hotel and the airport.
I personally don’t even have the Uber app, and only have used Lyft occasionally. But I also try hard to avoid self-checkout because I don’t really care to work for the places where I shop, so I’m clearly out of step (and happily so).
I do think that the decline of Air BnB has to be good for people who actually want to live in desirable cities It quickly became a way for people to get into the hotel business at a small scale and ramp up, which is not great for housing.
Ohio Mom
@Elizabelle: My friend’s meth head son drives delivery trucks. I don’t get it, how does he have a license at all?
Sister Golden Bear
When I was in Thailand for a month a few years ago, I used the Uber-like Grab app for rides to get around. From what I heard at the time, they treated their drivers well, and there wasn’t any real public transportation in Chonburi that I was aware of.
The alternative was to get in the back of one of local “taxi trucks” (a truck with benches) and hope you ended up at the right destination. Whereas Grab not only let you enter pick-up/drop off locations, it also had a built-in translation feature. Not enough to hold a full conversation, but sufficient when needed, e.g. when directing the driver where exactly to pick you up if it wasn’t clear.
Hopefully Grab hasn’t enshittified in years since. But it seemed like their management had a different approach, and a key difference was they were filling an unmet market niche, rather than trying to displace players in an existing one. (Grab definitely was more expensive than the taxis trucks, so it wasn’ in direct competition with them.)
Sister Golden Bear
@randy khan:
There’s a reason Uber/Lyft never (seriously) entered the Las Vegas market, and it’s due to who controls the taxi industry.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@narya: me too! I live in a small town with a car, so only use taxis while traveling, usually a taxi the hotel has arranged to drive me to the airport if they don’t have a shuttle. I was at SFO once waiting for a shuttle that was taking a long time and two girls just in from NZ suggested an Uber and I was like, “do what you want, but I’m not getting in some random car driven by some random man just because he has an Uber sticker on it”. They ended up waiting for the shuttle with me.
And I like staying at hotels. It is straightforward, and if you read reviews, you can generally pick an OK place.
Yes, I am old. And I still write paper checks for some situations (like paying taxes)!
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle:
A friend of mine was able to buy a home there after Cathedral City banned or capped short-term rentals and the prior owner decided it was time to sell while the selling was good.
Phylllis
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Same here regarding hotels. We mostly stick with Hilton because I have a ton of points from them from work travel.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: my accountant wanted me to write checks for all deductible expenses so i would have proof. Now that banks do not return checks the convenience factor ro written proof is gone, but the discipline of writing the check down in the check register still makes it a useful record at tax time. I know i annoy my pharmacy people when i pay by check but that is the reason and they deal with it. Sometimes i get the check back, covered in VOID, and sometimes not.
FastEdD
I’ve used Uber about a dozen times. I’d never choose to do that myself-I know all the drawbacks of the “gig economy.” When getting my car serviced they always give me a ride to and from home in an Uber and I have no choice. It makes sense for the dealership because they don’t have to hire a full time employee for that task. The cost is paid for by the car dealer. Most of the time it works well. OTOH, I’m a single male riding during the day, and I’m lucky (and ugly) so I’m relatively safe. Last one I had tried to convert me to Jeebus. He was unsuccessful but I humored him until I got home.
Elizabelle
@Ohio Mom: Truly. And: I hope that pilot program works out, and that Ohio Son finds a happy living situation along a bus route.
@Sister Golden Bear: Good to hear. The LA Times story was filled with wingeing by realtors and homeowners who can’t sell their houses at inflated prices. Cry me a river.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Media reporting when a Dem is president.
trollhattan
PayPal bought Venmo? Good lord, the combined stench of Musk and Whitman in one great conglomeration.
Lyft and Uber were always cover for a fraudulent emplyee-as-consultant scam and now the employee is on the hook for the work tools and expenses. Just great.
Cabs, for better or worse are regulated and the meter is the rider’s friend: rider-distance-time is the same at two in the morning as it is when the ‘Niners game gets out. IDK what has happened to medallion values and am guessing nothing good.
smith
I rarely take cabs now that I’m retired, except to go to and from O’Hare. Since I live on the far South Side, it’s an expensive ride, and one I’d come to dread because by and large the cab drivers drive like maniacs and rarely know how to find my house. My last trip I looked into getting a car from a limo service, and was pleased to learn it was only $10-$15 more each way than a cab. The car was clean and actually luxurious, the driver friendly, polite, and a good driver. Since I reserved in advance, he was prepared with a map and used the GPS (something cab drivers for some reason refuse to do), so the whole experience was comfortable and effortless. It’s not a solution for short hops, but well worth the small extra cost for a long ride.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@John S.: as a consumer, i have set up auto payments with the individual companies i use (CR cards, PG&E, Direct TV), and never got involved with something like FiServ. It is only for business?
BR
Cory Doctorow gave a talk on the whole thing a few days ago, worth a read/watch:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel
Pittsburgh MIke
One nice thing about Uber/Lyft is that you know the price beforehand. Taking a taxi from the airport back to my house in Pittsburgh, I’ve found a large variance in taxi pricing — sometimes the pre-tip price is $55, but it can be as high as $90.
