#Full Service Food Delivery System)

[aarunresearcher]

The United States online food delivery market size reached US$ 29.1 Billion in 2023. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach US$ 68.6 Billion by 2032, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% during 2024-2032. The growing preference for convenient and fast service among consumers, rising reliance on smartphones and high internet penetration, and increasing adoption of advanced technologies to enhance user service are some of the factors impelling the market growth.

[feminist-space]

"Now, already experiencing the clawing pangs of contractions, she pulled out a frozen pizza and a salad with creamy everything dressing, savoring the hush that fell over the house, the satisfying crunch of the poppy seeds as she ate.

Horton didn’t realize that she would be drug tested before her child’s birth. Or that the poppy seeds in her salad could trigger a positive result on a urine drug screen, the quick test that hospitals often use to check pregnant patients for illicit drugs.

Many common foods and medications — from antacids to blood pressure and cold medicines — can prompt erroneous results.

The morning after Horton delivered her daughter, a nurse told her she had tested positive for opiates. Horton was shocked. She hadn’t requested an epidural or any narcotic pain medication during labor — she didn’t even like taking Advil. “You’re sure it was mine?” she asked the nurse.

If Horton had been tested under different circumstances — for example, if she was a government employee and required to be tested as part of her job — she would have been entitled to a more advanced test and to a review from a specially trained doctor to confirm the initial result.

But as a mother giving birth, Horton had no such protections. The hospital quickly reported her to child welfare, and the next day, a social worker arrived to take baby Halle into protective custody.

...

To report this story, The Marshall Project interviewed dozens of patients, medical providers, toxicologists and other experts, and collected information on more than 50 mothers in 22 states who faced reports and investigations over positive drug tests that were likely wrong. We also pored over thousands of pages of policy documents from every state child welfare agency in the country.

Problems with drug screens are well known, especially in workplace testing. But there’s been little investigation of how easily false positives can occur inside labor and delivery units, and how quickly families can get trapped inside a system of surveillance and punishment.

Hospitals reported women for positive drug tests after they ate everything bagels and lemon poppy seed muffins, or used medications including the acid reducer Zantac, the antidepressant Zoloft and labetalol, one of the most commonly prescribed blood pressure treatments for pregnant women.

After a California mother had a false positive for meth and PCP, authorities took her newborn, then dispatched two sheriff’s deputies to also remove her toddler from her custody, court records show. In New York, hospital administrators refused to retract a child welfare report based on a false positive result, and instead offered the mother counseling for her trauma, according to a recording of the conversation. And when a Pennsylvania woman tested positive for opioids after eating pasta salad, the hearing officer in her case yelled at her to “buck up, get a backbone, and stop crying,” court records show. It took three months to get her newborn back from foster care.

Federal officials have known for decades that urine screens are not reliable. Poppy seeds — which come from the same plant used to make heroin — are so notorious for causing positives for opiates that last year the Department of Defense directed service members to stop eating them. At hospitals, test results often come with warnings about false positives and direct clinicians to confirm the findings with more definitive tests.

Yet state policies and many hospitals tend to treat drug screens as unassailable evidence of illicit use, The Marshall Project found. Hospitals across the country routinely report cases to authorities without ordering confirmation tests or waiting to receive the results."

Read the full piece here: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/09/09/drug-test-pregnancy-pennsylvania-california

[beardedmrbean]

What’s an acceptable tip for a driver who delivers a $20 pizza?

A TikTok video purporting to show a DoorDash delivery driver in Texas swearing at a customer over the $5 tip she gave him has gone viral, sparking fresh online debate over tipping culture in the U.S.

“I just want to say it’s a nice house for a $5 tip,” the driver can be heard saying as he walks away from a home in the door camera video posted to TikTok earlier this week by a user under the name Lacey Purciful.

“You’re welcome!” the resident says, appearing surprised by the remark. “F--- you,” the driver responds before walking away.

“So how much should I be tipping for a $20 pie?” Purciful, who, in a separate post said she herself has worked in the service industry for over 10 years and tips “very well,” wrote in a caption.

Purciful, who did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from NBC News, said the driver was fired by DoorDash following the incident.

A DoorDash spokesperson confirmed that the worker had been removed from their platform. They said the company had also reached out to the customer regarding the incident.

“Respectfully asking for a tip is acceptable but abusing or harassing someone is never acceptable,” the spokesperson said.

“Our rules exist to help ensure everyone who uses our platform — Dashers, customers, merchants — have a safe and enjoyable experience,” they said. “We expect everyone to treat others with respect and we will enforce our rules fairly and consistently.”

The video added fuel to a growing debate in the U.S. over tipping culture, with some complaining current trends may have reached a tipping point.

“Tipping is out of control,” one social media user said, commenting on the video. They said they felt $5 for a $20 order was “more than” enough.”

“I doordash and most (not all) pizza delivery orders don’t tip. That was a Rockstar tip,” another user said.

Not everyone agreed, however, with some branding Purciful a “Karen” for contacting DoorDash over the incident.

One poster said they felt the driver should not have lost their job over the exchange, writing: “What he said was not right, but he didn’t have to lose job over it. Everyone is trying to make a living.”

Another commenter noted that the driver may have been concerned about mileage, writing: “Maybe $5 wasn’t enough.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought consumer willingness to give tips, particularly during times of hardship, into fresh focus, with many ponying up to pay higher gratuities during the crisis, according to research.

Figures provided earlier this year to NBC News by payment processor Square showed the frequency of gratuities at full-service restaurants grew 17% in the fourth quarter last year from the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, tip frequency at quick-service restaurants, such as coffee shops and fast-food chains, rose 16%, according to the company’s data.

The apparent rise in tipping came despite a period of record inflation, which has eaten away at many consumers’ discretionary income.

While the pandemic appeared to spur widespread changes in tipping culture, the growing use of point-of-service, or POS systems, to process payments also appear to have made it easier than ever for customers to provide — and for businesses to ask for — tips.

In a survey of restaurant executives by industry group Hospitality Technology, 71% of respondents said using data to “understand guest preferences and behavior” was their primary reason for facilitating POS system upgrades, while for 57% enabling new payment options was the priority.

A recent Lending Tree survey found that 60% of Americans felt they were tipping more, NBC Boston reported. Around 24% said they felt pressured to tip when the option was presented, while 41% said they had changed their buying habits due to gratuity expectations and 60% felt tipping expectations had gotten out of hand. _________________

Door dash fired him, your opinion on tips aside that's not how you act to customers unless they are directly rude to you.

[maryellencarter]

Will your walkable cities have guaranteed housing for all? Not just "we housed a thousand homeless people but there are 40,000 more waiting for space and nowhere to build", actual available housing.

Will they have safe parking to sleep in our cars without being harassed, and leave our cars at in the daytime to keep our stuff safe while we walk your walkable city?

Will they have plentiful benches, maybe even sheltered from the elements, and will we be allowed to sleep on them?

Will they have plentiful, safe, clean, well-stocked, 24/7 restrooms? Maybe even climate controlled? And will we be allowed to spend as long as we need to in them? Most homeless people have digestive issues because of our limited food access, if for no other reason.

Will they have free foot care clinics and mobility aids? We're already on our feet all day. It hurts. Many of us had mobility issues before becoming homeless.

