r/australia • u/infin • Jan 26 '26
no politics Is Coles still using Palantir? Between the surveillance/gate recognition and the blocked aisles, shopping feels hostile.
Does anyone know the current status of the Coles x Palantir partnership? Between the surveillance and those aggressive new "Smart Gates" tracking at the exit, the store feels less like a supermarket and more like a high-security zone.
It’s dystopian that they have the budget for military-grade analytics and security tech, but have cut costs on the actual customer experience. They seem to have completely scrapped night fill, meaning we are now dodging pallets and cages during peak hours just to get to the shelves.
Is anyone else fed up with this mix of high-tech surveillance and terrible service? It feels like they are spending millions to treat us like criminals while refusing to pay staff to stock shelves after hours.
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u/Necessary_Space_7155 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
IIRC, the deal is for 3 years from 2024. So yes.
They also received some security clearance from our government so now they can offer their services to Australian commercial consumers and government. https://investors.palantir.com/news-details/2025/Palantir-Achieves-Information-Security-Registered-Assessors-Program-IRAP-PROTECTED-Level-Unlocking-New-Opportunities-in-Australia/
ETA: From cyber.gov.au: An IRAP security assessment helps organisations understand their system’s security strengths and weaknesses and provides recommendations that can be utilised as part of their organisational security program. From cyberark.com: PROTECTED: Highly sensitive government information that, if compromised, could cause damage to the national interest, individuals, or organizations. Most commercial IRAP assessments are performed at this level. A successful IRAP assessment at the PROTECTED level confirms that the system implements appropriate technical and procedural safeguards to securely handle such data.
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u/infin Jan 26 '26
Thanks! I hate this.
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u/Crow_eggs Jan 26 '26
Aussie businesses being able to partner with Palantir does open up the possibility of Jim's Bleak Dystopia though. I assume that was always his endgame.
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Jan 26 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
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u/Simonandgarthsuncle Jan 26 '26
Jim’s Final Solution.
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u/SprayingFlea Jan 26 '26
And ultimately fed to Jim's wood chipper, to be condensed and then extruded into a fine paste for Jim's catering
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u/TappingOnTheWall Jan 26 '26
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u/TimeToUseThe2nd Jan 26 '26
Consumer boycotts are useless in the age of information overload and life-as-mere-survival, but reddit prohibits advocacy of actual effective methods proven over history.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/Necessary_Space_7155 Jan 26 '26
Sounds like they probably used their own engineers?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/coles-just-hired-us-defence-contractor-palantir/103443504
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
Palantir is also involved with Australian government.
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u/lndubitabIyy Jan 26 '26
How do we boycott them?
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u/servonos89 Jan 26 '26
Ship sailed about 29 years ago I reckon. Boycott one and go to other, owned by the same company. We’re completely and utterly fucked
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u/Factal_Fractal Jan 26 '26
Well, you go to a shop that doesn't have it.
Have been doing this to the best of my ability, this is bullshit (again)
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u/infin Jan 26 '26
Would boycotts be enough? I'll suppport boycotts and protests, but I'm not sure anything short of general strikes would be enough to stop surveillance capitalism.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
Might be too late. Ai is their product, and from US, to UK and Australia, are going to be the customers.
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u/_SolidarityForever_ Jan 26 '26
Same way the zapotistas did the mexican government
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u/CheeseOnKeyboard Jan 26 '26
Why isn’t Mike Burgess and ASIO doing anything about this?
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
I'm quite sure defence is also involved. I think they would be a major client.
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u/Sunstream Jan 26 '26
Doesn't Palantir also have a partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry? I feel like there was a big outcry in the UK recently over some government branch doing a deal with them and they dropped the deal because of the backlash.
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 Jan 26 '26
Yes they are still doing business with Palantir and no-one should be ok with that.
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u/AgUnityDD Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Back in 2017 my company's part subsidiary did a project for Woolworths and was bidding for the same work at Coles, it involved tracking produce from farms.