I used to take the taxi back from the airport, figuring they’re all the same price, but after being burned by this variance, I’ll generally go with L/Uber if it’ll be there within 5-10 minutes. Though maybe I just need to study the various cab company prices, and memorize the good ones.
Trivia Man
My biggest beef is the skirting of regulations. Minimum wage, insurance, OSHA, hotel tax… s many ways “disrupter” just means scofflaw
Van Buren
I only ever used Venmo to send money to my kid in Grad School, which I did a handful of times at about 6 month intervals. Then Venmo decided these transfers seemed sketchy and blocked me, so I went 20th century and sent him a check.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@smith: I have little experience with taxi drivers using GPS here in the US, but I was recently in Costa Rica and had to be transported a couple of times over fairly long distances by “transport” (a large taxi or small minivan) and all the drivers used GRS. There was a holder on their dash for the cellphone.
Pete Downunder
Here in the land downunder, Uber isn’t too bad except for the surge pricing, but the regular taxis have survived and we tend to use those when possible. We own and operate an AirBnB out in the country and have had some very problematic guests (one group complained there were ants in the grass outside), but it allows us to use the property ourselves when we want to for friends and family which a long term rental wouldn’t. AirBnB is causing huge problems in tourist areas mainly sucking up housing that would otherwise be used for locals. There are moves afoot to regulate it but they are moving slowly. The main impact is on hospitality workers who need to live somewhere reasonably close to work. Even though they are paid a good wage, with increases on weekends and public holidays (tipping is not really a thing here) housing in tourist areas has become unaffordable if available at all. In fact urban Oz has an enormous housing shortage anyway – 20 years ago our population was 19 million, it just passed 27 million – and the rental vacancy rate in the big cities is roughly zero. AirBnB has not helped that at all.
Soprano2
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I can print check images from my online account.
Suzanne
I use Uber pretty much daily when I travel. I’ve used AirBNB twice, both times when vacationing with the Spawns and we wanted a kitchen and separate sleeping space for the kids. I would be happy to replace Uber with taxis. I wish the hotel industry would provide better options for families.
trollhattan
@Pete Downunder:
(one group complained there were ants in the grass outside)
Love this so much. :-)
“Ants? It’s the salties in the neighbor yards you should worry about.”
Pete Downunder
@trollhattan: The property does have a resident carpet python. They are not venomous but can startle the visitors. By the way the difference between venomous and poisonous?
Venomous is when it bites you and you die;
Poisonous is when you bite it and you die.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Dunno if you saw the earlier comment. As someone who works in institutional architectural design, you might find the link within an earlier comment of passing interest from a design standpoint
WaterGirl
@Pete Downunder: What did the baby snake say to the mama snake as they were slithering through the woods?
Baby snake: Mama, are we poisonous?
Mama snake: No, why do you ask?
Baby snake: Because I just bit my tongue.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Soprano2: exactly. It’s another step, but certainly doable if necessary. It actually has never come up (i’ve never been audited, knock wood).
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
I’m shocked, shocked.
Johnson and his minions are clowns. 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡
Grr…,
Scott.
Brent
What, like a folding bike you can travel with? Or you ship your full size bike from city to city? Or you rent a bike wherever?
I have considered a folding bike for similar reason (I have to travel a lot) but it seems like the process of traveling with it would be a bit cumbersome.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: LOL!
Alison Rose
For something very off-topic but definitely NOT enshittified, here’s a fun little clip of Robin Williams with Elmo (the muppet, not Muskrat). As soon as Robin mentioned lingerie, I was like “No Robin, you can’t go blue on this show!” LOL
Mai Naem mobile
I’m one of those old folks who does paper checks. I’m amazed that people trust the taking the picture of the check and depositing thing. Also amazed people deposit cash into an ATM after hours. Years ago, my older sister had her ID stolen and used to buy a house and a couple of cars. She didn’t know until she went to open a new bank account. It took her a couple of years to clear stuff up. I just find younger people are too casual about doing financial stuff online.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Wasn’t Elon ousted or bought out from PayPal years ago?
I have managed to avoid both Venmo and PayPal. I guess I am lucky.
NotMax
Sort of on topic, the empoopening of tech.
;)
moonbat
For those addicted to apps, the Curb app will called you a licensed taxi in New York and Philadelphia (the only places I call cabs).
And I don’t know where some of the commenters here are living/traveling to, but in Philadelphia, the price of a ride to the airport is fixed. No ‘peak hour charges’, it’s just what it is, which I naively assumed was the case wherever taxis are licensed.
I was happy to see this post mainly because of the AirBnB tie -in. You want to scream about housing shortages — limit the number of residential homes a person can own and stop these passive investors from tying up the housing market in short term rentals.
ETA: And since I’m ranting, I have another app complaint about all the food delivery “services” which add nothing but an extra $15 to your bill, preying on small mom and pop restaurants and their own drivers.
