Went to Aldi's today. That's a supermarket chain, German company I believe, intended for the budget-conscious shopper. For the first time in months, I was able to get change there. There was a coin shortage for much of 2020, caused by a multiplicity of factors. While most of the businesses I frequent were generally able to keep coins in stock, Aldi for a long time would only accept cash if you had the exact amount on-hand. So it seems like a good sign that that policy has been changed.
On a tangential note, I did some online research before I wrote the above and websites in general seem to have gotten more obtrusive. Everyone and their brother wants to give you push notifications now. If you agreed to it it would never stop.
2 comments:
I hadn't realized there was a serious coin shortage there. A number of stores around here make a big deal about not accepting any payments in cash although I don't believe they can outright refuse to do so. I also can't imagine that the bank is all that interested in what groceries we purchase so it must be a simple matter of not wanting the cashiers to have to change their rubber gloves too often. It would be enough to make you laugh if it weren't so bizarre.
I know what you mean about websites getting more aggressive but I don't think what I get are push notifications. What I mostly see are websites that want you to subscribe, but not necessarily pay. Under that circumstance if it's a place I want to visit now and again I give them a secondary freemail address which I look at once week or so in order to delete the buildup.
The worst I've had recently is a new banner across bottom of a favorite website that wants me to remove my adblockers. I've looked at a few pages on a browser that doesn't have the extension and decided I'd rather read the page with the banner.
I think the crisis has largely passed. There was another place where I sometimes get coffee and stuff that for a long while only took credit cards. In their case it was more strictly a COVID thing. They also made you stand outside to order, but now you can go inside and actually sit down at a table if you leave your name and phone number. Ah, progress. And there's another place that's only been taking cash the last few months, and I can pay with rolled-up quarters there. I like them.
Push notifications mean that whenever the site adds something new you'll get some kind of pop-up. I find it best to say no to these, as if you say yes to everyone it'll eventually get to the point of never stopping. I don't want to be subscribing everywhere either. Your email inbox gradually fills up with stuff you'll never read.
Ads generally don't bother me that much. The exceptions are those that start blasting audio right away--not unique to ads--and those that block out part of the text.
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