Weekly, What recent changes are going on at your work / local businesses?

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haunting-pop-music@reddit

Email signature conformity push in academia in the U.S. South to avoid appearing to be on one side or another of the ideological battle around gender identity. Basically, “You can’t put pronouns in your signature but make it sound less like we took a side” email compliance is about what is prohibited.

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SceneRoyal4846@reddit

Canadian; had a toy bookmarked for a relative to months , the birthday is fast approaching and it went from 37.00 - 45.00 in a few months.

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AgileBet409@reddit

I’m late, this weekend’s been busy.

Healthcare: supplies are short, and we’re getting extra duties thrown on top of us. Contract negotiations for our union aren’t going over super well, and many are skeptical if we will be able to get through without going on strike.

Management is breathing down our necks like the seagulls from Finding Nemo, we can’t get through a day without them pushing us to do more. It’s getting to a point where we don’t have time to do everything, and we’re having to balance out our regular duties and anything extra that pops up.

Job search isn’t going well. Lots of positions are warning of potential for the jobs themselves to disappear due to lack of funding in a year or two.

Side Hustle: normally I don’t include this part. I’m selling some of my nicer clothes to empty out my closet and make some extra pocket change. Buyers are drying up, but lots of people are selling items that are marketed as being in better condition than they are. Maybe not as pertinent, but makes me curious how many other people are turning to multiple sources of income to stay afloat. (Not disclosing the platform I sell my stuff on, OPSEC and shit)

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Elegant-Procedure-74@reddit

Hello!

I have 2 part time jobs - one I have worked at for about 4 years now - the work we do is now slowing down a bit. We’re in manufacturing, we do a decent amount of government work / big names in industry. We have been nonstop go go go since Christmas time and now we are hitting a bit of a slump. I’m not sure if this is our summer slump or just a slump given the type of work we do.

My second job is working at a bookstore (my dream job) I just got hired in May of this year. I have really loved it so far and I have ideas / hopes of the future of creating and leading book events one day. I am supposed to get 20 hours with them and just got my new schedule I am now working 2 days and only at 8 hours total. I was pretty sad to learn that but what I have noticed the last few weeks is that sales are down. People are not really coming to the bookstore much, and there have been many hours we just see like 2 or 3 people shopping. When the weather is better we seem to have more steady customers. Just hoping things can improve and hopefully I get back to a normal schedule soon!

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buttercrotcher@reddit

Layoffs, coming from the banking sector. They cute RTO and our percentage of people who are FTE to cough cough outsourced contractors (Non US)

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Firm_Equivalent_4597@reddit

Residential solar industry: stock piling materials

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terrierhead@reddit

Tell me more if you can. I’m getting the house wired for a battery backup system and portable panels as soon as our electrician and the power utility person are available. A recent news article warned of a spike in electricity prices.

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Firm_Equivalent_4597@reddit

Materials that have a certain %of American made parts qualify for a different tax rate. Tariffs and materials coming from “Foreign Entities of Concern” are going to raise the prices for everything. Plus the tax break for cash customers has been axed. The industry is going to get really rocky.

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lordaddament@reddit

Central Valley CA where there’s hella produce growing and the grocery store shelves are full of gross rotting fruit and veggies

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splat-y-chila@reddit

There are specially bred veggies and fruits for growing in containers, if you have a sunny window, balcony, or can afford keeping a grow light on. E.g. astia zucchini, tom thumb lettuce, micro tom tomato, and I always grow all my eggplants and peppers in big pots and not in the ground too.

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TwoFarNorth@reddit

I have a outdoor raised bed and container garden for the warm months, but just purchased a grow tent for the cold months. I might try the astia zucchini... thanks for the recommendation!

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Complete-Reply-9145@reddit

This is the way. I grow tomatoes and veggies year round. Toms are Super easy to propagate, and taste better than any tomato from the store. Good lights and equipment are expensive and can seem like a lot up front, but IMO the rewards are worth 10 fold. It's so much easier than folks think to grow just a little food, even if you're in an apartment.

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chicagotodetroit@reddit

Can you provide more detail on the grow tent? Does it require special lighting or heat lamps? A link would be great so that I can start researching this.

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splat-y-chila@reddit

I suggest reading a thread like this one https://www.reddit.com/r/Greenhouses/comments/1c8h363/what_is_the_importance_of_a_cover_for_an_indoor/

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chicagotodetroit@reddit

Thanks!

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TwoFarNorth@reddit

Lots of gross rotting fruit and veggies in the Midwest, too. Surrounded by farmland, yet spoiling food on the shelves. Glad I have a big garden.