Pete Downunder
@Mai Naem mobile: paper checks or cheques as we call them have just about disappeared here. The last one I wrote was in 2015. Most bills are paid by electronic funds transfer which is safe enough if you have a double verification when you log in.
Yutsano
@Another Scott: Link no work. Please to fix.
EDIT: Giggity.
trollhattan
@Brent: Quite a few folders around, of vastly different designs, and it would seem Brompton have the thing figured out best. Check-in size carry cases are available because they fold REALLY small.
lowtechcyclist
@KrackenJack:
WTF ever happened to antitrust?
And as a side issue, I assume it’s just a matter of time before Venmo becomes as much of a hellhole as Paypal is.
Suzanne
@NotMax: I will check out, gracias!
Brachiator
@Mai Naem mobile:
I remember when people distrusted ATM machines and insisted on going inside and doing transactions with the tellers. This seemed crazy since some people were deliberately putting themselves into longer lines.
But now you have to watch out for tricks to read your ATM card. Saw some story that some criminals were targeting payment machines at gas stations. You have to be careful everywhere.
trollhattan
@Pete Downunder: If you have carpet pythons should you buy some snakeskin rugs?
Betty
@Another Scott: Johnson is turning into a regular nightmare. The dishonesty is breathtaking.
John S.
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
As a consumer, you won’t deal directly with companies like Fiserv all that much. However, they power payments for most of the companies you do business with, which means that their failures are passed along to you in the form of increased costs and bad customer experience.
Baud
I only travel by horse and use gold doubloon.
John S.
@lowtechcyclist:
PayPal also bought Braintree several years ago. They own a lot more than they should be allowed to. And don’t even peek behind the curtain of all the acquisitions that Visa and Mastercard have done in the last few years because that shit would enrage you (and any other consumer getting screwed by their duopoly).
TBone
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): ❤️
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
I’ve seen first hand what fucking airbnb did to the B&B industry…then moved to Denver and have seen what it’s done to neighborhoods. Friends in NOLA fucking hate fucking airbnb for what it’s done to their core, a view widely shared in destination tourism spots.
Alison Rose
@Baud: Do you have an onion on your belt? The belt you wear without pants?
TBone
@TheOtherHank: pearls of wisdom everywhere!
TBone
@Morfydd: we got a lotta catching up to do. The European public transit system is a gem and a marvel.
TBone
@Anoniminous: 🤣❤️
Ryan
“After a concert, the L/Uber drivers showed me what a ride would cost on the ridesharing system, then offered to take a little less in cash if they drive you “off app”.”
I had this same phenomenon happen when I went to one of those chain barbershops. The woman cutting my hair handed me a business card with her number written on it. My guess is 90% of what I was paying would be more profitable than working at this chain.
Baud
They’re called garters and yes.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
One of my favorite general take downs of fucking airbnb:
Good general reading on those scum:
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-airbnbs-guerrilla-war-against-local-governments/
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-lisbon-portugal-airbnb-homes-key-workers-a9601246.html?fbclid=IwAR1yNXxJmPzdbXcu-peX-LoUmJFmXMSp3bmRI6KDrgEkvILMSDwbAKCUaPQ
https://twitter.com/SouthernRot/status/1645881947787345920
TBone
I just want to reiterate. The breadth and depth of knowledge and opinion here at BJ has given me new life. Y’all are frickin’ awesome.
TBone
@Baud: please enlighten me I have not yet read enough to get that “yes” and am feeling dumb
Baud
@TBone:
That was supposed to be a reply to Allison at # 81.
glc
American Dialect Society “Word of the Year”
Seems like it could well be the word of the decade as well, if anybody does a retrospective. But we live in turbulent times, so we’ll need to wait and see. OUP chose “rizz,” with “swiftie” as runner-up. I could see “swiftie” as posing significant competition but I expect “enshittification” may have a longer shelf life.
(Not impressed by “rizz” but I need to go off and yell at some clouds now.)
TBone
@Yutsano: 😆
Alison Rose
@Baud: No it wasn’t. It was a reply to me. I don’t know who Allison is :P
TBone
@Baud: snort! How did I forget to mention my appreciation of the snark level here?
Alison Rose
Speaking of names, specifically my own, I’m reading a book in which a main character has my last name, which is no big deal, it’s a very common one. But now he has a relative whose first name is Rose, and now there’s a side character with the same first name as my aunt. If I see Alison or one of my parents’ names or something in here, I’m writing to the author and asking wtf. Especially since the book is about someone usurping someone else’s story.
Prescott Cactus
The only thing about lyft / uber / ola / didi are the fact that you know the final price before you get in the car. The only thing.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I send messages by carrier pigeon
But seriously I do miss rotary dial landline phones and manual typewriters. Although both went the way of the dodo in my adulthood. They were so much more tactile than the touchscreen stuff.
Kristine
@smith: I haven’t flown in years, but when I did I used a parking service outside O’Hare. I drove there, left my car, and they drove me to the airport. Upon my return, I could arrange for their van to pick me up, but instead (for an added fee) I always arranged for someone to bring me my car. Loading my luggage into my very own car and driving home was always a good way to end a trip.
