Both probably give the same exact water at the same temp.
Oh yeah, Steve called the manufacturer about that, and they’re supposed to be sending someone out this month. Maybe next. Our deepest apologies for the inconvenience.
No, the system won’t allow us to discount or refund.
That’s my favourite line, “I’m sorry we can’t do that because of how our system works.”
“But you’re ripping me off and that’s illegal.”
“I’m sorry, the system won’t allow me to refund you.”
“So you’re admitting that your company built a system that rips people off and breaks the law as a matter of policy? You realise that’s worse, right?”
It’s just finger pointing to avoid liability.
“Oh no, that’s not our fault! It’s these guys who did it, so talk to them!”
If the water is cooled with a low-energy method like a Peltier cooler, the heat has to go somewhere.
Even if it was free, opening an app to get water is bullshit.
Edit: Let the record show, I was referring to the chilled water.
It “clearly” says, “USE APP TO ACCESS”, so no, you can’t just push the button. It has to verify your subscription first.
It only requires the app for chilled and filtered. The regular tap water is still available.
Jokes on you; I torrent my water!
If this was downtown or at parks I can kinda see them providing something. Knowing this is likely at a university library or building its just removing access that was already there.
Fuck that. If it’s downtown or at a park the fucking municipality can afford $1.99/mo
We need more public facilities. This privatization bullshit can kick rocks
The heart of what you’re saying is right, but it isn’t 1.99, it’s 1.99x whatever their expected ussage/power/maintenance metrics are.
No, it’s just what the usage/power/maintenance is. It’s not $1.99 times anything. $1.99 doesn’t enter into it anywhere. $1.99 was made up out of the whole cloth.
Realistically the cost of filtration is already covered by the municipal water system’s budget, and the power and maintenance is already covered by the cities parks/public infrastructure budgets. So there is a small cost, but it’s at a scale where it’s negligible
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=(specific+heat+of+water)*12.8K*(1+gallon+*+water+density)
200kjoules of heat must be removed from a gallon of water to cool from 55F to 32F (out of the ground down to pleasant drinking temperature).
Assuming a COP of 2 for your compressor (conservative), that’s 100kjoules or 1/36 of a kWh.
High price for a kWh of electricity is $0.25 in the US. So for your $2 subscription, you can pay for 8kWh per month or enough to cool 288 gallons of water or roughly 9 gallons per day. More than anybody would rightly use.
What a fucking ripoff.
Not to mention that, in a place like a public park, 55F water is totally fine. It isn’t the coolest most refreshing drink of all time but it’s damn good from a public fountain on a 90F day.
You’re also paying for the installation of a refrigeration system right at the point where you want water.
Sure, but if everyone drinks a half gallon a day (still a lot for a normal person), that’s still 95% revenue which will absorb the installation cost quickly, and maintenance is minuscule on something like this.
Not to mention that since its subscription based, a broken dispenser is actually more profitable in the short term.
No it’s providing new access. Used to be, you had to take refrigerated water. Now you can have room temperature water which is superior because you can actually just drink it instead of having to sip it ultra slow.
I feel that the majority of innovation occuring in modern capitalism is confined to two key areas:
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Regulatory capture and market control.
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New ways to mindfuck people into overpaying for goods and services.
Productive innovation ceases the moment growth has reached its peak. It is then replaced by counterproductive “innovation”, such as finding new ways to nickel and dime your customers, reduction in quality or dismissal of employees. All in the name of simulating “growth” to please the shareholders.
The entire country has incentivized its top minds to developing ad tech bullshit. Like literally our astrophysicists are working at Stitch Fix instead of doing astrophysics.
I help setup ad placement TVs for resort style businesses.
Studied theoretical astrophysics and astro xenobiology as a double advanced major…
My boss used to brag he managed to get the astronaut in his team so, I am useful for facts and puzzles.
God I hate my existence.
Sorry chief I hate those TVs.
I’m sure you’re great and everyone needs a little sugar in their bowl or whatever but… IDK. I hope you find a more fulfilling job soon.
Like literally our astrophysicists are working at Stitch Fix instead of doing astrophysics.
I’m honestly here wondering if this is some guerilla marketing for Stitch Fix or if there’s some more story to this.
Oh, no. They’re fast fashion, right? That can’t be great for the environment.
Article is here, kinda interesting in a depressing sort of way: https://archive.is/E0NWk
Don’t forget the super fun B2B market where one business overcharges another business to outsource functions that really should be done in-house so then businesses can talk about “the cost of doing business increasing” when really it’s that they have purchased too many services and those services are all at various states of enshitification
So like video games, cars, slap bracelets, chicken fries, winnebegos, movies, music, none of that’s “innovation” under capitalism? Just the antisocial types? Nobody’s come up with anything interesting under capitalism?
Most of those things were products of earlier times, when our economic system and industries were more regulated and had a larger number of competitive entities. “Innovation” now is just more cupholders in the RV to put your chicken fries in. All flash, no substance. Everything is an AI wearable tacked on to something else we’ve already had for years.
EV battery tech, there’s some decent work being done there. A few other niche cases like that. But the rest is one big fucking con game. It’s all a race to find out how much money you can gouge out of people before the system just breaks.