Is the US a dystopia?

I feel about insurance the way I feel about coat checks at clubs: If it's mandatory, it should be free. If you're legally requiring people to have insurance, then there has to be a provider to give it to them no matter what. If that's the government, fine. Personally, I think people should forgo insurance and just learn to be a little more Zen about their possessions, but I recognize that that's a minority opinion.

insurance covers more than possessions is the very obvious rejoinder

the requirement to have it for vehicles, in execution, isn't for any benefit of the populace, it's used as a classist mechanism to prevent poor people from wrecking rich people's expensive rides and the poor rich folk having to spend more money out of pocket to fix their phallic symbol.

in a perfect world, everybody would have insurance, but on a sliding scale, cost-wise. instead, insurers penalize struggling people by jacking up rates for people with low credit scores, which just means these people can't afford to repair their car or do maintenance on it, and then have to put themselves and other people at risk by driving vehicles with significant problems. ironically causing more accidental and personal injury claims to pay out.

my best friend told me how much she pays a month for car insurance and I almost shit. I thought mine was high.

There is a mildly amusing early 1990s fantasy novel called Flying Dutch, by Tom Holt.

In it, a sea captain buys an insurance policy but mysteriously fails to die. The result is that the value of his insurance policy becomes worth more than the entire world's economy.

Insurance remains a weirdly circular problem - you can't afford a disaster, but part of the reason you can't afford a disaster is because you've spent much of your life paying someone money just in case you have a disaster.

And because lots of people have insurance, lots of disasters are paid for from the pool. And the pricing reflects that, and everyone involved knows it. But the industry knows how to count, so it ensures that they always profit.

A mess. Just one of many messes we have inherited from our elders.

But the industry knows how to count, so it ensures that they always profit.

The whole basis of the insurance industry is using statistics to predict future risk within large aggregates. The underlying statistics always rest on past events and are modified to predict the future by incorporating known trends. The 'collapse' of the insurance industry isn't because they stopped knowing how to count, but due to the collapse of stability within many of the systems where insurance gets applied. When your business is making reliable predictions in relatively stable systems then their breakdown into chaos is fatal to your business model.

Does Jake from State Farm know about this?

So many threads this gem could go on, but this feels like the right fit

The fact that the Supreme Court is deciding whether it should be legal for homeless people to have pillows and blankets while they sleep outside shows just how depraved the United States really is.

— Commie Trucker (@commie_trucker) January 13, 2024

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDz6YXlX0AAsQtg?format=jpg&name=small

Within the margin of error of fully half of the country. Cool story, America!

primary voters still seem pretty solid in that one

That's not half the country it's almost half of the registered voters in the country

How do you even poison blood that is already 47% poison

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/macys-closure-florida?utm_campaign=trueAnthem_manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0fuo73vpowCdZFZtRX8AmEBrvqpfPbopiw7xlPU_key0JYnOCDU8NaFPA

The company (Macy's) is reportedly trying to transition in order to appeal to a younger generation of shoppers.

sounds bad

Department stores are a vanishing world, like print journalism. We can be wistful about it but we can't stop either trend now. It's too late.

I have a lot of fond memories of both, but they did not and could not adapt. People having the sad feelz about department stores now are mostly people who voted with their wallets and feet 20 years ago.

I have no fond memories of department stores. Most of my memories are of waiting for my mom to finish her interminable shopping.

Well, I suppose there was playing hide and seek with my brother in the clothes racks. But that was frowned upon.

...and the lone and solitary K-Marts stretch off into the distance

two remaining Kmarts

K-Mart always smelled bad to me. Very similar to the burnt popcorn/hair perm smell of Woolworth's, but somehow shabbier.

that era where discount department stores tried to expand wildly as standalones, as opposed to department stores which were usually in a mall or mall-adjacent, post-Walmart was something. we already had Target in the upper midwest pre-Walmart, and Walmart’s entire model was to open outside of cities. we briefly had Venture and probably a couple others before the bottom dropped out

OK.

In my experience, East Coast cities often had two (or more) department stores that were located right next to each other, and theoreticallly competed, but were actually mutually engaged in providing a very specific experience.

You went to Macy's then Gimbel's. You went to Wanamaker's or Filene's. Saks Fifth Avenue.

In Washington you could go to Woodward & Lothrop, Hecht's, Garfinkel's, Lord & Taylor.

In Richmond you could go to Thalheimer's and Miller & Rhoads.

Everyone had their preferences; there were (in a sense) choices. My grandmother took me to tea in their tea rooms.

Yeah surely they were all just as much of a capitalist scam as Amazon or Target or Wal-Mart or whatever, but all I am trying to say is that it is a world that existed, and it is now vanished.

Ditto the thump of the newspaper on the doorstep signaling the beginning of the day and a now-vanished world of relative consensus about the things that are happening.

Oh, one more pairing: in St. Louis, Famous-Barr and Styx Baer Fuller. Later, Dillard's and Nordstom.

It's not like I bear any personal loyalty to those specific businesses (I don't owe them anything, they just wanted to make money.) I can sympathize with people who are wistful about brands, but for me it's just that was a whole world, in which I worked, and it's basically vanished.

