Like the majority of "Don't buy from Amazon" articles I've read, this one doesn't seem to make any mention (unless I missed it!) of if these Levis were shipped by _and_ sold by Amazon.
There's no doubt Amazon has a problem with fake or imposter products. But every post I seem to read about this is people who unwittingly by from a marketplace seller.
Of course Amazon should do better to regulate those marketplace sellers, but it seems similar to me to someone buying a Rolex from a street peddler in Times Square and being shocked it isn't the real thing.
I've heard that even shipped and sold by Amazon isn't a guarantee because of how they lump inventory together. I haven't run into the problem myself, but I still buy electronics from Best Buy or direct from the company rather than Amazon much of the time, just to avoid the chance of getting a fake from their comingled inventory.
This isn't a "Don't buy from Amazon" article and the conclusion of the article is that while there's a difference it's quite plausible that they aren't fake.
That's too bad. At one of my companies they were using Trello for all engineering development which I found just too casual of an approach. Jira would have been overkill.
Pivotal provided a nice middle ground and was so easy to use with just the right amount of customization and power user functionality.
But I always felt like there was a small group of users and it just never got a foothold in companies.
Sheesh, yeah - the text of the prompt is "Button Mushroom! Yum!" with the picture of the not-a-button-mushroom. You can push AIs around to say things that are wrong, news at 11.
I know I'm a bit sensitive to this type of thing, going to the theater is such a roll of the dice:
- Will I set in front of someone kicking my chair?
- Will I sit next to someone eating candy from a crinkly bag for half the movie?
- Will I sit behind someone on their phone the whole time?
- Will I sit next to someone talking most of the time?
I go to about two movies a year because of this, but I would easily go 5, maybe even 10 times as often if there was a way these issues could be addressed.
Or how about those that basically predicted Apple would cease to exist as a company for removing the headphone port, not having exchangeable batteries, or using a non-standard data/charging port on the iPhone.
Congrats on the launch! I do have a quick bit of feedback based solely on looking at the website:
Seeing a clearly fake testimonial immediately makes me lose trust in your product. It was pretty obvious the images in your testimonials were stock images, and a quick reverse image search confirms this (https://tineye.com/search/2f7aa5f73e0cee27b9ff54b1ad29cc8353...).
You obviously put a lot of work into your product, and it'd be a bummer to turn people off for something like that.
Thanks a lot for bringing this up! Yeah, you are right. Those were meant to be placeholders, not to mislead customers but should not be there. We’ll make sure to remove them!
My son has a Greenlight card. It's been fantastic for helping him understand allowance, savings, charity in a more modern age than when I used to get cash I put in an envelope with a table on the front. It's taught him about interest and he's able to see quick results (especially when I started his savings account at something crazy like a 500% interest rate to encourage him).
As others have mentioned, cash is near useless for children nowadays. He used to give me cash when he bought Robux etc but cash is also near useless for me.
I was concerned when I saw this headline but it's not quite clear to me what impact this would have on him, that wouldn't be gathered once he got a credit or debit card as an adult. Maybe because he literally purchases from only three places (Apple Store, Microsoft, Roblox) and donates to a panda charity.
I thought starting him at an 8% interest wouldn't give him the motivation. After a few months we had a talk and he saw the power of compound interest based on these crazy numbers, and we've adjusted it downwards since then. Of course he was a bit disappointed but understood this was closer to the real world.
Most flyover states (Nevada excluded, casinos love cash) see 95%+ retail payments with cards. Cash is regarded as weird, especially anything over a $20 bill.
not OP, but my bank literally does not accept cash deposits at its branches, nor does it operate any ATMs. I'm pretty sure I could deposit cash at a 3rd party ATM, but I've never tested that. anyway, I only visit an ATM a few times a year on the rare occasion that I do business with someone who only accepts cash.
> Do you never settle debts with your friends?
all the time, with venmo.
I do understand an respect the privacy argument for cash. but in most cases, it's not worth the inconvenience or sacrificing the 3-5% cashback I get on most purchases.
And here we have one more example of how our world is turning into an utterly dystopian shit hole of total always-on surveillance. But hey! Never mind all that and its implications. Gotta have that convenience, and of course, that sweet, sweet 3-5% cashback thing... So much better than a modicum of privacy in the intimate details of a daily life.