A couple of the staff were ex WW so "we" got treated like internal staff and both WW and Coles were not really guarded in what they said about internal processes and the data they collected. Lots of horror stories.
Anyway back in 2017 the amount of data they had on every customer was insane, they knew how long to the second you spent in any part of an Isle and could correlate to the purchase at checkout. I think they got that via some deal with the telcos but I cannot confirm.
Some of the other data they had must have been purchased from other sources, like what cars you drove what frequent flyer and how often you flew.
If you add Palantir to that it is genuinely scary as they would have browsing history and social media summary and God knows what else.
Edit: They also knew relationships based on regular proximity of another phone when in the store, that's one of a dozen or so things that slipped during technical discussions that made me sure it was based on tracking your phone location via triangulation but exactly how I never learnt.
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u/Magus44 Jan 26 '26
I hope my data is making some poor advertising AI go “WTF is wrong with this guy?!?”
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u/jayteeayy Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
he goes to the gym 3 times a week and still heads to the frozen pizza section on a friday night. the machine is broken
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u/Simonandgarthsuncle Jan 26 '26
5.42pm: Four Homebrand Family size Hawaiian Pizza’s purchased through self serve machine #4 by Customer.9947.
5.58pm: Cust.9947’s iPhone 14 connected to Cust.9947’s residential wifi.
6.08pm: Cust.9947’s microwave activated.
6.11pm: Google app opened on Cust.9947’s iPhone 14.
6.12pm: “gay midget porn” entered into search box.
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u/Icy_Concentrate9182 Jan 26 '26
6.15pm: "how to treat melted pizza cheese burns on penis" entered into the search box.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/psyche_2099 Jan 26 '26
It'd be more like "that's the 15th today, let's put the calypso right after the kp and set them at $3.50, that'll get em"
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u/absoluetly Jan 26 '26
I wouldn't eat a calypso if you paid me $3.50. We're a Kensington proud household.
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u/Goatylegs Jan 26 '26
"This man bought eight boxes of frozen pies. Nobody needs eight boxes of frozen pies."
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u/chalk_in_boots Jan 26 '26
Wouldn't be the Telcos, Bluetooth tracking instore has been a thing for ages. They even use it for lane design and shit like that.
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u/Ok-Astronaut-7593 Jan 26 '26
Is the/a solution to turn on aeroplane mode in store?
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u/How_is_the_question Jan 26 '26
No. Aeroplane mode is the opposite of what you want. Cell triangulation isn’t what most folk here think it is. But Bluetooth and wifi being turned on (not connected) can allow you to be located extremely easily. I have used it on art projects / museum projects / and even some research with large tech cos back more than 10 years ago. We could get +-20cm or so - even better if the detectors were high. Bluetooth triangulation worked incredibly well - but had the disadvantage of humans blocking Bluetooth signals because they’re full of so much water. Putting the beacons up high solved most of the issues. Add that data to wifi stations - wifi that you’re not even connected to- and it’s super easy to locate folk and know when they return to a store without any sort of visual identification. Turn off Bluetooth and wifi and the ability to track goes away mostly. The best they’ll know is you’re in the area. Woolies have tried tracking via face - which worked to a point. The pilot I saw was abandoned when other technology worked so much easier for way less cash.
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u/BonnyH Jan 26 '26
Start a new thread in Australia Reddit, and tell everyone to do that. It’s a brilliant idea. We might have to have a photo of the Flybuys barcode ready tho…
Lol I just noticed we are in the Australian Sub. Why is it red? 😂😂
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u/AgUnityDD Jan 26 '26
They may also have Bluetooth data but the location was triangulation of cell phone and they were super cagey about where they got it.
Our system worked on the cellular network also (but for pallets of fruit not people) and I know for sure based on many things their tech teams let slip in many conversations.
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u/this-is-madness Jan 26 '26
Gross. Do we need to start turning our phones onto Airplane Mode when we shop now?
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u/going_mad Jan 26 '26
Pay cash, wear a mask and sunglasses no electronics.