Will you have free 24/7 transit for all, or will it be means tested, require residency, or have similar arbitrary limitations? How long will we be allowed to ride? Will there be easily accessible restrooms? Will it have posted maps at every stop, or will we have to use cellular data to find our way around? What measures will you take to prevent it becoming a superspreader system for Covid and other diseases?

(Actually, requiring a cellular or cable company to provide free public wifi as a substitute for part of their tax bill would be an interesting experiment. Or you could just make wifi a public utility. Still put up paper maps for transit though, we don't all have wifi capable devices or the ability to use them. Maybe even with Braille overlays on the plastic or something?)

If you're not allowing vehicles other than transit, what allowances are you making for grocery delivery, prepared food delivery (like Doordash type services), laundry service, diaper service, anything that doesn't require mobility-limited residents to use their steps? What's your plan for "I'm moving in or out of the walkable city and I need a moving truck for my furniture"?

How about "I'm buying groceries for two weeks for six hungry people and I can't carry it all home on the bus"? How about "My plumbing broke and the plumber needs his toolbox full of heavy tools and parts that *he* can't carry on the bus"? Will your buses/trains have luggage compartments, and how will the loading and unloading work with keeping a schedule?

[udhhyog2]

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[eaglesnick]

“We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” - Peter Mandelson

The other day I made the assertion that when the people of Britain voted for Keir Starmer, what they were really getting was Tony Blaire. To be fair this was partly tongue-in-cheek but having read the Kings Speech setting out the Labour Party's plans to change Britain it is closer to the truth than is comfortable.

The Tony Blaire Institute for Global Change has a paper entitled: The Economic Case for Reimagining the State that was published July 9th, 2024, just five days after the UK elections. Some of the wording in this report is almost identical to some of the wording in the Kings Speech.

Tony Blaire Institute:  “reforming the UK’s antiquated planning system is a high priority that could unlock much needed infrastructure investment and help un-gum the UK’s housing market.”

Kings Speech: “My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing."

Tony Blaire: "Normalization of relations with the EU: A full reversal of these losses may be politically unattainable during this Parliament, but there is a path to a better post-Brexit relationship in the coming years"

Kings Speech: My Government will seek to reset the relationship with European partners and work to improve the United Kingdom's trade and investment relationship with the European Union

Tony Blaire: "The new government will need to lean in to support the diffusion of AI-era tech across the economy by adopting a pro-innovation, pro-technology stance, as advocated by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.”

Kings Speech: "It will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models.”

The Kings Speech is, by necessity, very brief and gives virtually no detail how the government’s aims are to be achieved. We will have to wait and see how much more of Keir Starmer’s vision for the future of Britain mirrors that of Tony Blaire. If Starmer is as closely aligned to Blaire as these comparisons suggest then public sector workers beware.

Blaire places great reliance on the introduction of artificial intelligence to ALL sectors of the economy, but  especially within the public sector. Once introduced Blaire predicts a productivity gain of “one-fifth workforce time”

 Public sector workers, having adopted the new AI and having increased productivity by 20% can then expect the sack.

“If the government chooses to bank these time savings and reduce the size of the workforce, this could result in annual net savings of £10 billion per year by the end of this Parliament and £34 billion per year by the end of the next – enough to pay for the entire defence budget.”

This is the true Blairite mindset. Nothing about sharing the productivity gains made by workers in the form of higher wages, nothing about the redistribution of wealth or tackling income inequality. In Blaire’s Case for Reimagining the State poverty is not mentioned once. Inequality gets one mention but only as a statistic relating to workers forced to use food banks. 

What Blaire and Starmer – like the Conservative Party - appear to have forgotten is that  public services are exactly that –  services.  Yes they need to be efficient and cost effective but NOT to the extent that the service element is lost. The rich can afford to buy service, ordinary working people have to rely upon government for basic services and over the last few years they have been badly let down.  Poor pay, increasing workloads, job insecurity and private sector creep have all contributed to bringing Britain’s public services to the verge of collapse. Let us all hope Starmer and Blaire don’t push them completely over the edge.

[raven]

i feel like the tipping culture in my country might be different than in yours so i have a question (in good faith, i hope it comes across this way): why does tipping seem to be “reserved” only for waiters? why isn’t tipping for example cashiers a thing?

yeah im not super in the know on why tippong originated but heres my perspective as someone whos worked counter service cashier jobs and food retail and as a server

tipping is not reserved for waiters it's for people in the food industry, including cashiers, baristas, delivery drivers, etc (& support staff at restaurants get tipped out too) as well as for people giving services like hair dressers, masseuses, tattoo artists, taxi drivers, etc. like many people (stupid) wont tip cashiers and many places (fast food) wont let you tip their cashiers (they do get paid regular minimum wage though, while server minimum wage is 2.35 but it's weird to me to not allow tips). I always tip on to go orders bc the workers are doing the same amount; my restaurant doesnt have to go orders really but my old one did and tips on to go went straight to the support staff. but basically, its just how it is. why not tip retail? thats just not how it is. I dont know. Sorry. I havent really worked retail (i worked food retail and didnt get tips, but people would sneak me cash since i was doing some barista stuff) but it's kind of just that you are less in control of a customer's experience, generally. Like if you get your bra size measured, would you tip the person who did it? Idk. I'll have to check this out when i get my size measured soon. Idk, i try to tip as much as possible lol. Cashier, barista, etc. i buy something for $5 leave a $5 tip because it feels bad to leave just a dollar or two... theres also a retail store that allows tips at checkout and idk what it really goes to but i tip every time, i guess i could ask. and there's other services you tip for like hairdressers or masseuses or tattoo artists or taxi drivers like i mentioned before. at least thats just how i and others do it. because these people spend time, even several hours with you helping you and are probably not paid enough is my guess. (definitely taxi drivers are not paid enough especially if its uber/lyft...) Do you tip car repair? I need to get my car repaired, I'll look into it...

For why servers are prioritized in conversation: The bottom line is that it has been ingrained into american culture down to LAW that servers get paid less because they get tips. love it or hate it, by not giving tips you are not showing you disagree with a system, you are just fucking over a worker. You still spent the money at my restaurant, it will stay open. Many servers are also against passing laws to invoke minimum wages to lessen tipping because they would be paid way less, and i cant blame them. Like, my restaurant cant afford to pay me $60/hr. I got paid $60/hr tonight. I felt like i was going to die, but i would feel the same way if i was getting paid minimum wage by my employer, and i would be getting 1/4 that amount. Like serving simply isnt really worth it as a job because of the toll it takes on your mind and body to deal with customers, stand on your feet all day, carry heavy plates, clean the restaurant, etc, if we are not getting lots of money. At least for me since im disabled and killing myself with this job lol. But i have no college education and i LOVE feeding people good food! (I've also worked counter service not fast food, complicated , we did a lot of takeout, i mostly cashiered, never got a ton of tips, it was definitely much easier than being a full server in a full service restaurant. you should still tip people there thoughh)

[thessalian]

Thess vs Food Delivery Services

So one of the quasi-local food delivery services is garbage.

Saturday, I decide I'm going to treat myself to takeaway. I order from one of my favourite spots.

For reasons I still do not entirely understand, the food delivery service website decided to use what Firefox has decided is my location as the delivery address. Not ... y'know, the default address I have had in the system for several fucking years.

I did not notice this until I looked at the map that shows where your delivery driver is and noticed they had just ... stopped, in some residental area a few blocks away. That's when I checked the address and saw the address that was not mine.

