#Buy Local Services

[ravikugupta]

Vocal For Local - New India 🇮🇳 Voice

Vocal For Local – New India 🇮🇳 Voice

Vocal For LocalVocal for Local is a campaign to promote local/Indian products/services in the market that are competitive with global standards and can capture the spirit of local brands in both domestic and international markets.Products should be “Made In India” & promoted to make them competitive. During the Independence Day speech in 2020, Prime Minister Modi said; “The mindset of free India…

[isbergillustration]

I am going to throw either me or my printer or both out of this fifth story window I want to fucking die

'edit: got it working so i am human again

[fluttershyes]

i opened a kofi and im going to setup commissions thru it soon...

[joyful-patient-faithful]

Local libraries getting rid of physical medias such as newspapers, magazines, cds, dvds, and audiobooks is turning experiencing art into a privilege instead of a right but I don't think you guys are ready for that conversation

[burgertaco6]

reminder that shopify cant force shop owners to give out refunds after they fail to ship a product and ignore over 20 attempts to contact them so they can tell you its your banks problem and not theirs that they arent trying to protect customers, and that its MY problem i got scammed on THEIR platform

i wont fucking forget what you took from me shopify, im not using your services again, fuck you for making me pay money just so i could talk to your useless ass staff who were "working on it". one of your sellers commited fraud, you take money out of peoples pockets who think you'll help them make said money having their products up when they can just go on ebay, etsy, or even facebook marketplace to sell it for free without fees

no i will not be hearing you out, they took over 250+ dollars out of my pocket i could've used to buy food with they wouldnt give me back, i hope whoever sold me that "bike" gets put behind bars. my bank could not infact get me my refund, that it was indeed entirely your job to confront someone misusing your platform. fuck you and fuck your fake ass AI support staff

[molluskzone]

*googles "serval" in order to find art references*

the very first fucking photo result: "hey guys just bought a cub!" *photo of baby serval inside somebody's house*

[monsterkong]

Discover the Long Beach Advantage with David Goodwin and Andyan Carter Group

🌈 Unlock the Best of Long Beach Real Estate with Our New Team Member 🌈

Hey everyone! We’ve got some fantastic news to share – David Goodwin is joining forces with the Andyan Carter Group, and we’re buzzing with excitement about what this means for you! If you’re looking to buy or invest in Long Beach, this is an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

David and I have been dreaming of this collaboration for years. Our shared background in Long Beach – from our childhood adventures in Naples to our deep knowledge of the local landscape – brings a unique perspective to our real estate services. Our connection to this community isn’t just a professional asset; it’s a personal passion that drives us to offer the best possible service to our clients. 🌟

Long Beach is a city full of character, with each neighborhood offering something different. Whether it’s the charming streets of Naples, the vibrant community events, or the serene parks, we know every detail. David’s extensive local experience means he can provide insights into every aspect of the area, from school ratings to local hotspots. This personalized approach ensures that you find a property that perfectly fits your needs and lifestyle. 🏘️

When you work with us, you’re not just getting a real estate agent – you’re getting a team that genuinely cares about your journey. We’ll take you on a tour of the neighborhoods, show you around, and help you understand what makes each area unique. Our goal is to make your search as enjoyable and stress-free as possible. 📍

Excited to start your real estate adventure with us? Reach out today, and let’s find your perfect home together. With David on our team, we’re more equipped than ever to help you achieve your real estate goals!

#LongBeachRealEstate #DavidGoodwin #AndyanCarterGroup #LocalExperts #HomeBuying #RealEstateJourney #NeighborhoodTours

[magnusbae]

For those of you who didn't hear, Book Depository is shutting down (thanks a lot Amazon) and so it's basically your last chance to order from this excellent place