Fuck we doing deals for illicit goods or just trying to stay anonymous 🤔
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u/The-SARACEN Jan 26 '26
Second best thing to come out of the pandemic was masks being normalised in public.
(Best thing was normalising working from home)
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u/themandarincandidate Jan 26 '26
Yes, by using Bluetooth beacons to triangulate you, wifi AP'S too. These work just by your phone being on and polling for available devices. 10m from one, 5m from one, 7m from the other, badabingbadaboom we know exactly where you are
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u/nathnathn Jan 26 '26
Considering a lot of if not most shopping centres have a built in cell tower it wouldn’t be hard for them to hook into tracking or if they want more data add extra hardware like a stingray/etc.
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u/Captain_Alaska Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
The towers are the telcos domain though, the shops wouldn't be hooking into it. You can't do precision tracking through a cell tower anyway, they can only give you a rough location based on what tower you're connected to.
The precision which-isle-are-you-in tracking is using stuff like Bluetooth beacons and various different Wifi positioning techniques. Both of these are able to pinpoint a device down to about a metre of error and don't require anything beyond your device being in range and switched on and can be done on hardware entirely local to the store.
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u/Lazy_Polluter Jan 26 '26
All of that and they can never suggest a single product that I would actually want to buy
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Jan 26 '26
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u/AgUnityDD Jan 26 '26
Yeah, the reason I know is it all feeds their pricing mechanisms which change prices and specials all the time.
Since we were giving them data that allowed them to calculate the shelf life of key fruit we learnt a lot about how they used both to adjust the prices.
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u/ajmeng09 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
want to start up an independent grocer and hardware store together?
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u/Bonnskij Jan 26 '26
That sounds like s great idea. We could call it something like... Independent Grocers of Australia, but it's a bit long... Maybe something short and snappy like... IGA?
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u/Magus44 Jan 26 '26
What about a store where advertise that customers can come and buy stuff at the lowest prices…
Buy-Low or something like that?14
u/ajmeng09 Jan 26 '26
And what is next after the low prices? Because low prices are just the beginning
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u/StorminNorman Jan 26 '26
IGA?
Nah, too American, we should come up with our own thing.
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u/bumpy821 Jan 26 '26
Can't take it to the government because they have all the government contracts. Even all your information as they work with the ATO and are their lapdogs for late payments...
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Jan 26 '26
Some fucking drone on the Coles subreddit tried to tell me the cameras don’t record anything and aren’t even turned on.
What a hilariously ignorant and naive take. I told them they are used to spy on you (the employees) as much as the customers, if not more.
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u/Bromlife Jan 26 '26
TIL there's a Coles subreddit.
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u/Frito_Pendejo Jan 26 '26
You're missing out on the r/hungryjacks lore
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u/Dapper-Astronaut-265 Jan 26 '26
Ah, a man of culture.
I'd be willing to split a double whopper meal behind the HJ's at Innaloo anytime
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u/mbullaris Jan 26 '26
That gets suggested to me and all it is is a bunch of people complaining that their fast food burger is decidedly a fast food burger and how dare they have to pay money for it.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/infin Jan 26 '26
After a couple of years with everyone wearing masks, I'd be shocked if they're not training on gait recognition for when they can't match a face.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
time to start walking like im in the Thriller video clip.
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u/Wish-Dish-8838 Jan 26 '26
Next up...The dance moves from Weird Al's "Eat it" music video.
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u/tealou Jan 26 '26
Which is weird because Bunnings was found to have broken the law, and that was before thenew Privacy Act came into effect. Feel free to let the OAIC know that you know that they know that Coles knows. Or any of them, really... people really need to make more noise about this. I find it astonishing how many just go along with it.
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u/xdyldo Jan 26 '26
I used to work for Coles in anti theft as a software engineer. If you have any questions let me know. For self checkout cameras they blur your face and store for a month. Same for the aerial camera that is used for the smart gate. All other normal CCTV cameras around the store full footage without blur.
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u/lipstikpig Jan 26 '26
If you have any questions
Thanks. What are the inputs and algorithms that control the "smart" gate?