Just as I noticed that, my phone rang - the delivery driver. I apologised for the inconvenience, told him that it had been some kind of error, and asked if I could give him the actual address and have him deliver it. He said, "You'll have to give me more money".

(Note: I had already tipped this man. I kind of regret it now.)

I explained that I could not give him more money because it would have to be cash and I haven't carried cash since before COVID first started. He just insisted that if I wanted my food driven, like, three-four extra blocks, I would have to give him extra money. He didn't even say how much - just went entirely silent as I gibbered in frustration.

Eventually I just told him I'd sort this out with the food delivery service's customer support. He said, "Yes, you do that" and hung up. I immediately used the website to contact to customer support to explain the situation, and ordered from another service because I wasn't getting any dinner otherwise.

Got a reply from customer service this afternoon. It read: "The driver tried to get in touch with you several times with no success, so he left your food in a designated safe space. Therefore, we cannot issue you a refund".

Go ahead and read the previous few paragraphs. I'll wait.

So I went back to them, clicked that I was not satisfied with their "resolution", and then left a full comment. Specifically, a more polite version of "The driver lied to you and you didn't even acknowledge anything I wrote in my immediate complaint. If this is how you treat your customers, I am very hesitant to order from you in the future".

Cue fuming.

The worst part of it is that yeah, there are other delivery services. The problem is that most of the people who drive for those UberEats-alikes drive for more than one. There is no guarantee that I won't have to deal with this bullshit again. I swear, ordering takeout is hard enough for me as it is with my dietary restrictions without making it impossible because drivers are happy to hold one's meal hostage.

[rabbitcruiser]

Pony Express Day

Pony Express Day celebrates those brave souls who made up the unique mail delivery system of the same name. Back in the days of the wild west, there was no Fed Ex, no Postal Service that ran that far west, no planes, and delivery by ship were likely to take months if it ever got there at all.

Seeing this need for a specialized delivery service, Leavenworth and Pike’s Peak Express Company took an opportunity to expand into this void. From this important decision was born one of the most iconic pieces of American History, whose influence is felt in hundreds of Pony Express Day Festivals throughout the American Midwest.

History of Pony Express Day

The Pony Express existed for 18 months between the days of April 3, 1860, to October 1861. In these days there was no airmail, no great American Highway, all there were was hundreds of miles of wide-open spaces with not much in between but animal-filled wilderness and bandito filled hollows.

During this time, if you wanted to send a letter or small package from anywhere East past the gateway of St. Joseph, Missouri, there was only one way to go. The Pony Express was a massive employer for its time, with up to 80 young riders employed at any given stage, with stringent requirements on their age, size, and weight.

The Pony Express preferred to employ the youngest riders they could, in part for their resilience, and in part for how light they were. The lighter a man was the longer the horse could run and the more cargo the rider could carry, and since the horses were put to go full tilt for 10 to 15 miles at a stretch before changing, this was of vital importance.

The rider changed out every 75 to 100 miles, but the mail never so much as slowed even in the worst of weather. While the average trip from coast to coast (On Horseback!) took 10 days, when they delivered Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, the trip was made in a mere 7 days and 17 hours.

How to celebrate Pony Express Day

With Pony Express Day Festivals being a staple all throughout the United States, there are tons of opportunities to celebrate the bravery of these young mailmen. You can spend Postal Express Day dressed up as one of these adventurous young souls who served as the heart of America’s fast-tracked postal line while watching equestrian events commemorating the challenges they faced.

Speaking of equestrian events lets not forget the true heroes of this endeavor, the horses that carried men and post across the nation time and time again. These events often have a broad range of related events, including food-related events.

Chili was one of the staples of the old American West, and as you might imagine there was often a pot of this spicy staple bubbling to keep the riders fed as they came in and out with the packages.

If you find yourself without a local event, you can host one at your home. Make Chili and Cornbread, find logos and the like to print out online, and get the 1953 movie ‘Pony Express’ featuring Charleston Heston and Rhonda Fleming!

This is a classic about this amazing American institution and the trials and efforts of the men and women who fought to make it a reality. So get together with your friends and family on Pony Express Day, and celebrate the Pioneer spirit of the Old West!

Source

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S7 E 11 (Chapter 128) Halloween 2

Jughead has found some sort of closure with the death of Rayberry though no answers yet about his potential murder, so he’s back to narrating.  Except - you know how Veronica said that his storytelling had troubling sexual politics (i.e. misogynistic)? Well, he disappointed me by casually using the very unexamined & cliche misogynist phrase “crazy cat lady” about that woman who wanted to know if there was some milk she could borrow.

He is not showing his usual acumen at sussing out the weird.  Because her obsession with filching milk from the associates of a known suicide is very intriguing.  Some questions, such as:  Is  this area some place that is impossible to get milk delivery? Has she ever seen the milkman or is this a place the milk man never came and suddenly showed up for Rayberry?  Is this residence in a food desert where getting basics like milk is difficult? Jughead is usually sympathetic to the underprivileged and yet- 1950s Jughead casual misogyny!  #disappoint.

Anyway, after failing to follow up on that potential lead, he nevertheless goes charging over to Sheriff Keller’s house to bother him in the middle of a not great work month  to tell him he’s doing his job badly.  Unsurprisingly, Keller’s reaction is not amused.  Jughead thinks that the milkman is important - “a killer milkman at large”  he says, even though he doesn’t like saying it. He literally cringes at himself (decade upon decades ahead of his time) in having to say the words A, Killer, Milkman, At, Large.  His hands are up in a very defensive, hands-up pose,  begging Please don’t kick me out and Please don’t think i’m crazy.   Keller is being very courteous.  He says it’s already established that Rayberry suicided - which Jughead vehemently disagrees with. 

It’s very hard to get law enforcement to redo homework they’ve already turned in.  Keller is not at all an exception to this rule. He wants Jughead to produce someone who actually SAW a milkman, before he opens Rayberry’s case again. He tells Jughead to stop being annoying, trying to give him work and such, then segues immediately into exposition for this episode:  Halloween is “not for teenagers looking to make trouble,” so he wants Jughead, a known trouble maker in Keller’s eyes because of his obsession with making Keller do proper policework, to remember “our ban.”

He has Jughead all wrong, does Keller, and always has across all universes.  Like, the narrative shows that Jughead liked, at minimum, and probably adored (for unspecified reasons) Jason Blossom but Keller accused Jughead of somehow obtaining a gun, shooting Jason at point blank range in the forehead and then transporting his body all the way to the river to dump it there.  Jughead for the past several episodes has been entirely isolated from anyone who does anything social in Riverdale right now (Archie, Reggie, Betty, Veronica), is trying to nurture a romantic friendship with Tabitha Tate, and is also revealed to be someone who has milk as part of his nutritionally complete breakfast - he’s as buttoned up and wholesome in his daily habits as anyone can be, in short - but Keller feels compelled to tell him to not get into trouble on Halloween.

We’re at the very fancily done traincar (Seriously, is that ceiling really like that or is that clever trompe l’oeil hollywood magic via Veronica??), where Jughead, who still manages to sleep with his felt crown without crushing it, contemplates a very full bottle of milk like it’s the skull of Yorick before smelling it then pouring it down the drain.

Many questions again - Does Jughead’s *train car* get milk delivery service?  Also he has a drain? It connects to a sewage system somehow?  (I also wonder this all the time about the OG Universe Dilton’s Bunker which has a flush toilet.)   In any case, he just pours what he thinks might be poisoned straight into the sewage system. 

