Shit's getting real

Maaaaan I hate when I find out news through memes. Fucking hell. Moron-in-chief for sure.

I have a job at a large corporate retail store and we recently raised a lot of prices, mostly for things that haven't been hit by tariffs yet. The owner is using the tariffs as an excuse to jack up prices for no reason. Even if all the tariffs were done away with tomorrow, corporate America is still going to jack up the prices.

But have you thought about the shareholders?
- I have, and on a related note, I also think of guillotines.

Today i learned that in the us arizona tea is extremely good and cheap, while here in europe you can only get it imported so its pretty expensive...

Also mediocre tasting sugar water
- It's so gross. People are always praising them for being so cheap, when it's quite literally just sugar water that tastes like is was bottled 10 years ago
Arizona Ice Tea isn't good tea though?

We’ll know we’re in trouble when Costco raises the price of the hotdog

Or the chicken.

Why are they using anything imported anyways? All that the tariffs have done in my life so far is make me question what these "local" "American" companies have been doing. Mind you, two phrases have come back into my speech:

"No company is your friend, even if they make something you like." & " Silence, brand!"

Companies affected by the tariffs are now among the companies whose products I actively avoid.

Why are they using anything imported anyways?
Ah yes, let me just buy local from all of the American tea farms, American bauxite mines, and American aluminum refineries. Oh wait, America doesn’t actually produce meaningful amounts of any of those resources. Pretty much the only thing Arizona would reasonably be able to buy domestically is the sugar.
- Not to mention any part of the factory automation technology. Capacitors on the circuit board are made in Japan if they’re decent, motor windings from China, solenoids , the lot.
- The US imports lots of Aluminium and refines it into Aluminum
- And most US sugar is foreign sourced.
Why are they using anything imported anyways?
Could be just aluminum for the cans, doesnt have to be that they are importing anything just that suppliers are.
- Guys...
  The product is called Arizona Iced TEA. The main ingredient is.... drumroll brewed tea.
  How many tea-farms do you know of in the US? There are some small-scale ones, but only one large-scale one at 127 acres.
  India has over 800 major estates and ~60,000 small tea gardens across the country
- I don't exempt a company from doing something if their supplier does it. They're at least complicit.
Tea famously does not grow in the US.
Plus, they sell in aluminum cans, which probably are sourced from Canada or Mexico, or are made in the US from aluminum sourced from Canada or Mexico.
And of course all of their machinery requires upkeep using parts and chemicals which may or may not be made abroad.
It's the raw goods that American companies need. Most American manufacturers assemble in the United States. So they have to raise prices because if the raw goods imported.
Trump is so dumb he doesn't think past his tiny ass hands.
- If the companies were responsible with all that recycling we've been doing over the last half-century, they wouldn't need to import raw metal. We'd be able to reuse all that glass and metal.
  I guess this might be the only way to get American consumers to understand that the point was always Reduce, reuse, and recycle in descending importance; rather than the other way around.
Here is a personal favorite of mine. Silence brands everywhere.
Tea absolutely can grow in the US, we just don't grow much of it.

Here in Finland it costs 3.50 in Eur...

They are also pretty expensive here in Germany, though a few stores sell some select flavors for less than 1€.

Recession incoming

More like great depression 2.0

Picked a couple up for $0.78 yesterday at the local Mexican supermarket.

You know, the people our nation is actively persecuting.

Username checks out.

The price is on the can though

Arizona tea was already $1.79 at most places around here before Trump even became president the first time. There's pretty much only 1 store I can go and get them for the 99 cents advertised on the can, and they don't even carry anything other than the Mucho Mango juice 😩

A lot of stores around here covered the .99 up with a store sticker 5 years ago, which I thought was blasphemy.

I've seen them at $2 at gas stations

I think you can report that to the company and they'll stop selling it to that place
- Nah if the company specifically contracts with Arizona to put their branding where the 99c would go they can do that.

Used to hate Arizona quite a bit because it felt super bougie and expensive for what's essentially just a regular ice tea. Developed a taste for it over the years and like it quite a bit nowadays because it's partly sweetened with stevia which makes it taste very pleasantly. Quite unfortunate that most of the flavours sold here aren't vegan because they insist on 0,1% of honey in the ingredients

Stevia can die in a fire. Some people can limit their sugar intake to healthy levels. Make something either diet or not. I dislike the taste of all artificial sweeteners, and its in regular too now with most drinks. With artificial sweeteners (but maybe not stevia) wrecking your gut biome and other problems, they've just added something unhealthy to drinks. A drink that would normally be OK to drink once in a while.
- I'm not an expert on artificial sweeteners, but as far as I know, they're to be consumed in moderate amounts just like sugars are. And from what I've heard, stevia is among the better sweeteners compared to something like aspartame or maybe even sucralose. The mixing of sugar and a sweetener is not ideal, I think that's true.
  I'll gladly be proven otherwise - don't know enough about them tbh
Vegans don't eat Honey? Huh.
Makes sense when you think about it, tho.
- All that honeybee suffering...
Why the fuck are vegans not eating honey? It's nectar?
Please don't tell me it's to do with exploitation of insects.
- 💯
  It has to do with the exploitation of insects.
- Why are you so aggressive in asking something? Do you expect people to help you like that?
- Don't worry, they'll be just as hypocritical as any other virtue-signaling group. Bees make honey, honey bad. But they'll act like pollenators aren't needed for crops or something. Or ignore that beekeepers will take their hives out to farms to pollinate various crops, like avocado. Or that bees seem to, on some level, understand that they have a great deal going. They're not trapped in the hives; they could leave at anytime but don't. And their honey production is higher than that of wild bees. And they have a higher survival rate because the beekeeper ensures they're safe from predators, or from the elements, and from disease. Every beekeeper I've ever seen absolutely love their bees.
  But the fun part, is not all vegans think like this. Because it's a "contentious" topic among them. For one, why does anyone care what anyone eats? Like, as long as it's not cannibalism, I don't give a shit. But vegans, from what I gather, will "rank" themselves to other vegans to see who's more vegan than the other. It really reminds me of the "church ladies". The type who judge you for not being churchy enough, who brag about how much church they go to, how much they "do for the church", a "higher than thou" mentality. Some vegans are closer to vegetarians, with just additional restrictions. So just like any group, it's not all... it's just a really loud minority that tries to speak for everyone.
- Honeybees destroy ecosystems because they're more efficient at pollination than wild bees are, so there's an ecological nuance to abstaining from honey. Apart from that, there's the ethical component of taking away food that the bees produce for themselves that's not ours for the taking.
- These fucking vegans care for insects now? That makes me so mad.
- God forbid someone have empathy for living creatures.

I make Southern sweet tea .yself from time to time. Amazing.

i don't do the sugar anymore but damn i miss a good cup (okay gallon) of sweet tea

Just got some at my local HEB, they're still ¢87 there