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redrumraisin@reddit

Can confirm in the Midwest, had to wait 3 weeks to get half acceptable onions

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Dildomancy@reddit

I reported a produce shortage in my region in the last two threads (here and here). When I went to Aldi a few days ago, there was entire produce shelf that was completely empty. Not even the usual picked over and rotting produce, just nothing at all.

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kezfertotlenito@reddit

Rural eastern NC, our produce also looks terrible.

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FattierBrisket@reddit

Girlfriend (travel nurse) just got her contract extended again at the same pay rate. This was a relief, since we had been hearing a lot of catastrophizing about how all the rates were going to drop and the jobs were going to vanish. I'm sure they still could, but at the moment they're not.

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fruit_leather_chair@reddit

I work in healthcare finance, they've been saying we'd cut back on agency/travelers for a few years now. It's just not going to happen. There's way too much demand and not enough nurses to fill it. I haven't seen agency drop even a fraction where I'm at. Hopefully that's somewhat comforting.

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FattierBrisket@reddit

Oh for sure! Thank you for the inside info. It actually is very reassuring. She's been several places that swore they were getting rid of travelers but extended her at least once, plus most of the rest of her unit were travelers too. Wtf, healthcare? 😆

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mmsh221@reddit

My husband’s work uses mostly travel nurses. Just hired 4-5 more for his unit last week. They won’t give staffed nurses the pay they want and keep getting travelers

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Fragrant_Isopod_7332@reddit

Stores are getting emptier and emptier. If they have Halloween stuff then they must be running low

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CannyGardener@reddit

Ran out of summer stock, so they went ahead and popped the Halloween stuff that they were trying to pre-purchase, but are now are worried the economy will slow by then, and want to get them off the books. Seeing a lot of Halloween sales right now, and all of the 'Spirit' Halloween centers are open now.

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UsefullyChunky@reddit

There's been a push every year to put Halloween out earlier & earlier and now stores are embracing the "Summerween" Halloween in July trend to make more $$.

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CannyGardener@reddit

I can see how this would play a role (I have a chain client wanting me to boot up their pumpkin spice flavors for August 1 roll-outs since they are promo-ing pumpkin spice products starting on August 4th. Definitely a lot of holiday creep going on. I feel like there is probably also a tariff-timing fiasco that probably happened on the purchasing-side, where they were trying to time their imports to avoid tariffs, and are now looking down the barrel of a slow fall/winter. This latter part is just a feeling, though, as someone running a buying department for a distributor here in the US ;)

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SceneRoyal4846@reddit

Also I feel where I am a lot of people are sick of the heat waves every week. Can’t do much tbh.

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UsefullyChunky@reddit

Oh that's an interesting job & cool to hear an inside take on all that!

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CannyGardener@reddit

I have to say, my job has been more interesting this year than any other in my career less Covid...but more in a "may you live in interesting times"-curse sort of way, than "Oh this is super fun to rework and worry about my supply chains being smashed every day." LOL

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chicagotodetroit@reddit

Well that explains the watermelon carved like a jack-o-lantern that I saw at Walmart yesterday. Weird.

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redrumraisin@reddit

Live rural notIce hiring tightening up minus for law enforcement and security guards. I see a lot of medical staff quitting and moving away due to planned medicaid cuts.

Lastly, at my job despite the company doing slightly better than it has there's a fiering massacre going on where new and seasoned workers are being fired right and left for absolutely trivial or bullshit reasons, one stands out of a guy being fired over a 4 dollar pillow theft which sounds made up to me. The place is already a skeletal crew, this will become a nightmare and idk if I can find something else. More store closures are guaranteed in this area.

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RussianBab3@reddit

Local pharmacy's have been closing with no notice. Trying to transfer prescriptions last minute is an absolutely nightmare.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit (OP)

Yeah... its going to get a lot worse too in the near future.

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RussianBab3@reddit

Luckily my medication isn't a life or death thing, but it certainly helps me function. I can definitely see Healthcare/pharmacys getting worse in the future.

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Prestigious-Capital3@reddit

I work for a Medicaid managed care plan for low income people. We were told that 80% of our rural hospitals won't last 1 year past the budget cuts from the Big Beautiful Disaster from this administration. Also, co-pays and additional penalties for our undocumented members and co-pays for US citizens. People on Medicaid already live on tight incomes, having a $35 co pay is the difference between food on the table or paying a bill. A patient who receives dialysis 3 times per week at $35 per visit is $105 per week, $420 per month just for them to stay alive. That's not including new prescription costs. So many people will die from the lack of medical care in rural areas and from lack of money to pay the co-pays.

