I rolled into the chick-fil-a drive thru yesterday. Line was LONG. But it's always long, so I didn't give it a second thought. There's usually like 10 employees working like air traffic control to keep things moving.

This time, we weren't moving though. They only had one dude out there handling all the cars. I noticed people trying to go inside but get hit with a locked door. They close the dining room at 6pm so they can focus on the drive thru I guess.

I ain't never thought Chick-fil-A would get hit like this. Don't they pay kids like $20 a hour?


I also notice that I can't find at least three things on my list when I go grocery shopping nowadays. Basic stuff like chicken or juice.

And my gyro man increased his price from $8 to $10. Said he was losing money on every sandwich.

What's it like in your neck of the woods.

Went to a pizza shop and they closed early because of it.

Also with home improvement stuff. Went to Lowe’s multiple times for a storm door to finally get someone working that department. And then the wait til the end of this month to actually get the door.

Just struck me as odd…probably the 4th sign of the apocalypse
Random weekday morning…cooler was damn near empty
I don’t even drink soda
$hit was weird
Probably a combination of staff shortage and supply issues

I’m also hearing a lot of home improvement/renovation supplies are running short
We had a tornado touch down in the area about a month ago
Drywall is hard to get

basically...
at least in the construction industry.



"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

welcome to the last 16 months

Taco Bell is normally my late night move after getting out of the movies. The first one I go to is just completely closed, ghost town on a Saturday night. I go out of my way to get to another one on my way home and lose about an hour stuck in the drive-thru. I get to the window and the hand-written sign is like “We out of ALL sodas, nacho cheese, ground beef, sour cream, and tortillas.” I order what’s left out of that combo of missing shit, and dude in the window is basically in there solo-dolo.

I ordered Chipotle for lunch last week, through the app and thought I was gonna swoop through the pickup lane and go back home. The line is wrapped around the building, so I was like, “I’m tacky as fuck, but I’ll go in to not have to wait in line.” All the doors are locked. So, I lost 30+ minutes in this DT because I can’t cancel my order on the app.

thinking that it would re-select all my choices. That didn’t happen. It was supposed to be a chicken burrito bowl. My food was delivered and in the bag was a bowl that had like 12 chucks of chicken in it, with a top on it. No rice of any kind. No beans, no veggies - 12 chucks of chicken in a bowl with a top on it! So I had to drive over there (looking wild and crazy and sweaty after a workout) and I flat out refused to stand in line. I walked right up to the register and just started talking to any and all employees who made eye contact even if they didn’t maintain it until someone came over. She was like “the order came through with no specific selections.” I was like “I didn’t pay $8 for chucks of chicken! A burrito bowl is supposed to come with protein, rice, and veggies. Y’all could have called -“ which, I realize they were too busy to do, “ y’all could have given me something!”

I don’t order Chipotle anymore.

Ordered, got my mouth all set. Again, the drive thru is backed up into a whole different store’s parking lot. Lost another 30-45 minutes waiting. I get the bag and dude immediately says “if anything is missing or wrong, call 1-800-Chipotle”. I get home and it’s completely wrong, and that number is for catering orders, not customer service. I ate it begrudgingly after picking all the shit off, because I lost so much time waiting, everything else around was either closed or also had long drive thru lines

..dunkin donuts randomly closed some days because they have no one to work

so I parked and tried to order at the walk up window and the manager said it would be at least a half hour at the window due to short staff

My wife went to Burger king yesterday and said it was so nasty she threw it away.. and the order was all types of wrong

Went to a nice restaurant on Sunday for my bday and they said it was a 20 minute way inside and the outside was “full” even though they only had people at one table and the rest were empty. When we were seated the place was half empty. WTF??? Realized they simply don’t have the staff for a full restaurant.

Went to PA to visit family. Hotel said they were short staffed so you had to request new towels and cleaning service at check in because they no longer provide daily service.


Everywhere is hiring… but either people refuse to work under these conditions or these companies are putting up signs but aren’t hiring to save money.

A lot of the industries that complain about dire staffing have not adequately adjusted their pay in reflection to this post-covid, low staffing world.

To me it's a supply vs demand issue, and jobs don't want to acknowledge that if you want to hire you have to be realistic about the state of the labor market. Low applicants/low staffing should force pressure on your salaries and it's not happening at a rate commensurate to their need.

$1,000 hiring bonus….if you stay for 6 months.

knowing damn well they will let you go before that bonus kicks in.

They got rid of most registers and wtf.

Also, a subway near my job has reduced hours and is closed Sunday and Monday due ri staff shortages.

I asked the manager how many employees are typically needed at his Subway and he said it is usually him plus 6 for a fully staffed Subway. Right now it is him plus 2 and one of those two were about to quite.

The product and supplies shortages got me concerned for what heating bills are going to look like this winter.

Both times I went to Yosemite this year there have been worker shortages so the restaurants are opening later, closing earlier, or just not open. The Starbucks by the lodge was closed all days I was there.

I found out because of COVID they could not bunk multiple people into a cabin - so they just have less housing. And they had a massive Covid outbreak from workers throwing parties.

As for the park itself - it was wonderful. They required reservations to enter so it was about 50% less people there than the other times I visited.

directly has been in the school system. The schools are having huge issues getting bus drivers, enough that there are daily delays more than an hour. My kids don't ride the bus - I drop them off. But there's been a domino effect with way more parents dropping off kids, and the dropoff/pickup lines have been off the HOOK. Like if you aren't one of the early cars, you might be waiting 45-60 minutes. Last week one of the parents in the line had their car battery die.

Same issue with before/after school care, they had to have a hard limit on the number of kids they could take. They've been begging for volunteers to supervise at lunch. Really hard to get substitute teachers.

In many of these cases we're talking about people who used to do this work as either a second job, or as supplemental income during retirement, or while in school. With the pandemic those folks had time to reevaluate and prioritize what is most important to them, and they are placing higher value on their time.

