chinacat
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Post by chinacat on Feb 26, 2022 6:43:24 GMT -8
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4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Feb 26, 2022 8:43:22 GMT -8
What percent of the places you buy things take Apple Pay?
For us it's probably over 50% now. Last week my wife left her wallet in the car I had, when she did the 100 mile loop to the doctor and then school pickup in Reno, and she did just fine. The doctor took Apple Pay, and so did her lunch stop. The only problem was not having her Costco card to shop or buy gas there.
Thinking of my loop last week, Raleys, Ace, AutoZone, In-n-Out, and Trader Joes take it. I think Costco does too, but I always use their card. Walmart doesn't, and the terminals I used at Home Depot didn't take it either. I don't think either of them were set up for Tap to pay, both self-checkout choices.
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Post by artman1033 on Feb 26, 2022 9:37:31 GMT -8
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JDSoCal
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Aspiring oligarch
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Post by JDSoCal on Feb 26, 2022 10:40:55 GMT -8
BRK looks pretty good right now, huh?
But if you select the two year chart up to the end of 2021, BRK is losing to the Dow and the NASDAQ pretty handily. Same with 5 and 10 years (although the Dow gets a lot closer at those ranges). But if you run those same charts and include all of 2022, they look a lot different. So I guess this is a perfect time for Buffett to issue an annual report.
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mark
fire starter
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Post by mark on Feb 26, 2022 17:43:25 GMT -8
What percent of the places you buy things take Apple Pay? For us it's probably over 50% now. Last week my wife left her wallet in the car I had, when she did the 100 mile loop to the doctor and then school pickup in Reno, and she did just fine. The doctor took Apple Pay, and so did her lunch stop. The only problem was not having her Costco card to shop or buy gas there. Thinking of my loop last week, Raleys, Ace, AutoZone, In-n-Out, and Trader Joes take it. I think Costco does too, but I always use their card. Walmart doesn't, and the terminals I used at Home Depot didn't take it either. I don't think either of them were set up for Tap to pay, both self-checkout choices. Hmmm, I often skip carrying my wallet nowadays. When I go to the gym, I take my license and my phone (and sometimes my airpods pro), that's it. Most places (grocery stores, convenience stores, stores at Disney, gasoline, etc) take apple pay. The only recent places that don't take it was a surgeon that did some surgery on me, and WalMart.
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benoir
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Post by benoir on Feb 26, 2022 20:16:51 GMT -8
What percent of the places you buy things take Apple Pay? For us it's probably over 50% now. Last week my wife left her wallet in the car I had, when she did the 100 mile loop to the doctor and then school pickup in Reno, and she did just fine. The doctor took Apple Pay, and so did her lunch stop. The only problem was not having her Costco card to shop or buy gas there. Thinking of my loop last week, Raleys, Ace, AutoZone, In-n-Out, and Trader Joes take it. I think Costco does too, but I always use their card. Walmart doesn't, and the terminals I used at Home Depot didn't take it either. I don't think either of them were set up for Tap to pay, both self-checkout choices. Has been 100%, (with the exception of health care rebates - something Apple Pay can't do) for the last couple of years in Australia. So much so that I forgot all my card PIN's. Cash is now a problem - what to do with it. No one wants it. There are trials here for digital drivers licences.
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chinacat
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Post by chinacat on Feb 27, 2022 5:31:15 GMT -8
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JDSoCal
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Aspiring oligarch
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Post by JDSoCal on Feb 27, 2022 9:42:26 GMT -8
My thoughts: I can't stand Costco. It is stuck in 1999. I have to wait in line just to get a freaking membership card (Sam's Club will issue them online). And they still demand a physical card instead of just holding your phone up to a Q code reader as you walk in. Dumb and a waste of my time (same with showing my receipt to prove I am not a thief, screw that, a waste of my time; loss prevention is your problem, not my problem). No express lanes because they want you to buy 50 things instead of 12. I never know where anything is, because their shitty app doesn't tell you, a standard app feature with Target, Home Depot, etc. Again, this is intentional because they want you wandering more, not less, so you will throw more shit into your cart as you wander about lost. Classic example of not caring about the customer experience. All this just to save a few bucks on sundries? I'd rather pay more because my time is more valuable. All easily fixed issues, but they put profits above the customer experience. One reason I bought Apple in the first place, customer experience comes first, not last.
