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Supermarket chain Kroger announced today that they are switching to a subscription model for grocery purchases. “Customers will no longer be allowed to buy groceries directly, but will now be requested to log in using their account in order to complete purchases.”

“Moving to a subscription model will help us to streamline operations, cut costs and continue to provide our customers with prices.” according to the Kroger CAI’s quarterly filing with Wall St.

“At the self-checkout, after scanning your groceries, simply login with your e-mail address and 64 character password. You will then receive a text with your 128 digit verification code, which you can type in manually at the 3rd numeric keypad. If you attempt to purchase more than your subscription level, you’ll be guided on how to restock the excess items.”

Kroger says grocery plans will start at $5/day, which will enable customers to treat themselves to a daily ration of either 1 lb of cabbage or 1 lb of potatoes.

Please note that customers must create a unique account for each Kroger location. “Customer loyalty is very important to us.” said a Kroger representative, who then offered this reporter an opportunity to invest in a pre-public release of Kroger Koin.

I wouldn't mind renting software, if only subscription-based software was such that you only paid the money for the subscription. It would be a fine way of using something for a short term, and a fine way to get some sort of guarantee that the software is maintained.

But you'll also end up paying with your data that they sell out.

You will own nothing, eat grubs, and be thankful...

~ the oligarchs

Protest with your wallet. Open source and self hosted communities living real chill right now.

Ironically this made me donate to the lemmy instance my account is on. For the cost of just 3 bags of coffee a year I raised the monthly donations by 1%. Feels good man.

Use and support open source where ever possible

Hello its HP...we have an all new printer subscription model we would like to sell you. Give us money monthly. Or better, give us money every time you use the printer!

The way it works is you pay for the printer, take it home, install the software and connect it unnecessarily to the internet where a hacker can easily hack your pii. Then we monitor your ink levels and printing count. If you use it, we charge you per page. If you're running out of ink, we'll charge you monthly and send you a new bottle. We'll monitor the room temperature and sell that information to the power company. We'll monitor for loud notices and send that to ICE and to shoe making companies so they can either deport you or sell you new shoes. Aren't printers awesome?

I myself also hate to pay for subscriptions and heavily favor to buy something only one time. But I also understand why something like software is sold as a subscription. If you take "normal", physical products like smartphones, cars or literally almost anything else, it is accepted that you have to buy a new one every few years (the time span obviously varies from product to product) and that repairs will also cost money, at least after the guarantee ends. But software is expected and required to be maintained, thus costing the developer money even after you bought it. Online features also lead to sever costs. Because of that, a subscription can be compared to paying for car repairs and maintenance. I think it would be fair if you bought a version of a product for a fixed price, which you could use indefinitely and then to take a small price to upgrade to newer versions.