I can say the same thing for me - my full time job is managing accounting consultants, but before the pandemic I played music on the weekends, typically earning an additional 30k or so as a second job. Pandemic hits and music gigs went away in 2020, and for the first time in 15 years I was actually home with my family on weekends. I also was able to put more focus on my day job, and have been promoted twice in the last 18 months which made up for the $$$ I used to get playing music. Gigs came back earlier this year, and I let that go completely - subbed everything out to the full time musician friends I have.

Obviously pay is an issue but I’m seeing a lot of fast food and retail raising their hourly wages to $15-20 starting in my area.

I think the labor shortage is due to 5 things:

1. Baby boomers finally fully retiring.

2. Work place safety due to Covid, people don’t want to go back to work and catch covid.

3. 700,000 dead, lost a lot of working age adults due to Covid deaths.

4. Immigration (both legal and illegal) restrictions and crack down from 16 to present has greatly reduced potential low wage workers.

5. Lack of good pay and benefits

The big companies don't want to pay though they could with no major loss.

The mid companies are hoping things break within 12 months or they are going to have to make harder decisions.

The small companies can't afford to pay more so they are stuck.

But I'd venture to say, if the larger companies paid more (as they should be after 40 yrs of suppressed wages) work shortages would decrease drastically.

My job is heavy on recruiting and the only departments where I'm making consistent progress are the ones who have been granted budgets to pay at market or managers who are willing to hire entry level and train vs experienced. I've already told managers, expect 6-12 month hiring processes if you don't do something different (lower expectations, hire young/low experience, beg senior management for more money).

This won't be temporary. COVID turned the lights on to America's employment roaches. People who could barely get by started doing better with UI + Gov't bonuses too it and they are like "nah, I'm not accepting less than that" now. Rightly so IMO.

Raises came earlier than scheduled for nurses.

Raises came earlier than scheduled for all other staff (nurses got it a month earlier.)

EVERY non-manager's seasonal bonus, usually around $300 (net), went to $2000 (gross.)

They are throwing money at the problem, and while it's not a TON of money it's definitely noticeable.

not saying it's not a thing, but outside of maybe the store being occasionally out of something, its not anything I'm noticing

i went to Chick fil a saturday for the first time in like a year, and it was the same situation as always there.. Long ass drive-thru line that i got through in about 2 minutes.

Haven't been seeing as much product shortage for everyday items. The microchip shortage is definitely effecting the way my job does business.

Price increases have been hitting hard since the pandemic started. Definitely haven't gone away, especially when buying groceries. We spend considerably more than we used to.

Short-staffing has hugely effected the restaurant industry around. I can't speak on fast food spots, but it's definitely still hitting sit-down restaurants. Almost everyone has reduced their hours and close on days that they used to be open. Some aren't doing lunch anymore. Favorite Chinese spot still is take-out only. Another spot I really like has raised prices, reduced staff to where it's just immediate family members, and serves everything with disposable plates, cups, and utensils. But the food is still great so IDGAF.

This is going to be the new reality for a while.

thats how you know it's real out here.
take about 30 mins to go through the drive through.

Local Bojangles are just out of supremes. Not "pull up and wait 5 mins"
they are OUT.

prices on everything are going up little by little.

the supply chain is fucked to all hell and i dont see it getting back to normal until 2023 just from what i've seen in the apparel industry. we are still working around factory closures and all kind of shit. we arent introducing much new product either because we don't have any sort of guarantee of an in-hands date.

strap in we got at least another 18 months

cause this is a damn shame

>

Because everyone is so short staffed so be nice to the ones who did show up and are working

service or customers are still going to get irritated. Last week I snapped at someone because he was being dismissive and I apologized profusely but he didn’t have to treat me like tat in the first place. I am sure he was already having a rough day when I entered the situation but he was of no “service” to me until I lost it and he saw I wasn’t going to just accept any answer.

>service or customers are still going to get irritated. Last
>week I snapped at someone because he was being dismissive and
>I apologized profusely but he didn’t have to treat me like
>tat in the first place. I am sure he was already having a
>rough day when I entered the situation but he was of no
>“service” to me until I lost it and he saw I wasn’t
>going to just accept any answer.


Trust me I feel the same way. The works that ARE on grounds have this..attitude...like be glad Im here or new to the wok force and do not know anything uscg about customer service. Things are different with this new generation of first time workers etc.

I’m getting really irritated at people acting like we are in normal times

because he quit lol

clothes, food, etc. everything is going up. I get that demand is sky high and there are supply chain problems, but I hope things stabilize soon.

Usually ~$4 per gallon. Which is still nuts -- but a ~25% increase is even crazier than usual.

I found this site that shows statewide averages over time:
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_SCA_DPG&f=W

Bay area is higher than what's shown here but the statewide 2021 number is higher than the 2019 number. I think you have to disregard the 2020 number, IIRC there were some weird things happening in the oil market and price / barrel went negative for a while.

is struggling to find employees with people making more than minimum wage drawing unemployment

this is probably the least important example of this phenomenon, but I thought it was pretty funny when they started mentioning it in coaches meetings this year. most chip-timed races in the past did include a note in passing that they wanted the chips back at the end, but they're going REALLY heavy on that this year and lately, more races are using an actual camera finish - which is kind of a pain for XC.

anyhow, i kind of liked that intruding on one of the dumber parts of my dumb little life. even a bunch of sticky teenagers shuffling around a giant, grassy, suburban park while their rich parents clap aimlessly are impacted by production and supply chain issues. world is a big, weird, and connected place.

https://complex.com/life/raising-canes-sends-corporate-to-work-restaurants-amid-staff-shortages?utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1mQb2WuPfzorxyEvlTk_zzXM9pQfGWcxcFguEdDPc7lsMhzIAGTYV1iqE

When I was in training for the Chick-fil-A Help Desk, we had to work a breakfast, lunch, and dinner shift, each at a different location. I did it with no pushback then, but I couldn’t go back to that.