While Drac’s Back (the song) is playing, Veronica is having breakfast at the Babylonium, which has on its marquee “Science Fiction Double Feature.”  I have long black hair and bangs.  Why can’t my hair look like that? How does she do that?   She’s excited because she’s going to wear a whole dominatrix witch outfit to school.  

Veronica’s outfit is EYE POPPING.  Super high heels, large-gauge fishnet stockings, a boudoir chiffon skirt over a gem encrusted bodysuit, bare shoulders and arms, studded collar, an excellent broom prop  and a fantastic witch hat.  Her lipstick is black even.  Everyone is completely agog, then it turns a bit mocking. As she walks down the hall, Veronica realizes these people don’t do Halloween costumes at school.  At all. 

When she enters the student lounge, her appearance is greeted with a record scratch sound.  Betty can’t stop smiling about how hot Veronica looks to her (“You look- [grin grin grin] everything PLUS.”) Everyone’s reactions are so funny.  Dilton is startled but can’t not stare at Veronica’s ass as she walks past him to talk to the people who count.  Betty as I’ve said is very happy.  Veronica glows so hot Reggie can’t actually keep looking directly at her.  Archie is googly eyed with happiness.  Why Betty and Archie look at each other to confirm that Veronica is indeed looking very fetching is the question that should launch much speculation about their respective sexualities. 

In any case, Archie, then Cheryl, then Toni provide some context rules:  Riverdale is uncomfortable about Halloween unlike Greendale which actively celebrates it, to such an extent that teenagers have to observe a sundown curfew.  When Archie explains finally that a bunch of teenagers died in a tragic car accident on Halloween a few years back, Clay also looks intrigued.   Veronica is bereft about not being able to do anything much on Halloween. Also nobody is allowed to say “hell” - Archie says “raising Heck” and Kevin says “raising Cain.”    Reggie won’t even miss it - he’s never celebrated Halloween. 

Veronica gives a little speech about all the ways Halloween can be liberating - for sexual exploration as well as to “honor the dead.”    When Veronica says “back in Los Angeles” and describes what sounds like a normal Hollywood party, Cheryl has a really bad reaction.  Why is Cheryl so enraged every time Veronica talks about Los Angeles?   In any case, Veronica says the Lodges had “a family altar” where they lit candles for the dead.  Im’ curious about the insane amount of Halloween related decorations that are up in this room anyway  - no fewer than five carved Jack O Lanterns, a witch decal, more pumpkins, a couple skulls and ghosts and bats.  

Veronica announces that nothing shall hold her down. She also uses the word “gatekeepers” and I don’t know if that means anything.  Just in time to her saying, “Just when you think this town couldn’t get any kookier” in comes Jughead.   Who immediately starts freaking out about milk.  He starts screaming to NOT DRINK FRESH MILK ANYMORE.  He slaps Dilton’s milk carton right out of his hand.  He advises everyone to Drink Powdered Milk.   Veronica is so tired of his silliness.  I wonder if she’s going to do anything about it, because she is the only who is shown having a reaction. 

We cut to Ethel, on the phone next to a very overbearing Mother Mary statuary AND a crucifix on the wall, telling Jughead she’s OK.  Ethel says she misses Jughead (aww) and she misses school but this all just sails right over his head because he is still in his manic episode about the milkman.  He tells Ethel, incarcerated in an insane asylum for claiming a milkman killed her parents, that he doesn’t want to upset her further but then directly proceeds to tell her his theory that his favorite author (which she knows! Because they’re actually really friends!) was murdered by “a” milkman at the very least.   Then she has a great insight- that it would be useful to talk to whoever wrote the originating Killer Milkman comic.  Just as Jughead is about to exult about this idea, Ethel hurriedly says that she has to go because the nun is giving her the evil eye, ending with a meaningful “hopefully I will see you soon.”  Jughead wonders what she meant.

At the shop class facilities at school, Archie has successfully involved himself in Betty and Reggie’s twosome project to make Bella a usable car.   Reggie and Archie are wearing matchy-matchy his-and-his T shirts smudged just the right amount with gunk (Reggie in white, Archie in green).  The two of them flexing their muscles side by side doing car fiddly things makes Betty, who is dressed like Rosie the Riveter but with a pink paisley bandana that leaves most of her hair free, falls immediately into an erotic fugue.  Her fantasies are really very specific - a threesome when the two others have eyes - and lips - only for her.   Archie wants to give Reggie a “real Halloween” because all he’s ever done is cowtipping.  

Betty defines a real Halloween as 1. trick or treating, 2.  visiting a graveyard and 3. necking in a haunted house.  Archie is familiar with 1 and 2 but she just made up No. 3, I think, because his eyes are bugging out of his head.  He looks over at Reggie to see if he’s into it.  Reggie is all about it.  

Meanwhile, Veronica is flipping through the scrapbook of the Babylonium’s events of the past.  There was in 1942 a Halloween Ghost Show at this theater, where a Phantom Polka Dancer would “appear in person” for “one night only.”    The phantom polka dancer looks a lot like that possessed girl from The Exorcist.   Veronica wants to recreate this ‘Halloween Ghost Show’ but before she can complete her smirk of satisfaction she hears thudding from what should be the empty projection room. 

Very bravely, she goes to investigate.  In it she discovers the gays necking.   Clay pretends he left keys in the room.  Veronica wants to do a 1920s glam themed ghost show for a Halloween night indoor event for the teenyboppers - staying with the letter of the law in order to flout its spirit.   She’s so ambitious - it’s gonna be “monsters, movies, burlesque” ending with a “raising of the dead at midnight.” 

Is Jughead even going to school anymore or does he just pop in and out of the publishing house at lunch time?  In any case, his editor in chief keeps zero track of who has written what, so he doesn’t know who wrote the Milkman comics.  But he does invite Jughead to the staff party for grown ups. 

I guess Betty has completely subdued the school principal as well as his child psychologist boyfriend because the sheer amount of school real estate that Veronica’s promotional activities for her business is allowed to take up in its halls is astonishing.  For a town that supposedly has a lot of trauma about four teenagers that died on Halloween, the booth she’s erected is enormous and spectacular.   Clay and Kevin shout things like “There will be mayhem” but there isn’t a single disapproving  adult in sight.   Veronica is brazen. She promises that the four dead Riverdale students will “return from the dead before your very eyes.”

Later, Toni approaches Cheryl to show us that she’s back to her old bullshit. Here she is, drawing Cheryl ‘out’ again, to participate in a gay-backup-dancers-only floor show  choreographed by Veronica.  Cheryl isn’t so sure about any of this, and in any case, she has Vixen duties.  After giving Cheryl (and only Cheryl) an inexplicably hard time about race dynamics, now Toni brings up the need for LGBTQ solidarity in order to force Cheryl into doing something that Cheryl isn’t sure about, that will also cause her to renege on an obligation she feels is a “tradition.”  “People like us” is what Toni says.  She is so manipulative. 

At the end of basketball practice, Uncle Fucking Frank wants to make sure that none of his boys is gonna “go out wilding.”   The locker room is also festooned with Halloween paraphernalia.  Who put it up and why?  