I'm sure some here will retort how much they love Costco. This is irrelevant to my criticisms. You are already a customer. I am not and do not intend to be. As we all know as Apple investors, a company needs to grow, not stay the same.
Kroger (Ralph's in my part of the US) doesn't take Apple Pay for some reason. I would be careful about the cashless society thing. Far too much government control. Today we punish Putin, tomorrow the government is using it to shut down things it doesn't approve of (gun purchases, abortions, people we don't like this week, etc.). We saw that in Canada this month. I'll keep my cash, thankyouverymuch. Which leads me to Putin and sanctions like kicking him off of SWIFT. There are consequences to these punitive measures that should be fully considered. I've heard several people suggest that by using the international SWIFT system as a weapon, we give China an opportunity to further its goal of replacing or at least weakening the USD as the reserve currency. I think this is a cautionary take for Apple as well. There are many Chinese (as in state-owned or run) smartphone manufacturers who would love to step in and replace Apple in Asia and Europe as a reliable phone that won't be shut off whenever Apple's CEO feels like virtue signaling. Be very careful substituting emotion for reason in foreign policy. How'd that "we'll show them!" work out in Afghanistan? Putin is a baddie, but things that make us feel good are not necessarily in our best interests long term. If you want to piss off Putin, open up the Keystone pipeline and Alaska and other US areas to more drilling and fracking and shale oil and make the price of oil and gas plummet, and export oil and gas to the stupid Germans who import most of their energy from Russia (if this solution gives you bad feels, maybe you are proving my point about feels foreign policy).
As for the Biden Admin's virtue signaling, we currently buy 800,000 barrels of oil PER DAY from Putin. So please spare me the "we'll show him!" by turning off his iPhone or part of his banking payment systems. We will still find a way to wire him hundreds of millions of dollars every week for his oil. 🤷♂️ Let's stick with selling (and talking about) iPhones, k?
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Dave
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Yogi Berra
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Post by Dave on Feb 27, 2022 10:50:07 GMT -8
From chinacats link Some Russian Apple Pay accounts were frozen two days ago comments section. I think that Vladimir Putin views himself as the leader that resurrects the USSR of the last century. Understandably, he views the West as weak and corrupt and not capable or willing to resist. Ukraine will only be the beginning if he is not stopped. Once a communist, always a communist. And reinstating the 55 mph speed limit is not the answer.
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Dave
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Yogi Berra
Posts: 4,103
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Post by Dave on Feb 27, 2022 11:04:29 GMT -8
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mark
fire starter
Posts: 1,552
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Post by mark on Feb 27, 2022 14:57:22 GMT -8
Costco was always a major PITA for me. I would go to the place, ALWAYS not enough parking, so it took an extra 2-3 minutes to find a spot. Then I walk around aimlessly filling the cart, THEN I had to wait in line for literally (the old "literally", not the new figurative "literally") 15-30 minutes to check out. Showing the receipt on the way out wasn't terrible, UNLESS 30 people were waiting to show their receipt. I am not exaggerating, at least once there were 30 people in front of me to get out of the store. And then to really put a damper on things, while I have frozen stuff and dairy products in the car, I would wait 10+ minutes in line to fill up with their cheap gasoline.
This was 12 years ago. I haven't had a membership since then. I did go just before COVID once with my sister, and same thing ... lines lines and more lines.
Lately I use Sam's Club. Not as much variety, and maybe a little lower-end stuff, but scan-n-go, show receipt on way out. BOOM, takes me 60-90 seconds to get out of there. And I don't bother with their gasoline (even if I take a non-EV vehicle).
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Post by hledgard on Feb 27, 2022 19:08:46 GMT -8
Superb, thoughtful, insightful post JD ! !
I appreciate that you are on this board ! !
