I dunno, people don't seem to be willing to pay as much for a download than they are for a physical copy of a game.
I mean really, when was the last time any of you actually PAID for a game/song/movie you downloaded?:)
Pay $5 extra a month for AT&T to get 200 messages on a normal contract. That's what, 2.5 cents each?
Yeah, I know they are giant evil corporations, and yeah, they are bastards for raising prices without telling anyone. But you can just as easily set your phone up to not download new messages.
Or you could live like they did in olden days, and just... plan your calls.
Discoveries are when you find out about things that have already existed. If you travel to a place where no one has ever been before, you discover it. But it would still exist without anyone knowing about it.
Gravity is still gravity, inertia is still inertia, and two plus two is still four. Whether or not we understand it has no bearing on the subject at all.
(And don't give me that "high values of two" bunk. Yes, you're very clever, now shut up.)
They could just use the programs that determine AI in video games. Line the streets with explosive barrels; terrorists ALWAYS duck behind those for cover.
These ineffective "security" measures do nothing but try to cover their asses should they get hauled into court in a civil suit but is enforced by morons that don't even understand how pointless what they are doing is.
I agree to that almost completely. It is very, very stupid, but when you're playing a game with stupid rules you still have to follow them to win. And I think we can all agree that Walmart is doing pretty well from the money standpoint.
The response I actually tend to see more often is that most people will take the obvious route around: get a friend to buy it for them. However Walmart also has a policy on Third-Party Sales. It is basically something like this: If it obvious that a customer is buying a restricted item for a minor (like if they accept money from someone who you would normally card, or if the outright offer to purchase it) then you must deny the sale. This is where it gets a bit tricky because parents are allowed to buy things like M rated games for their kids, but older siblings and friends are not. The easiest thing to do would be for them to have the older sibling/friend take the item to another register, but since I know that they are buying it for a minor I am not allowed to even give them the item back by store policy. However they can simply grab another one off of the shelf, walk somewhere I cannot see, and purchase it there. So all of my resistance doesn't really make a difference if the customer would think about it for a minute, and meanwhile I spend almost 10 minutes banging my head against a wall.
And yes, it actually is nice when people thank you for carding. Unfortunately, in my part of the country at least, they are few and far between.
Ah, I see. I must have misread that. That's what I get for posting at 2 AM.
You have a very good point. Walmart does want their checkouts to be faster, but they also want to avoid expensive lawsuits and fines at all costs. I think this is not only a monitary issue, actually. If a Walmart gets in trouble for selling alcohol to minors, it gives them a bad name, and that can do a lot to hurt business. Since I've been a cashier, the deciding factor on whether or not we should card someone has changed from "if they look under 27" to "if they look under 40" to being manditory for all alcohol and tobacco transactions. However this is just at my store, I think we're chosen to do a lot of pilot programs.
Actually knives aren't really a problem at Walmart, provided the blade isn't too long (I forget what the actual restriction is). Some pocket knives may be restricted as well, but I'm not sure of the specific details.
I've seen people take half-used cigarettes out of the ash tray in front of the store. People do very dumb things sometimes for what I'm sure make sense to them. But the point isn't whether or not it's a dumb thing, it's whether or not someone can sue you if their 15-year-old kid dies after sniffing some fuel injector. Again, moral issues aside, I believe the bottom line for them is liability.
The obvious question here is why you didn't do elsewhere to begin with
While I understand avoiding Walmarts if you don't want to support thier practices, in some places that really isn't an option. In my town we have several grocery stores, but the others are all much more expensive on mostly everything, usually by 20-60%. Many people cannot really afford to financial support their ideals, especially when it decides whether or not you will be able to eat.
I personally do not agree with the business model that allows bigger companies to push out smaller ones, but that's capitalism for you.
I believe all I said was that you could get fired from Walmart for selling restricted items to minors. I did not specify why this would happen because I sometimes forget to explain these things to people who don't work there. Sorry if that was confusing.
Actually I think you are correct. I spoke too soon on that topic as gun transactions are handled in the sporting goods department. I apologize for that. However I think the main point is that management is required for the sale, and it has to be salaried management (not just the Customer Service Managers). Also, as you said, the transaction does take substantially longer than a normal one, with an actual background check being a requirement.
While it isn't law, it is Walmart policy. And it is a policy on which Walmart is _VERY_ clear; they state that the punishment for selling age restricted items to minors can include termination on numerous occasions during the training process, and several times after that.
