#transaction processing system companies

[rkassociatesvaluers]

To reap the fruits of globalization, scale up the business operations and serve the market and society with improved & cost-effective product and services deliveries, it is important to join hands in the form of Mergers and Acquisitions & Joint Ventures for gaining technology support, entering into niche areas, business consolidation, research & development, sharing of expertise, location advantages.

However, successfully handling the deal becomes very important to make it a success. Before entering into a transaction, it is important for the businesses to evaluate several different direct aspects of entering into a transaction like a long-term plan, key purpose to achieve, strengths and weaknesses of the entity, key takeaway from the transaction, key synergies to achieve and indirect accounting, tax, regulatory, legal, management and cultural aspects of the target company carefully and preferably through the help of experts.

R.K Associates is one of the most trusted and leading in providing Transaction Advisory Services & Support in India.

[destielmemenews]

"School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge “processing fees” for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount. Processing companies charge as much as $3.25 or 4% to 5% per transaction, according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

source 1

source 2

source 3

[queerculus]

it's honestly nuts to me that critical infrastructure literally everywhere went down because everyone is dependent on windows and instead of questioning whether we should be letting one single company handle literally the vast majority of global technological infrastructure, we're pointing and laughing at a subcontracted company for pushing a bad update and potentially ruining themselves

like yall linux has been here for decades. it's stable. the bank I used to work for is having zero outage on their critical systems because they had the foresight to migrate away from windows-only infrastructure years ago whereas some other institutions literally cannot process debit card transactions right now.

global windows dependence is a massive risk and this WILL happen again if something isn't done to address it. one company should not be able to brick our global infrastructure.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech bullies stole your kid’s lunch money

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.

In its latest report, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau describes this scam in eye-watering, blood-boiling detail:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_costs-of-electronic-payment-in-k-12-schools-issue-spotlight_2024-07.pdf

The report samples 16.7m K-12 students in 25k schools. It finds that schools are racing to go cashless, with 87% contracting with payment processors to handle cafeteria transactions. Three processors dominate the sector: Myschoolbucks, Schoolcafé, and Linq Connect.

These aren't credit card processors (most students don't have credit cards). Instead, they let kids set up an account, like a prison commissary account, that their families load up with cash. And, as with prison commissary accounts, every time a loved one adds cash to the account, the processor takes a giant whack out of them with junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

If you're the parent of a kid who is eligible for a reduced-price lunch (that is, if you are poor), then about 60% of the money you put into your kid's account is gobbled up by these payment processors in service charges.

It's expensive to be poor, and this is no exception. If your kid doesn't qualify for the lunch subsidy, you're only paying about 8% in service charges (which is still triple the rate charged by credit card companies for payment processing).

The disparity is down to how these charges are calculated. The payment processors charge a flat fee for every top-up, and poor families can't afford to minimize these fees by making a single payment at the start of the year or semester. Instead, they pay small sums every payday, meaning they pay the fee twice per month (or even more frequently).

Not only is the sector concentrated into three companies, neither school districts nor parents have any meaningful way to shop around. For school districts, payment processing is usually bundled in with other school services, like student data management and HR data handling. For parents, there's no way to choose a different payment processor – you have to go with the one the school district has chosen.

This is all illegal. The USDA – which provides and regulates – the reduced cost lunch program, bans schools from charging fees to receive its meals. Under USDA regs, schools must allow kids to pay cash, or to top up their accounts with cash at the school, without any fees. The USDA has repeatedly (2014, 2017) published these rules.

Despite this, many schools refuse to handle cash, citing safety and security, and even when schools do accept cash or checks, they often fail to advertise this fact.

The USDA also requires schools to publish the fees charged by processors, but most of the districts in the study violate this requirement. Where schools do publish fees, we see a per-transaction charge of up to $3.25 for an ACH transfer that costs $0.26-0.50, or 4.58% for a debit/credit-card transaction that costs 1.5%. On top of this, many payment processors charge a one-time fee to enroll a student in the program and "convenience fees" to transfer funds between siblings' accounts. They also set maximum fees that make it hard to avoid paying multiple charges through the year.

These are classic junk fees. As Matt Stoller puts it: "'Convenience fees' that aren't convenient and 'service fees' without any service." Another way in which these fit the definition of junk fees: they are calculated at the end of the transaction, and not advertised up front.

Like all junk fee companies, school payment processors make it extremely hard to cancel an automatic recurring payment, and have innumerable hurdles to getting a refund, which takes an age to arrive.

Now, there are many agencies that could have compiled this report (the USDA, for one), and it could just as easily have come from an academic or a journalist. But it didn't – it came from the CFPB, and that matters, because the CFPB has the means, motive and opportunity to do something about this.

The CFPB has emerged as a powerhouse of a regulator, doing things that materially and profoundly benefit average Americans. During the lockdowns, they were the ones who took on scumbag landlords who violated the ban on evictions:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

They went after "Earned Wage Access" programs where your boss colludes with payday lenders to trap you in debt at 300% APR:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

They are forcing the banks to let you move your account (along with all your payment history, stored payees, automatic payments, etc) with one click – and they're standing up a site that will analyze your account data and tell you which bank will give you the best deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

They're going after "buy now, pay later" companies that flout borrower protection rules, making a rogues' gallery of repeat corporate criminals, banning fine-print gotcha clauses, and they're doing it all in the wake of a 7-2 Supreme Court decision that affirmed their power to do so:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America's poorest parents from having $100m of their kids' lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they'll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden's CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris' campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is "waging war on American business":

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Some of the richest Democrat donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they'd been assured this would happen:

https://archive.is/k7tUY

This would be a disaster – for America, and for Harris's election prospects – and one hopes that Harris and her advisors know it. Writing in his "How Things Work" newsletter today, Hamilton Nolan makes the case that labor unions should publicly declare that they support the FTC, the CFPB and the DOJ's antitrust efforts:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-and-antitrust-are-peanut-butter

Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

Perhaps you've heard that antitrust is anti-worker. It's true that antitrust law has been used to attack labor organizing, but that has always been in spite of the letter of the law. Indeed, the legislative history of US antitrust law is Congress repeatedly passing law after law explaining that antitrust "aims at dollars, not men":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

The Democrats need to be more than The Party of Not Trump. To succeed – as a party and as a force for a future for Americans – they have to be the party that defends us – workers, parents, kids and retirees alike – from corporate predation.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[linkyu]

tell me about your defense contract pleage

Oh boy!