Alison Rose
@schrodingers_cat: We had a rotary phone when I was little, and I loved it. I also liked playing with my mom’s typewriter, though I’m sure she didn’t appreciate me using up the ink. We got a computer pretty early compared to most, but I liked using the typewriter instead for letters and stuff.
Wave Function Collapse
@Sister Golden Bear: I love your vision: organized crime as a cure for the enshittification disease!
And that really sums it up about the techbro plague; organized crime is more user friendly.
Starfish
@Sister Golden Bear: There are other place rentals. I think VRBO is more expensive than AirBNB and has less crappy properties and kicks out the scammers a little faster. Some local people have suggested sabbatical homes, but I have never tried.
schrodingers_cat
@Alison Rose: We had two phones, an old rotary phone, it was bakelite from the 50’s I think. I liked it better than the cordless phone. The sound quality could not be beat.
Starfish
@Ohio Mom: Some of the delivery jobs have the hardest time keeping their drivers.
Alison Rose
@schrodingers_cat: Man, though, you know what phone I really loved? The first one I had in my room — one of those old clear plastic ones with lights inside it? Probably a good 75% of girls around my age had one. It was cool.
Starfish
@Pete Downunder: There are a lot of places in the US with big tourism that had a lot of low-paid hospitality workers that did nothing to stop AirBNB from destroying all the neighborhoods and pricing all their low-paid hospitality workers out of housing. New Orleans.
different-church-lady
Like any of this was unpredictable?
I’m just slack jawed at all the “streaming is just as expensive as cable now!” articles out there. What the eff did you all think was going to happen?
We’re just a an entire country of dumb cattle.
Starfish
@Mai Naem mobile: The financial institutions have also wised up. I believe there is one credit card company that lets you generate new numbers for doing a single transaction with a merchant you do not know well. A lot of them will call you up if you spend more than a certain number of dollars more than your usual. Somewhere in the $300-$500 range.
I am not sure how you could fraudulently buy a house in someone else’s name. That seems super sketchy.
different-church-lady
They in turn will solve it back by lobbying to eliminate paper checks from the banking system. Mark it.
lee
We’ve used both car sharing and vacation rentals (VRBO and AirBnB) in all sorts of places and countries.
As someone else mentioned in a couple of places Uber actually called a taxi. In Paris France, it called a taxi. We were going to the train station and then take the train to Fontainebleau. Without the driver being able to speak English and we can’t speak French, he indicated he would take us all the way to Fontainebleau if we paid for the trip in cash. He turned off his taxi monitor and ‘went to lunch’ for the drive.
There is noticable enshittification of AirBnB (reddit & fark will go into long threads about it). The last straw for us was having to do most of the cleaning prior to checkout or suffer a fee. We’ve avoided AirBnB since then. It does actually make good sense monetarily if you are with a large group. That is the only time we’ve used it since. VRBO seems slightly better than AirBnB
One interesting tidbit about AirBnB: A good friend of ours has an AirBnB in Prescott, AZ. AirBnB suggested the rate + cleaning fee+another fee method of getting your property listed at the top when sorted by price (she didn’t). At one point she decided to put it on VRBO as well. As soon as she did that her rental dropped way down the results which made a impact on her AirBnB business. I think now she gets most of her business thru VRBO.
zhena gogolia
I can’t believe we’re on the edge of electing fuckhead again. Why? Why? Why would anyone vote for him, let alone half the country?
lee
@Alison Rose: Any more bikes make an appearance at the bike rack?
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes, but you couldn’t use it to annoy people on the bus by watching TV at top volume, so corded phones had to be junked.
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud:
How much chafing is involved, since you don’t wear pantaloons?
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
That’s why we used an AirBnB last summer, so that we could have two bedrooms, which meant the kiddo could have his own room.
This Christmas, we stayed at a TownPlace Suites by Marriott, where we had a bedroom with queen bed, a living room, and a kitchen. My wife and I slept in the bedroom, and the kiddo slept in the living room, where the sofa folded out into a bed. It was manageable for us for a week, but I couldn’t have seen that work for a family with two or more children unless the kids were still pretty small. So yeah, the hotel industry needs to do better for families, otherwise it’s gotta be AirBnB for a lot of folks.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: We’re not on the edge. It’s a non-zero possibility, yes, but don’t believe the hype.
Alison Rose
@lee: Not yet, but I’d bet they’re coming. It’s speeding up! Original Bike arrived in late September, and it took till mid January for Additional Bike to show up, and then just a couple of weeks for Yet Another Bike to join the fray. Believe me, I’m keeping an eye on it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Turn off the TV.
ETA: Jesus, when different church lady is talking you down, you definitely need a break.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
And you could lock them!
different-church-lady
@$8 blue check mistermix:
I swear to god, if someone came up with a phone app that killed your grandmother, grand-matricide would immediately become the hot trend of the year.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Typewriters were cool, but I was always too impatient with rotary phones when it came to digits greater than 5.