Still can’t find after school care that will pick up my kids from
school.

My coworker has a 5 year old that gets out of school at 4PM and has to ride 3 hours until he gets dropped off at his bus stop.

He refused to get on the bus this morning.


and my other coworkers are still on some “you still haven’t found a solution for your kids?

Nigga.. have y’all found a solution for the chip shortage backing up firewall orders? No!!! Well aiight then. If yall cant deal with me leaving a few hours early twice a week then do what you gotta do.

have LONG lunches that last all afternoon a couple times a week its cool.

People kill me thinking their decision to have children gives them regular special work privilidges.

>Still can’t find after school care that will pick up my
>kids from
>school.
>
>My coworker has a 5 year old that gets out of school at 4PM
>and has to ride 3 hours until he gets dropped off at his bus
>stop.
>
>He refused to get on the bus this morning.
>
>
>and my other coworkers are still on some “you still
>haven’t found a solution for your kids?
>
>Nigga.. have y’all found a solution for the chip shortage
>backing up firewall orders? No!!! Well aiight then. If yall
>cant deal with me leaving a few hours early twice a week then
>do what you gotta do.
>
>

l dont give a fuck where my coworkers are or if they leave early.

but yeah.. I immediate go to happy hour with my kids since there is a shortage of after school care right now.

fucking weirdo.. smh.

there is nothing regular about what is happening in 2021. You are the same one who will ask about the pandemic as soon as you see a full stadium but then turn around and
act like parents chose to have kids knowing their was a pandemic coming

whether it is for your children, parent, spouse/partner, or just single self-care (ie happy hour)

parents often lead the way, but everyone should have unapologetic flex time off

If you (who I assume are kidless) need to leave work early to handle a personal commitment I have no issue with that.

I don't understand why kidless people have an issue with parents leaving early to manage childcare obligations that are directly caused by the pandemic (the reduced school and childcare hours).

I get the "I might be working more hours" argument -- the solution isn't to penalize the parents instead it should be to level the field.

!!!!

9-10 month turnaround for some places. Others not even taking orders until 2022.

...burning down. And I think the shortage of material pre-dates the pandemic. And even before the pandemic, priority was being given to Record Store Day releases/reissues.

It's covid and personnel restrictions on factories. It's a shortage on materials. It's the loss of a couple plants recently. It's the massive surge in demand. And it's the plants that do exist, prioritizing records from major label artists and RSD above all else.

This is the best article I've seen on the issues. It was sent out by an artist when their record, supposed to have been shipped out last month, got hit with a 5 month delay. Earlier in September, he said he was relatively confident the record would go out in Sept as expected on the pre-order from April.

https://investmentmonitor.ai/analysis/vinyl-shortage-production-major-labels

Seems like every shift is a disaster.

None of the usual guiding questions like....”white or brown rice?” “Black beans or pinto?” “What kind of protein?”

Just....”what do you want?” Lol.

He spilled peppers and onions all over the counter, got quac on his gloved hand and the outside of the bowl. He was a trainwreck.

I didn’t actually care. But I recognized it.

Looked at me like I just "fell off the moon"-(c) Bin

lol


>None of the usual guiding questions like....”white or brown
>rice?” “Black beans or pinto?” “What kind of
>protein?”
>
>Just....”what do you want?” Lol.
>
>He spilled peppers and onions all over the counter, got quac
>on his gloved hand and the outside of the bowl. He was a
>trainwreck.
>
>I didn’t actually care. But I recognized it.

Working at fast food is quickly becoming the urban equivalent of working out in the agriculture fields. Young kids don’t want these jobs

Also, a lot of these places are scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of people to employ.

I think to your point, they have (or feel they have) more options and as a result, don't want to work in fast food for any reason. I think the elimination of manual labor type of jobs (e.g. Textiles) being good enough to establish a credible middle class also is a factor. The kids coming up now do not have any other example other than sedentary work so fast food is out. For us, we didn't want to work at Mickey D's but wanted to (legally) get a check. I remember the "luxury" teen job was working at a grocery store or at the mall vs Fast Food, LOL.

>

YES.

I remember thinking about how great-looking so many of the girls/women working in the mall were during my high school years. I never got a mall gig sadly. Somehow I assumed that being up there with them working somehow made me a shoe-in for getting phone numbers and all of htat.

Even in my 20s, I'd fall up in the mall 2-4 times year instead of 2 times a week and still see some powerful ladies up in there. I'd get got at a kiosk once a year with some pretty lady trying to sell me some expensive ass lotion (or some other bullshit I totally didn't need). Haha..they had the right one when got me!

>I think to your point, they have (or feel they have) more
>options and as a result, don't want to work in fast food for
>any reason. I think the elimination of manual labor type of
>jobs (e.g. Textiles) being good enough to establish a credible
>middle class also is a factor. The kids coming up now do not
>have any other example other than sedentary work so fast food
>is out. For us, we didn't want to work at Mickey D's but
>wanted to (legally) get a check. I remember the "luxury" teen
>job was working at a grocery store or at the mall vs Fast
>Food, LOL.

I don't know if this is a post-jack or whatever, but I want to bring this up somewhere:

I don't like that it seems like a bunch of folks think they are 'too good' to be doing what they're doing. And this is an issue to the degree that it is obviously impacting quality of work in hella industries. Fast food/service is among them. I get that some people are more comfy being assholes to someone who is making their food so I see that part of it. But still, I don't appreciate this at all cuz I'm very much not the 'act a fool with someone who is making my food' person ever.

Where is the 'hey, whatever you're doing, that is what you are doing. SO DO IT. DO THE FUCK OUT OF IT! BE GOOD AT IT. You want to do something else!? Okay, figure it out then go do the hell out of that something else then! Now don't put too much salt on them damn fries..you know better than that!'?