Julian starts to immediately make trouble.   He has a little towel draped around  his lower half, and I wonder if he’s in the same erotic fugue about Reggie and Archie, because he unnecessarily spread his legs to put one foot up on the bench to show both of them his junk as he invites the two to go ‘wilding’ with him.  Reggie says no.  Julian starts bark-hooting to get the other boys riled up after announcing that the ‘wilding’ is going to begin in the school parking lot after sundown on Halloween.  Archie disapproves, turning  his back on everyone to open his locker.

WE HAVE A VERY COOL LOCKER TO LOCKER TRANSITION as Archie closes his locker which then turns into Veronica’s locker door in the girls’ locker room, which she opens.  She and Betty are talking about Reggie’s virginity (about Halloween) and how unbelievable that is.  Veronica knows that Betty has the hots for someone, so she asks about it.  Betty confesses that she has the hots for both Reggie and Archie.  She advises Betty to use Halloween night to figure out which one makes her clit tingle more (“figure out which way your love compass is truly pointing”).  Veronica’s skin in this game is that she wants to be told all about it the next day. 

At the Blossom mansion,  Penelope is drinking some red liquor. Her hair is amazingly ridiculous and it looks like a bitch to maintain it so it looks that exact degree of wrong and unflattering. Omg she’s so hot. Anyway.  She thinks that Cheryl is less likely to gayly molest the other cheerleaders if they “decamp” the sleepover to “the grand hall.”   Julian apparently is fully aware of what is being discussed, enough to object to his mother putting images of his sister engaging in “hanky panky” into the dinner conversation. 

Adult supervision finally catches up with Veronica just as she’s putting the final touches on the decorations for her Halloween show.  Alice Cooper appears, bristling with insecurity about the new competition in the Halloween entertainment of Riverdale of which she’s had a monopoly so far (“It’s not going to affect our ratings.”)  Hence the whole Halloween taboo is partially revealed to be not so much about lowering teen mortality nor in honor of the dead.  It’s about ratings & eyeballs on advertisers.   Alice says that she will “allow” the event to proceed, but tells Veronica that she has been “put on notice.”  About what?  That Alice disapproves of Veronica?

After stocking up on Powdered Milk, Jughead hears someone walk directly up to his (very insecure) residence.  He’s immediately terrified. He hides after grabbing some sort of hammer or poker or something.  

It’s Ethel!  She’s all smudged with dirt, wearing a very disheveled inmate uniform.  

Jughead wants to know how she escaped from the asylum.  She says that she’d heard about the escape tunnels, so she spent all her time looking for them.  Having located them, it was her truncated call with Jughead that “gave me the push I needed to make a break for it.”  Because she is alone that absolutely nobody ever calls her (not Betty, not Alice, not Dilton, not Ben) that she clung on to the one slight indication she was entirely forgotten!   The two of them exchange a tender look.  I like them together.    Ethel says her keepers were cruel and abusive, so she just needs to make it a “couple months” until she’s 18.   Jughead wants to invite her to stay with him, but it’s not safe.  He offers Rayberry’s apartment, because Rayberry had the very useful foresight to pay rent through to the end of the year.  

Jughead is just the nicest.  He is concerned that she might be too afraid to stay in a dead man’s apartment, but Ethel is stalwart. He also invites her to a party her first night sprung from jail.

In the bathroom at school, Midge seeks permission to not have to go to the slumber party from Cheryl.  Cheryl responds at first with the party line - the slumber party is “a Vixen tradition” and “the center must hold.” Midge folds immediately. 

Cheryl is, I will note again, incredibly powerful in this timeline.  Archie really, really didn’t know what he was talking about when he said people don’t listen to Cheryl.  He’s simply protected from her wrath by dint of having the ginger gene. 

But then, Cheryl realizes she wants to go to the Veronica-led event, so she comes up with the idea to let Evelyn (“that witchy witch”) to host the slumber party instead, so she and Midge can go to the Babylonium instead.  The two girls (the gay one and the pregnant one) sweetly affirm to each other how discreet each of them are, and promise to reveal a big secret on Halloween night. 

So even though he allowed (or was powerless against) Veronica to do whatever she wanted in terms of her commercial activities, Featherhead and his boyfriend still have hard-ons for giving Jughead Jones a rough time.   Jughead is subjected to questioning by the pair as well as Keller and Sister Woodhouse about the missing Ethel Muggs.   Being a smart boy, Jughead has learned all the right lessons from Rayberry about how to deal with these people’s pressure tactics.   He responds with sarcastic amazement that they’ve essentially ‘lost’ Ethel - that is, he avoids lying but simply neglecting to answer an unstated question.  Then when Keller threatens him with another home invasion, Jughead directly asks him not to ‘trash’ the place with a smile, which he wipes from his face immediately to demonstrate his disdain.  As he takes his leave, a very Halloween ghost cackles for him as part of the soundtrack transition to the next scene. 

At home, Archie and Reggie are putting themselves into the costumes created by Mary Andrews (who can’t stand to be seen now that there are THREE men in the house.)  Reggie and Archie discuss Betty.   The boys boast to each other about “getting vibes” from Betty.  Archie suddenly wonders if Betty might want to “make it” with one of them this night.  Made entirely of cheekbones, pouty lips and pecs, this causes Reggie to very homosexually get super close to Archie to say that it wouldn’t surprise him if Betty had such horny plans, since “she ain’t blind.”  

It’s very ambiguous actually if he means only himself, or Archie, or both of them.  In the mirror, he’s looking at himself frontwise, but he’s also looking at Archie’s sculpted arms and chest and the rest of him in the all american white T and jeans.   Archie either genuinely doesn’t (he is just not smart in this universe) or pretends to think that Reggie meant only himself.  So they stand shoulder to shoulder in the mirror, because that’s a very heterosexual thing to do, while Archie says that “she might wanna get with me, Reg.”   Having been thus rejected,  Reggie walks away from him.  Unholstering his big gun, Reggie suggests that if either of them get the feeling that Betty has chosen either one of them, the unchosen will “vamoose.”   Archie agrees, which leads to the two of them pointing their guns at each other. Twice. 

Ethel and Jughead arrive at the Halloween party.  I wish I knew what they were dressed as.   Jughead is wearing a huge stovepipe hat. Ethel is in the mask that Jughead promised her.  The extraordinarily elaborate costumes that all these comic book industry people are wearing would put a lot of cons to shame.  Bernie screams for Jughead, launching himself into an embrace.   Jughead looks extremely happy to be embracing Bernie.  Bernie says “It’s gonna be a crazy night” so Jughead and Ethel enter the fray.

While her parents are hamming it up on tv, Betty’s three suitors (Reggie, Archie and for some reason Dilton) are waiting for her to appear at their home.   When Archie and Reggie (meanly) imply that Dilton is there as a form of hero worship for the two of them in his role as “the water boy,” Dilton stands up for himself to let them know that Betty invited him in particular to be here. 

When she appears, Betty’s cleavage looks absolutely amazing.  It brings Reggie and Archie  to their feet.   Dilton is so agog that he doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be.  Betty has really thought of everything about this entrance, from the costume to the perfect thing to say.  She’s Goldilocks because “she couldn’t decide on a bed so she tried all three.   Dilton has a really huge pumpkin head as his costume. 

Reggie is having the best time trick or treating. He cocks out a hip and deploys his dimples to maximum effect.   Of course, the good times can’t last.  The four of them witness Julian and others bashing pumpkin decorations with baseball bats as they drive by, hollering.  Of course, the cops are nowhere to be seen when it’s Julian Blossom flouting the rules and causing actual property damage.  Dilton wisely decides he’s had enough, and goes home. 