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4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Feb 27, 2022 19:56:45 GMT -8
Lately I use Sam's Club. Not as much variety, and maybe a little lower-end stuff, but scan-n-go, show receipt on way out. BOOM, takes me 60-90 seconds to get out of there. And I don't bother with their gasoline (even if I take a non-EV vehicle). A lot of it depends on the stores. We were still in the SF Bay one of the times gas was going crazy, like 2005-2006. We'd have to drive out of our way to go to it, spend 10-15 minutes in line to get gas, have trouble finding parking (this one was near the San Jose Airport, about a mile off of 880?). Not a good experience, overall. Moving here, but then going back to work in Reno, I was filling up my tank ever week. Sams Club was closer, but with the same prices. Just on gas alone, and comparing to the 5 cents more they gave non-members, I would pay for my membership in half a year. So we didn't have a Costco one, and gave it a try. It was decent, and the prices were good. There were some things that we really liked there, preferring the toilet paper, the sharp cheddar cheese, and I think one other thing, over Costco which we would still occasionally hit using my parents account. But it just felt different. It was hard to put a finger on it. Maybe a slight lightning color difference? My first year and a half I don't know that I had more than one person in line in front of me. That was amazing. But it just didn't feel as good. We've back to Costco, and back to sailing laps to Reno, this time for one kid in school. And it's a little further, so just that is 400 miles a week instead of 300. But Costco there had upped it's game, buying out some other business space, so they added a whole section. If we do the 7am school lap there is no gas line, but at 2pm there's a 15 minute line. Personally, I'd go to Sams Club and pay the slight premium, but now with a hybrid we go a little less, and my wife does it most of the time. But the store! There's enough parking, so I get 100 extra steps and just don't care. But they have a lot of things too. Our Carson City store is smaller, but better. Less lines, and gas 40 cents cheaper. That makes them a buck ten and a buck fifty less than in town, which means I can save $50 or $60 filling up my truck, especially if filing a few cans for the snowblowers or chainsaws. Even compared to decent rates, that adds up. Their lines are better (gas, checkout, and leave), they are a little closer. But they are a smaller store. On certain limited items their price is different (ie avocado premium). Trade-offs. But the thing that I like about Costco is that they pick their items and vet them, while giving a great return policy. If I bought a 6 pack of lights and 2 of them failed out of the box, I would bring them back and they would give me the money back. I haven't done this much lately as it's just not worth it to me as much as it once was, but at least I know they will stand behind their products. And that's something that is lacking these days. I understand many places dropping their lifetime satisfaction guarantees. But too many places have switched to 0-14 days, while others put you on a black list if you wait too long, even if you only get store credit. Anyways, while I'm not one to put a doggie bag on my hand at the pump (sorry, just can't lose that visual), for whatever reason I just am not fond of crowds. Still, for me Costco has more plusses than negatives. I've probably been a member now more than half of my life, and though in general I don't think one should have to pay a membership fee to shop somewhere, currently it seems to work out and I might even say I enjoy it. And though we haven't needed it, it makes me feel good that I get a 4 year warranty on electronics like Apple products, instead of a 1 year, when using their credit card. Stuff happens, and so it's one less thing on the wall of worry. And to help mitigate that wall, we also got nearly $1k back with the card this year, 2% at store, something like 4-6% on gas there, I think something on travel and restaurants, and 1% elsewhere. If "we" are spending the money anyways (they break it down by card member), we might as well get some cash back, while also getting those extended warranties. So there you go. I've never bought COST, but due to this feeling I've considered it. My parents have now been members for more than 30 years, and they still shop there, though using the "secret hours" to avoid the rush. They have Apple products for a small discount off of MSRP, and you can save a little more then they are in the ad. But to me the best thing is that I can buy something, like a paddle board, and get a great price but also have them back it up. They don't try to scalp you, and that just feels good, knowing that if I see something I can buy it and feel pretty decent about it. It might not be the absolute possible lowest price, but it is pretty good. At the same time, you do have to jump on it a bit, since you don't know for sure it will be there next week. When they had 6 kayaks, and I had looked a little for them, I took 2. 4 10' Plum trees. Haulable generator. Couch. Table. Synthetic oil. And clothes, lots of clothes. If you happen to live in a cold area (sorry JD), do pick up a couple pair of their fleece lines pants. Inexpensive, and well worth it. Sorry for the long drawn out tale. Costco, like Trader Joes, has just over time managed to hit the "I can buy nearly anything in the store and feel pretty good about it" mark. There are a few exceptions, like the Scoops kitty litter that had an odor we didn't like, or some of the TP brands that just "rubbed us the wrong way". But comparatively, it's like buying something from REI 20 years ago, but without paying a high price. Thanks Costco, even if I've never been an investors.