Alison Rose
@Baud: But it was so fun!
different-church-lady
@Doug R:
No, please do start on that. Because it needs to be started and middled and somehow finished.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
You mean like the NO-k Boomer app?
Brent
@trollhattan: Yeah. I have looked at Brompton. They are a bit on the pricey side as much as it seems like the quality is worth it. And you’re tight that they fold small enough that it makes it much easier to travel. But given the price and the extra hoops to deal with at the airport, it still feels like just renting a bike wherever is a more reasonable solution. I have been considering all options however.
Ms. Deranged in AZ
Last company I worked for went through an enshittification process. The industry that will go unnamed gets tens of millions dollars annually from federal funding. There were maybe six companies total in the industry. My tiny company got gobbled up by a larger competitor. And then that larger company got gobbled up by an industry adjacent company and merged several others within the space of 3 years. It was and still is an absolute disaster. Through all the mergers they were reducing staff because of course there was redundancy but there was no organized examination of just what those redundancies were and what was the best way to reduce staff while also demanding higher and higher profits. Because of course all these mergers had to be backed by new investors and every time we had a new investor we had to go through a whole new rebranding exercise. There were so many mistakes made I could write a book about it. So now they’re the behemoth in the market and the customers have only one other company they can go to but the lift too e to new software is so large, they just can’t do it. So they’re basically hostages that are being mistreated. And of course the investors aren’t getting their profits because management doesn’t know the industry (and I would argue so t really know how to run a business in general). What the hell do they teach at Ivy League schools these days! If I had a dollar for every failure I have seen I’d be retired by now. But I’m unemployed and they’re getting promoted. Meritocracy my a$$.
NotMax
It’s freakin’ magic, I tells ya.
Make Calls With a Rotary Phone Using Your Cell Phone!
:)
different-church-lady
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
I believe the bank is supposed to (obligated to?) provide an image of the check. I do know I get those on my statements.
different-church-lady
@Ms. Deranged in AZ:
Pillaging.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
1-900 numbers were the worst. By the time it connected, the moment was gone.
VFX Lurker
I’ve never had trouble with ATM/mobile deposits. The one time I had my ID stolen 10+ years ago, it was because thieves broke into my apartment’s outgoing mailbox and stole everyone’s outgoing mail…including a check I had written to my insurance company.
I’ve used only blue, official USPS mailboxes for all of my sensitive outgoing mail ever since.
divF
@Alison Rose: You only use your typewrite for letters?
I can’t believe that we’ve gotten this far without a link to this Leroy Anderson classic.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: This is what drives me nuts about the insistence on orthodox ‘cash free’ lifestyles: every time you a card you’re opening yourself to data theft. Is that risk worth it just so you don’t have some paper in your pocket when you buy a can of soda?
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
@Baud: inorite? But “too close for comfort.” (And I don’t watch TV.)
different-church-lady
@VFX Lurker:
PSA: there’s been an increase in thieves figuring out how to get mail out of those. (One town in Mass. just said, “please, nobody use the post boxes, there’s too much theft”.)
My new policy as of about two years ago is, if I’m sending a check it either has to go in an actual post office or in a box I know is going to get emptied before nightfall.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia:
What I probably should have said was, “It’s not inevitable, stop acting like it’s inevitable, that shit is viral.”
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I bet she doesn’t get that reference!
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I know. I try to control myself. But that “see you next Tuesday” story has broken me.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, unlike us, she’s probably never used it.
different-church-lady
They should just make it, “If you don’t live in the building you can’t do an Air B n B.” Fight me.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: You scamp!
TBone
@NotMax: that video is worth every second.
Suzanne
I hate carrying cash. I got robbed when I was in college, and SuzMom had just given me about $200 for groceries and supplies for the semester. I almost never carry more than $50 on me, even to this day. I canceled all my cards, and it was a pain but I got all that back. Never got the cash back, tho.
Scout211
Here’s a current update on our storms:
Raging atmospheric river lashes Cafornia
TBone
@Ms. Deranged in AZ: *growls
Falling Diphthong
I agree about the shittification trend. But want to push back a bit on the glory days of old.
Taxis: In my suburb, if you wanted to take a taxi you needed to notify the local company at least 24 hours in advance of the ride. In cities, you had taxis that wouldn’t stop for brown people at night because they didn’t want to go to that borough, and taxis who wouldn’t take credit cards (the reader was “broken” but they could drive you to an ATM to get cash–that last one was what pushed a lot of early adopters of uber). Also taxis taking you off on a mysterious tour of the city, confident that you weren’t going to be willing to do much even if you recognized that this was not the efficient way to get to your destination. There was a lot of pent-up demand for a taxi that would definitely (and quickly) pick you up and take you to your destination, fee up front, route shown up front, and take your credit card rather than add on an extra detour to your bank.