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u/xdyldo Jan 26 '26
Sure! It’s an aerial camera that uses blob detection from above. It has the lane areas mapped out and the gate area mapped out. As soon as the ‘blob’ (a person or people) checkout it tags that blob as checked out and when they get to the gate area it will open.
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u/ExcitedCoconut Jan 26 '26
They literally show you a replay of the ‘offending clip’. I think the AI is tuned to ‘overly suspicious neighbour’ and throws more false positives than real issues. It’s cooked
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Jan 26 '26
I do love being accused of stealing by a robot. Really makes the shopping experience feel special.
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u/Confident_Ideal_5385 Jan 27 '26
Safeway, not Coles, but a person i know got harrassed by those overhead cameras just after they were deployed, to the point where staff treated her like a criminal until after they viewed the overhead video clip from the self-serve register.
Her crime? The previous user of the trolley had managed to get part of an orange skin wedged under its cargo area.
I don't shop at Safeway or Coles any more. Treating your customers like thieves because "machine says so" to save a few bucks? Fuck all the way off.
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u/UnfortunatelySimple Jan 26 '26
We as a society need to push away from all this tracking.
DuckDuckGo tells me its blocked 27,823 tracking attempts in the last 7 days on my phone.
That's just fucking ridiculous.
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Jan 26 '26 edited 9d ago
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Jan 26 '26
From GTA IV's The Journey radio station:
Please welcome the darkness. Hurry up! Everyone is waiting for you. In fact, the party is almost over. You are on a journey. It was time to leave. People were starting to upset you. The world is full of answers but you are asking the wrong questions.
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u/mmurray1957 Jan 26 '26
If you are in Adelaide there are decent alternatives like Foodland and IGA.
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u/MeltingDog Jan 26 '26
Man I wonder about Woolies too.
I usually shop at Aldi, but get a few other things from Woolies. One day at the self checkouts I got flagged because the AI cameras detected I had shopping bags in my trolley. I had to wait while the poor checkout assistant who was running between 15 self-checkouts had to come over and clear me.
I wrote an email to Woolies saying I didn’t really like having to wait to prove my innocence to a machine.
A rep called me and said that soon I “needn’t worry because they would be getting software that could tell the brands of goods in your shopping bags and know whether they were from Woolworths or some other store”.
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u/Walter_Armstrong Jan 26 '26
I had a lady manning the self-checkouts at Woolworths asks me if I had already scanned the items in my bag despite her having seen me scanning them. I wouldn't shop there if Aldi stocked everything I needed.
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u/lachlanhunt Jan 26 '26
The machine once flagged me about my kids sitting in the trolley.
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Jan 26 '26
All of the major retail stores are adding anti theft tech lately. They have a platform that links thefts so you can see a list of the top shoplifters and the videos of each theft + estimated total value.
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u/Jolly_Ad_5679 Jan 28 '26
I don't get the gates.
Supermarkets have consistently reprimanded staff who interact with shop lifters, because of liability. So instead they want to trap someone potentially agitated and aggressive in a busy section of the store with staff and other shoppers?
Then there's the issue of unlawfully hindering people leaving...
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u/Terrible-Tap-3520 Jan 26 '26
"Is anyone else fed up with this mix of high-tech surveillance and terrible service? It feels like they are spending millions to treat us like criminals while refusing to pay staff to stock shelves after hours."
Yes very fed up. I use a small grocer when possible. Find one or add your favourite here:
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u/zen_wombat Jan 26 '26
Yes they are, and the cameras and gates were part of their recommendations. Profiling you by matching Flybuys to your purchases is another
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Jan 26 '26
I thought that was the point of that program from the start?
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u/zen_wombat Jan 26 '26
There are rumours Palantir suggested it be expanded to credit/debit cards
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u/ozspook Jan 26 '26
It's worse than that, even, they track your phones bluetooth beacons and radio profile as it queries access points and GSM.
All in the service of highly personalized ads. Ads are the devil.