[moshpitpuppyx]

i think we just need to re-teach kids about pirating music

[monstriiss]

ooc: stands here covered in blood holding starbucks in my reusable travel cup

[swamp-world]

like i think that we really really really need to actually gain the social literacy and compassion to understand that. not tipping your server isn’t praxis, but the fact that it’s expected that the customer pay the wage of the server also doesn’t mean that the customer (often also stiffed and a victim of wage theft) isn’t obligated to do so, and that while this is within our own economic system a great injustice and act of violence that needs to be rectified, it is in fact not the greatest injustice in the world and seeing people comparing getting screamed at for war crimes to not being tipped demonstrates a drastic lack of any sense of proportion. this is me speaking as both a service worker and someone engaged in organizing. let me be absolutely clear that I am not saying that not tipping your server is praxis. if you are able to tip i think that you should. i also think that “it’s the social contract in america to tip your server” needs to be read as “the structure has been built so that resisting it is tantamount to being a class traitor, and there are no winners in this situation”. i make less than 1k a month. tipping at 15% is straight up not viable all of the time if i want to pay rent. that’s not praxis, that’s me trying to keep a roof over my head, same as the service worker who i can’t always tip. so much analysis of this matter on social media tends to boil down to brute utilitarianism that causes further fragementation among the working class, and not for unjust reasons.

but just as not tipping my server isn’t praxis, tipping my server also isn’t praxis. not because it doesn’t help the individual (it does) but because it functionally validates the extant system in which the customer directly pays the wages. especially in the digital age: whereas cash tips are often considered nontaxable income, digital tips are administered as directly taxable income by the employer. when tips are paid out as wages i think it’s a little unfair to consider them to be “gratuities”.

again: not tipping isn’t praxis, but i wonder often about how many people who parrot this point are engaged in labour organizing or support in any way other than tipping. everyone deserves to be paid for their labour. but likewise, putting the onus on the working class customer to do so doesn’t actually help anyone except for the employer.

if you’re getting pissed at other working-class people for not tipping high numbers, especially impoverished and/or marginalized people, i hope that you are also engaged in literally any form at all, no matter how intense or dedicated, to any kind of action or organization that supports increasing minimum wage and shifting this responsibility from the customer to the employer (i.e. working class to owning class).

[lathrine]

im reading an article about how vitriolic people visiting the national parks have gotten, and it is SO cathartic to see my exact experiences in grocery retail be restated by the customer service reps working in the parks.

like its awful, obvious. the average customer has gotten so nasty, and the employees Do Not deserve the treatment they’re receiving. but during 2020/2021, people seemed to think that those viral Nasty Customer videos were 1) not common and 2) relegated just to grocery/retail. and i cant speak for every single hospitality and customer service sector and store, but i can say that at my store that sort of vitriolic outbreak became VERY common. not constant, but common enough to bump the baseline up.

my manager and i had a conversation where she said a lot of her friends-- some of whom had been in the hospitality or customer service industry for over a decade-- were considering a career change because it was SO BAD and no one could even fathom how to move forward. none of us could imagine it ever getting better. our New Normal was people screaming at and berating us every day, blaming us for mask mandates and vaccines and supply shortages. threatening legal action and physical violence. of people intentionally trying to get us sick and terrorizing us. everything was an argument with no hope of de-escalation; it genuinely wouldve been less inciting to tell some of those customers “go fuck yourself” than it was to tell them “im so sorry, but.” and all that while we were surrounded by the extremely smothering reality that no one cared if we died and everyone considered us sub-human.

everyone i know who gave a fuck quit shortly after i did, because none of us could handle it anymore. this includes people who’d worked at that store since it opened, some of our most decorated and knowledgeable coworkers.

like. i dunno yall. its kind of like how you cant describe how things just Make Sense as you near the latter half of your 20s; i cant put into words just how horrifically awful customer service was at that time. if you didnt personally experience it, everything we say sounds like an exaggeration and hyperbole.

and i cannot stress this enough: its still that bad. i would imagine most customer service and hospitality places had the same thing happen: a mass exodus of everyone who knew what they were doing because they could not stand the abuse anymore, and a rotating door of new hires that Refuse (rightfully so!!!) to tolerate the abuse. there is a new breed of customer that genuinely Does Not Care about employees and see pleas of humanity and kindness as a challenge to see how quickly they can break the employee at the desk.

this is especially relevant now, with it being the holidays. employees are more short staffed and overworked than ever, and customers some how have even less patience. customers dont plan literally five minutes out, and then blame employees for not materializing their needs before them on a silver platter.

anyways. i dont know how this article ends, but i have a pretty good guess.

[lokh]

bro genuinely at this point im about to be like if you send me the cost of shipping and packaging i will Give this to you because i just want these gone. (to be clear this isnt happening yet but im fucking close)

[prapuna]

.

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[sociabug]