Maybe you have already answered it...lots of people are coming from households were manual labor wasn't as much of a thing. And maybe even at the crib, they have landscapers and housekeepers. All of that. And even if it wasn't to that level, kids mostly have siblings, parents, and/or other family members who work office gigs so it doesn't 'look like' they are 'visibly working hard'. So there's a lot less 'my shoulder hurt cuz I was out there working my ass off'. And there's more 'my boss is wack'. Or 'my group is cool but we have to work with another group and they hire anybody over there'. Or 'these sales folks be trippin'. AKA people/work relationship shit.

I think you might be on to something here. I think if you look at the class structure, in the 70s/80s/somewhat in the 90s before NAFTA, most of the kids were children of the middle class. What that meant looked different as fuck (teachers, mill workers, dog catchers, etc) but they were able to provide a decent living for the fam. You weren't rich...you might have been in the 'hood' but not in the projects so you also weren't poor. As a result, what we were taught was to always do a great job. Be it because of your reputation, integrity, building work ethic, etc...you had to "go get it" or simply put "you signed up for it, now you gotta finish it - complete work".

Nowadays, kids aren't seeing that variety in their parents or even the variety within jobs due to the nonexistent middle class. What used to be considered Upper Class jobs, is now Middle Class (IT, Lawyer, Engineer, Bi'ness, etc) and those types of jobs, come with those type of sedentary complaints that you mentioned in your post: "'my boss is wack'. Or 'my group is cool but we have to work with another group and they hire anybody over there'. Or'these sales folks be trippin'. AKA people/work relationship shit.?"

My wife and I both make 6 figure incomes in corporate jobs, that back in the day would have been seen as the goal. But all our kids hear about our jobs is the complaining we do about all that stuff. My wife and I have talked about needing to be more positive in our conversations around careers, because I can definitely see our kids looking at it like “why the eff should I work towards that???”

Meanwhile when I was growing up my father was a firefighter, and mom was a teacher. My dad didn’t “love” his job, but I never heard him complain about it and he worked HARD. My mom loved her job as a teacher. Did a career change when I was young, went back to school for Education, and then worked 30 years as a teacher before retiring a few years back.

On Friday my wife and I went out to an upscale steakhouse in town (think like a local, non-chain version of Ruth's Chris or Flemmings). We last went to this spot around a year ago, so after the pandemic hit but last Fall in between Covid surges. At that point everything as just like we were used to (besides there being less tables and more spaced out). The staff was all the same familiar people we were used to, food the same quality, service the same quality - if not even better. They were so happy to be back fully open it was like they were going the extra mile in how they handled everything.

Friday was a completely different story. The food was all still very good, but we didn't recognize any of the staff we saw. They were also clearly understaffed, and not nearly as well trained. For example my wife's plate for her bread was really dirty when it was brought out. The server took the dirty plate, and came back around 10 minutes later - and brought her the exact same plate (had multiple VERY distinguishable stains/pieces of old food on it.) There were several other issues.

I still gave our normal large tip - because I don't blame any of the staff or the restaurant - folks are struggling right now, and it's a sign of the times. But we definitely won't be going out to upscale spots at the moment. No one wants to spend 250-300 for a dinner for two and have it be a wack experience.

I was at Domino’s and waited.. and waited.. and waited.

Dude said he was just waiting on my wings.

After seeing him get yelled at repeatedly by multiple phone calls I asked about my wings and dude just gave up.. lol.

Wild Wings has never had the same crew. It changes every month or 3 weeks. (I made that up but its really a gamble to order some shit from that spot right now)

which is usually better anyways. The staffing shortages are even hitting gig economy services - We tried ordering BW3's a couple weeks ago - the estimated times on UberEats/DoorDash/GrubHub were all like 90 minutes or longer. So we ordered through the BW3 website for pick up. Went to get our food, and found out the restaurant cancelled our entire order because we included potato wedges (which were available on their website order system. So instead of emailing us back about it, or making everything else in our order and refunding the price of the wedges, they cancelled the rest of a HUGE order. Wings, a burger for my son, fries, soft pretzels, they cancelled everything with no notice at all until we got there to pick it up.


We ended up making wings at home in the air fryer, and they were way better than BW3 anyways.

making your food. Quality control goes completely out the window

I saw a huge line at McDonalds the other day. Probably staffed with just a handful of teenagers. I can only imagine the food coming out of that drive thru window.

But obviously the post had me reminiscing about some of those HS jobs and.....

You ever stop to think about how CRAZY it is that we have straight up teenagers running ridiculous engineering feats like roller coasters, ferris wheels etc?

There is sooooo much room for quick death.

>But obviously the post had me reminiscing about some of those
>HS jobs and.....
>
>You ever stop to think about how CRAZY it is that we have
>straight up teenagers running ridiculous engineering feats
>like roller coasters, ferris wheels etc?
>
>There is sooooo much room for quick death.

Yes!

I think about it regularly. My kid has a few buddies who basically can't directly answer almost any question you ask them..like they aren't accustomed to a lazy azz 'I dunno' not being an acceptable final answer. They're barely teens but still. They aren't far away from having little jobs unless they're all just going to start Youtube channels and get rich from going viral and/or getting a following. I'd be horrified of leaving most of them in charge of anything critical where a wrong move could equal death.

I think about it when I encountered 20-somethings in work endeavors too. And really, sometimes it is the same thing..if you press them to give 'real answers' to even reasonably simple questions, it becomes clear that they haven't been pressed for real after half-answering a question..not at the crib, not at a job, not with their friends, and not a school. I thought that's what friends were for!!!!? Me and my buddies would grill the hell out of each other about every and anything! How come you didn't holler at ole girl!? She was right there..basically waiting on YOU. Dude, we're in this game. It's 14 up and we're not playing 'win by two'..don't miss no more layups. Man, you pulled a Cockroach at Dancemania on us!? For real!? what's up with that? Mane, you had the hookup on the movie tickets and didn't tell us!? WTF?

Or maybe it isn't that serious and the concept of 'privacy' has expanded since Geocities and people aren't accustomed to having their words be attached to their actual person outside of safe spaces and/or echo chambers. That's not great either..hell, 'I dunno'! Haha! But something is up.