AirBnB: I am always confused by the complaints about cleaning fees because those are shown very clearly right up front, whereas I will still be deep into a hotel reservation before they mention the taxes (local, state, other local, etc) and hefty per person per day “resort fees” (it has a pool) or “city experience fees” (it does not have a pool). And I like having the extra private space for work etc while the other person sleeps, even when it’s just two–few hotels offer suites, and those that do are often astonishingly high cost.
Ken
@different-church-lady: As Alex Blechman so memorably put it,
TBone
@Baud: hahahaha 😆
TBone
@divF: ❤️
different-church-lady
@Suzanne:
Makes total sense — you don’t want to be hauling hundreds of dollars around with you.
But deciding to not even carry $10 for tiny purchases is just nuts. And the card companies want us to buy into that because they want to be the parasites on literally every transaction, no matter how small.
different-church-lady
@Ken:
Absolutely — it’s like these guys (and they’re almost all guys) found a stash of dystopian sci-fi novels from the 50s and said, “Wow, let’s totally do that!”
NotMax
@Scout211
Cue up Albert Hammond.
;)
Sure Lurkalot
In Dallas for a wedding, the day after, my nephew booked an Uber for 3 of us to go from our hotel to his brother’s house in the Dallas suburbs, about a 35 mile trip. The Uber shows up, I open the door to a virtual cumulus cloud of pot smoke. For some ungodly reason, we got in and the driver takes off but we soon realize that my nephew didn’t key in the destination city correctly and the driver says she isn’t authorized to go that far. So luckily, she took us back to the hotel. At the end of the thankfully short ride, she was crying because she just learned her aunt had passed away.
Grieving and high on pot. Great.
A bit down on Uber after that.
different-church-lady
@Sure Lurkalot:
But you gave her a great review, right?
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Here we have HandiDart. Over 65, or differently abled of some kind, call a number, a short bus shows up to pick you up, drop you off where you need to go, Drivers will assist you in access on and off the bus, from where you are being picked up, and into where you are going. It’s part of BC Transit so all you need is a Transit Card and you pay the same fare as a bus ride.
And it’s not just a short ride system. They will drive you the 100km from North Vancouver to Chilliwack if that’s what you need.
NotMax
Wrong linky above. Fix.
@Scout211
Cue up Albert Hammond.
;)
different-church-lady
I don’t know if I agree with everything Doctorow says, but I sure love the way he says it:
raven
We have owned the house next door for 20+ years. Three years ago long-term tenants moved out and we learned powder-post beetles has destroyed the floor joists, sills and floor. We were luck and a friend did an awesome renovation for $70k. We rented it to folks for a year and they were only here for 5 days the entire years! My wife had always wanted to make it an AirBnb so we did. We’re in a residential neighborhood in a University community and there is a huge dustup going on with people trying to get them banned. For now they have an ordnance that will be vote on soon that will ban them in the hoods with our zoning. I don’t really care one-way-or-the other because we can easily rent it. I’ll sat two things 1) We’ve had plenty of complete morons living in long-term rentals on pour block and 2) we set the cleaning fee, not Airbnb and you don’t stay a “Superhost” long if you rip people off.
Sister Golden Bear
@Scout211: Power just went out for me on the SF Peninsula — although it’s not showing up on the outage map, even though
PG&EMurdercorp remotely checked my meter to confirm that the power is off.Thankfully I’ve still got cell service, and lots of back-up batteries and lights. Just hoping it’s not going to be a five-day outage like last year
Meanwhile I’m watching the trees whip back and forth in the gusts up to 50 mph.
Sure Lurkalot
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Sadly almost 2 decades since I’ve been to Greece but that trip we stayed in Ekali for a few days and used the train to go in to the city. There was a short cab ride to the transit station and we were surprised that after picking us up, the cabbie stopped to pick other people who hailed too. An English speaking woman told us that was the way the cabs worked.
Ekali was quiet and restful compared to staying in Athens so it was a good choice for getting over the jet lag portion of the vacation.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: I think Venmo tried to be a weird combination of payment app and social media. There is someone whose services (music lessons) I pay by Venmo (her preference) and the first time I set it up, I learned that by default everyone can see what you paid, to whom, for what. For instance, I still see others of her students.
Also the enshittification effect may explain why I could have sworn I’d sent payment last Tuesday but as of this weekend there was no record of a transaction.
Scout211
Oh no! There are so many outages right now. I hope they get to yours quickly.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: Agreed. I try to keep about $40 in small bills for little purchases, tips, etc. And nothing beyond that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Never used Uber or Lyft. We were happy the last time we were in NYC to discover Curb, which appeared to be the traditional cab companies response to Uber, etc. You could call and track the cab and get a flat rate on any ride.
Great, I thought. That will come in handy back home in Philly and especially in the burbs where cab service has almost completely disappeared.
Nope. Our Philly cab used the meter, which was $15 more than the quote. And the app says it won’t work in the burbs.
But I do recommend it for New York. Manhattan anyway.
Sister Golden Bear
@Scout211: Could be worst. Looks like the entire San Mateo coast south of Pacifica is out.