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Post by Luckychoices on Feb 27, 2022 20:12:00 GMT -8
My understanding of JD's thoughts: My thoughts: I can't stand Costco. It is stuck in 1999. I have to wait in line just to get a freaking membership card (Sam's Club will issue them online). And they still demand a physical card instead of just holding your phone up to a Q code reader as you walk in. Dumb and a waste of my time (same with showing my receipt to prove I am not a thief, screw that, a waste of my time; loss prevention is your problem, not my problem). No express lanes because they want you to buy 50 things instead of 12. I never know where anything is, because their shitty app doesn't tell you, a standard app feature with Target, Home Depot, etc. Again, this is intentional because they want you wandering more, not less, so you will throw more shit into your cart as you wander about lost. Classic example of not caring about the customer experience. All this just to save a few bucks on sundries? I'd rather pay more because my time is more valuable. All easily fixed issues, but they put profits above the customer experience. One reason I bought Apple in the first place, customer experience comes first, not last.
I'm sure some here will retort how much they love Costco. This is irrelevant to my criticisms. You are already a customer. I am not and do not intend to be. As we all know as Apple investors, a company needs to grow, not stay the same.
Kroger (Ralph's in my part of the US) doesn't take Apple Pay for some reason. JD doesn't like Costco and Kroger doesn't take Apple Pay. I would be careful about the cashless society thing. Far too much government control. Today we punish Putin, tomorrow the government is using it to shut down things it doesn't approve of (gun purchases, abortions, people we don't like this week, etc.). We saw that in Canada this month. I'll keep my cash, thankyouverymuch. Don't trust the government. Which leads me to Putin and sanctions like kicking him off of SWIFT. There are consequences to these punitive measures that should be fully considered. I've heard several people suggest that by using the international SWIFT system as a weapon, we give China an opportunity to further its goal of replacing or at least weakening the USD as the reserve currency. Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. It may help China. I think this is a cautionary take for Apple as well. There are many Chinese (as in state-owned or run) smartphone manufacturers who would love to step in and replace Apple in Asia and Europe as a reliable phone that won't be shut off whenever Apple's CEO feels like virtue signaling. Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. It may help China. Be very careful substituting emotion for reason in foreign policy. How'd that "we'll show them!" work out in Afghanistan? Putin is a baddie, but things that make us feel good are not necessarily in our best interests long term. If you want to piss off Putin, open up the Keystone pipeline and Alaska and other US areas to more drilling and fracking and shale oil and make the price of oil and gas plummet, and export oil and gas to the stupid Germans who import most of their energy from Russia (if this solution gives you bad feels, maybe you are proving my point about feels foreign policy). Remember our failure in Afghanistan? Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. Instead, piss off Putin by opening the Keystone pipeline and open Alaska to more drilling and fracking. As for the Biden Admin's virtue signaling, we currently buy 800,000 barrels of oil PER DAY from Putin. So please spare me the "we'll show him!" by turning off his iPhone or part of his banking payment systems. We will still find a way to wire him hundreds of millions of dollars every week for his oil. 🤷♂️ The United States has been buying oil from Russia since 1995 and the Biden Administration is only virtue signaling since there's really nothing they can do, in spite of what they might say. Let's stick with selling (and talking about) iPhones, k? AFB members should stick to only discussing Apple related subjects until the next time JD wants to share his thoughts about anything.