To be fair, it's nothing grandiose, like, it wasn't about "a new missile blueprint" or whatever, but, just thinking about what it could have become? yeesh.

So, let's go.

For context, this is taking place in the early 2010s, where I was working as a dev and manager for a company that mostly did space stuff, but they had some defence and security contracts too.

One day we got a new contract though, which was... a weird one. It was state-auctioned, meaning that this was basically a homeland contract, but the main sponsor was Philip Morris. Yeah. The American cigarette company.

Why? Because the contract was essentially a crackdown on "illegal cigarette sales", but it was sold as a more general "war on drugs" contract.

For those unaware (because chances are, like me, you are a non-smoker), cigarette contraband is very much a thing. At the time, ~15% of cigarettes were sold illegally here (read: they were smuggled in and sold on the street).

And Phillip Morris wanted to stop that. After all, they're only a small company worth uhhh... oh JFC. Just a paltry 150 billion dollars. They need those extra dollars, you understand?

Anyway. So they sponsored a contract to the state, promising that "the technology used for this can be used to stop drug deals too". Also that "the state would benefit from the cigarettes part as well because smaller black market means more official sales means a higher tax revenue" (that has actually been proven true during the 2020 quarantine).

Anyway, here was the plan:

Phase 1 was to train a neural network and plug it in directly to the city's video-surveillance system, in order to detect illegal transactions as soon as they occur. Big brother who?

Phase 2 was to then track the people involved in said transaction throughout the city, based on their appearance and gait. You ever seen the Plainsight sheep counting video? Imagine something like this but with people. That data would then be relayed to police officers in the area.

So yeah, an automated CCTV-based tracking system. Because that's not setting a scary precedent.

So what do you do when you're in that position? Let me tell you. If you're thrust unknowingly, or against your will, into a project like this,

Note. The following is not a legal advice. In fact it's not even good advice. Do not attempt any of this unless you know you can't get caught, or that even if you are caught, the consequences are acceptable. Above all else, always have a backup plan if and when it backfires. Also don't do anything that can get you sued. Be reasonable.

Let me introduce you to the world of Corporate Sabotage! It's a funny form of striking, very effective in office environments.

Here's what I did:

First of all was the training data. We had extensive footage, but it needed to be marked manually for the training. Basically, just cropping the clips around the "transaction" and drawing some boxes on top of the "criminals". I was in charge of several batches of those. It helped that I was fast at it since I had video editing experience already. Well, let's just say that a good deal of those markings were... not very accurate.

Also, did you know that some video encodings are very slow to process by OpenCV, to the point of sometimes crashing? I'm sure the software is better at it nowadays though. So I did that to another portion of the data.

Unfortunately the training model itself was handled by a different company, so I couldn't do more about this.

Or could I?

I was the main person communicating with them, after all.

Enter: Miscommunication Master

In short (because this is already way too long), I became the most rigid person in the project. Like insisting on sharing the training data only on our own secure shared drive, which they didn't have access to yet. Or tracking down every single bug in the program and making weekly reports on those, which bogged down progress. Or asking for things to be done but without pointing at anyone in particular, so that no one actually did the thing. You know, classic manager incompetence. Except I couldn't be faulted, because after all, I was just "really serious about the security aspect of this project. And you don't want the state to learn that we've mishandled the data security of the project, do you, Jeff?"

A thousand little jabs like this, to slow down and delay the project.

At the end of it, after a full year on this project, we had.... a neural network full of false positives and a semi-working visualizer.

They said the project needed to be wrapped up in the next three months.

I said "damn, good luck with that! By the way my contract is up next month and I'm not renewing."

Last I heard, that city still doesn't have anything installed on their CCTV.

tl;dr: I used corporate sabotage to prevent automated surveillance to be implemented in a city--

hey hold on

wait

what

HEY ACTUALLY I DID SOME EXTRA RESEARCH TO SEE IF PHILLIP MORRIS TRIED THIS SHIT WITH ANOTHER COMPANY SINCE THEN AND WHAT THE FUCK

HUH??????

well what the fuck was all that even about then if they already own most of the black market???

[softerseasons]

Juno, out of curiosity, what does an accountant DO? What does it mean to be one? Because I know there's math involved. I've heard it's very boring. But I don't know anything else and I'm curious because you're very good at putting things to words.

Okay first of all, I cannot express just how excited I got when I first saw this message. There is nothing I love more than talking about things I know about, and usually when my career is mentioned I don't get questions so much as immediate "Oh, bless you" and "I could never"s. Which- totally fair! For some people, accounting would be boring as all hell! But for a multitude of reasons, I adore it.

There are multiple types of accounting. The type most people tend to be more familiar with is that done by CPAs- CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants, are those that have done the lengthy and expensive process to be certified to handle other peoples' tax documents and submit taxes in their name, amongst other things. Yawn, taxes, right? Well, the thing with that is that there's a lot of little loopholes that tax accountants have to remain familiar with, because saving their clients a little more here or getting a little more back there can really add up, and can do a lot for people who, say, have enough money to afford to hire someone to do their taxes but not necessarily enough to be going hog wild with. Public accountants can work for large firms or by themselves, and also do things like preparing financial statements for businesses, auditing businesses to ensure all of their financial transactions are true and accurately reported to shareholders and clients, and consulting on how finances can be managed to maximize revenue (money in - money out = revenue, in very simple terms).

The type of accounting I do is private accounting! That basically just means that I work for a company in their in-house accounting/finance department. Private accounting tends to get split up into several different areas. My company has Payroll, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable.

Payroll handles everyone's paychecks, PTO, ensuring the correct amount of taxes are withheld from individuals per their desires, and so on. Accounts Receivable handles money flow into the company- so when our company sells the product/service, our Accounts Receivable people are the ones who review the work, create the invoices, send the invoices to the clients, remind clients about overdue invoices, receive incoming payments via ACH (Automatic Clearing House- direct bank-to-bank deposits), Wire (Usually used for international transactions), or Check, and prepare statements that show how much revenue we are expected to gain in a period of time, or have gained in a period of time. This requires a lot of interfacing with clients and project managers.