"You ever stop to think about how CRAZY it is that we have straight up teenagers running ridiculous engineering feats like roller coasters, ferris wheels etc?"

I didn't pay it much attention when I was younger but once I was older than they were and thought about all of the irresponsible shit I did as a teen, it was like "and my fate of this roller coaster is in YOUR hands?" Na B, LOL

I worked at Family Fun Center, it was my first job and I worked it for about 1.5 years. Everyone that worked there was in high school.

Most of the amusement rides are engineered so that they are on an internal timer to stop. All a kid has to do is push a start button and the ride would do its thing until it was over.

HOWEVER, the exception was the Ferris wheel. That one was a bit more complicated because you had to balance the wheel and if you didn’t it would and could get fucked up real fast. I hated operating the Ferris wheel. I once saw it unbalanced and it was scary as fuck.

Go karts were also dangerous but more so for the employees working the track.

I worked at six flags as a yout

before cell phones you could cover up a death pretty quick. I think 3 or 4 people died while I was there the 2 summers I worked there.

Most of it wasn't the roller coaster per say. Deaths were on the double log flume, indoor roller coaster.

I agree that most of the rides are easy to operate but I think more about what these kids do when shit goes south. Like when that person comes back with no foot on the "batman ride" we expect a teenager to handle that chaos.

I also think about those traveling fairs are shit. That has to be set up by them as well.

I lived within a 10 minute drive from Six Flags, but it's a fuckin 3-4 hour walk in the summer heat, with mostly no sidewalk, so they weren't an option for me. My friends all lived on Six Flags Drive, so they could walk or catch the bus. Six Flags came to my school and set up a recruiting table starting in like, Jan. or Feb.

saying they were looking to hire at least 30 people
at that location

i used to go to one in the loop
now they don't open until 10am

there is this $$$ restaurant i go to. it just opened again for the first time in july after closing in march last year. they are only open from tuesday - saturday from 5-9. on friday and saturday they stay open until 10. no carryout, no delivery. they only focus on people that are seated in their restaurant. and its always busy. you even have to make reservations to sit at the bar. i guess they don't have room for more than what the restaurant holds and everyone works the hours that its open.

can't stand going anywhere near a Chipotle. they are basically a sweatshop in America -- even pre-pandemic they had overworked and underpaid staff that were forced to come in sick and cause *multiple* norovirus and e. coli outbreaks.

then you add this dumbass online food delivery shit on top of it, where the short staff basically have to run two restaurants at once to keep up with all the fucking orders y'all want on-demand

same shit with Starbucks. the stock symbol way of running a "company" is to create a million fucking order combinations, crappy quick-serve breakfast, and stress everyone out with the mobile app where an army of people can order instantly.

shit makes no sense. these restaurants are broken and they are going to keep grinding down whatever workers they get, because y'all need some cold-ass burrito thrown in your mailbox at 9 pm at night.

from the food delivery apps

in this post…

the chain options I frequent are popeyes and panera, I use the app to pick up inside

always unorganized lines of delivery (doordash/ubereats/etc) folks, app order folks,
and on site orderers waiting like an hour for food

half of panera’s offerings be out of ingredients and popeyes has no sauce for those addictive nuggets

and I see how the delivery folks handle the food… no thanks

Prepare for the worst.

backlog trying to purchase new IT equipment and I thought about this post lol

>backlog trying to purchase new IT equipment and I thought
>about this post lol

Looka here! It is real over here. Like if you order something, it might for real take 2 or more months. It is the type of thing that will make you go ahead and buy it yourself at BestBuy/Amazon depending on what it is. Completely ridiculous. And if you bring it up, too many people are openly shameless about how absurd it is that I can order something myself and get it in 0-2 days but it'll take my gig 8 weeks or more to get roughly the same thing. Makes absolutely no sense.

I wonder how much is related to lessened immigration under Individual 1....

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/10/consumer-price-index-october.html

Inflation across a broad swath of products that consumers buy every day was even worse than expected in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago, the most since December 1990. That compared with the 5.9% Dow Jones estimate.

On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.9% against the 0.6% estimate.

Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.6% against the estimate of 0.4%. Annual core inflation ran at a 4.6% pace, compared with the 4% expectation and the highest since August 1991.

Fuel oil prices soared 12.3% for the month, part of a 59.1% increase over the past year. Energy prices overall rose 4.8% in October and are up 30% for the 12-month period.

Used vehicle prices again were a big contributor, rising 2.5% on the month and 26.4% for the year. New vehicle prices were up 1.4% and 9.8%, respectively.

Food prices also showed a sizeable bounce, up 0.9% and 5.3% respectively. Within the food category, meat, poultry, fish and eggs collectively rose 1.7% for the month and 11.9% year over year.

The price increases meant that workers fell further behind.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said real wages after inflation fell 0.5% from September to October, the product of a 0.4% increase in average hourly earnings that was more than offset by the CPI surge.

Shelter costs, which make up one-third of the CPI computation, increased 0.5% for the month and are now up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis, pointing to more reasons for concern that inflation could be more persistent than policymakers anticipate. The annual pace is the highest since September 2019.

oh.. you want to be paid more!? okay..

lets keep those ships in the water for a while and raise these prices..

all whole claiming no one wants to work.. now we are used to bad service, staff shortages, reduced hours and we just accept it like its the new normal

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

= prices go up.


Supply isn't keeping up for a variety of reasons. A global pandemic fucked the supply chain...and when you fuck with supply chains the problems are felt downstream for a long time.

A small hiccup upstream 6 months ago is a big problem today.


Plus...you know...the pandemic isn't actually over.


On the flips side, increased wages and low unemploymnet = demand going up. Add people acting/pretending the pandemic is over.

Severe retraction of supply and significant increasing demand. Yeah, that's a bad recipe.


Biden admin should be doing whatever they can to normalize the supply chain....but they won't.


