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Holy fuck! These pirated K-Cups are going to hurt the whole industry!

As evil as imported prescription drugs. I feel for those poor customers who buy something that's claims to be a K-Cup when in reality they're getting scammed.

</snark>

In other news, cold brew coffee has removed any desire for me to brew my own. I only drink 1-2 cups a day, and since I've switched to cold-brew, my jittery feelings are all gone, and my productivity remains unimpaired (well, aside from /. ). At 8 cups per bottle, that's about $1/day, with no mess, 30s prep time to combine the milk, coffee and syrup, and no cleanup.

"American" lager (not the same as "made in the USA" lager) is a very light style of lager with adjuncts like corn and rice. Save the barley and hops, use lots of government subsidized cheap corn and you can make cheap beer. Check out Trader Joe's "Name Tag" lager - 6-pack/$2.99. http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=165 Website says "all-malt beer, with no rice, no corn – no fillers of any kind", but it reeks of corn.

You do realize that this has been going on for over a century, right? Farmers using hybrid seed, so they just buy new seed year after year.

Some do but many more save seeds.

people who were concerned about gene spread got what they demanded

No we didn't. We got more genetic engineering not less.

I think heirloom growers should embrace GMOs.

Not at all, and you admit it yourself. The reason we don't see tomato varieties like Cherokee Purple or German Striped in supermarkets is because they don't all look or taste the same. Large scale growers want their products to have a uniform look and taste. If you want other varieties then coops, farmers markets, and roadside stands have them. Heck, look for orange or yellow tomatoes in chain grocery stores and more than likely you won't find them unless you go to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Looking in gardens though will increase your odds.

Finally, there is no need for GE crops. All they do is enrich the pockets of big agribusinesses.

Falcon

Correct. I don't need a 3 bedroom house to be stable. I could be perfectly stable in a 1 room apartment, albeit uncomfortable, I would be stable.

What if someone else disagrees? Is your stability the baseline for all humanity?

Uh, yeah I did. My definition of stable is that you are making a positive contribution to society. And that doesn't take much. You can hold down your job, and you can provide your family with food and shelter with out assistance.

My bad, and thank you for elaborating though it's still pretty nebulous. When you mention "without assistance" are you only talking about coerced "assistance" ("welfare"), or does "assistance" from friends and family members also disqualify you from "making a positive contribution to society"?

Also, what quality of food and shelter are assumed? 1-bedroom apartments for everybody? Is the toilet in the same room as your bed?

With a very crappy one. If being poor and down trodden was comfortable, why would anyone work to improve their position in life?

FINALLY! I wondered when you'd start talking about lifestyle. Unfortunately, you got into uncomfortable territory and decided to rebound with a non-sequitur question. Your original statement was this: "All a living wage is, is the amount of money a person would have to earn to make ends meet in your local society." When I asked, "What kind of lifestyle?" You answered, "a very crappy one". Are you saying that a "living wage" is the amount of money you need to make to have a "very crappy" lifestyle and that everyone should have that? And how crappy can a "very crappy" lifestyle get in order for the minimum requirements for a "living wage" to continue to be met? For example, only half of the population of Cambodia died in forced labor camps during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. This means that the others survived and had a "very crappy" lifestyle. Did they thus have a "living wage"? They had enough to have food, shelter, and medicine, albeit with a "very crappy" lifestyle which, according to you, is acceptable. Then again, they did have some "assistance" from the government, so perhaps it's not acceptable according to you. Pinning you down on what you think is like nailing Jell-O to a wall.

Wooooh nellie. Don't go sticking your foot in the fox hole, you don't know who you are talking about. I assure you, I have seen destitution first hand, I have spent time out of this country, I have gone hungry, and I have worried about getting food for my new born child. Don't lecture me on being 'privileged'. I went through my own rough times and I worked my ass off to get where I am today.

Not only will I put my foot in that fox hole, but I will also do some riverdancing while it's there. Good for you to be privileged enough to shop at Trader Joe's. Thousands of other children starve to death while you shop there. Now you're wealthy enough to spend time fighting with some asshole on slashdot while millions of other people worry about where their next meal is coming from, or worry if their government will come kill them. And you're not privileged? Spare me, rich boy. You're richer than 99% of the world's population, so don't tell me that you "know destitution". You know abundance because you presently wallow in it, and your posting here is evidence of that fact. Otherwise, you'd be busy worrying about your child, right? Be honest!