My department is Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable does basically the other side of the coin from what Accounts Receivable does. We work mostly with vendors and our purchasing/receiving departments. We receive invoices from people and companies that have sold us products/services we need in order to make our own products/perform our services, enter them into our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that integrates the departments in a company together- there are many different ERPs, and most people simply refer to their ERP as "the system" when talking internally to other employees of the same company that they work at, because saying the name of the system is redundant) using a set of codes that automatically places the costs into appropriate groups to be referenced for later financial reports, and run the payment processing to ensure that the vendors are being paid.

To break that down because I know that was a lot of words, here's some things I do in my day-to-day at work:

- Reconciliations, making sure two different statements match up: the most common one is Credit Card reconciliations, ensuring that there are appropriately coded entries in the system that match the payments made on our credit line in our bank.

- Invoice entry: this is basic data entry, for the most part. This can have two different forms, though

- Purchase Order Invoice entry: Invoices that are matched both to the service/product provided from the vendor and the purchase order created by our Purchasing/Receiving department. We ensure that the item, the quantity, and the price all match between our records, the purchase order, and the invoice, before we enter this.

- Hard Coded Invoice entry: Invoices that we enter manually due to there being no Purchase Order for them. This is often recurring services, like cleaning or repairs, that may happen too often or have prices vary too much for Purchase Orders to be practical.

- Cleaning up old purchase orders: sometimes Purchase Orders are put in the system and then never fulfilled. Because this shows on financial statements as being a long-standing open commitment, it looks bad, so we have to periodically research these and find out if the vendor simply didn't send us the invoice, if the order was cancelled, or if something else is going on.

- Forensics! This is my personal favorite part of the job, where someone has massively borked something that is affecting my work, and so I go dig into it, sometimes going back as four or five years in records to find the origin point of the first mistake, and untangling the threads of what happened following that mistake to get us to where we are today. There's an entire field called Forensic Accounting that is basically just doing This but for other companies (it's a subset of auditing, and often is done via the IRS) and that's my dream position to be totally honest. I loooove the dopamine hit i get with solving the mystery and getting praised for doing so faster than anyone else has even begun to realize the problem to start with.

- Balancing Credits/Debits: This is more of a Main Accountant role thing, but the long and short of it is that every business has Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. Liabilities and Equity are what we put into the company/what we owe, and assets are what we have received/what we are owed. Anything that increases Assets or lowers Liabilities or Equity is a Debit. Anything that decreases Assets or raises Liabilities or Equity is a Credit. Every monetary change we process has to include an equal Debit and Credit. This is its own whole lecture, so if you wanna know more about double-entry accounting, let me know, but it's yawnsville for most people.

- Actually cutting checks or initiating bank payments to vendors for amounts we owe them.

- Vendor communication: I'm on the phones and email a lot with vendors who are wondering where their payment is, or why something was short-paid, or if I can change some of their info in our system, and so on and so on. Every job is customer service, unfortunately. I don't love it, but I do a lot less of it in private accounting than I would have to do in public accounting.

- Spreadsheets: I make so many spreadsheets I am a goddamn Excel wizard. I love spreadsheets. This isn't necessarily accounting-specific though, most people in Finance jobs love spreadsheets, or at least use them to make their lives easier. I make them just for fun, because I'm a giant fucking nerd who finds that kind of thing enjoyable lol. So if you ever need a spreadsheet made for anything, hit me up.

As for math, that's a pretty common misconception. While there is math, it is very rarely more complicated than "I paid $3 of the $8 I owe, now I owe $5" for me. There are some formulas you learn in school (Business Administration with a focus in Accounting is what I studied), but they're also pretty standard and rarely include more than like... basic algebra. Which. Thanks @ god because I flunked so hard out of pre-calc in college. I could not have done accounting if it really were all that math heavy.

Aaaand yeah! That's all I've got off the top of my head- if you have any more questions about it, do let me know, I'm happy to ramble on for hours, but I'm cutting it here so I don't start meandering on without direction lol.

[styrofauxm]

okay running list of all the systems people say are down:

Airports/airlines

first responders

hospitals

at least half of fortune 500 companies

shipping (trains/trucks)

food processing

news stations

banks/credit card transactions

some stock exchanges

Many, many more

[fuck-customers]

Ok hi hello, how the FUCK are we supposed to reach the "goal" if we're literally not told what the fucking goal is? And wtf is this passive-aggressive bullshit?

So my work has one of those phone number scams where they make us bully customers into giving us their phone number to have in our computer system that does not benefit the customers in any way. No rewards. No discounts. Nothing.

SO I had assumed that the register system automatically kept track of how many signups we were getting and all that shit. Literally what's the point if it's not? I still don't know. All I know is last week, one of the managers said "we're going to start keeping track of signups again" and I was like you weren't doing that the whole time?? Why the fuck did I bother doing the stupid ass signups for all that time then?

ANYWAY

The point of today's story is this:

I go into the breakroom at work and there's a printout of all of us employees and our phone number percentages. (employee numbers only, at least we weren't 100% put on blast, but it wouldn't be that difficult to narrow down which number was whose) with the employees who were under a certain percentage highlighted with a passive-aggressive note written that these employees need to reach "the goal."

1. WHAT fucking goal? Nowhere on this stupid public shaming attempt does it have any indication what the goal is that were supposedly working towards. Are we trying to reach 50% signups? 60%? 70%? Fuck if I know.

2. Even if there WAS a numbered goal, there's no way for the cashiers to know if they're hitting the goal or not until the week's results have been printed out and posted, which it appears management intends on doing. It's not like the registers have a little percentage in the corner so we can keep track of our own progress. Literally only management has access. So we have to blindly hope that we're reaching this unspecified goal.

3. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to post that information to shame us. None of us were informed that we were supposed to be working towards any goal at all.

And 4. Ok so let's say we reach this mystery goal....and? What? What is that going to do for us? Or we don't reach the goal? And? So what? Management has lied in the past about if our numbers go up, so will our hours and that was a fucking lie.

I cannot stress enough just how useless the phone number thing is. It is not a store credit card signup where customers have to get approved or anything like that. The customer gets absolutely nothing out of providing their personal information. If they want coupons or discounts or rewards, they have to download the store app onto their phone. We cannot access any rewards or discounts on the register. At first, managers tried to lie to customers to say that if they provided their phone number, they could do returns without a receipt.

Except...you can do a return without a receipt no matter what. It's the exact same process/policy for every single customer. Whether or not they provide their phone number, every single customer doing a return without a receipt will automatically get the lowest price for those items in the last 90 days back. Period. There's not even a way to pull up old transactions from a customer's phone number if they lost their receipt. It is 100% useless. I personally suspect there's something shady going on and the company is selling customer's personal information or tracking their spending habits for advertising or something sketchy.