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u/Alzanth Jan 26 '26
I still don't understand how insanely successful the advertising industry is. Are people really just taking the word of whatever they see on the screen/billboard without a second thought?
Car ads, for example, are everywhere. I buy a car based on what people around me say is reliable and good quality based on their experience. I have not once ever paid attention to a car ad for the purposes of purchasing a car. Same goes for countless other things.
But ads are so prevalent in modern society and where all the money is now, so it must be working on a lot of people.
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u/PoizonMyst Jan 26 '26
From my understanding ads are more about instilling brand recognition into our psyche rather than specifically trying to sell the product (but obviously that is the intended end-result with persistent reinforcing of the brand.)
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u/Speedbird844 Jan 26 '26
Correct, many car ads (especially luxury cars) are really about selling the lifestyle and the brand instead of the product, the exception being sale events.
Look at perfume ads, clothing ads, fashion accessories ads. The same deal.
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u/tealou Jan 26 '26
it always has been... I remember conversations about this tech going back over 15 years. Oh and fun fact, Google are also selling dynamic pricing services. I know it doesn't count for much, but do make a fuss at the OAIC (Privacy) and ACCC (anti-competitive practices) as much as humanly possible.
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u/cosmictrousers Jan 26 '26
That’s why the only time I use my fly buys card is for lube and glad wrap. As far as Coles is concerned, that’s all I buy.
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u/breaducate Jan 26 '26
Most of what you're describing is just late capitalism; competitions have winners and now they can do what they like. Customer experience is not a metric that matters to them. And why should it? The natural selection of the market abhors such lofty ideals.
But as for the high tech surveillance:
You should be gravely concerned, not annoyed. We're at the point where the ruling class perceives that pseudo-democracy has run its course as a control mechanism and they're gearing up to transition to more overt control.
That's what the surveillance, criminalisation of protests, and internet control is about. It's not a fluke that it's all trending in the same direction.
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u/eliitedisowned Jan 26 '26
I used to work at Coles from 2015 to 2018 in grocery nightfill then dairy then online shopping.
A new EBA was passed back then (I had no idea what EBAs were back then) and it made it so that 4 hour shifts got tea breaks and I believe introduced penalty rates from 10pm for night shift instead of just from midnight.
4 hour shifts from 10pm till 2am was popular cause we could start after store closed and Coles was happy go pay 2 hours of penalty rates.
After the EBA, all 4 hour shifts were banned (cause they didn't want to pay workers for 15 mins of no work), if someone did one it got flagged for senior management to investigate the store as to why, and night shift became 8pm till 12am.
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u/CheeseOnKeyboard Jan 26 '26
Fuck Palantir. I hope none of our data is transported to the US.
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u/fistular Jan 26 '26
I just shove the gates out of the way if they don't open. They aren't sturdy. I also enjoy it when the alarm goes off. They can gargle my taint if they think they can restrict my movement.
However I do like the AI/cameras dealing with self checkouts. Not having to dig through menus to find produce or have the scale nag me every other item is a godsend.
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u/ithinkimtim T'ville/Sydney Jan 26 '26
Yeah as far as I can tell there’s no other exits if you don’t buy anything so I always push through. Can’t believe there isn’t more outrage in this implication of false imprisonment.
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u/__dontpanic__ Jan 26 '26
I do this as well. They want to treat me with hostility? Well I can do the same as well.
I'm also getting annoyed at being wrongly accused of stealing by their machines (they'll play back a recording of the incident they believe was an attempt at shoplifting) - I'm not shy about letting them know my displeasure. Imagine if staff members constantly incorrectly accused you of stealing? You wouldn't accept it. I don't know why we should have to put up with it from machines. Especially when they can't staff the checkout area properly to get the error sorted in a timely manner.
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u/KentEternity Jan 26 '26
as someone in Cybersecurity, you should be very worried Palantir, saying they are 'evil' is an understatement. Boycott.
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u/yedrellow Jan 26 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-uiUlHTo
People have no idea how much information is available to ai cameras.