At Veronica’s event at the Babylonium, things look very “Cabaret” to me, which is 1930s not 20s, but it doesn’t matter.  People look very sexy here.   The costumes for this are eye popping as well - one girl has a whole 3 foot tall headdress and everything.   As soon as Cheryl and Midge enter, Toni is all over Cheryl.   

I was so happy they didn’t make me listen to Fangs singing at his big gig, but Riverdale betrays me by forcing me to listen to him at this party. 

At the Pep Comics party, workaholic artists gonna art, apparently because sketching is going on - with Ethel participating!  Jughead interviews a series of very interestingly wonky-looking people.   One guy in a silk top hat who says he doesn’t know who wrote the Milkman story but is seething with jealousy over it.  Jonah, in smudgy eyeliner, doesn’t think it was that great.  Then Jughead talks to the devil, who tells him that it was “Ted Sullivan, a journeyman writer.”  (Ted Sullivan is on the writing staff at Riverdale, and wrote among others, the “Killing Mr. Honey” episode.)  After saying his name four times, Riverdale drops the bomb that this Ted is dead, died the same way as Rayberry, because he didn’t think he could live up to the masterpiece that was the Milkman Comic.  Then the devil launches into a speech about “the enemy is here, at home” and “we’re the enemies.”  Jughead is very startled.

After lighting a truly huge number of candles at the graveyard, Reggie and Bettie are howling at the sky.   Reggie says he knows a lot about wolves because he’s a fellow alpha who grew up with them.  His way of showing off is so cute and so dumb.   “Is that what you think you are? An alpha?” Betty asks in a butter soft voice.

I know they’ll deny it, but Riverdale writing team has read at least some of those werewolf-Serpent fanfics, because this set up - howling together ‘as a joke’ in a graveyard on Halloween then having Reggie and Betty talk  like this is almost a fricking prompt for some Retty/Beggie werewolf AUs to be drafted.

What could be a very interesting alpha-omega discussion between this pair is interrupted by Julian and a couple Bulldogs still whooping it up as they cruise around town being a nuisance.   Seeing Julian breaks the mood between Reggie and Betty, causing her to go seek Archie out.

Of course, Archie is sadly contemplating his father’s gravestone.  Betty starts to apologize immediately.  Even though he clearly isn’t, Archie reassures her that he’s fine and that it’s ok and it’s fine.  Then he demonstrates how haunted he is by this father’s absence -he immediately launches into a memory.  The two used to do a lot of trick or treating together as kids, even doing Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.   Then I realize that I fell for it - THIS WAS ALL A PLOY.   Archie’s plan was to tug at her heartstrings so he could bring up that he was the OG hotstuff.  Well dang, Archie!

Reggie tries to interrupt but his face already admits defeat.  He asks to be taken to the haunted house.  The three of them go to the murder house.  Betty is not at all spooked, so she wanders further into the house to look for “eleven up.”    

Reggie is really the most honorable, because he takes this time to discreetly tell Archie that he’s going to vamoose as he originally proposed.  Archie is nice too, telling him he doesn’t have to do that, but Reggie is a man’s man (and a genuine ladies’ man) because cock blocking out of spite is just not something he’s willing to do no matter how enticing the girl.   Betty comes back with orange sodas.  Archie grants Reggie a good enough exit, by telling Betty that Reggie was tired.  Betty, despite her earlier threesome fantasy, doesn’t much care which of the pair she gets.  She smiles at Archie.

Veronica so loves giving speeches and hosting events. She looks so happy in her black lipstick, standing in front of four coffins. I still can’t believe that this event is going to go forward in this way.  This is so callous it’s kind of funny.  Anyway, Veronica is going on about the midnight feature, dropping the fact that Boris Karloff is her godfather.  

The music number is from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Which is very timeline busting. So are we doing like a backwards-reverse Back to the Future thing where instead of a fictional white guy taking credit for a real-life black musical invention from his past ( Rock ‘n’ Roll) we have a fictional Latina woman taking credit for a real-life musical written by a white man in her future?   The twisty turny of all this is also breaking my brain because the singing in the actual movie of the real musical (Rocky Horror Picture Show) was very very imperfect except for Tim Curry and Meatloaf, and intentionally so.  The singing in the musical numbers of Riverdale also have this same trait - it’s intentionally imperfect except when Josie and Kevin were singing.  The overall technical quality of the singing is better than in that musical film (Susan Sarandon can barely sing, which places the Cheryl, Betty, Veronica and Archie actors in a higher competence category).  But for some reason (oh fine, because I love Rocky Horror Picture Show) this marmoreal smoothness of the singing by everyone involved is very very horrifying to me.  I’m getting literal shivers of distress.  There’s just too much camp happening.   When it meets the airbrushed camp of Riverdale, the rough-around-the-edges camp of Rocky Horror evaporates, leaving only raunchiness.  Riverdale has highly sexual teens, and always has, but at the same time it gets very coy with how it describes sex, sexuality and sexual activity, so I was a bit startled at Clay belting out “orgasmic rush of lust” like that.

Kevin calling for “mommy” when we’ve never seen her but has caused him to be, well, how he is by calling him fat one time because he actually was and he never got over it, is a lot.  But then they pan away as he sings “what’s this? Let’s see” as he starts to look at his own crotch I REALLY WANT TO KNOW what the choreo was implied to be. Did he look into the contents of his own crotch  pouch? Why is the audience reacting like that??

Cheryl then comes out with the most on the nose bit.  She scream-sings:  I feel released/ Bad times deceased - and so on. Cheryl has ballet training, and again the technical competence which doesn’t at all cover up the extremely clunky nature of the steps she’s being made to do is horrifying.   At the end of her number, she pulls Toni close to kiss her in front of everybody. 

We cut to Veronica doing Frank’n’Furter which is a bit like Nicole Kidman being made to sing Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.  There are certain songs that can never be sung by anyone other than that one singer, and “Don’t Dream It” is really one of those songs.   The topsy turvy un-doing and re-doing continues, because for a woman (and a very cis, very pretty one at that) wanting to be “dressed just the same” as Fay Wray has zero subversive energy compared to Tim Curry as the transsexual alien doing it, so there’s a neutralizing of the power of that song. In order to make up for it, they put Veronica in a Marlene Dietrich tuxedo-for-girls from Morocco (where Dietrich sings a floor show and then kisses a girl on the mouth in front of everyone to general delight and applause).   It’s not fair to pit Veronica’s Riverdalian version of this song (and the screechy belting they make her do given the key choices) against the true blue one by Tim Curry, but it must be said:  There’s nothing sensual about the way Veronica is saying things like “give yourself over to absolute pleasure.” Everything she’s doing  - the volume of the singing, the thinness of the voice, the effortful meaninglessness of the choreography - is the opposite of giving yourself over to anything. 

Into all this, Alice, looking like a bomb has hit her, enters the theater. She reacts with horror. I don’t know if the horror is supposed to be about the nature of the song she’s hearing or it’s from being turned on by Clay dancing gayly in just his shorts.   Kevin articulates her shellshocked reaction with yet more exactly on the nose misappropriation of the lyrics (“It’s beyond me/ Help me Mommy”). 

All the extra give the hardworking main cast of Riverdale a standing ovation.