So anyway, someone who definitely was not me wrote a note back telling them to tell us what the goal was or else we cannot reach it.

If you decide you want to fudge the numbers a bit here are some random numbers to use.

Buena Vista Water Sports 407-239-6939 Sky Venture 407-903-1150 Orange Blossom Balloons 407-239-7677 Kennedy Space Center 407-522-5911 Silver Springs 352-236-2121 Cypress Gardens 1-863-324-2111 Fun Spot 407-363-3867 Gator Land 1-800-393-jaws or 407-855-5496 Green Meadows Petting Farm 407-846-0770 Holy Land Experience 1-866-872-4659 or 407-872-2272 Orlando Science Center 407-514-2000 WonderWorks 407-351-8800 Ripley’s Believe it or Not 407-345-0501 Boggy Creek Airboats 407-344-9550 Orlando Museum of Art 407-896-4231 Central Florida Zoo 407-323-4450 Leu Gardens 407-246-2620 Old Town 407-383-6126 Daytona USA 1-386-947-6530 Wekiwa Springs State Park 407-884-2008 Richard Petty Driving Experience 1-800.BE.PETTY Jungleland Zoo 407-396-1012 US Astronaut Hall of Fame 1-321-269-6100 Magical Midway 407-370-5353 Citrus Tower 1-863-324-2111 Sky Coaster 407-397-2509 Scenic Boat Tour of Winter Park 407-644-4056 Orlando Helitours 407-397-0226 Star Flyer (located at magical midway) 407-383-6124 Dotties Orlando Comedy Theatre 407-226-3680 192 Flea Market 407-396-4555 Visitors Flea Market 407-396-0114 Maingate Flea Market 407-390-1015 Medieval Times Dinner Show 407-396-1518 or 1-888-WE JOUST Pirates Dinner Adventure 407-248-0590 or 1-800-866-2469 Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show 407-363-1985 or 1-800-393-1985 Capone’s Dinner Show 407-397-2378 or 1-800-220-8428 Arabian Nights 407-239-9223 Walt Disney World Resort 1-800-W-Disney or 407-824-2222 Hoop Dee Doo Review 407-WDW-DINE Wide World of Sports (407) 939-2040 Disney’s Polynesian Luau 407-WDW-DINE Sea World 1-800-327-2424 or 407-351-3600 Discovery Cove 1-800-327-2424 or 407-351-3600 Universal Orlando Resort 407-363-8000

[putschki1969]

Hi Sarah, thank you for everything you have done to the Kalafina fandom until now, you're an angel.

Is there a tutorial for joining Finction Junction Station fan club? I want to apply for the next year's Yuki Kajiura live ticket lotteries an I want to be sure to have a ticket since I'll travel from a very far Country. Thank you!

Hello there lovely anon!

I currently have no dedicated tutorial for Yuki's official fan club, FictionJunction Station. However, many years ago, I made a very detailed post about Kalafina's fan club "Harmony". That post was meant to help people navigate the site and register as member. Even though "Harmony" no longer exists, the basic steps described in my tutorial still apply to both Wakana's fan club "Botanical Land" as well as Yuki's fan club "FictionJunction Station". All these websites are designed by the same company, SKIYAKI, so the basic structure is the same.

Here are some main requirements before you start〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Credit Card: They do accept overseas credit cards as payment option so you'll be fine with that

Japanese Address: Find a forwarding/proxy service that will arrange everything for you. There’s tenso.com for example. You can get a Japanese address on this page which you can then use to buy things at various websites. That address can also be used to become a fan club member. They will not do transactions for you (as in, buy stuff for you, apply at ticket lotteries), they simply provide an address, store your stuff in case you buy anything and later send it to you. All your stuff will be sent to that address and then they will ship it to you (you can choose from various shipping methods). Payment for goods is also possible via credit card so you can have the merch sent to your TENSO address as well. Then there are sites like www.sosjapan.jp which will do pretty much everything for you (including payments). They will register for you under your name. They will apply for lotteries/pre-order/buy tickets or merch for you. This may actually be a better option for you but that's something you'll have to decide.

Step 1. Get your SC ID. An account will be issued by acquiring an SC ID (it’s free to do that!) which is required to use the service of this site. Simply click on the “new registration” button and enter your e-mail address and a password. A confirmation e-mail will be sent, by clicking the link in the mail, the first part of the registration process is completed. After logging in with your SC ID, you can access “My Page”.

Step 2: Confirm your e-mail address. After you have confirmed your e-mail address you’ll receive another mail stating that the registration of your SC ID was completed. You may log in now with your mail address and password. Be aware that your registration process is not done yet. Next up you should go to “My Page” to enter all your information.

Step 3: Go to “My Page” to enter all your information. Regarding the name, just enter your name in Roman letters first and then in katakana (Google Translate can help you get a katakana version of your name). As for the address, the Japanese address system is quite complex and can seem intimidating at first glance but Tenso provides a few tips on how to enter it properly so be sure to check them out.

Step 4. Confirm the information and continue to the payment method. It’s super simple. You have the option to pay with credit cards which is really the only option that is of interest to us. Simply choose your credit card and enter all the important data. On the right you’ll see the details for your payment (admission fee + annual fee, no extra fees). There's also an option to enable an automatic renewal of your membership. Only possible if you are paying with credit card. Once your year is almost over, the yearly fee will automatically be transferred from your credit card. I guess this comes in quite handy if you are prone to forget things like that easily. Lastly, there’s a button to confirm the transaction and then I think you’ll be asked one last time to confirm all your data and THEN it’s DONE. You are officially a member! You’ll be transferred to a page stating that the process is finished and listing some of the important data. You’ll also receive an e-mail welcoming you to the fan club and summarising all your information (=> member number, expiration date, payment details, payment method)

Please also keep in mind that often, a fan club membership will not be enough to get concert tickets. Most fan clubs will use one of Japan's common ticketing services for their lotteries. With FJS it's usually Lawson Ticket or e+. It can be very difficult to register for these site since they require verification via SMS/phone call (Japanese phone numbers only!!) The payment for tickets is also pretty much impossible for overseas fans. If you are uncertain about any of this and not willing to jump through many hoops, I recommend you look into proxy services like SOSJapan (as mentioned above).