God help us if a truly authoritarian Hitler or Stalinist-type regime creeps into power in a large western country. They won't need to build surveillance structures at all. Everything will already be firmly in place thanks to increments of "convenience".
Honestly I completely forgot ATMs accepted cash! And my bank doesn't even have branches within 500 miles. As for friends, I mostly use Square Cash or Apple Pay (or, hesitantly, Venmo, though even with all the privacy enabled I don't love it).
I used to push back had on my kids wanting to buy hats, pets, etc in Roblox. Seemed like a waste of money and I hate microtransactions.
Then I realized that this is literally the only game they play, and it's free. Compare that to me at that age, buying Nintendo games for $50 a pop, why am I hesitant to support these creators with a $2 hat?
I still limit purchases just for general personal finance lessons, but otherwise let them spend money here like they would on actual paid games.
Because it starts with a $2 hat, but quickly escalates into $2 hats 3x a day or even more expensive perks. Once you give into a kid about making purchases, it's a much harder fight to say no the next time.
These games are designed on emotional responses in kid's brains just as much as FB's algo for its feed is.
Thus his comment on "limiting purchases for finance lessons". Give them a budget, let them do what they want with it, teach them that impulses are controllable and that there are tradeoffs, etc.
This is a trend I've been noticing, which doesn't seem very surprising when written out. Parents who try to approve every purchase end up in a never ending onslaught of requests compared to parents who simply give their kids money and let them spend it however.
Makes me think of collectible card games. If I hadn't spent my own pocket money as a kid on MTG, Star Trek CCG and Pokemon, there's no way in hell I would let my kid buy into an obvious scam CCGs are. But I did spend money on them and enjoyed it, so I'm not so sure now.
Why do you think it's an "obvious scam"? I played MtG for many years. I spent money, sure, but nothing obsessive and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it: the game is interesting and always changing, I went to tournaments, met people, and then there was the economy: trade, trying to predict cards whose price would go up, etc. I remember doing arbitrage at some point when a card appeared in a preconstructed deck for €X and was selling for like €X+5 (it didn't last much, of course). I also learned some foreign languages because I had cards in various languages. I think it was money well spent, and I have no doubt it would be a good experience for my kid as well.
I still have the cards, they have a resale value. More than I spent on the game, as some have become difficult to find. Of course, this could change (I don't really think they'll become worthless because MtG is not just any CCG, it's quite iconic due to its history, but it could happen), but at the very least they are a physical item that remains there and can be played with. When my son grows, he will probably enjoy them, regardless of their value.
Loot boxes for games that give you a virtual item that you can't even sell or gift and will probably be worthless in 4 years when the server closes... now that's a scam, unless in exceptional cases (small one-time purchase to support devs, etc.). I don't spend money on that and I wouldn't let my kid either.
We had an unfulfillable mania to complete our collection (which we now know is was VERY difficult/expensive due those 1-2-5 cards that were super rare). Supporting the developers with a couple of dollars didn't hurt anyone. As long as the kids won't try to "complete the collection of all hats). That would teach them to control their spending, understand that they can't just 'buy what they see' (as some young adults get to do on their first paychecks), and chores-chores-chores!
I spent a fair amount of money on MTG, but it gave me lots of fond memories. I think I would encourage future children of mine to play it, in the unlikely event it hasn’t become online-only by then.
It's also kind of cool because a lot of the games are created by other kids. Roblox Studio is fun to poke around in and has gotten my 8 year old very interested in programming and to an extent, entrepreneurship.
I'm building a roblox game with my kids. It's slow going because now that they are playing more minecraft and also minecraft inside roblox.
In roblox one plays build a boat and the like. We had a hard time with adopt me but that fad seems to have faded thankfully. They certainly learnt about scams the hard way.
I think the reason they like minecraft is because of the crafting table. They have all the rules memorized and they talk about it with kids in their classes online.
Etc etc etc. After years of avoiding too much added sugar, if I accidentally eat any of these my mouth almost feels sick with the sweetness.
I grew up listening to the marketing and science that said FAT = BAD and so stuffed myself with raisins, low fat cookies, and baked chips. Took decades for me to recover from learning to eat that way.
There's no doubt Amazon has a problem with fake or imposter products. But every post I seem to read about this is people who unwittingly by from a marketplace seller.
Of course Amazon should do better to regulate those marketplace sellers, but it seems similar to me to someone buying a Rolex from a street peddler in Times Square and being shocked it isn't the real thing.