Elsewhere, Reggie is walking home all lonesome along  the deserted road when very ominously, Julian and two others in death masks stop beside him.   Julian says that Reggie should “join the fun unless you’ve got something better to do” because he is “going across the bridge to Greendale to raise some hell.”

OOOH HE SAID THE FORBIDDEN H- WORD!!  Was - was the strange word choices in Raising Cain and Wilding and all that leading up to this moment? 

Reggie isn’t going to make it with Betty today, so he hops into the car of destruction.  

At the haunted house, Archie finally makes a move to Betty, telling her he wants to kiss her.  She says she feels exactly the same way.  Unfortunately, they are cockblocked by a milkman who peers in on them.   Betty is smart - she isn’t afraid of no ghosts, but a real-life white guy being creepy is very good reason to run the heck away. 

After the event, Clay and Kevin are cleaning up like the good theater people they are.  Veronica wants to do a weekly midnight event at the theater that is “Fun and Campy.”  We are being extraordinarily on the nose today.  Anyway, the gays are worried about Veronica’s homelessness after parental abandonment, leading to her having to live in the movie theater.  Veronica lies about all of it (“everything’s peachy”) because she can’t stand sympathy or pity from others. 

At the Diner, Midge and Fangs have told Cheryl and Toni their big secret (her “honeybun” in the oven).  Midge then remarks on the fact that Cheryl and Toni have effectively come out to all the teenagers who were there at the Babylonium.  Toni is so glad that they’ve all put away their masks.  

I don’t know how loud they were speaking or if Evelyn just has superhuman hearing capacity, but she is there at the diner (somehow? why? how? isn’t she supposed to be hosting the sleepover? Is she there to pick up a midnight snack??)

Archie and Betty are safely back at home.   They tell each other that they had the “best” time ever.  Now, they are cockblocked by Alice, who takes out her distress at finding Clay very hot by yelling at her daughter in front of the whole neighborhood.  

With a quiet moment to herself, Veronica lights a votive candle to… Rudolph Valentino. Why is he on the altar with her grandmother?  Where’s Boris Karloff??  There’s a Jughead amount of candles lit in her small living area she’s made in the movie theater.  Veronica sleeps with a photo of herself with her parents.  Oh the poor baby. She’s very upset.

Jughead has walked Ethel to Rayberry’s apartment. Jughead is not wearing any sort of headgear - no crown, no jokey hat.  I - I feel like he’s en déshabillé.  Unable to resist the hair,

Ethel invites him in, using a tone of voice that sets all my shipping urges tingling.  Except -oh poor Ethel.  This is the universe - THIS IS IT! - the one where she could totally have a thing with Jughead, but there’s Tabitha!  Tabitha the Real is out there saving all of the multiverse and Tabitha of this world is out there on the bus tour against racism.  No dice.  Jughead says he’s tired and that he needs to feed the dog.  Sigh.   Ethel totally reacts like this is a rejection of her invitation to an assignation, but she’s nice about it.  But come on Jughead, live a little!  (Sorry, Tabitha, but Ethel was here - in my heart - first.)

As soon as Ethel enters the Rayberry apartment, dun dun dun, that weird guy in the milkman outfit is totally in there waiting for her.

Jughead is walking out when he gets accosted by that very plot-important lady obsessed with forcing her neighbors to make a milk donation to her cat.  She says, “Oh I thought you were the milkman” because she heard the bottles again.  There’s both a Dutch Angle AND dolly zoom happening as Jughead puts it all together, before rushing back to the Rayberry former residence shouting for Ethel. 

Jughead breaks down the door!  He falls faceforward into the apartment, only to make direct eye contact with the corpse on the floor.  “Jeepers” he says and - seriously, truly, this was wonderful line delivery.  I mean it. 

Ethel is having HER MOMENT.  She’s so super tall to begin with, so she looks totally magnificent, holding a bloody knife, standing victorious over the dead milkman, as she passionately tells Jughead, “I told everyone it was a milkman!”  Jughead looks so scared.

Archie is woken up in the middle of the night by Uncle Frank, who seems very upset.  He says a carful of Bulldogs went over the bridge into the River.  Archie stares upset at Reggie’s very empty bed. 

If they made Reggie die in the racist’s car I will be pitching a FIT.

[perfectlylegendarypolice]

Social Problems

Social Problems are the status and manner of the society with the presence of negative effects for many persons. However, those are important requirements to admit according to the manner and status to be considered. 

Social Problems are increasing in India more than all over the world. Moreover, it includes the caste system, religious system, struggle of youth, career problems, and more. Which are making our society full of problems and difficulties.   

Problems or Upsets in the rising of youth

If you’ll read, then the troubles in society are increasing day by day. Which causes upsets in the rise of the youth. 

Problems are here:

Poverty

Poverty is the main problem in society. Because it causes health issues, food insecurities, absence of a house, and more. Most of the people couldn’t fulfill their aims only because of the bad condition of their family. Approximately, 2 percent of the 3 percent of people are living a lower middle class life by 2024. According to me, the Government should take some strong action for these troubles.    

Corruption

According to the study, India is at about 70+ rank from approx. 170 countries in the International Corruption Perception Index. Corruption determines dishonesty, fraud, and criminal violation, which is obtained from the authority position to be assigned. These cases get under the illegal advantages or the abusive use of power by one for his intimate gain.

Crime

The rate of crime in India is about 446 percent per 100,000 people according to 2024 studies. However, murder, rape cases, chain snatching, bank robbery and more. Crimes are a big problem in the rise of society. For example, women could not go outside at night for their jobs because of the fear of crimes. Which doesn’t let them be independent in their life.    

Violence

Violence is the deep injury to the society and its unity. Violence produces destructive impacts on social life. However, it injures not only victims but also their social life. Some younger boys show their power by the violence and fight but do not think about their careers and future which impacts their life as well as their surrounding ones.  

Overpopulation

The overpopulation rate in India is on its peak with 13 million of the population in 2024. Furthermore, overpopulation causes poverty, unemployment, and more troubles in society. However, it is a large and wide problem that spreads in India every day. Which increases unemployment in society also. 

Gender inequality

Gender inequality determines unequal treatment according to gender. Girls don't get their rights from society. However, they don’t get an allowance or freedom in their life to do anything for their career. Some people abort the girl in the mother’s womb, which unstable the natural process of population. These are also troubles in social life which are getting backward to us. 

Steps taken by the Government to decrease society's problems

The government conducted the Food Security Act 2013 So that no one would sleep hungry. However, this helps a person who doesn’t have anything like money, a house, and more.

Corruption is taking a big face in society, but the government started some strong acts to reduce corruption like the Indian Penal Code, The Prevention of Corruption Act, and more. These acts reduced many corruption cases in India.

Crime could be controlled only by the hard actions and rules taken by the government. The criminals get hard punishment according to the laws. 

The government conducted the plans and services of ASHA for delivery or as contraceptive medicine and more these types of services. These types of services assist in controlling the population of youth.

To solve the problem of Gender inequality in society, authorities started many rules and acts for the development of women as well as society. The plans for girls are such as the opening of govt. girls' schools/colleges, job posts for women, and more. These services give freedom to the girls/women for their careers.      

How can we overcome these problems by ourselves?

Every problem has the solution of itself just like every lock has its key. However, we also have a solution to every problem. The solutions for social troubles can be as follows:

We can be serious and dedicated for our future or career on our basis. However, we should be upgraded and gain all knowledge about the overall world. 