Good luck on everything! Hope you'll be able to attend one of the lives next summer. It's gonna be Yuki's 60th birthday in August so maybe they'll do something a little more special for it.

[communist-ojou-sama]

Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and put a disclaimer up top that these are the ramblings of a dilettante that shouldn't be taken too seriously, but I think that people (understandably) frustrated with with the ICJ ruling and convinced it will have no material consequences should consider some things before they say that.

The first thing I want to remind everyone is that the west is far from invincible. Their rule is not iron-clad and their ability to enforce their will on the world is far from complete and is waning apace.

I think a lot about how in the process of the transition to late capitalism (as I personally define it), one consequence of the mass financialization of the economy is the pricing-out of most common consumer commodity-based manufacturing enterprise in favor of transactions that are most elastic in price, and how the result of that is a mass outflow of raw productive capacity from the imperial core to the global periphery.

If I can frame that in another way, and forgive me in framing this in very neutral terms, but it turns these countries from production-rich countries to production-poor countries with economies defined by the phenomenon of asset-price inflation.

The resulting global situation is that, similar to the assertion that Africa for example is rich because it's where the natural resources that facilitate the global economy are located, Mexico is rich. Vietnam is rich. Bangladesh is rich. These countries are awash in raw capacity to create goods that have a use value. What is the one thing that keeps them relatively cash-poor?

That is, the law. There's a bit of poetry in the idea that just as how within imperial core economies the most important economic instruments are legal contracts to either some percentage of a company's equity or its debt, what sustains its (nominal) riches over the global periphery is a legal regime of ownership that entitles them to the rights to all of the profits going on in these incredibly production-rich countries in the Global South.

It is absolutely correct to say that at the highest level, these legal regimes are enforced at the barrel of the gun, we've seen how too much refusal to to honor these laws by heads of state can lead to mass disinvestment and eventually coups d'état, and even now it would not be a good idea to say, seize the productive assets of a bunch of US firms.

However, and this is where the ICJ comes back in to my point, let's not think about the US. Let's think about, for example, the Netherlands or Belgium. These countries maintain fantastic financial wealth via contracts of ownership with countries in the global south but they are also small and geopolitically unimportant, with little in the way of individual military power.

For little countries like these, genuinely the Only thing that secures their ability to act as a parasite on the global productive economy is the strength of legitimacy that international law affords them, and the position of overwhelming power the west Once had, decades ago.

But the power and prestige of the West continues, as I said, to wane apace. it's too early to happen now but these less militaristic countries are aware of how exposed their assets are to simple seizure if over time international law comes to be seen as a joke.

As awful and condamnable as the current global system is, it is not total dictatorship. It is only able to perpetuate itself because the overwhelming majority of countries that are parties to it have buy in and because, albeit much more slowly than they could have under socialism, they have been able to make dents in their own poverty with it.

The exposure of the international law framework as having absolutely no legitimacy, as being a naked tool of domination of rich countries over poor countries has knock-on effects that stand to be incredibly dangerous to less militarily capable countries that rely on them for their economic structures. On a long-term scale, especially as these countries become richer and more geopolitically influential in their own right, they may well begin to pose the question: why Shouldn't I seize these french factories in my country? Why Shouldn't I seize this Belgian-owned diamond mine? Why Should I pay back this IMF loan, if the ICJ framework can't even compel the Zionist Enemy to end a genocide? And I promise you, this is a reality of which at least some people in those countries are highly cognizant and wary, so I'd wait and see a bit before being Too pessimistic.

[dailyanarchistposts]

B.6 But won’t decisions made by individuals with their own money be the best?

This question refers to an argument commonly used by capitalists to justify the fact that investment decisions are removed from public control under capitalism, with private investors making all the decisions. Clearly the assumption behind this argument is that individuals suddenly lose their intelligence when they get together and discuss their common interests. But surely, through debate, we can enrich our ideas by social interaction. In the marketplace we do not discuss but instead act as atomised individuals.

This issue involves the “Isolation Paradox,” according to which the very logic of individual decision-making is different from that of collective decision-making. An example is the “tyranny of small decisions.” Let us assume that in the soft drink industry some companies start to produce (cheaper) non-returnable bottles. The end result of this is that most, if not all, the companies making returnable bottles lose business and switch to non-returnables. Result? Increased waste and environmental destruction.

This is because market price fails to take into account social costs and benefits, indeed it mis-estimates them for both buyer/seller and to others not involved in the transaction. This is because, as Schumacher points out, the “strength of the idea of private enterprise lies in its terrifying simplicity. It suggests that the totality of life can be reduced to one aspect — profits...” [Small is Beautiful, p. 215] But life cannot be reduced to one aspect without impoverishing it and so capitalism “knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

Therefore the market promotes “the tyranny of small decisions” and this can have negative outcomes for those involved. The capitalist “solution” to this problem is no solution, namely to act after the event. Only after the decisions have been made and their effects felt can action be taken. But by then the damage has been done. Can suing a company really replace a fragile eco-system? In addition, the economic context has been significantly altered, because investment decisions are often difficult to unmake.

In other words, the operations of the market provide an unending source of examples for the argument that the aggregate results of the pursuit of private interest may well be collectively damaging. And as collectives are made up of individuals, that means damaging to the individuals involved. The remarkable ideological success of “free market” capitalism is to identify the anti-social choice with self-interest, so that any choice in the favour of the interests which we share collectively is treated as a piece of self-sacrifice. However, by atomising decision making, the market often actively works against the self-interest of the individuals that make it up.

Game theory is aware that the sum of rational choices do not automatically yield a rational group outcome. Indeed, it terms such situations as “collective action” problems. By not agreeing common standards, a “race to the bottom” can ensue in which a given society reaps choices that we as individuals really don’t want. The rational pursuit of individual self-interest leaves the group, and so most individuals, worse off. The problem is not bad individual judgement (far from it, the individual is the only person able to know what is best for them in a given situation). It is the absence of social discussion and remedies that compels people to make unbearable choices because the available menu presents no good options.

By not discussing the impact of their decisions with everyone who will be affected, the individuals in question have not made a better decision. Of course, under our present highly centralised statist and capitalist system, such a discussion would be impossible to implement, and its closest approximation — the election process — is too vast, bureaucratic and dominated by wealth to do much beyond passing a few toothless laws which are generally ignored when they hinder profits.