Just sit back and let precedent take over. Went from FDR to Carter in like 6 months.

Nixon lead to Carter who gave way to someone who fucked the country for decades.

Trump lead to Biden who is going to give way to....yeah. Not looking good.


But thats okay, blue marks are pointing out that we didn't have toilet paper a year ago so...all is well.

I dunno bout that....

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/10/inflation-has-taken-away-all-the-wage-gains-for-workers-and-then-some.html

like I said.. lol

who thinks they have mind control over them

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

pharmacy, it was sent to the pharmacy close to her house. We get to that pharmacy on Saturday afternoon, after she was discharged, and there’s a sign on the counter that said “due to staffing shortages the pharmacy is closed.” Same thing Sunday. Same thing today. She finally gets the prescription moved to another nearby pharmacy, which was harder than it should be because this particular medication is classified as an opioid, and we get over there and every single employee in the place is new and doesn’t know what the hell is going on. I was really trying to caution myself against calling these people morons even if I only said it in my head because I kind of understand the situation they are in but the frustration that the customer has to deal with it’s also real.

quit in the KC area. Sad.

Like a lot of stories I read are like, I couldn't get this thing I really wanted, so I had to get the second best thing I wanted.

Like a year ago we couldn't get any toilet paper. Now Charmin is hard to find. I think you will see that for a lot of stuff, but I don't think we are seeing, correct me if I am wrong, people not being able to get essential fundamental stuff they need.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

due to chip shortages killing production.

That industry is gridlocked for about a year and it's suppliers/complimentary industries are laying people off to deal with the shortages. And the sad part is I think some of these suppliers are doing this on purpose.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/biden-hopes-fines-on-lingering-cargo-ships-ease-congestion-at-major-us-ports.html

Keeping supply ships on docks under the guise of not being able to move them. Funny how things started moving when those fines got instituted. Not to say there aren't legit issues though. This part of the article:

"The nation’s knotted supply chain is bearing the brunt of surging consumer demand, high transportation expenses, labor shortages, overseas manufacturing delays, trade policies and inflation.

What’s more, the approaching holiday season has intensified the situation as loosened public health measures and coronavirus vaccines point to larger celebrations this year compared to 2020.

“We haven’t seen something of this magnitude in quite some years,” Federgruen added. “The individual consumer will feel enormous inflation together with not being able to purchase the goods if this persists,” he added."

Is what I'm expecting for holiday shopping.

but that has been going on for the last 2 years

The shipping containers off Cali seemed like bullshit.

Not exactly related but my FIL was in the Navy and said the gas shortage in the 70’s was bullshit. He said his sub sailed out past the horizon and there were hundreds of tankers
just chilling waiting for OPEC to give the thumbs up so they could dock. That shit was simply about money.

(per my Car Recommendations post)

'twas comical. LITERALLY no new Accords or Civics on the lot.

they showed me a 2017 Civiv that was 2K more than a 2022 Civic Sport.

They got every car they have parked on the perimeter to make it look like they have inventory but when you pull in? the ENTIRE lot was empty.

they tried to sell me the Civic Sport sight unseen (which is how people are copping right now). i told em I gotta drive it...told em if one actually makes it to the lot to let me know and i'll come drive it.

it's crazy. drove into the Hyundai dealer too...could tell they had nothing and dipped out.

I'm sure there are others if you have preferred sources.

There are hundreds of thousands of ships moored on coastlines right now, and the demand for products from Southeast Asia is so high that when they finally get docked and unloaded, they aren't waiting around for our little grain exports or whatever. They're shipping back out empty to go get more Chinese and Korean shit because they've been waiting too long as is.

Listen to anybody in the international shipping game tell it and this is a problem with no end in sight.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Shoppers can still buy holiday favorites, but the quantity will be limited for certain staples and ingredients.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2021/11/23/publix-caps-purchases-of-gravy-other-items-due-to-supply-chain-issues/

Feeding a large group for Thanksgiving? You might not be able to buy as much of your favorite ingredients as you’d like.

Publix is instituting purchase limits on certain items “due to ongoing supply issues and increased holiday demand, and to best serve the majority of our customers,” according to an email from company spokeswoman Maria Brous. Publix is headquartered in Lakeland.

For the affected items, customers will see signs in stores letting them know they’re limited to buying two of each, Brous said.

Items affected include Thanksgiving staples such as canned cranberry sauce, jarred gravy and canned pie filling, as well as canola and vegetable oils, cream cheese, bacon and rolled breakfast sausage. Paper napkins and disposable plates, cups and cutlery also will be subject to purchase limits.

Customers also will be capped when it comes to buying refrigerated snacks such as Lunchables, sports drinks, certain juices like Capri Sun, canned cat food variety packs, refrigerated pet food and — in a familiar pandemic tableau — toilet paper.

Winn-Dixie is also limiting the purchase of turkeys to one per customer, similarly citing problems in the supply chain. The measure will “help all families have an opportunity to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year,” said Meredith Hurley, spokeswoman for Southeastern Grocers, the parent company of Winn-Dixie as well as Fresco y Más.

“While we don’t have a limit on other items throughout the store,” Hurley added, “we are politely asking customers to only purchase what they need for their families while shopping for key holiday items.”

I mean, it HAD to happen at some point right??


https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/investing/dollar-tree-prices-inflation/index.html?utm_content=2021-11-23T15%3A45%3A07&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNN

Dollar Tree will soon be $1.25 tree.

The company — one of America's last remaining true dollar stores — said Tuesday it will raise prices from $1 to $1.25 on the majority of its products by the first quarter of 2022. The change is a sign of the pressures low-cost retailers face holding down prices during a period of rising inflation.
Dollar Tree (DLTR) said in a quarterly earnings release Tuesday that its decision to raise prices to $1.25 permanently, however, was "not a reaction to short-term or transitory market conditions."