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JDSoCal
Member
Aspiring oligarch
Posts: 4,182
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Post by JDSoCal on Feb 28, 2022 13:01:41 GMT -8
My understanding of JD's thoughts: My thoughts: I can't stand Costco. It is stuck in 1999. I have to wait in line just to get a freaking membership card (Sam's Club will issue them online). And they still demand a physical card instead of just holding your phone up to a Q code reader as you walk in. Dumb and a waste of my time (same with showing my receipt to prove I am not a thief, screw that, a waste of my time; loss prevention is your problem, not my problem). No express lanes because they want you to buy 50 things instead of 12. I never know where anything is, because their shitty app doesn't tell you, a standard app feature with Target, Home Depot, etc. Again, this is intentional because they want you wandering more, not less, so you will throw more shit into your cart as you wander about lost. Classic example of not caring about the customer experience. All this just to save a few bucks on sundries? I'd rather pay more because my time is more valuable. All easily fixed issues, but they put profits above the customer experience. One reason I bought Apple in the first place, customer experience comes first, not last.
I'm sure some here will retort how much they love Costco. This is irrelevant to my criticisms. You are already a customer. I am not and do not intend to be. As we all know as Apple investors, a company needs to grow, not stay the same.
Kroger (Ralph's in my part of the US) doesn't take Apple Pay for some reason. JD doesn't like Costco and Kroger doesn't take Apple Pay. I would be careful about the cashless society thing. Far too much government control. Today we punish Putin, tomorrow the government is using it to shut down things it doesn't approve of (gun purchases, abortions, people we don't like this week, etc.). We saw that in Canada this month. I'll keep my cash, thankyouverymuch. Don't trust the government. Which leads me to Putin and sanctions like kicking him off of SWIFT. There are consequences to these punitive measures that should be fully considered. I've heard several people suggest that by using the international SWIFT system as a weapon, we give China an opportunity to further its goal of replacing or at least weakening the USD as the reserve currency. Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. It may help China. I think this is a cautionary take for Apple as well. There are many Chinese (as in state-owned or run) smartphone manufacturers who would love to step in and replace Apple in Asia and Europe as a reliable phone that won't be shut off whenever Apple's CEO feels like virtue signaling. Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. It may help China. Be very careful substituting emotion for reason in foreign policy. How'd that "we'll show them!" work out in Afghanistan? Putin is a baddie, but things that make us feel good are not necessarily in our best interests long term. If you want to piss off Putin, open up the Keystone pipeline and Alaska and other US areas to more drilling and fracking and shale oil and make the price of oil and gas plummet, and export oil and gas to the stupid Germans who import most of their energy from Russia (if this solution gives you bad feels, maybe you are proving my point about feels foreign policy). Remember our failure in Afghanistan? Don't be so quick to punish Putin for invading an independent country. Instead, piss off Putin by opening the Keystone pipeline and open Alaska to more drilling and fracking. As for the Biden Admin's virtue signaling, we currently buy 800,000 barrels of oil PER DAY from Putin. So please spare me the "we'll show him!" by turning off his iPhone or part of his banking payment systems. We will still find a way to wire him hundreds of millions of dollars every week for his oil. 🤷♂️ The United States has been buying oil from Russia since 1995 and the Biden Administration is only virtue signaling since there's really nothing they can do, in spite of what they might say. Let's stick with selling (and talking about) iPhones, k? AFB members should stick to only discussing Apple related subjects until the next time JD wants to share his thoughts about anything. While I appreciate your attempts at summarizing my posts (makes me feel important), if this were an SAT reading comp section, you would have missed the main point of the essay. I don’t care about helping or hurting China, other than as a market for iPhones. I care about the dollar. And my portfolio. And the cost of gasoline. Putin is what he is. I don’t blame the lion when it escapes from the zoo. I blame the zookeepers. Peppermint Patty standing at the podium and telling everyone climate religion is more important than their gas prices or actually punishing Russia will hopefully have consequences in November. And of course I do not trust the government. Why on earth would anyone do so? See zookeepers above. Not to go all hippie or anything, but ✌️ and question authority, maaaaannnn.
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