However, let’s consider what the situation would be like under libertarian socialism, where the local community assemblies discuss the question of returnable bottles along with the workforce. Here the function of specific interest groups (such as consumer co-operatives, ecology groups, workplace Research and Development action committees and so on) would play a critical role in producing information. Knowledge, as Bakunin, Kropotkin, etc. knew, is widely dispersed throughout society and the role of interested parties is essential in making it available to others. Based upon this information and the debate it provokes, the collective decision reached would most probably favour returnables over waste. This would be a better decision from a social and ecological point of view, and one that would benefit the individuals who discussed and agreed upon its effects on themselves and their society.

In other words, anarchists think we have to take an active part in creating the menu as well as picking options from it which reflect our individual tastes and interests.

It needs to be emphasised that such a system does not involve discussing and voting on everything under the sun, which would paralyse all activity. To the contrary, most decisions would be left to those interested (e.g. workers decide on administration and day-to-day decisions within the factory), the community decides upon policy (e.g. returnables over waste). Neither is it a case of electing people to decide for us, as the decentralised nature of the confederation of communities ensures that power lies in the hands of local people.

This process in no way implies that “society” decides what an individual is to consume. That, like all decisions affecting the individual only, is left entirely up to the person involved. Communal decision-making is for decisions that impact both the individual and society, allowing those affected by it to discuss it among themselves as equals, thus creating a rich social context within which individuals can act. This is an obvious improvement over the current system, where decisions that often profoundly alter people’s lives are left to the discretion of an elite class of managers and owners, who are supposed to “know best.”

There is, of course, the danger of “tyranny of the majority” in any democratic system, but in a direct libertarian democracy, this danger would be greatly reduced, for reasons discussed in section I.5.6 ( Won’t there be a danger of a “tyranny of the majority” under libertarian socialism?).

[acceptccnow]

Innovations in Credit Repair Payment Gateway Integration

Article by Jonathan Bomser | CEO | Accept-Credit-Cards-Now.com

In the swiftly changing world of e-commerce and high-risk merchant processing, the demand for secure and efficient payment gateways is crucial. As we explore the innovations in Credit Repair Payment Gateway integration, this journey empowers businesses to thrive in the digital age. This article delves into cutting-edge solutions and strategies while keeping your business's financial security at the forefront.

DOWNLOAD THE INNOVATIONS IN CREDIT REPAIR INFOGRAPHIC HERE

Embracing High-Risk Payment Processing

Payment processing for high-risk industries has been historically challenging. However, the contemporary technology-driven world provides notable solutions. Pioneering companies specializing in Merchant Processing Services lead the way in high-risk merchant processing. They grasp the unique challenges faced by businesses in this sector and have developed tailored solutions. In a landscape where trust and security are paramount, a credit repair payment gateway plays a pivotal role, offering a lifeline to broader customer outreach for businesses navigating high-risk waters.

The Role of Credit Repair Payment Gateway

The term "Credit repair payment gateway" essentially refers to the backbone of your e-commerce payment processing system. It not only facilitates the acceptance of credit and debit card payments but also plays a crucial role in building trust with your customers. A robust credit repair payment gateway acts as your bridge to accepting payments online. It serves as a secure intermediary between your website and financial institutions, ensuring each transaction is encrypted and protected. This level of security fosters trust among your customers, especially vital in high-risk industries.

Expanding Horizons with CBD Merchant Accounts

CBD businesses, on the rise, often encounter difficulties in securing a payment processing partner. High-risk payment gateways bridge the gap by offering specialized solutions for CBD merchants. By choosing to accept credit cards for CBD, businesses in this industry can unlock tremendous growth potential. CBD merchant accounts are a game-changer, designed to cater to the unique needs of CBD sellers often in the high-risk category due to the evolving legal landscape. With the right payment gateway, seamlessly processing payments for CBD products expands your customer base and revenue streams.

The Evolving Landscape of Online Payment Gateways

As e-commerce continues to flourish, the demand for reliable and secure online payment gateways grows. Your credit repair business can thrive by integrating the right e-commerce credit card processing solution. This technology empowers you to accept credit cards for credit repair with ease, catering to the evolving needs of your customers. Online payment gateways have evolved significantly, facilitating transactions and offering enhanced security features. This is particularly important for businesses in high-risk industries where trust is paramount.

The Power of Innovation: Credit Card Processing

The cutting-edge credit card payment processing system ensures your business stays ahead. This high-risk merchant account provider offers the flexibility and security to navigate the complex terrain of payment processing for credit repair. In credit card processing, reliability and security are non-negotiable. Specialized companies understand the unique needs of businesses in high-risk industries and tailor solutions accordingly. Partnering with a trusted provider streamlines your payment processes, allowing a focus on growing your credit repair business.

Merchant Processing for High-Risk Industries

High-risk merchant processing demands a unique set of tools and expertise. It's essential to partner with a provider understanding the intricacies of your industry. By integrating a high-risk payment gateway, you're not only safeguarding transactions but also opening doors to a broader customer base. In high-risk industries, trust and security are paramount. Your choice of merchant processing services can make or break your business. It's crucial to work with a provider specializing in high-risk transactions, offering robust security measures to protect your business and customers.

The Future of Accepting Credit Cards

Looking ahead, accepting credit cards for e-commerce remains a cornerstone. Innovations in payment gateway integration ensure your customers can transact seamlessly, fostering trust and loyalty. The future of accepting credit cards is bright, with continuous advancements in technology. Payment gateways will continue to evolve, offering enhanced features and security measures. Staying up-to-date with these innovations positions your business to thrive in the ever-changing landscape of e-commerce.

In the realm of high-risk e-commerce payment processing, embracing innovation becomes the linchpin of success. Forward-thinking providers comprehend the distinctive requirements of businesses, spearheading pioneering solutions meticulously designed for specific industries. Wholeheartedly embracing groundbreaking advancements in the integration of payment gateways for credit repair fuels business growth, nurturing the potential for a prosperous future in your financial ventures. This unwavering commitment to innovation promises to illuminate the path forward, ensuring promising prospects and boundless growth for enterprises.

[isabellaseraphinabloger]

Exploring AI's Benefits in Fintech

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial technology (fintech) sector is bringing about significant changes. From enhancing customer service to optimizing financial operations, AI is revolutionizing the industry. Chatbots, a prominent AI application in fintech, offer personalized and efficient customer interactions. This article explores the various benefits AI brings to fintech.