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Ill-Benefit9962@reddit

While I applaud your compassion, the inability to see how “undocumented members” are driving the cost up for “US citizens” in a for profit system is bit ironic. There is no free lunch. If you want to lower costs, you either have nationalized system, which won’t happen, or you lower costs, maybe but also unlikely, or you cut off people that use the services for free without paying taxes, most likely. Math isn’t too complex. It’ll serve us well to be realistic in times like these.

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Prestigious-Capital3@reddit

You're totally wrong about that. Cutting off undocumented people doesn't save anything, and neither does letting 80% of rural hospitals and providers go under. When rural hospitals lose funding and patients can't pay the new fees, they close. When hospitals close, insurance companies make less money, and then those fortunate enough to have private insurance end up with premium increases, which are currently projected at a 21% increase across the board among the Big 3; United Healthcare, Kaiser - Commercial, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Another fallacy you have is that the undocumented don't pay taxes. This is incorrect. They pay more in federal taxes than they consume in public services.

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Ill-Benefit9962@reddit

Undocumented paying more is taxes is brought to you by either a pro immigration group or a pro business group.

Don’t be a dummy. Do a hypothetical family of 4 with 2 kids and add public schooling, food, healthcare, and unseen costs like driving without insurance, infrastructure costs, increased traffic etc. they would consume at least 80k yearly in my city. Working for $10 an hour for cash isn’t going to make up for that.

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Prestigious-Capital3@reddit

Don't be so cognitively dissonant, to not understand you are wrong. Everything you are spewing is anecdotal and are "guesses". Stop watching Fox News!

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Ill-Benefit9962@reddit

As someone who grew up going to schools with kids of undocumented folks, in a blue state, I fully disagree. If you take a family of 4 with 2 kids, those kids in my city cost around 25k to go to public school. And they also get free food and books (this is few 1000 here). Additionally if they end up in a hospital they can present any name with id and will get treated, and won’t have pay (let’s say 10k per avg for the.family) Until recently our state subsided their healthcare, which shifted their care burden to the state from the hospital. Then in my city, if you’re undocumented you can drive around without a state driver license, and don’t get insurance. I’ve been hit 3 times in my life by undocumented ppl without insurance and they face no penalties. Only way for me to recoup that money is to file a civil lawsuit, such good luck when person doesn’t even have an id. This drives up car insurance for everyone else since I had to use my insurance 3 times for damage caused by someone else’s fault. Then you add infrastructure costs etc. family of 4 uses at least around 70k yearly in taxes. And it’s fully up to them if they want to pay taxes but if you get paid cash would you?

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Ricky_Ventura@reddit

The subsidies are for the hospital, not the migrants. It keeps the hospital from having to charge you for there coverage if they can not pay.

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Ill-Benefit9962@reddit

I recognize you from your other posts as a pretty far left and can get annoying. Not to argue with you but the “subsidies” which hospital gets to pay for the undocumented comes from the federal govt which gets it from taxes. That money doesn’t come from thin air. And yes as I said our healthcare system isn’t changing, and is the probably the biggest waste of money. However in this situation if you want lower prices there’s only few ways to do it.

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profanearcane@reddit

probably in part from the hundred billion or so in taxes illegal immigrants paid

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Ricky_Ventura@reddit

And now they're directing states to pre-emptively arrest the homeless and those with mental health disorders and forcibly commit them.

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BBQandBitcoin@reddit

This pack of pig feet from yesterday. \~$24.00! Diabolical. Not my thing, but for them that’s crazy

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blt88@reddit

Noticed a lot more “for sale” / “for rent signs” popping up in surrounding yards around my neighborhood in South FL.

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General_Raisin2118@reddit

Yeah a lot of people leaving Florida, noticed a ton of new listings on Zillow this week too.

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xredwidowx@reddit

Hi, longtime lurker here.

My favorite kpod coffee is nowhere to be found - all the stores in my area say “not available at this store” so I ordered 6 boxes for shipping and only 5 showed up.

My in-laws, professional business and residential cleaners, have seen their job flow cut in half. FIL just lost a $650 job, and MIL has been cut down to 10-15 hours a week.

We put our house up for sale back in May (a prep in and of itself, we are in process of moving to a better, more survivable/rural area) and the housing market seems to have crashed. My realtor sends weekly reports to us. As of last week, 7,088 homes for sale, and only 15 went into escrow from all price brackets. NO homes in my price backet have gone into escrow in over 14 days.

Grocery stores in my area had aisles seemingly stocked but no customers in the stores, I saw a handful of people with nearly empty carts walking around. Went to a Target at noon on the weekend, they had no customers in the store either, only two cashier lanes open and no lines. I think this is a sign nobody is shopping, even for necessities.