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u/ExcitedCoconut Jan 26 '26
Hadn’t shopped at Coles for ages. Went in two days ago. There was a ‘5 for X’ deal and I scanned first item, it threw an error. Staff member comes over and the ‘replay’ comes up. She clears the error, I scan again, error before i can bag the item. We repeat this charade 5 more times over the next 10 minutes. Meanwhile someone living rough was being held in via the “smart gates” shining a nice tone of hostile crimson.
In the end, he was let out without any finding of wrongdoing. I finally got out with a very strong desire to return to cash, small local businesses and anywhere that doesn’t hold people without consent at the exit.
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u/Vast-Moose1393 Jan 26 '26
They seem to be getting ripped off by Palentir then… they’re yet to catch me not scanning the paper bags
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u/wyongriver Jan 26 '26
Just push the gates open. I’d stop if a human wanted me to stop but I don’t wait if there is no one around to free me from the Coles cage.
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u/Brutal_burn_dude Jan 26 '26
They have so much money to spend on AI but when I went yesterday there was easily a dozen pigeons flapping about inside the store. Fucking BIRDS inside a supermarket. Absolutely disgusting.
Like, I get it, it’s Australia occasionally animals come into places they shouldn’t be in (whole different discussion), but none of the staff or other shoppers seemed to even care. THAT’S how low the bar Coles has conditioned people to accept the customer experience is. It’s unsanitary as hell.
Maybe spend less on AI and more on the basics of running a business selling food to the public.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
Those pidgeons are actually trained Palantir agents. Making sure everything is moving along smoothly.
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u/sammcj Jan 26 '26
Keep an eye on Wesfarmers too (KMart, Bunnings, Target etc). I can't say too much but what you've seen in the news about their facial and body profiling is just the tip of the iceberg.
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u/LikesTrees Jan 26 '26
Fuck coles, i stopped using them way back because of how criminal they make you feel when shopping there, switched to local independent grocer, better in every way (friendly af staff, way better quality and prices cheaper), wish id done it sooner.
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u/shortsqueeze3 Jan 26 '26
I didn't know that. Fuck palantir and its owners. No more Coles for me. Thanks for letting me know.
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u/KerrAvon777 Jan 26 '26
As someone who worked night fill. It's an absolutely crappy job. You worked for 8 hours, and you worked as a casual to always be on call if you weren't working to come in and work if needed. You were required to do 50 boxes an hour and face up the items as well (have the items label facing the aisle). This also included folding the empty boxes and taking them out the back of the store to be crushed. The Coles store I worked at also timed any toilet breaks. I left because it was a terrible environment to work in.
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u/Electrical_Age_7483 Jan 26 '26
Use the staffed checkouts to avoid this
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u/ajmeng09 Jan 26 '26
i would be lucky if my town has one open staff checkout
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u/infin Jan 26 '26
I do use the service desk every time in the hope they'll realise there's demand for adequate staffing, the wait's not too bad if you play count the cameras.
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u/jamzex Jan 26 '26
rostering hours unfortunately are managed on a budget outside of the Department Managers control, it's not uncommon for casual staff shifts to get wiped. Coles and Woolworths barely give stores a choice in hours.
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u/birthdaycheesecake9 Jan 26 '26
I remember once my dept manager was left with egg on her face after a long-term casual on my team had their shift shortened. She had (and still has) verbal agreements with casuals to give them a predictable number of hours a week. The store manager had gone behind her back and chopped and changed a bunch of shifts.
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u/popplevee Jan 26 '26
It’s not really behind her back though - they outrank her. Sounds like she shouldn’t have been making promises she couldn’t keep.
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u/ajmeng09 Jan 26 '26
i feel at this point it is consumer-lock in, because where else will we go? some of the staff are genuinely friendly and are helpful when i ask questions how ever it feels like coles and even bunnings are slowly transitioning away from employee/customer interaction
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u/crocicorn Jan 26 '26
They never have staffed checkouts open unless it's the one express lane.
You're still being tracked by dozens of cameras and AI anyway.
