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Very nice!

I actually live near the public swimming complex, but we never go there as a family.

Public facilities are really a different experience from having it as part of a residence. Shared space is much easier to feel at home in than public space.

Nothing really beats being able to go downstairs to settle my groceries or food takeouts and return to my sanctuary within 30 minutes or less!

Yes! This is why location, location, location is really a thing - although since 2020 I recognize thinking more among the lines of "Wegmans at 30 miles out being more of an Uber-problem, not a me-problem". However, since I spend about half my time in remote places with zero delivery coverage outside of p2p WhatsApp, I do appreciate the service availability when it's there.

$5k per month was a steep price to pay

I'm not familiar with the condo market in SG - am I correct in assuming that it was furnished and equipped for that money? If so, then it's not too crazy from what I pay globally. (also: SGD or USD?)

Thanks for your energizing comment! I enjoyed learning about Wegmans through the side conversations.

That $5k was in SGD, so USD$3.9k. If I had been able to rent that condo unit for at least a year, I would just need to pay USD$3k. That’s why all my friends exclaimed, “Wah so expensive!” when they heard about the pricing. Nonetheless, I remain indebted to that landlord who decided to rent out his unit to me instead of waiting for a tenant who could commit for a longer time.

Lol at the Uber comment. In Singapore, Grab forced Uber out of the country. Having Grab has made me lazier as I rely heavily on food delivery but then again, I am a working parent with two young kids

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Woah you know about Wegmans!!!

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My fav East Coast source of all the yummy foods!

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Absolutely. Wegmans and In and Out burger never sold out to the fiat system trying to drive costs to zero to maximize profits at all costs at the detriment of their customers and employees.

I wish I could own shares in these two great principled companies.

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I think they didn't have to sell out because they're privately owned, right? Fiduciary duty is the most commie crap that destroyed everything.

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That's an interesting take and very reasonable. But what could be done to encourage more private vs public / equity financed ownership?

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Most effectively, by deliberately not shopping at Walmart, Giant, Safeway but at smaller shops. Reducing barriers for mom&pop shops to hook into gig services and making sure they aren't being ripped off by the middleman (by removing the middleman? who was working on decentralized delivery? I forgot.)

You'll pay more but you'll be happier (and potentially, healthier)

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I wonder if we have historical examples of consumers simply making better choices leading to better business practices

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128 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 21 Dec

Hmm... fair trade chocolate. See https://fairtrade.net/us-en/why-fairtrade/impact/impact-stories/tonys-chocolonely.html - in NL there is barely any slavery-chocolate left - all chocolate across all outlets is fair trade (and expensive)

When you have nameless faceless people appointed to your leadership board they sway business decisions in a major way. Co-ops and family owned companies seem to have more of a philosophy of providing top notch service to their customers. Plus everything isn’t always about growth at all costs.

Think of wegmans posted same store revenue declines by like 5% the stock price would tank and the board would look to cut costs and just laying off people and closing low performing stores.

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Yeah... financialization is the enemy of quality, because everything becomes speculative: measured in terms of stack growth consistency rather than the actual value a business provides; like consistently delivering high quality products to customers.

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Yeah this is why I boycott Walmart! It’s absolutely ridiculous how they run that business.

Also why I’m so critical of Warren Buffett. I think the GFC would have really damaged his returns due to the corporate debt daisy chain.

I often think who is holding Ford’s $100B+ of debt!! Who would get wiped out if they stop making payments and more importantly who is using that debt to take on more leverage!

Yeah Wegmans is family owned and operated started in Rochester, NY.

Yea it truly did destroy everything. The overproduction of MBA. At college all the kids who couldn’t hack engineering became business majors. Much easier undergrad courses = more time to party and still get a decent GPA.

Then these meh students get plugged into companies and we get what we have in 2025. No one cares about quality

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