I have many fond memories of department stores, Burdines/Macy's in particular. I actually still go on on occasion because the sales are excellent -- went to Macy's last month!

buncha straight dudes, the lot of you

Oh -- Target is a vast improvement over Kmart and its forebears. I never mind going.

do you all remember the before times. before the supermarket was built around us? when we went to the store instead of working in it. all the best, just a guy here in aisle 28, near the office supplies

There was a chain in Michigan (and probably in other states in the Midwest) called Grant's. For my five-year-old self, it was a utopia: they had the best toy section I can remember. The Marx "historical" figures were the gold standard.

I liked the smaller standalone department stores that were already dying when I was a kid - there was a Stripling & Cox a couple of blocks from my house in the kind of '70s construction shopping center that houses a beauty salon supply store, a Magic The Gathering store and a bunch of empty storefronts now. It was maybe a third the size of the anchors at the new mall but managed to fit all the standard departments though the brands might not have been the top shelf (they did have Girbaud and Mossimo jeans though).

when i was a kid pittsburgh had kaufmann's and horne's (both local) plus gimbels

i still go to a department store at least a couple of times a month to get eg underwear, a small dehumidifier, a serving spoon etc because it’s easier than searching all that shit up online

then again i don’t live in the US

Wanamaker’s was the big one here (Philly brand). I have many memories of my mom dragging me to the men’s department to look for nicer clothes, and being totally pissed off that I had to be there.

I do remember that I bought my first Discman at that same Wanamaker’s when I was in… 6th grade?

being totally pissed off that I had to be there

otm

tbf I was too but as soon as I could afford to buy Choose Your Own Adventures books at B. Dalton or Waldenbooks I could walk around reading.

Then, much much later, I realized I liked looking good.

Everything I know about UK department stores is courtesy of Are You Being Served

BTW, I worked as an elf in Santaland at Thalheimer's in 1989 and had written a decent draft of a mildly humorous essay about it in 1993 or so.

Aaaaaaaand... David Sedaris beat me to it by a few months, and that's why he is rich and famous and I am sad and broke.

Not that I am bitter or anything

Speaking of dystopias

Dillard's stock has gone up nearly 500% since 2020.

There was a chain in Michigan (and probably in other states in the Midwest) called Grant's. For my five-year-old self, it was a utopia: they had the best toy section I can remember. The Marx "historical" figures were the gold standard.

There were some Grants in Florida before they all suddenly closed around 1976. Fabulous store if you were a kid. Also in South Florida was the aforementioned Burdines which I miss, plus a thing called Jefferson('s) which had a great record department, and there was Britt's which had many bedroom showrooms that were fun for a kid to play in. There was also J Byrons, which was good for school clothes. It's kind of a bummer that every other department store is a Macy's now.

ymp you know too much lol, condolences

There were some Grants in Florida before they all suddenly closed around 1976. Fabulous store if you were a kid. Also in South Florida was the aforementioned Burdines which I miss, plus a thing called Jefferson('s) which had a great record department, and there was Britt's which had many bedroom showrooms that were fun for a kid to play in. There was also J Byrons, which was good for school clothes. It's kind of a bummer that every other department store is a Macy's now.

― Josefa,

I remember Jefferson's well -- it closed in the early '80s. Specialized in technology, if I'm not mistaken.

Marshall's and a store called Ross have taken over the J. Byrons; they're a step below Target.

Ross Dress for Less! i have gotten many pairs of fancy gay underwear at Ross

It's bittersweet to see department store America preserved in the opening credits of old TV shows, for example on The Bob Newhart Show Bob walks past Marshall Field in Chicago, and on The Mary Tyler Moore Show Dayton's is seen in the background and she tosses her hat in front of Donaldson's, both in Minneapolis. All defunct store names now afaik.

Oh -- Target is a vast improvement over Kmart and its forebears. I never mind going.

I don’t usually find things I like in Ross, but Nordstrom Rack usually has at least something I do, usually in shoes

My Target's always packed and the customer service is terrific. I suspect the number of South American tourists keeps our department stores (Macy's included) humming.

the anchor stores when I was a kid at the local mall were Younkers, Montgomery Ward, Richman-Gordman, and Sears. I think all are dead as a doornail, now. as is that mall

Maybe it’s because I haven’t had the joy of the Kmart experience in many years now, but Target is starting to feel like it’s on the way out. Stocking issues, yes, but also the Walgreens-ish insult of having major swaths of products behind locked doors and very few staff to unlock them any sooner than three/four minutes after signaling the alert

This may be location-specific, I haven't noticed much lockdown at my local stores.

But Alfred's comment reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who owns a chain of furniture and household good stores. I asked him why stores like Dollar General and Walmart always have such a grim and dingy vibe — their color palettes, store lighting and fortress-like exteriors are anything but welcoming. Whereas Target generally feels clean and bright. My question was, clearly there are some basic and not very expensive things DG and Walmart could do to make their stores feel "nicer," so why don't they?

His response was that it has to be a deliberate strategy, and he believes it is intended to make consumers feel like they must be getting a "good deal" on merchandise because the stores themselves feel "cheap." i.e., we unconsciously associate low prices with a general sense of things being a little rundown. So where Target's design and decor is supposed to make their middle-income customer base feel like they're in a sort of upscale department-store setting but with moderate prices, DG and Walmart's is supposed to make their lower-income base feel like they're getting a bargain.

A major Canadian grocery chain, No Frills, is entirely built around that ethos, including the name of the store.