Enhanced Customer Experience

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are revolutionizing customer service in fintech. These tools provide 24/7 support, handle multiple queries simultaneously, and deliver instant responses, ensuring customers receive timely assistance. AI systems continually learn from interactions, improving their efficiency and effectiveness over time.

Superior Fraud Detection

Fraud detection is crucial in the financial sector, and AI excels in this area. AI systems analyze vast amounts of transaction data in real time, identifying unusual patterns and potential fraud more accurately than traditional methods. Machine learning algorithms effectively recognize subtle signs of fraudulent activity, mitigating risks and protecting customers.

Personalized Financial Services

AI enables fintech companies to offer highly personalized services. By analyzing customer data, AI provides tailored financial advice, recommends suitable investment opportunities, and creates customized financial plans. This level of personalization helps build stronger customer relationships and enhances satisfaction.

Enhanced Risk Management

AI-driven analytics significantly enhance risk management. By processing large datasets and identifying trends, AI can predict and assess risks more accurately than human analysts. This enables financial institutions to make informed decisions and manage risks more effectively.

Automation of Routine Tasks

AI automates many routine and repetitive tasks in fintech, such as data entry, account reconciliation, and compliance checks. This reduces the workload for employees and minimizes the risk of human errors. Automation leads to greater operational efficiency and allows staff to focus on strategic activities.

Advanced Investment Strategies

AI revolutionizes investment strategies by providing precise, data-driven insights. Algorithmic trading, powered by AI, analyzes market conditions and executes trades at optimal times. Additionally, AI tools assist investors in making better decisions by forecasting market trends and identifying lucrative opportunities.

In-Depth Customer Insights

AI provides fintech companies with deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences. By analyzing transaction history, spending patterns, and other relevant data, AI predicts customer needs and offers proactive solutions. This level of insight is invaluable for targeted marketing strategies and improving customer retention.

Streamlined Loan and Credit Processes

AI streamlines loan and credit approval processes by automating credit scoring and underwriting. AI algorithms quickly assess an applicant’s creditworthiness by analyzing various factors, such as income, credit history, and spending habits. This results in faster loan approvals and a more efficient lending process.

Conclusion

AI is transforming the fintech industry by improving efficiency, enhancing customer experiences, and providing valuable insights. As technology advances, the role of AI in fintech will grow, driving further innovation and growth. Embracing AI solutions is essential for financial institutions to stay competitive in this rapidly changing landscape.

[timesofinnovation]

Elon Musk, the renowned CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently addressed a crowd during a town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, sharing insights about cryptocurrency's role in preserving individual freedoms. Although he refrained from explicitly endorsing XRP, Musk emphasized how digital currencies like it can play a pivotal role in counteracting centralized control. His remarks resonated with supporters of XRP, particularly as Ripple Laboratories continues its ongoing legal tussle with the SEC regarding the classification of XRP as a security. Musk’s comments highlighted a growing realization in the financial landscape: the significance of cryptocurrencies extends beyond mere investment opportunities; they offer a potential pathway toward a more decentralized economic system. For instance, XRP advocates believe that the currency’s unique features can facilitate faster cross-border transactions compared to traditional banking systems. As transaction speeds increase and costs decrease, XRP could stand out as a practical solution amidst the challenges of global remittances. Moreover, the legal implications surrounding XRP cannot be ignored. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, supported Musk's viewpoint, insisting that cryptocurrency regulations should evolve to foster innovation rather than hinder it. Garlinghouse contends that many voters are starting to recognize cryptocurrencies not just as financial instruments, but as essential tools for enabling innovation and empowering individuals in a digital economy. This aligns with a broader narrative—one where regulatory frameworks are increasingly evaluated on their impact on technological advancement. During the event, Musk also pointed to Tesla’s substantial financial maneuvers involving cryptocurrency. Recently, Tesla executed a transfer of $765 million worth of Bitcoin into new wallets. This strategic move signals Tesla's continued engagement with cryptocurrencies despite its earlier decision to halt Bitcoin payments over environmental concerns in 2021. Notably, the company has pivoted to accepting Dogecoin for certain merchandise, further solidifying Musk’s ongoing involvement in the crypto market. The mining process and energy consumption connected to cryptocurrencies have raised significant concerns, particularly in the context of environmental sustainability. Musk’s comments added an important dimension, suggesting that while there may be challenges, innovation in the energy efficiency of blockchain technology remains crucial for the future of cryptocurrencies. As digital currencies become mainstream, discussions surrounding them reflect evolving societal values. In democratic setups, voters are prioritizing policies that encourage responsible innovation and individual autonomy in financial transactions. The growing interest in cryptocurrencies may prompt legislators to comprehensively review existing financial regulations to create a more conducive environment for crypto technologies. Furthermore, Musk's assertions tie into a fundamental ethos of cryptocurrencies: empowering individuals against the backdrop of centralized banking entities and governmental authority. Histories of economic crises have often made populations more receptive to alternatives like cryptocurrencies, which promise greater control over personal finances. This is evident in emerging economies where citizens are increasingly turning to digital currencies as a means of preserving wealth against hyperinflation. In conclusion, the intersection of cryptocurrency and politics is indeed an area to watch. Musk's acknowledgment of cryptocurrencies' role in decentralization aligns with sentiments shared by an ever-growing community of advocates pushing for regulatory advancements. The path forward will necessitate engagement from not just corporate entities, but also governments and civil societies in harmonizing regulatory frameworks and promoting transparency. The future of cryptocurrencies, especially XRP, will undoubtedly involve navigating these complex dynamics.

If adequately harnessed, crypto has the potential to transform economies by fostering innovation and supporting the autonomy of individuals over their financial futures. As this narrative unfolds, the discourse surrounding digital currencies will likely serve as a bellwether for broader economic transformations poised to affect various sectors worldwide.

[happigreens]

Fair Trade

By going beyond accreditation practices, consumers and companies can reach those at the bottom of the global social production ladder. Nonetheless, these efforts require purchasers to take personal responsibility for their impact, rather than relying solely on certifications. Simply by being more thoughtful and ethical in our sourcing practices, we have a huge opportunity to create brighter futures for all people and their families throughout the supply chain.

https://borgenproject.org/fair-trade-product-markets/

Despite many well-intentioned consumer attitudes, fair trade product markets frequently feature marketing strategies that conjure up imperialistic images [...]