Just about everyone I know is just one or two people away from making everything work. Some places are doing fine front of house (I've got a 3.5 day work week right now and it's fucking WILD) but back of house is just full of dudes doing it truly for the love of the game right now.


The real wild side of it is distribution. When you don't know whether the kitchen is getting their weekly allotment of shift beers (High Life) for the week when it's produced just one state over, you know shipping is in a wild spot. My entire year has been one long game of ordering a product, being told it's in, then not seeing it come in and reps scrambling to explain why that was.


And you can't even hold it against them because...damn, man, the product just isn't there and everyone else in my position is talking about it too.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

This is going to be a huge weight on the necks of Biden and the democrats. I don't think the spending bill passes now. Not with Manchin constant expressing his concerns about inflation.

I always thought there is no way Trump could ever be president again. But this is a clear opening for him.


https://www.npr.org/2021/12/10/1062794539/november-cpi-inflation-high-prices-for-consumers

But the fucking goobers in this country look ONLY at gas prices.

This country is full of fucking idiots.

I haven't heard ANY explanation on how the rise of inflation is Biden's fault, or the fault of any new spending he has enacted.

I do see DEMAND going up for items - which in a capitalistic society means that PRICES GO UP.

they want demand to go up, prices to drop, wages to increase, and inflation to stay low. it's simply not how it works.

we live in a dumb country fam.

with a subpar education system and media thats more focused on covering politics like sports teams than informing the public about how things work and the effect policy has on it.

especially after biden did this lol.
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1469350613616111617

like boris johnson in the uk just hit an all time low with voters citing similar issues/conditions.
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1469319401178607631

really this happens every economic downturn. with the pandemic being a new variable.

voters got trump out for pandemic/economy. now theyre gonna blast dems in the midterms for not acting fast enough in their eyes. it happened with obama in 2008/2010. big win in 08 running against the incumbent party during the great recession. then voters in 2010 pretty much robbed him/dems of most of their power in congress and states 2 years later.

people are really impatient and dont have time/energy to comprehend the realities of dealing with widescale crises. so they hand power back quickly to the party that got us in the mess in the first place. its really dumb but its how things work.

then Dems clean shit up (while the GOP laughs and blames them for the mess)

GOP comes in and takes credit

then Dems clean shit up

and it happens over and over and over again

theyre the largest voting bloc and represent the biggest swing between these elections.

they really only trust dems when repubs royally fuck up and it affects their own pocketbooks.

other than that...they historically punish dems for pursuing policies to make things better and improve the lives of most americans (especially when it comes to non white people reaping those benefits too).

is a cool idea

off topic but I was listening to sports radio. There is a woman with the most annoying voice (white and blonde) a d they do these little bits for fun. That asked her what college football job opening would she choose if she could choose any of them. She said VTech because Blacksburgh sounds cool. Someone mentioned USC and Cali weather and she replied. “California? People are leaving their in droves why would I want to go there”

all that to say.. these white people believe what they want and would punish themselves if they thought it would stick it to the libs.

In addition to this we're in an unprecedented situation with this economic situation. The supply chain issues aren't going away any time soon, which means the product shortage, supply/demand, inflation issues also aren't going away soon. The housing market is obviously in a bubble (which has come down a bit), but the inventory levels are still historically low and that won't change any time soon. Which means the bubble won't "pop", these are actual values based on current supply.

All of this to say that there are no quick fixes to the economy or inflation.

>people are really impatient and dont have time/energy to comprehend the
>realities of dealing with widescale crises. so they hand power back
>quickly to the party that got us in the mess in the first place. its
>really dumb but its how things work.

If there's one thing that's been made clear to me during the pandemic, it is the complete inability of people to not understand cause/effect, even on a very short-term basis. "Covid case numbers are down! Take off your masks!" "Uh-oh cases went up, but deaths are still low!" "Uh-oh deaths are high..."

If people can't understand cause/effect within two weeks for a deadly pandemic, they definitely aren't going to understand it on a 2-4 year election cycle in terms of the economy. It's been happening for decades at this point. Combine that with the fact that the GOP is blatant about wielding 100% of the power they have to stay in power, and don't case at ALL about hypocrisy in pointing the finder at Democrats for using 10% of their power, and I don't see how any of this ends well.

the media has pretty much abandoned its commitment to an informed democracy.

not too long ago...they were bullying the cdc and the biden administration for saying that vaccinated people should still wear masks in public. they said the admin was sending out the wrong message conflicting with whatever arbitrary incentives they thought people should have for getting the shot. and the admin caved and told unvaccinated folks to take the masks off.

then delta came through fucking shit up and we had to throw the masks back on and the media never even offered a mea culpa or did any introspection. and they went back to hitting biden on 'spiking the ball too early' and not getting covid under control.

the media might not be the enemy of the people but they sure aint an ally.

The media chooses narratives based on what gets views and clicks, and people want to hear what they want to hear. The information age has brought so much infinite information to people that they can pick and choose what they listen to based on confirmation bias.

It was different when there were three major networks with news information and that was it. Now with all the options, people are gonna pick and choose what to turn into, which makes the media pick narratives that sound good to their base, and the cycle never ends. Capitalism...

right now. The salaries that people are commanding is on a whole nuther level. The Great Resignation is real (but I don't really understand what's causing it though).




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

One you would not have otherwise been considered for.

Employers are desperate and may take a flier on someone that they wouldn't have given a second look at.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/10/january-2022-cpi-inflation-rises-7point5percent-over-the-past-year-even-more-than-expected.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/10/cpi-inflation-february-2022-.html

I keep getting contacted about job openings and I have been ignoring them

might be leaving a few stacks on the table.

Fancy Feast particularly. And I haven't seen the kitty litter I like (the water absorbing crystals) in the stores in a few years. Only the clay-type stuff. Still available online tho.