We should learn some important skills that can help us in every type of field like technology is upgrading every year, so we should learn about technology.

Youth should control their anger issues which could control violence problems in society. They should understand the difference between right and wrong.

Our youth can only control the crimes of society. The young ones have that much power with the right to stop these crimes. Moreover, girls can take hard action against criminal acts.

Our young ones should have the proper education to fight every type of trouble. It may cause fewer crimes and victims.             

Conclusion

Society can change and develop the lives of many people. However, the condition of social life is getting worse every day. Higher education and proper knowledge are the largest weapons to fight against all social troubles. Criminal issues can be handled by an educated person easily. Moreover, poverty is also getting our society backward. So, a focused mind and some actions and services by the government can solve this issue. Following all solutions and steps can assist everyone to enhance their surroundings as well as social life.   

[k2kitsupport]

E-Commerce

If we compare with our earlier life, had we ever thought that we would order the goods from mobile or electronic gadgets… all the work will be done with one click. But now we are shopping, ordering food, or getting various services while sitting at home.

It all happens due to the Internet and innovative technology.

The activity of buying or selling goods, services, and transmission of information, data, etc. using electronic mediums probably over the internet is E-Commerce.

E-commerce helps firms/businesses and customers save time and money. It enables the firm to get an online store and offer a wider range of customers other than their locality whereas customers get a range of products to choose from.

E-commerce varies based on its nature. A business model that lets businesses buy and sell things to other companies over the Internet comes under the Business-to-Business (B2B) model. In the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model, buying and selling activities are done between the businesses and direct users. Similarly, there are other e-commerce models such as Business-to-Government (B2G), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B), and Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C), differ on their nature of buyer and seller.

We know that e-commerce is beneficial but, what if its website fails to convey messages, cannot allure traffic, or fails to increase sales?

Considering above all, every business requires certain essential features to make their e-commerce website the best and increase sales. The e-commerce website must be responsive, easy to use, and have attractive pages, a user-friendly structure, multiple payment options, 24x7 customer service, extensive product information, etc., these are the elements that drive customer traffic.

Other than the above features,

- Universal acceptance,

- Optimal pricing,

- Offering discounts and loyalty points,

- Multilevel security,

- Provide personalized services, sorting and filtering features as per the audience’s requirements,

- Easy to navigate product catalog,

- Smooth online order processing,

- Error-free transactions

- Hassle-free delivery system

- Superior customer service, etc.

are the advanced features to streamline the management. Incorporating them into the e-commerce website is not just a trend but necessary to survive in the competitive digital marketplace.

Another concerning feature in customer’s view is the security of online payment data. Secure payment gateways ensure customers that their card details are safely stored. And knowing their sensitive information is protected, delighted customers can confidently shop and use credit cards to make payments.

For e-commerce, businesses need to aim to optimize their systems, minimize errors, and enhance customer satisfaction.

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[theaceofskulls]

On the subject of restaurants these days, food delivery service apps continue to become my most hated thing in the world.

Yesterday we got through one of the worst experiences at a ramen/sushi place that was only partly the fault of the 20 something year old that sat down next to us and put some shitty youtube quality podcast interview on full blast on their phone.

Food places aren't staffed for handling full capacity seating and constant orders coming in and watching your order get deprioritized because of doordash/grubhub/popup app #26 fucking sucks.

I ordered an appetizer because I was starving and the fact that a few apps had a "warning, this will take 15 minutes" warning made me feel confident I would get it in a reasonable time, not 40 goddamn minutes later.

But you get to see roughly a dozen bedraggled delivery drivers rush in and get handed a plastic bag in that time frame.

Half the restaurants I've been in have also had to slow down the staff to handle these orders because it turns out that any of them that put up shelves for the drivers (usually in the most awkward spot for the staff to actually put them on) ends up retiring the system due to the amount of food stolen.

As for actually ordering through the app, it's just as miserable. Because of the shit pay, all the good drivers have either left or have to basically plan an entire route. I hear constant horror stories about misdeliveries, drivers stealing food, delays because someone grabbed the wrong bag, and so much more. All this for fees that pretty much double the cost of the food.

And the drivers barely see a cent. I know because I drove for one of them and the tip system is awful. Upfront tipping on top of all the fees means half the trips aren't worth the gas, you encounter the worst apartment layouts you'll ever see, you're constantly being rushed, and most of the food places you go to are still barely able to handle this system because it's stapled onto them by a third party.

This entire ecosystem and how it's been handled has actively made everything about restaurants worse for the sake of minor convenience because the entire thing is a way to funnel money to the top of a couple of shitty app companies.

[theshadowrealmitself]

So my previous job was one of those app shopping jobs but! What a lot of people didn’t know about that company I worked for is that there were two positions

The first position, that everyone knew about, was the full service workers, these were the people who do the deliveries, so sometimes they would shop an order and deliver, or they would pick it up from our area where we already shopped it and deliver, they were considered contracted workers

The second position, the one I worked for, was the in store shopper position, we would get assigned a store, and we would spend our entire shift shopping orders back to back and putting them in the staging area which contained a freezer, fridge, some shelves, and a “hot” bag, that was just an insulated bag that could keep stuff warm for a bit, but definitely not hot, this position was only part time

Anyways, not a lot of people knew about the in store shoppers, which sucked, because people would hear about the strikes the delivery drivers would do, and would know about their mistreatment, but no one ever heard about us

And those working conditions sucked. One of the biggest things was that we didn’t have a break room. When I first started out, we were allowed to use the store’s break room (we were a separate company from the store), but like a year or so into working for them, the store decided that they only wanted their employees in it, so all of us were banned from it (this was apparently a decision made in all the chains)

Many employees started hanging out in their cars, but for me, who did not have a car, my only option really was to hang out on the curb in front of the store

We also weren’t allowed to store any personal food in the fridges or freezer, which made sense because it was a health code violation, but they definitely never supplied us with a mini fridge or microwave so that we could bring food, you’d either have to store it in your cars, or if you were like me, either buy food from the store (they were half hour lunches and every fast food place in the area had such long lines you could only barely get your food in time, had no chance to eat it), or just go without eating at all

Our company swore they would fix this but they never did

After we all got transferred over to a new store (no clue what was happening at the other stores) where we had to do curbside orders too, we were finally given a singular chair to have our breaks in

Which workers from the store would use occasionally and we weren’t allowed to say anything to them even though they had a big break room because our company wanted us to keep the peace with the store

They still never gave us a microwave or mini fridge

There was a lot more bs happening during this time (shift lead lying about how many breaks we were allowed so she could make us work more to make her look like an incredible shift lead, store workers stealing from us and then refusing to show us the surveillance tapes, the extremely high turnover rate because of all the different bs reasons they could fire us, etc) but I never stopped being upset the break room situation

Anyways, they got rid of our company from their stores because they’re going to do their own shopping system through their store (like how Walmart does it), so everyone in my company was laid off (you were able to move to full service, but since I still don’t have a car I couldn’t do that)

(Also it’s definitely not gonna go great with them taking over, the higher ups for that store never thought highly of our position and from what we’ve heard about how they’re going to do it, it’s obvious they still don’t, and they are so underprepared to take over)

This was originally going to be a post about an annoying customer I dealt with, I was just going to post a little bit of background on my position, whoops