[...] In products marked as fair trade, the certification might only apply to the product’s raw materials, rather than the full process of production. [...] A 2014 study theorizes that these practices are somewhat effective, “although on a comparatively modest scale relative to the size of national economies"

Social Media conversations about Fair Trade Practices:

[From user seriousxdelirium] - Like almost all other labels for coffee, it's absolutely useless. It only applies to growers large enough to afford the fees, and is not regulated well enough to make meaningful impact on the industry. If you really care about this sort of thing, do some research and develop an understanding of what you think a fair price is for farmers, and ask roasters what they paid for that coffee. Most good roasters are willing to be transparent about that sort of thing, and even publish transparency reports where you get a breakdown of the entire transaction.

From user Ramakrishna Surathu:

[...] Here are some reasons why fair trade may not always be as fair as it seems [...]

1. Market Access and Power Imbalances: Fair trade initiatives often focus on small-scale producers in developing countries, who may face challenges in accessing global markets and negotiating fair prices. Power imbalances within supply chains, influenced by factors such as geography, politics, and market dynamics, can limit the ability of producers to fully benefit from fair trade practices.

2. Certification Costs and Barriers: Obtaining fair trade certification can be costly and time-consuming for producers, particularly small-scale farmers and artisans with limited resources. Certification fees, auditing expenses, and compliance with standards may pose financial barriers and administrative burdens, leading some producers to forego certification altogether.

3. Limited Impact on Poverty Alleviation: While fair trade aims to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods, its impact may be limited by systemic barriers and structural inequalities. Addressing poverty requires broader social, economic, and political interventions beyond the scope of fair trade alone, such as access to education, healthcare, land rights, and infrastructure.

4. Market Volatility and Price Instability: Fair trade prices are often based on predetermined minimums, which may not fully reflect fluctuations in global market prices. Producers may be exposed to market volatility and fluctuations in demand, which can impact their income and livelihoods, particularly in commodity markets subject to price instability.

5. Complexity of Supply Chains: Fair trade supply chains can be complex and challenging to navigate, especially in regions with limited infrastructure and logistical challenges. Ensuring compliance with fair trade standards, maintaining transparency, and traceability throughout the supply chain can require significant investment in monitoring and management systems.

[...] Some manufacturers also use tricks. For example, some products do not explain exactly which part of a product was produced fairly. Another trick is to increase the percentage of "fair" ingredients by subtracting out the water content. The credibility is of course "fair watered".

[...] The statement here should not be that fair trade is useless, but one should always question things or understand them better and not just be blindly guided by seals in the purchase decision. Since this works so well, manufacturers like to use such seals or make one up themselves.

[...] rather than cutting out the middle man, and offering farmers a more direct compensation for their work, Fair Trade still facilitates a level of bureaucracy that supports an uneven distribution of revenue.

[...] The price point that separates Fair Trade produce from the rest of the market is often significant enough that lower-income households cannot afford to budget for it. This means that Fair Trade cannot reach mass markets in a way that would really effect wide-scale change, and instead serves as a token gesture to alleviate the guilt of middle-class consumers.

[...] [premium pricing coffee] is a worthy move if the coffee is of a high quality, but if it is not of sufficient quality to merit this price tag, then it risks turning consumers away from Fair Trade produce, and further impeding its reach to mass markets [...]

Fair Trade is a concept worth embracing, but first it must prioritize effective and transparent processes of production and distribution. What Fair Trade aims to achieve is admirable, but what it could potentially achieve is far greater [...]

[fuck-customers]

I think this might be the case at other stores, but I don't have enough work experience to really know.

Does anyone else's corporate/bosses/higher ups semi-regularly become extremely obsessed with "improving the numbers" of a certain thing and force all the employees to obsessively do X thing to improve X numbers and make their lives hell for a few months and then completely drop it? Lmao

I'll give you 2 examples that I can immediately think of.

A few years ago at a job, maybe 3 years ago, the managers/corporate/whoever were OBSESSED with our greeting numbers. Like when a customer walks in the door, they were on our ass to greet them and say "welcome to [store name]" or at least "hi, welcome in" or some kind of acknowledgement. (Personally I didn't find this TOO irritating, more mildly annoying, however it did cause me to have a weird pavlovian response to automatic doors to the point where I've accidentally said "hi welcome in" when I was a customer in other stores with doors that made the same sound lmao rip) And then after a few months, they just totally dropped it. I haven't been told to welcome anyone in, haven't even heard a peep about any greeting numbers in at least 2 years.

The current one is still ongoing, but is tapering off.

About 2 years ago, corporate or whoever the fuck decided that we absolutely needed to start harrassing our customers into handing over their personal information in the form of their email, and then after we got a new register system, their phone number, under the guise of a "rewards system" that didn't exist.

(Sorry, side tangent here- this one is SO shady. I've never been able to get a straight answer as to WHY we need to get the info from customers or WHAT benefit it would have for customers, you know, since they were rightfully asking why they should provide this information. I had a manager say it was a "rewards system" and then when I asked how the customers could earn points and how I could view their points to tell them how many points they had or how could I apply their reward to the transaction, backtracked and said there was no rewards. Bro what?? This manager would tell customers themselves this, minus the part about it all being a lie, of course, so customers would get pissed because they weren't getting discounts that didn't exist. And THEN after this "rewards system" bullshit blew up in his face, the manager said that the phone numbers were so in the rare event that a customer MIGHT want to return an item but lost their receipt, they could do a return through their phone number. But....we've ALWAYS been able to do no reciept returns...it just had to be a manager who processes the return...the manager who was lying to me about all of this shit...hmm...)

ANYWAY, managers were pretty rabid about the stupid ass phone numbers and what each employee's individual percentages were and would publicly shame employees with low percentages by posting everyone's scores in the breakroom and highlighting those with low scores and put a condescending note like "[name] and [name] need to try harder" or "too many numbers below 70%" or whatever. And it was all the managers would talk about: how many numbers you got, how to increase numbers, tactics for manipulating people into giving their personal info, etc. etc.

And then it started tapering off about 6 months ago and for the past month or so, I have not heard a single peep about phone numbers or percentages or scores or whatever.

So what the fuck was that all about? Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Is this common or is my workplace nuts?

I know with the companies I worked for they would hire an outside audit agency to come in and look at our metrics and if one was low (i.e. not greeting) they would focus on that until the next one would say we were not promoting the rewards program. Next time it was asking if they found everything.

I'm not saying every company is like that but three of the ones I worked for did that.

-Rodney