Certain parts for my motorcycle are getting rare. Gotta be worse for cars and trucks.

been a bunch of places trying to find cans for my mom's cat

they got the same few flavors and they're out of everything else

plus i assume part of it is a lot of cat people are hoarders who just by up cases as soon as they hit

I'm starting to fear what it's going to take to get it under control.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/consumer-prices-rose-8point5percent-in-march-slightly-hotter-than-expected.html

I was wondering when I was going to get hit and I noticed a $.50 increase on the price per pound on the apples I normally buy. Sucks, but I can't be surprised given how long prices have been increasing in normal supermarkets and grocery stores.

I wonder when Trader Joes is going to hit me with an increase on the Roasted Almonds I normally buy.

I noticed all the prices for stuff I normally buy from Trader Joes getting a good bump in prices.

Not a big surprise given how long inflation has been the case in the US.

Starbucks has all the coffee and food stuff.

Prices for vegetables and availability are fine, not noticing an uptick.

The stuff I buy frozen, or on the other isles is easy to find with ONE exception: Nongshim Shin Noodle Soup Vegan 75g. The lack of ramen had happened pre-pandemic too.

Fast food near me prices might be up - but they always seemed expensive to me since there are *never* deals on vegetarian items at fast food. NEVER.

I've seen with my own eyes NVidia 3070s and 3080s at BestBuy. And machines with intel 12th gen and Ryzen 5xxx easily available.

3 taco shops near me raised their prices by $1 for a burrito and $2 for combo plates - but they've done that in he past too.

As for other things posted, I'm not seeing shortages in San Diego.

Fancy feast (dry)and cat litter (Tidy cats); Got em.
Fancy computers: Bought one last year
iPad: Just got a new one
Toilet paper; Always on shelves
Rx medicine: No issue for me.



Gas is under $6 for the first time in weeks - but I know that's a combination of demand, OPEC, supply form non-OPEC and OPEC-PLUS members, and as much manipulation as they can get away with by oil companies to increase profits.

The one thing that has been backordered:
I ordered 7 new credit card readers for my workplace. Our order of 400 devices came through on time last year, but the 7 we ordered for our devs have been delayed by 3 months.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/cpi-april-2022.html

So for the last couple months, I've noticed that almost no stores around me have single serve Yoplait Light yogurts. If they do? Only one or two flavors - so it's like they got a crate of it in, in one (or two) flavor(s) and were able to throw some on the shelves.

So I'm shopping at my local Safeway on Saturday, May 7th (4 days ago). It's the same situation: yogurt shelves EMPTY but they have Strawberry. I grab 4 cuz I like to eat one w/ my lunch.

I go to eat one of them today. As soon as I open it, I'm like this shit looks grainy. I look at the out date: February 17th, 2022.

A warning: check your shit. The supply chain so fucked stuff is showing up months late and still getting onto shelves.

I'm sure this is an anomaly (I HOPE) but just saying to be cautious.

Luckily, I didn't take a bite.

We're about to see some real economic pain soon. The Fed is going to have to start taking big steps. Recession incoming

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/10/consumer-price-index-may-2022.html

grocery bill feels like it's $20-$50 higher every time. car's taking $20 extra to fill up. uber/lyft all gone up.

a lot of us weirdo's been warning for years. Find a way to hedge against inflation and famine and food shortages.

You can grow potatoes in a bucket on your balcony NOW.

Victory gardens are coming back. Grow something and live. Get your neighbors involved. have a community garden.

Biden said to expect a food shortage in the next 2 years. He got that right. Listen good.

for potatoes

>a lot of us weirdo's been warning for years. Find a way to
>hedge against inflation and famine and food shortages.
>
>You can grow potatoes in a bucket on your balcony NOW.
>
>Victory gardens are coming back. Grow something and live. Get
>your neighbors involved. have a community garden.
>
>Biden said to expect a food shortage in the next 2 years. He
>got that right. Listen good.

that book did have a certain appeal to one who preps or looks to survival.

its all fun and jokes til you're hungry when all you had to do was toss a old eyed cut up potato in a 5 gallon bucket with drainage holes and some soil.

I'll come back when it hits. I hope you grow something you can eat.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/inflation-rose-9point1percent-in-june-even-more-than-expected-as-price-pressures-intensify.html

^ ass hats online ^

Country, This Month, Last Month inflations rates:

France	     5.8	5.2	Jun/22	%
South Korea	6	5.4	Jun/22	%
South Africa	6.5	5.9	May/22	%
India	    7.01	7.04	Jun/22	%
Germany	     7.6	7.9	Jun/22	%
Canada	     7.7	6.8	May/22	%
Mexico	     7.99	7.65	Jun/22	%
Italy	       8	6.8	Jun/22	%
Euro Area	8.6	8.1	Jun/22	%
Netherlands	8.6	8.8	Jun/22	%
United Kingdom	9.1	9	May/22	%
United States	9.1	8.6	Jun/22	%
Spain	     10.2	8.7	Jun/22	%
Brazil	     11.89	11.73	Jun/22	%

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/10/consumer-prices-rose-8point5percent-in-july-less-than-expected-as-inflation-pressures-ease-a-bit.html

I've read they only make them in three places in the world now: A factory in China (burned down), a factory in Russia (imports banned) and a factory in the Czech Republic.

I've got a few old tube amps, so I just gotta hope the tubes inside don't blow anytime soon.


Japan-made electronics seem like they are pretty back-ordered right now too.

talk about how rosy inflation/economic indicators are now (after the election is over).

now that the political calculus is gone...they just want the fed to ease up on them hikes lol.

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1602664516810162177

Like 18% mortgage rates.

Glad to see things headed in the right direction. I'd like to see a few more months of this before saying inflation is whipped though.

The menu had 15$ mozzarella sticks. That's for 6 mozzarella sticks!!!




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Moving steadily to the 2% target

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/cpi-march-2023-.html

Latest data shows inflation on the way down (3%). And the economy is still growing despite all the interest rate hikes (2.4% GDP growth).


https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/12/inflation-rose-just-0point2percent-in-june-less-than-expected-as-consumers-get-a-break-from-price-increases.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/gdp-q2-2023-.html