At least for me the power is on nearby — at least for now — so I can go somewhere for a hot meal if needed this evening. Plus, worse comes to worst, with the Pineapple Express it’ll be a comparatively warm night, and I’ve got plenty of cold-weather clothes.
Sister Golden Bear
@Suzanne: Same, except when I need more for my stylist and nail lady who prefer getting paid in case.
However, I do keep a couple hundred at home as part of my quake kit, in case credit card transitions go offline for multiple days/weeks.
Another Scott
@Sister Golden Bear: @Scout211:
Hang in there, California peeps.
There’s some weird weather system over the SE US now too, moving from the SE to the NW, but mainly being kinda stationary. It looks like Georgia and Alabama are getting the worst of it at the moment, but it’s hard to tell how heavy it is from just that radar loop.
Really, really weird weather… :-(
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Sister Golden Bear: So my hairdresser takes tips via Venmo.
I went to a nail salon here a couple of times. When I first went there, they said they didn’t put tips on cards. But they also didn’t do Venmo. They had an ATM, so I withdrew cash and tipped them. The next time I went, they said they wouldn’t take cards on the weekend at all. So I don’t go there anymore.
Sister Golden Bear
@Suzanne: My stylist is a superb colorist who I’ve seen for years, and she’s semi-retired (i.e. she doesn’t see as many clients now), so it’s worth hassle of paying cash.
Starfish
@different-church-lady: At first, they had a social aspect to the whole thing so you could watch your friends pay their drug dealers, and that was interesting.
Then it became convenient for splitting meal checks for group meals.
different-church-lady
@Starfish: Then it became THE ONLY WAY ANYONE WAS ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING!*
(*slight exaggeration)
Soprano2
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I have to do that for a state tax credit for a donation I make every year. I tried using a statement once but that was a PITA.
Another Scott
The Senate security Supplemental is out.
370 page .pdf
(via TheHill)
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@different-church-lady:
Jonathan Pie-esque! Here is a classic worth every minute of your time:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QS7kUqKeg_0
RSA
Hey, I commented on that earlier post to thank you for the architecture link. Thanks here again.
Suzanne
@Sister Golden Bear: Yeah, I get it. I haven’t yet found a nail place that I like very much here in PA. I had an awesome nail salon in AZ. Very happy with my hair person, tho. I lost a whole bunch of hair after Spawn the Youngest was born and there was a pandemic and I was mildly stressed out! I have been taking lots of vitamins and using rosemary oil on my scalp and deep conditioning a lot, and it is considerably thicker now…. but it was rough there for a while.
Ohio Mom
@different-church-lady: That is what we do.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
I must question your sanity. I remember rotary dial phones all too well. If some of the digits were 0 or at the high end of the 1-9 range, they seemed to take forever to circle around before you could dial the next digit.
And manual typewriters? The speed of WYSIWYG keyboards made it possible for me to write decently. With manual typewriters, my typed words got so far behind my thoughts that I’d never get very far writing anything.
I was delighted to see them each go.
Origuy
My experiences with AirBnb/Vrbo have been positive, but I only use them in a few situations, mostly when the area has a limited amount of hotel space. In Whitehouse, YK, I stayed in a basement apartment owned by the nice couple who lived right downtown near where the buses took me to the events I was attending. Rental cars were in short supply, but I didn’t need one.
In Vieste, Italy, I stayed in a small basement that had been made into an intimate jazz club, but apparently had failed during the pandemic. It still had the audio and lighting for a small band, along with several sofabeds, a small kitchen, and a tiny shower. It was a little damp, but a stone’s throw to the Adriatic. In Naples, I stayed in an apartment near the central station that was called “Casa di Nonna” and it looked like a grandmother had furnished it. Very nice.
The only US stay was with Vrbo in Truckee, California, which was a downstairs apartment with a Murphy bed. Vrbo now only rents whole houses, so I don’t know if they’ve changed to AirBnb.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
I am pretty much cash free for many transactions. I have a card with a chip or sometimes use my phone to pay, so I don’t have to stick my card into a reader. This is supposedly pretty safe, safer than other methods.
During the pandemic, of course, I got used to not using bills and coins, and not touching other people or having to touch money.
If I take the bus places, I use a TAP card with fare loaded.
But I still use cash at food trucks.
RSA
Thanks for the link. Interesting reading! I have to say that this entry,
is clueless to the point of being offensive. Unless I’m missing something, which is entirely possible–maybe it’s irony? But if not, it makes me wonder how old and how male the membership of the American Dialect Society is.
Ruckus
@$8 blue check mistermix:
My experience with taxis over the last 30 yrs is don’t. I had to take them sometimes because 20 yrs ago I traveled a lot and a cab worked better than the bus system(s) of the time. But. Bus systems I’ve dealt with over the last 10 yrs or so have gotten mostly a lot better. Still, often not regular enough but work better. And around SoCal cabs seem to be rather non existent. Not totally mind you but almost. Now maybe that’s because I don’t go to/through downtown LA much any more other than by electric train. As a senior it costs me 35 cents to travel almost all the way across LA County on the Metro train. The bus to get the first and last 2-3 miles of that trip cost 50 cents each. Still, driving my car costs about $6-7 dollars each way. And is often slower than the bus/train ride. Aw the modern world. I still remember the electric overhead wire buses in downtown LA when I was a kid. That was a while ago.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
No complaints. Carry on.