I think I'm understanding why you're so big on "living wage": you feel guilty because you got out of a "very crappy" lifestyle and other people don't. For you, this "living wage" thing is an emotional issue, not an intellectual one. It makes sense that you'd mock me for being too into books and "existentialist". If I've pegged you wrong in this regard then please tell me how. There's nothing wrong with making emotional decisions. I make emotional decisions all the time. Everyone does. Tell me your true feelings if guilt is the incorrect one.

Yes

So some lady has to walk all over town to /get/ her money?

That's literally incredible, right? I thoguht so, too. Here's your link to the story.

What does that have to do with a living wage?

"Living wage" assumes a lifestyle, and a lifestyle is affected by more things than just wage. Hence, it's bogus and needs to die.

Is she is earning enough money to pay her rent, groceries, and keep herself healthy?

Rent in what kind of apartment? 2 bedrooms? 3 bedrooms? Running water yes or no? Automatic dishwasher or not? Dirty city with dirty air or clean city with clean air?

Groceries? What kind of groceries? Rice and beans every day? Maybe just rice every day? Maybe rice just once per day? Maybe just millet once per day?

Healthy? What level of health care? Does she see a doctor on demand or is she added to a waiting list? How long is the waiting list? A year? Five years? Ten years?

Your quesiton is simplistic because the notion of lifestyle is complex. Lifestyle is more than just wage. You assume much because of your very, very privileged background.

No one ever said making a living wage was enjoyable, it is merely enough to keep a person stable in society. No more, no less.

What does "stable" mean? Merely emotionally stable? (People survived the holocaust, after all.) Making enough money to go to one concert every month? Guaranteed foie gras rations? Permanent tenure for everyone regardless of profession or job performance? Don't casually throw around nebulous terms and expect me to mindlessly agree with you.

I not sure why you brought demographics, John Kerry, or http://www.traderjoes.com/ into this conversation either.

I thought the "Ramble, ramble, ramble" comment made that clear, but I'll be explicit for your benefit: I was rambling. I'm guessing you agree with me that Trader Joe's clientele is NOT very diverse. I like Trader Joe's anyway. Do you?

What the hell are you talking about? So some lady has to walk all over town to /get/ her money? What does that have to do with a living wage? Is she is earning enough money to pay her rent, groceries, and keep herself healthy? If so, then she is earning a living wage. No one ever said making a living wage was enjoyable, it is merely enough to keep a person stable in society. No more, no less.

I not sure why you brought demographics, John Kerry, or http://www.traderjoes.com/ into this conversation either.

-Rick

To be fair, Costco competes with the club store branch of Walmart, which is Sam's Club. I believe employees at Sam's Club are paid more than those at Walmart stores.

But to your point, it is possible to be a profitable company and not abuse your employees and suppliers. Trader Joes is a privately held grocery store/health food store company that pays employees far above the industry average. Also, many suppliers like to do business with TJs, since they pay in cash, instead of stretching out the supplier for 90 days or more.

I cut high fructose corn syrup out of my diet several months ago and immediately started losing weight. A pleasant side effect of removing HFCS from my diet is that HFCS is so common in American food that avoiding it also avoids many other chemicals that I prefer not to consume. My monthly food cost rose only slightly, because I do virtually all of my food shopping at Trader Joe's (http://traderjoes.com/). My reaction to natural food stores has always been that they are intriguing, but too expensive. Trader Joe's is a national chain, so their prices are rarely more than 10-20% more than supermarket prices, and in most cases, are within a few cents of the supermarket prices.

Did you read the parents post? They will let you use a courtesy card, without you signing up. Theres no excuse.

Read the privacy statement: Here at Trader Joe's, the privacy of our customers is of the utmost concern to us. We will never collect information for the purpose of sharing or selling it to unaffiliated third party companies. We sell food, not information about our customers.

There is no "discount" club there For now.

Bullshit.

