A better approach is a easily verifiable rule:

I've seen a bunch of approaches but the one that always come to mind first is: cents always match dollar amount of total including tax+tip.

So if your bill is $50, and you leave a $10 tip, $60.60 is the total. Then on your credit card statement anything food related is always $xx.xx or $yy.yy. If > $100, then the last two digits of the dollar amount.

If they change the dollar or cent amounts, you'll know.

Anecdotally similar. I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen until a few years ago.

Use some of the money you saved and reach out to the bar association and find a lawyer who will answer your questions.

This is a common model in much of the world.

NYC libraries struggle because that’s how the city likes it. That’s not opinion. That’s fact.

You don't need stacks of books to provide internet access.

You can use multiple smaller retail locations for that. More accessible and less under utilized square footage.

Again for the back row: Many countries have solved this problem. It's only the US that has struggling libraries because they refuse to modernize. This is a self inflicted problem.

It's pretty limited in many states. Few books, cumbersome. Pretty archaic.California's libraries are way ahead in terms of US libraries.

Most of the world even physical books you can order via kiosk or app, and pickup at one of many locations like supermarkets, post offices, etc where libraries have sometimes just a locker, or a small kiosk or storefront. Return at any one of them too. Smaller locations will have a few computers for research etc.

vs. the archaic buildings full of dusty books and people having to wait a few days for a book they want or travel to the right library to get it which is how NY still operates.

You don’t need 30k feet of floor space with stacks of books in a 1-3 story building that takes up 1/4 a city block for that.

Asia has shown us how little you need for an Internet cafe. A restaurant’s footprint can serve 3-4x that many people.

My point is much of the world has already done this. The US is pretty alone with not modernizing how libraries operate.

It’s not surprising it works elsewhere and the US is alone with struggling libraries.

The US is obsessed with tradition, and this is a perfect example. Libraries aren’t working, the rest of the world figured this out years ago. We pretend we have no idea what’s going on and do nothing.

That’s stuff that needs to be fixed by having proper resources. Not dumping it on libraries which are I’ll prepared or capable of dealing with these problems.

Spending money inefficiently isn’t fixing the problem.

This is no different than using the subway system as a way to avoid needing more shelters for the homeless. That’s not what the E train is for.

Fixing problems requires fixing the actual problems and providing proper support solutions. Not using libraries as a catch all.

Speak to the owners… that’s exactly what happened.

They weren’t making much, most of their profit comes from the lunch/dinner rush. The rest of the evening is run at a loss. This truthfully started before the pandemic. The pandemic just made everyone do the math.

Then you have employees who don’t want to work those late hours since it’s minimum wage at best. Slow business = few or no tips. Per hour working those times is a pay cut. With the current labor shortage there’s no reason for someone to want to work those hours. Work someplace else, get earlier hours and more money.

People forget: restaurant employees who are tipped make more money when it’s busy. Less when it’s not.

Nobody is taking those hours until restaurants have too many employees for their peak times. Which is far from reality.

And honestly: good for them. Working overnight for minimum wage is awful.

I wish libraries would modernize.

Double down on ebooks, reduce real estate footprint to being hole in the walls or even kiosks with overnight delivery of what you ordered.

Reality is there’s no reason you can’t warehouse their inventory and deliver to locations as needed on a much more serious scale than the hold system of the early 1900’s.

It’s time to modernize. Less branches but more locations. Some empty storefronts would be more than large enough for a modern library.

But pretending it’s 1906 in 2022 is the main reason libraries in the US are floundering.

In much of the world many libraries are in a corner of the grocery store, malls, transit hubs etc. order what you want and pick it up later in the day or next day. Then return there. Their footprint is just a few feet. More convenient and much lower cost. It also allows them to be everywhere. You can be much more accessible this way being in every neighborhood.

This is what much of the world does with great success. The US is the one with failing libraries.

It’s really the only one left in the area now that’s not just a website operated by politicians PAC’s.

Yup. Insurance for retail has been through the roof. Those costs are part of the consumer inflation we’re seeing.

Makes online only businesses look more and more attractive.

$12.99 for 4oz lobster tail at Whole Foods (just checked price at Columbus Circle online).

Which means market price is $5-6 regionally. $7.99 is “most people in urban areas don’t have an alternative so we can charge extra” pricing.

So yea. This would be a deal assuming it looks fresh.

Most people who remain as city employees are only there because they are a few years from retirement and it makes sense to stay.

City is fucked if it doesn’t fix this really really quick. The city hemorrhages employees for years and it accelerated. Lost knowledge, capacity won’t come back anytime soon.

Your not preventing problems now. You’re only trying to soften them.

100%.

I wish I had a choice. It’s either mail order (my preference) or in store for me.

Thing with CVS is they don’t have to care. For many prescription plans they’re the only option. So it’s either deal with them or do without your prescription.

A handful of companies now dominate this landscape and very few people care. It’s not just about drug manufacturers anymore. It’s also pharmacies.

Yea. Pros buying up to resell on Amazon/eBay pretty much killed the last of it. The pros snap up anything of value before anyone else will get there. What’s left is mainly crap.

The clusterfuck in NJ tends to come after.

No way a building that size in a swamp doesn’t have major issues in 10-15y when the developer moves on and someone else is libel. Then government entities having to get involved because it poses a imminent threat to safety.

British are making one last go at taking back the colonies. The Hudson Bay is their Normandy.

Agreed, though I think Shake Shack went a little further down hill than Five Guys.

That’s just the “master plan” from the city.

Real Estate companies dump potential ideas for their lots in there, so when they want to sell it’s easier to adjust zoning.

It’s now much harder for city council to object to a plan like that if it was proposed. If they attempted it would end up in court and the city would likely lose.

That makes the land way more valuable and more potential buyers.

This is how wealthy corporations make money.

Chains can be super quick. They’ve basically made stores into kits. Once they’ve got measurements for the space, they pick the components that fit, a contractor installs and it’s up and running.

They do this for redesigns too. They can retrofit a place in a week or so even keeping it running during the day and working overnight.

A crazy amount of engineering, design, architecture, etc must go into planning to minimize modifications to meet code in various places etc.

I’ve heard of some just bringing in old cylinders to be rekeyed then picking them up with new keys. Likely pretty cheap low priority kinda thing. Keep an extra cylinder or two around. It’s only a few screws to replace them. Just don’t misplace or confuse the keys.

Yup. No need to find them or reach out. Just do them the favor of destroying the card so it’s just getting a new card/number and not disputing charges. That saves some headache for them.

Keys if they have any kind of supermarket or gym membership tag on them… just drop them in a mailbox. I know more than one person who got them back that way. Super easy.

I heard those are among the least secure locks at one point, so never considered it.

Good locksmith will rekey and leave you with however many new keys you need in no time. Or repair a lock if broken pretty quickly. They’re ultimately simple devices. Just takes skill to deal with the tiny parts and reassemble.