Exactly. Once you know about “white box” goods and the robust Chinese manufacturing chains that support it, you can’t unsee it.

What blows my mind is that Amazon is just accelerating this, and at times, embracing it with their own brand. They’ve gone from being a whole-ass shopping mall to end-of-days-K-Mart in just a few years.

Unsolicited advice warning: Depending on how handy you are, you may want to consider grabbing a few wear parts or the most commonly replaced bits before inventory completely dries up. I used to have a newer (but still old) dryer and thought the heating element was failing - a replacement part was actually kind of hard to source. Anyway, that would give the ol’ beast a good shot at another decade or two.

I recall reading in Consumer Reports many years ago that most refrigerators were discarded not because they stopped working, but because of cosmetic damage. Broken plastic door shelves, dents, rust, out of style, etc. The compressors were still fine.

Yup. The enshitification kicks in super hard after a technology is mostly “solved”. Refrigerator compressors and insulated boxes are both very much optimized as much as they’re going to get. The only way to eke more cash out of making a product like that is to cut corners on other bits, or get people to buy a subscription somehow.

I keep racking my brain on this one. Unless it’s doing advanced things like automatically tracking fridge inventory and helping build shopping lists, there’s literally no point. Analog controls work fine, even for fancier fridges with integrated ice makers.

It really can be like night and day. My cat was so incredibly stressed out when we brought her home that she kept “fawning” all over us for the first two weeks. Lots of excessive side rubs and a general clingyness to every interaction. She needed constant touch.

After that she began to settle in and became much more herself: playful, independent, and only sometimes in the mood for a lap or a cuddle.

Cats do enjoy a violent spectacle, but he is most definitely going to try and fight the beyblade himself. Because orange.

Reddit?! Okay, that’s pretty terrible. It’s one thing to have region-locked copyright for stuff, but disallowing VPNs for a web forum? While we don’t need more evidence that they’ve turned heel, that’s an awful big red flag.

Could be why they’re at the vet.

Exactly. Their body plan isn’t as svelte as a ferret, but they have similar instincts and can make-do.

In light of that, the bigger problem is that the door here opens into the bathroom. If a person collapses up against that door - especially if they are of the larger persuasion - you’re not getting them out.

Hook that up to digital auto-pay and you pretty much have what OP had before the policy change.

My gums hurt just looking at this.

Exactly. Sure, China gets shit done. But it comes with not giving a fuck about a lot of their own people, a lot of the time.

Yup. Learned that one back in the 3rd grade. This stuff is hard if you’re not experienced enough to know how people work.

On the upside, I learned that one cannot buy their way into other’s good graces, especially if they’re going to require you to modify your behavior to get there; they’re lying and that was never the issue. On the downside: holy shit that hurts once it goes wrong the first time.

As an adult I can also appreciate that there are situations where you can “buy your way in” to a club or status of some sort. IMO, those situations are generally not worth it to begin with, requiring an never-ending stream of cash to keep up appearances. Plus, it surrounds you with other people that also believe, and are invested, in the program. It’s a recipe for elitism at best, and a big 'ol grift at worst. Better friends and relationships can be had for $0 everywhere else.

Bias. Good 'ol plain bias.

Unless you’re very self-aware, one requires actual training and practiced mindfulness to break free from that in all endeavors. There’s also some lack-of-the-outside-world going on too - one would need to have at least thought about world experiences apart from one’s own, to consider alternative possibilities.

Why am I suddenly staring at the sun?

Thank you!

I firmly believe this is how we wound up with tabs as a feature in the first place.

I actually tried to use marketplace a few weeks ago. It was an unmitigated disaster. People either didn’t respond, had stale posts for items, or couldn’t get their act together to have a conversation (even with 12 hours between messages) about how to get shit out of their house. I have never yearned for old-fashioned yard sales so much.

I agree, but I feel like having the toaster itself catch fire could have been mitigated somehow.

I’m actually kind of amazed that the failure mode for “toaster used sideways” is that it just catches fire. That’s one hell of a design flaw.