From their mission statement: We stick to the business we know: good food at the best prices! Whenever possible we buy direct from manufacturers, in large volume. We bargain hard and manage our costs carefully. We pay in cash, and on time, so our suppliers like to do business with us.

---

Third, are you familiar with the concept of the "courtesy card"? No. What I'm familiar with is that people are being ripped off by grocery stores. It's wrong and it needs to stop. Today. The only one getting ripped off is you. If you're not using the card THAT THEY WILL GIVE TO YOU, then you have no one to blame but yourself for losing money.

Ok. First off, take a deep breath and relax.

Second, ever hear of places like Trader Joes? There is no "discount" club there, all of their prices are low and the quality is usually good as well.

Third, are you familiar with the concept of the "courtesy card"? I haven't been through a grocery store checkout line where the clerk doesn't have one the discount cards used for patrons who lost theirs or simply don't have one. All you have to do is ask.

Their service is incredible, they've always got free food for you to sample... and many stores have wine tasting too. They also give their employees benefits and good wages, which is a lot more than I can say for most grocery stores. I've been to a lot of their stores, and employees seem genuinely happy there - which makes my shopping experience that much more enjoyable.

P.S. - try the peppered cashews...

Greens have moved beyond a lesser-evil approach to politics...

... I cannot under any circumstances accept nuclear power

...I cannot under any circumstances accept... genetically modified foods as a healthy alternative.

There are such simpler and more sensible ways to approach these issues. We could easily eliminate the need for nuclear power by conserving more energy.

We could replace nuclear power-and coal and other dirty forms of producing power-with the abundance of solar energy which shines on our country.

I'm not going to call it the best wine in the world, or even the best bang for your buck, but it's nice with food when one can't afford better (you can replace "one" with "I" in my case).

My girl-friend does this all the time: when she goes grocery shopping she will usually take advantage of those buy-three-get-one-free deals. Even on stuff like milk

Find a store that will give you the discount on less then the quanity on the coupon. Fred Meyers for example has a coupon this week for 5 1/2 gal jugs for $5.00, but if I buy only one it is $1.00. Cost is slightly less then Trader Joes who have decent prices in the first place like milk for about $2.50/gal without any of this coupon crap or buy more then you need crap.

But with all these discounts and crap, it's hard to know what stuff is going to cost, or what it actually does cost. You're *saving* something, but it's often not clear what you are saving from what.

The glass of wine I've got on my desk right now is just Two Buck Chuck cabernet, but it's good enough for an average dinner or for reading Slashdot in the evening. Some websites really need coffee instead.

And the author of the press release had probably cranked up the volume on /dev/marijuana a bit too recently before noticing he had an article deadline.

They're opening new stores all over the country, so if they aren't in your area yet, they may be there soon.

I really like the fact that I don't have to go through a circular every week to figure out what they decided to put on sale this week, search those items out, then get to the checkout only to find that I forgot my "preferred shoppers" card.

Take some advice from an AC who's been in this hobby for a while: Pinot's gonna cost ya.

Be a lot cheaper to drink 2 Buck Chuck.

This wouldn't work. I remember these at Trader Joes (what a kick ass store) in Brookline, MA (see also Stah Mah-ket and Stop & Shop). You have to close the door in order to activate the scanner. It spins the can (or bottle) around until it's able to read the UPC. So, stick no workie because you have to shut the door. And even if you got the door shut with your stick in there, you'd be screwed and stickless.

That doesn't mean that there is no corporate connection to Starbucks, (I don't know one way or another) but at least the Starbucks coffeehouses aren't the only retail establishments to by the tea from.

Better yet, trade your supermarket cards, frequently. (Perhaps with friends or relatives in the furthest city with the same chain?) Maybe Larry Ellison would like to have a few.

An even better idea is simply to avoid the cards in the first place. Accepting the card is essentially selling the store your profiling information for a discount. It's sleazy to break your half of the bargain by deliberately contaminating their data while expecting them to keep to their side by continuing to provide discounts. If you hate the things so much just refuse to accept one and pay cash (so that they can't track purchases by credit card number). Even better, skip the whole game by shopping at a store like Trader Joe's that refuses to have such a program in the first place.