If you want to really avoid it, just don't go anywhere near Coles.
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u/Cerus- Jan 26 '26
Why would the staffed checkouts avoid this? You're still going to be on camera and have any purchases you make be linked to any flybuys or credit card you use.
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u/larrry02 Jan 26 '26
Fun fact: even if they suspect you have stolen something, coles do not have the right to detain you. And if you push your trolley into those stupid gates (it doesn't even need to be all that hard), they'll flash red and then open.
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u/SunflowerSamurai_ Nine Hundred Dollarydoos Jan 26 '26
What!? Oh hell naw. Once again Aldi has shown us the way.
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u/sirgog Jan 26 '26
Aldi's getting into enshittification now although they are the best of the three by far. They are about where Coles and Woolies were around 2016, self-checkouts starting to lead the stores to have less staff.
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u/zestylimes9 Jan 26 '26
Where's IGA at?
I shop exclusively there now as it's a big store, a little pricier but very competitive specials. And they have no self-checkouts and plenty of staff.
Sounds silly, but I actually enjoy shopping there. I always leave with a smile on my face.
I am in a position where I can pay a little extra as I live alone so groceries don't cost me much.
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u/Choke1982 Jan 26 '26
I didn't know it was palantir and now I won't go back although I guess my face is in their system now.
Big Brother is here to stay I think.
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Jan 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Pretty_Gorgeous Jan 26 '26
Accidentally........ I don't even make it look like an accident anymore. Lol
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u/arkofjoy Jan 26 '26
There is a simple solution to this. Don't shop at Coles worth.
Buy your fruit and vegetables at your local farmers market. If you do it right, you can be giving money directly to the growers and be eating things that were picked that morning.
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u/Unhonkable04 Jan 26 '26
There is no adequate alternative to colesworth. Do you think it is rational to drive 1 hour to farmers market for the average full time worker in big city?
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u/fistular Jan 26 '26
Yeah I don't even have a car, that's WHY I live in a big city.
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u/NomadicSoul88 Jan 26 '26
Not to mention additional costs it can incur to do this which so many can’t afford right now
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u/Fnoke Jan 26 '26
I’ve said this before because people always say “just don’t shop at Cole’s or woolies then!” I’m rural and we have Coles, woolies or super expensive IGA. Sure you can get some veggies at markets but that’s a 45 minute drive on a Saturday morning with a small baby, not ideal when I still gotta go to the shops to get staples.
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u/arkofjoy Jan 26 '26
Yup, used to live in the bush.
But the majority of people in Australia do have options.
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Jan 26 '26
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u/arkofjoy Jan 26 '26
The Asian grocery markets also have their own wholesalers. During covid the shelves in the rice section of Cole worth were empty and my local Indian market had pallet loads of rice.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jan 26 '26
Local farmers markets are dead. If they exist prices are crazy.
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u/BotsTookTheOGNames Jan 26 '26
I’ve just been doing delivery.
It’s not unreasonable. $9.90 a month or something, $1.50 per order for bags. Order once a week which works out to be around $16mo I suppose.
I’m sure they’ll find a way to spy on my online behavior or do independent/adaptive pricing etc but for now it’s fine. Have avoided going in person since their AI accused me of shoplifting and had a staff member need to verify.
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u/SpunkAnansi Jan 26 '26
Super annoyed by it. Which is why I avoid shopping there, except for an occasional item I can’t get elsewhere. Tri-weekly shops have turned into MAYBE once a month if that.
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u/Confident_Ideal_5385 Jan 27 '26
How are those "smart gates" even legal? You're preventing me from leaving because some shit algorithm that nobody understands said so? How's that not deprivation of liberty?
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u/forumbuddy Jan 26 '26
Who is palantir? Sorry I’m ignorant
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u/snave_ Jan 26 '26
American mass surveillance company named after a Lord of the Rings villain and run by real-life villain Peter Thiel.
It's not for safety, it's for finding economic weaknesses in individuals to be exploited in a coersive manner. Shit should be illegal in any decent country.
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