Also, breaking the law by selling restricted items to minors only results in legal ramifications (fines, prison, etc) and not termination, if I'm not mistaken. Being fired is based on Walmart's coorporate policy (which may have been created only to legally cover their butts, but I couldn't say that for certain).
In addition, I'd be more likely to believe that all of their policies are created legal protection, and that the 'conservative family values' stance is just a bonus.
That's not quite correct. If an item is age restricted, a message stating so appears when it is scanned at the register. So deciding what can and cannot be sold is not really an issue, at least at Walmart.
And only the censored versions of CDs are carried by Walmart stores, by the way.
People tend to get *very* irate if they do not think they should be carded for something. And silly as it sounds, having someone screaming at you after you've been dealing with customers for 8 hours really can affect a decision to card someone.
In addition, fewer people try to illegally purchase alcohol and ammunition than movies or games. Think about it: it's illegal to buy beer if you're under 21, but it's only illegal to sell restricted movies to minors. See the difference?
Yes, that is true. Unfortunately, though, there are fewer complaints about bullets than there are restricted movies. As a cashier there, I can tell you that there is a certain level of 'restrictedness' on different items, meaning you look at some sales more carefully than others. It is something like this:
Spraypaint, rubber cement, superglue -- Low Caring
R rated movies, M rated games -- Mid Caring
Quantity-restricted medication, Alcohol -- High Caring
Bullets rank somewhere between mid to low. Keep in mind, though, that bullets don't work very well without a gun. And buying a gun is a process that takes several weeks and has to be approved by a store manager.
I'd also like to say that this is a completely unofficial list. In reality you can be fired for selling any of these items to a minor, though the actual punishment is rarely that harsh.
This is the reason why you cannot skip the advertisements on some DVDs now. If you've already purchased the movie, you shouldn't have to watch advertisements about it. Movie companies should take a page from computer software: "Purchase the full version to remove this ad." If you've bought something, you own it. If I want to use my copy of Top Gun to take baked potatos out of the oven, that's my prerogative.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking WiiII...
Funny, I thought school was all about paying for a piece of paper that says you know what you are doing.
I dunno, people don't seem to be willing to pay as much for a download than they are for a physical copy of a game. I mean really, when was the last time any of you actually PAID for a game/song/movie you downloaded? :)
Pay $5 extra a month for AT&T to get 200 messages on a normal contract. That's what, 2.5 cents each? Yeah, I know they are giant evil corporations, and yeah, they are bastards for raising prices without telling anyone. But you can just as easily set your phone up to not download new messages. Or you could live like they did in olden days, and just... plan your calls.
Discoveries are when you find out about things that have already existed. If you travel to a place where no one has ever been before, you discover it. But it would still exist without anyone knowing about it. Gravity is still gravity, inertia is still inertia, and two plus two is still four. Whether or not we understand it has no bearing on the subject at all. (And don't give me that "high values of two" bunk. Yes, you're very clever, now shut up.)
They could just use the programs that determine AI in video games. Line the streets with explosive barrels; terrorists ALWAYS duck behind those for cover.
Whatever, there are no women on teh intarweb.
So of course the first thing I thought of:s creenshot_004.jpg
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/687/3313/1024/
Not trying to be a jerk, I really was just wondering what would come up. This is a very interesting search function.
I think it would work something like this:. jpg
http://resources.ubi.com/resources/39/39273-11-12
I hope that some day people will wake up and realize that a culture of greed is a culture of unhappiness and lost opportunities.
Now to that, I could not agree more. I didn't mean it to be justification; I certainly don't think it is. I just know that other people do sometimes.
These ineffective "security" measures do nothing but try to cover their asses should they get hauled into court in a civil suit but is enforced by morons that don't even understand how pointless what they are doing is.
I agree to that almost completely. It is very, very stupid, but when you're playing a game with stupid rules you still have to follow them to win. And I think we can all agree that Walmart is doing pretty well from the money standpoint.
The response I actually tend to see more often is that most people will take the obvious route around: get a friend to buy it for them. However Walmart also has a policy on Third-Party Sales. It is basically something like this: If it obvious that a customer is buying a restricted item for a minor (like if they accept money from someone who you would normally card, or if the outright offer to purchase it) then you must deny the sale. This is where it gets a bit tricky because parents are allowed to buy things like M rated games for their kids, but older siblings and friends are not. The easiest thing to do would be for them to have the older sibling/friend take the item to another register, but since I know that they are buying it for a minor I am not allowed to even give them the item back by store policy. However they can simply grab another one off of the shelf, walk somewhere I cannot see, and purchase it there. So all of my resistance doesn't really make a difference if the customer would think about it for a minute, and meanwhile I spend almost 10 minutes banging my head against a wall.