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totpot@reddit

I noticed in the last 30-60 days, the real estate market suddenly froze. Homes in highly desireable developments that would go under contract in 3 weeks as early as May were suddenly sitting on the market for 2+ months. It wasn't a slowdown- it was like a switch that flipped from sellers market to buyers market overnight. Here's a post talking about it https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1m5xtv3/can_explain_what_has_been_going_on_with_the/

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AgileBet409@reddit

I believe some people have been boycotting Target for political reasons, but I’ve seen very empty stores the past few days preparing and being gone on vacation.

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82cabinets@reddit

I paid almost $20 for 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef. Last time I have red meat for a while

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chicagotodetroit@reddit

I don't eat much meat; I'm mostly vegetarian. I'm having company and they are meat eaters, so I went to Walmart last night for some black bean burgers and some beef patties.

A 12 pack of beef patties was $20.

I put them back.

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totpot@reddit

I went to the store yesterday to get some Impossible beef. They keep them in the meat section at my store and usually have a dozen packs ready to go. All the Impossible beef and burgers were sold out.

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GuiltyYams@reddit

I paid almost $20 for 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef. Last time I have red meat for a while

$10.45/lb for 80/20 store brand rn at my store, just checked.

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LassenDiscard@reddit

$5.99 for 80/20, $6.99 for 90/10 here in NorCal.

The premium cuts have gone up moderately over the past year or two (even flank steak's up to $15.99/lb.), but ground beef is still pretty reasonable. Chicken is absurdly overpriced, especially breast.

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GuiltyYams@reddit

We're on opposite weeks, my chicken is on sale along with pork.

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Reasonable_Pilot5218@reddit

Damn that’s crazy, mine is 7.85/lb for 85/15 from the butcher shop near me

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CannyGardener@reddit

Just bought a side of beef from a farmer in Kansas, paid $7/lb plus another $100 in gas to pick it up. Would 100% recommend to anyone who can afford the up front cost. Quality is better too.

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millenialsnowbird@reddit

Mind sharing the contact info? (I'm in KS)

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CannyGardener@reddit

I'll look up the farmer when I get home =) The meat processor was called 'Bobo's', up in North Central Kansas (outside of Belleville if you know where that is)

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PsudoGravity@reddit

Jesus, the gas! How far was that for you? One trip? Or did you sleep somewhere?

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CannyGardener@reddit

Couple hundred miles (I think about 550 round trip). I drive an old diesel pick-up.

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Caelista_x@reddit

Prices have gone up 10-12% on the groceries I buy regularly. It’s a noticeable difference from just six weeks ago. I’m on the west coast.

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Chickaduck@reddit

Our landlord is installing new windows and AC to take advantage of tax credits before the end of the year.

If you have any energy efficient improvements you’ve been considering (doors, windows, AC/heat, solar panels, water heaters, etc), do your best to get them done ASAP to get a tax credit. I haven’t looked up the tax code provisions here, but my guess is that the work need to be done by Dec 31, 2025.

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MinionSympathizer@reddit

Midwest grocery store where I buy bananas upped the price from $0.55 to $0.59 per lb shortly after Trump took office

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CannyGardener@reddit

I just pushed through my first tariff price update on bananas this week. It is the first in a string of them =\

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pinecamper@reddit

How can you tell which increases are due to tariffs and which are due to other things? Does it show as a surcharge?

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CannyGardener@reddit

Depends on the vendor. Some vendors are invoicing it as an entirely separate invoice, others are moving it to the bottom as a tax line item. If I'm importing directly, then I pay the bill. When I am too far down the line from the tariff it just comes through as a unit cost increase. For instance, I buy a lot of fruit purees, and I won't see the tariff on that, because the importer will charge the manufacturer, and the manufacturer will work it into the sell price. So, all of that to say, it really depends on the situation.

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QHCprints@reddit

More higher Ed downsizing. Hearing concerns about lower enrollment due to financial aid uncertainty. More elimination of anything that could be remotely construed as DEI related.

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chrs_89@reddit

I’m in maintenance at the local university and the amount of work orders coming through is lower than even the height of Covid when everyone was working remote

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MostNet6719@reddit

We’ve been told here in our state higher ed (red state) to prepare plans for 10 percent mid year cuts. DEI issues including required statements in syallbus.

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spinningcolours@reddit

The enrollment cliff is here, so that is not helping raise admission numbers.

https://www.nafsa.org/ie-magazine/2024/9/11/combating-enrollment-cliff

Plus international students are not applying. Not worth the high risk of not being admitted to the country.

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our coffee went up $5

I went into Dollar General thinking to grab some cheap bulk coffee.

Prices are seriously up just in the past few weeks, and it's just going to get worse.

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