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Comment by arximboldi

4 days ago

i bought my first smartphone this year. when traveling I was carrying the android tablet half of the time in my backpack, and even at home more and more you need apps for everything (e.g. lockersat club, gym entry, supermarket loyalty card, etc).

i just gave up. grapheneos + olauncher give me a minimal and open source enough experience to make it somewhat tolerable, but it makes me sad that as a society we've come to expect that you are carrying a computer with you at all times to exist.

5 comments

arximboldi

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hawaiianbrah  4 days ago

Supermarket loyalty card surprises me there. It isn’t just a physical card? Or a phone number? That’s all I ever use at any of our supermarkets.

  • autoexec  4 days ago

    I've seen supermarkets that offer targeted "in app only" deals. They're trying to condition people into accepting and being comfortable with discriminatory pricing, where different people pay different prices for the same product depending on who or what they are, or how much money they have.

    • aleph_minus_one  4 days ago

      > I've seen supermarkets that offer targeted "in app only" deals.

      In Germany, the grocery discounter Aldi (both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd) explicitly created advertising campaigns that they offer the same prices even if you don't use an app. The economic background is that Aldi's competitor Lidl nudges customers to use their app for discounts.

      An article: https://www.mobiflip.de/aldi-ohne-app-so-verpasst-der-discou...

      Pictures of the billboards: https://i0.wp.com/www.mobiflip.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/07... https://i0.wp.com/www.mobiflip.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/07...

      Texts:

      German:

        GÜNSTIG
  OHNE
  BONUS-APP.

  EINFACH EINKAUFEN.
  ZUM ALDI PREIS.

      English:

        CHEAP
  WITHOUT
  BONUS APP.

  SIMPLY SHOP.
  AT ALDI PRICE.

      German:

        WARUM
  EWIG PUNKTE
  SAMMELN?

  GÜNSTIG
  OHNE
  BONUS-APP.

  EINFACH EINKAUFEN.
  ZUM ALDI PREIS.

      English:

        WHY
  COLLECT POINTS FOREVER
  ?

  CHEAP
  WITHOUT
  BONUS APP.

  SIMPLY SHOP.
  AT ALDI PRICE.

      Video by Aldi Süd (in German; try use YouTube's translation functionalities if you aren't fluent in German): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF9wfg4XGfk

      Lidl was furious that this campaign was so well received by the population (for this keep in mind that the Schwarz Gruppe (Schwarz Group), the corporate group behind Lidl, has big plans for cloud business (Schwarz Digits [1])), and created its own rather ridiculed counter-campaign:

      https://www.mobiflip.de/aldi-greift-an-lidl-kontert-jetzt-ge...

      Image: https://i0.wp.com/www.mobiflip.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/07...

      German text:

        Hey, liebe
  Aldi Kollegen,
  erst Deutschland in Nord und Süd aufteilen und dann stolz von einem Preis für alle ohne App sprechen.
  Ihr habt Humor.

  Liebe
  Aldi Kunden,
  ihr seid natürlich ALLE herzlich eingeladen, von Hamburg bis München zu einheitlichen Preisen zu sparen – mit oder ohne Lidl Plus.

      English translation:

        Hey, dear
  Aldi colleagues,
  first divide Germany into North and South and then proudly talk about one price for everyone without an app.
  You have a sense of humor.

  Dear
  Aldi customers,
  you are of course ALL cordially invited to save at uniform prices from Hamburg to Munich – with or without Lidl Plus [the name of Lidl's app].

      --

      [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarz_Digits

  • jackskell  4 days ago

    I, and my 3 siblings, all use my folks landline number, which has the ringer turned off, and only used for DSL / alarm / backup outgoing calls. Works for us, heh.

  • als0  4 days ago

    I thought supermarket loyalty cards were just a QR code of a simple serial number. Is it different where you are?