C Stars
@lowtechcyclist: We used to use Air BnB for all our travel so the we could have a separate sleeping space for the kids, as well as a kitchen. Last few times though, I found that I could get a suite at a hotel downtown for a more reasonable price than staying in an Airbnb. It’s especially economical when the en suite rooms have a kitchen and/or free breakfast.
TBone
FTFNYT 🤣😆❤️
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QS7kUqKeg_0
Ohio Mom
@Jay: We have something like that here, it’s called Access, a wheelchair-accessible minibus.
It’s notorious for often being late, has to be reserved way in advance, is all around inconvenient. But for many disabled people, that’s the only option.
I am not even sure Ohio Son would be eligible since we live just under a mile from a bus stop. Okay, the bus only runs every forty minutes and if you are going just about anywhere but downtown, you’ll need to transfer.
At one job he had, it would have taken him two hours there, including the transfer, and two hours back for a four hour shift. And by the old, pre-Uber program rules, that was acceptable.
Even with all the misgivings listed in this thread, the Uber program has been liberating for the disabled people able to use it (it takes a certain level of cognitive ability and mobility after all).
C Stars
@Another Scott: I am in East Bay and it’s mainly a very intense windstorm here. Everything on our house is rattling. It’s sounding like the southern counties will get more of the rain
Ruckus
@TBone:
A whole lot of this (does depend on where you live) is because of the population. Take CA. The population has almost quadrupled in the last 75 yrs. I don’t know how much other states populations have grown but I’d guess that it often is not an insignificant percent. This will and does cause issues that are much harder to notice when the population is much smaller. The US population in 1950 was less than half of current and that less is approximately the current population of California.
Kristine
@different-church-lady:
Talked with one of the folks at the local PO last week about the robberies. They said they’re developing new systems to deal with the problem.
TBone
Never mind (Emily Litella voice)
Quadrillipede
In Vancouver, BC, there are very few places I might need to go which aren’t accessible by SkyTrain/bus, or if absolutely necessary, a regulated taxi.
Also, I now live in a no-AirBnB building, which saved me about $100,000 (or 12% of the price I paid).
Quadrillipede
Oh yeah, on every typewriter I ever used, the force and distance needed to get the metal stick things to hit the ribbon was extremely fatiguing. Computer keyboards are far easier to use IMO.
surfk9
@C Stars: Here is Lodi it feels and looks like a hurricane Nearly got blown over when I went outside
different-church-lady
@Quadrillipede: They’re cool contraptions, but I wouldn’t want to go back to actually using one on a daily basis.
lowtechcyclist
@C Stars:
Any particular hotel chain? What Holiday Inn calls a ‘suite’ has just a half-wall between the ‘bedroom’ and the ‘living room’ parts of the suite. Just one big room with a half-wall divider. So knowing which chain to call, and what their suites actually consist of, is key.
With a house, I can generally expect actual bedrooms.
way2blue
Can I add Amazon? I just noticed stuff on my wishlist and in my shopping cart jumped 10-15% in price. Not to mention Prime TV is soon to be either embedded ads or more $$. I’m working to cut the cord in part so merchants have don’t Amazon taking their cut off the top.
Timill
@way2blue: But there are also the price cuts…
From my shopping basket:
7 Wonders Board Game BASE GAME (New Edition) for Family | Civilization and Strategy Board Game for Adult Game Night | 3-7 Players | Ages 10+ | Made by Repos Production has decreased from $59.97 to $59.91
Thanks, Biden!
different-church-lady
@Timill: I knew someone doing used books in the early days of Amazon and such. She had a program that would automatically scan all the listings of a certain book, and then automatically price her copy three cents cheaper that the cheapest one it found. Apparently people just fall for that shit.
horatius
@TheOtherHank:
This is so dumb. In most countries, it’s not called public transport if there isn’t a bus or a train every 5 minutes.
pieceofpeace
@Sister Golden Bear:
I think I’m a bit north of you. No power loss here…yet. Some trees are down, but last year’s February storm was worse, so many, myself included, trimmed and removed most potential problems.
Stay safe
Another Scott
@way2blue: Amazon plays with their prices a lot. For anything expensive, I check camelcamelcamel.com to try to figure out if the price is reasonable or not.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
C Stars
@lowtechcyclist: Embassy Suites. Separate rooms, free breakfast, and the kids usually have “dinner” (ie fill up on pretzels and hummus) at the 5pm happy hour
C Stars
@surfk9: Yikes! Stay safe!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@TBone: Aaahhh gee :-)
Kayla Rudbek
@Brent: Bike Friday makes bikes that come apart and fit into a suitcase. Now traveling with the Bike Friday tandem and snorkeling gear, that is cumbersome…