And yes, it actually is nice when people thank you for carding. Unfortunately, in my part of the country at least, they are few and far between.
"People have the mindset that it's only illegal to buy ..."
My mistake there; thanks for pointing that out.
Ah, I see. I must have misread that. That's what I get for posting at 2 AM.
You have a very good point. Walmart does want their checkouts to be faster, but they also want to avoid expensive lawsuits and fines at all costs. I think this is not only a monitary issue, actually. If a Walmart gets in trouble for selling alcohol to minors, it gives them a bad name, and that can do a lot to hurt business. Since I've been a cashier, the deciding factor on whether or not we should card someone has changed from "if they look under 27" to "if they look under 40" to being manditory for all alcohol and tobacco transactions. However this is just at my store, I think we're chosen to do a lot of pilot programs.
Actually knives aren't really a problem at Walmart, provided the blade isn't too long (I forget what the actual restriction is). Some pocket knives may be restricted as well, but I'm not sure of the specific details.
I've seen people take half-used cigarettes out of the ash tray in front of the store. People do very dumb things sometimes for what I'm sure make sense to them. But the point isn't whether or not it's a dumb thing, it's whether or not someone can sue you if their 15-year-old kid dies after sniffing some fuel injector. Again, moral issues aside, I believe the bottom line for them is liability.
While I understand avoiding Walmarts if you don't want to support thier practices, in some places that really isn't an option. In my town we have several grocery stores, but the others are all much more expensive on mostly everything, usually by 20-60%. Many people cannot really afford to financial support their ideals, especially when it decides whether or not you will be able to eat.
I personally do not agree with the business model that allows bigger companies to push out smaller ones, but that's capitalism for you.
It's an inhalent, just like spraypaint or rubber cement.
I believe all I said was that you could get fired from Walmart for selling restricted items to minors. I did not specify why this would happen because I sometimes forget to explain these things to people who don't work there. Sorry if that was confusing.
Actually I think you are correct. I spoke too soon on that topic as gun transactions are handled in the sporting goods department. I apologize for that.
However I think the main point is that management is required for the sale, and it has to be salaried management (not just the Customer Service Managers). Also, as you said, the transaction does take substantially longer than a normal one, with an actual background check being a requirement.
While it isn't law, it is Walmart policy. And it is a policy on which Walmart is _VERY_ clear; they state that the punishment for selling age restricted items to minors can include termination on numerous occasions during the training process, and several times after that. Also, breaking the law by selling restricted items to minors only results in legal ramifications (fines, prison, etc) and not termination, if I'm not mistaken. Being fired is based on Walmart's coorporate policy (which may have been created only to legally cover their butts, but I couldn't say that for certain). In addition, I'd be more likely to believe that all of their policies are created legal protection, and that the 'conservative family values' stance is just a bonus.
That's not quite correct. If an item is age restricted, a message stating so appears when it is scanned at the register. So deciding what can and cannot be sold is not really an issue, at least at Walmart. And only the censored versions of CDs are carried by Walmart stores, by the way.
People tend to get *very* irate if they do not think they should be carded for something. And silly as it sounds, having someone screaming at you after you've been dealing with customers for 8 hours really can affect a decision to card someone. In addition, fewer people try to illegally purchase alcohol and ammunition than movies or games. Think about it: it's illegal to buy beer if you're under 21, but it's only illegal to sell restricted movies to minors. See the difference?
Yes, that is true. Unfortunately, though, there are fewer complaints about bullets than there are restricted movies. As a cashier there, I can tell you that there is a certain level of 'restrictedness' on different items, meaning you look at some sales more carefully than others. It is something like this: Spraypaint, rubber cement, superglue -- Low Caring R rated movies, M rated games -- Mid Caring Quantity-restricted medication, Alcohol -- High Caring Bullets rank somewhere between mid to low. Keep in mind, though, that bullets don't work very well without a gun. And buying a gun is a process that takes several weeks and has to be approved by a store manager. I'd also like to say that this is a completely unofficial list. In reality you can be fired for selling any of these items to a minor, though the actual punishment is rarely that harsh.
This is the reason why you cannot skip the advertisements on some DVDs now. If you've already purchased the movie, you shouldn't have to watch advertisements about it. Movie companies should take a page from computer software: "Purchase the full version to remove this ad." If you've bought something, you own it. If I want to use my copy of Top Gun to take baked potatos out of the oven, that's my prerogative.