Rising Food Prices are NOT Just Inflation

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Why can't they just stop being evil?

[00:00:16]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Well, this week in our world is a complete [ __ ] dystopia.

[00:00:39]>> [laughter] >> Um I want to paint a picture for you because this is actually in progress.

[00:00:50]You see not too long ago you know just before 2020 you know a little company called Uber decided they wanted to destroy the taxi market and so they came in and undercut everybody.

[00:01:15]They lured drivers onto their platform by giving them the opportunity to make anywhere from 25 to $30 an hour and then they lured passengers in by charging them like eight bucks, nine bucks for a ride.

[00:01:36]You know, remember those days?

[00:01:38]I remember those days.

[00:01:41]You know, you could pay nine bucks and go go somewhere.

[00:01:45]Try that now.

[00:01:49]So Uber started to pioneer this technology of surge pricing which was there from the beginning.

[00:01:57]Demand goes up, price goes up, that kind of thing. It was great.

[00:02:02]Until the, you know, they started taking a bigger piece of that pie for themselves and leaving the driver hanging.

[00:02:10]Um but they pioneered this system that would an algorithm, I don't know if they did it to the drivers first or to the passengers first.

[00:02:24]But they started calculating based on the passenger's behavior or the driver's behavior how much you know, for the drivers, how much we can the fair minimum we can pay you for you to accept the the trip.

[00:02:39]And then they started upping the passengers based on how much can we get squeeze out of them.

[00:02:47]You know, and that way they're taking a slice from the passengers, they're taking a slice from the drivers and turning what was not profitable into a 5% to 7% profit.

[00:03:03]Well, turns out a lot of corporal bros in pretty much every space in the our subscription-based economy have decided one of the best uses of AI in our already robust surveillance system is to determine how much you're willing to pay for [ __ ] So, over the weekend my girlfriend dragged my ass to Walmart.

[00:03:34]I hadn't set foot in a Walmart in months.

[00:03:40]In the United States. I There was one time I went to the Walmart in Canada. I wasn't happy about it. I I always tell her, I you know, I spent enough time in Walmarts over the years. I've hauled their [ __ ] I've been in their back rooms. I I'm not a fan of Walmart anymore. You know, every once in a while I might go there to to try and get something, but I will pay more to not go to Walmart.

[00:04:04]You know.

[00:04:05]That's just what If you want to know how to make that extra 5% profit off of me everyone, well, don't make me go into Walmart.

[00:04:14]Well, that's worse now cuz when we went into Walmart, they had instituted the electronic price tags.

[00:04:22]It was like a dystopian nightmare in there. First of all, the cameras are everywhere, blinking lights everywhere, various items locked up. You have to ask somebody to come get them.

[00:04:34]And the dynamic pricing.

[00:04:37]And I saw a video by More Perfect Union telling the back, you know, the investigation on what they're trying to do based on their patents that they have filed. So, you you know, you are constantly being data mined. Your phone is listening to everything you say.

[00:04:59]It you know, it's why you see ads tailored to your behavior, tailored to things you talk about.

[00:05:06]Um so, I'm going to give you an example.

[00:05:07]You're at home and you you look over at your old lady and you're like, you know, I'm out of deodorant. I need to go get some deodorant.

[00:05:19]And your phone hears that. And they upload it to the the data mining [ __ ] sales place.

[00:05:28]I don't you know, this is all speculation on how it's but there's actual evidence that this is what's going on out there and it started with delivery apps and gig economy, but now it's coming soon to a Walmart and possibly every grocery store might adopt it. You know, if you're spent any time in Canada, you're you're understanding that there's four companies that control all the groceries and they kind of work together to screw you.

[00:05:54]Well, it's it's it's coming because some you know, it's no longer sufficient to make money by selling us consumer goods that that we may or may not want. It No, we're going to try and make more money off of essentials.

[00:06:13]Like groceries and and personal care products and that kind of stuff.

[00:06:19]Um So, it overhears you discussing, you know, with your significant other what you're going to buy.

[00:06:31]It knows how much money you make. It knows where you work. It knows your spending habits. It knows everything you've bought for the last 6 months.

[00:06:41]And an algorithm driven by AI will be able to figure out the price, the maximum price you will pay for that product. So, you walk into the Walmart, you're greeted with a nice little camera, sometimes a gate.

[00:06:57]Um little picture you can wave at yourself as you walk in. Well, guess what? That's tracking you. There's even been reports that there's things on the carts that will tag you based on that camera coming in and note your location in the store, at least of your cart.

[00:07:17]Could also be tracking you by phone if you use their app or maybe they have a third party that they pay for that information.

[00:07:26]You know, your information's for sale, people.

[00:07:29]You know, nothing free on your phone is free.

[00:07:34]How Google Maps that you use for free, do you think they're not selling your location to everyone?

[00:07:42]So, it knows all of about you when you walk through the door of the store.

[00:07:47]And now they have price tags that will change. So, you walk, you know, I told my girlfriend, "I need some deodorant."

[00:07:56]So, it it's tracking me as I walk through the store and it's like, "This [ __ ] we might be able to squeeze an extra 5% to 10% out of him."

[00:08:08]So, as I approach the aisle, especially if the aisle's empty, computer says, "Hey, let's raise that price of the deodorant, you know, or maybe of all the deodorant, by 10, 15, 20 cents."

[00:08:24]You know, just like that. Now, this has always been a thing. They do price testing. The price testing is not a new concept.

[00:08:33]What's new is the AI doing it in real time the minute it sees you approach the aisle.

[00:08:40]You know, so, yeah, we have inflation. There's no doubt about that, but I believe the inflation is being compounded by these corporal bros that are like, "We can get more 5% more, bro. 5% All we got to do is turn this into a [ __ ] dystopian nightmare that tracks and and stalks every customer and determines what they'll buy, for how much they'll [ __ ] buy, and we're just going to just charge them more. More my We know they're already broke as [ __ ] but they're still buying [ __ ] Yeah, they still got their credit card, so we could still make more money, bro. My corporate stock number is all-time [ __ ] high. All-time high. I'm buying another property tomorrow. YEAH, that's right. And then I'm going to take out a loan on that property and buy another [ __ ] property. And And what? I don't even care if they get what they want or if they walk out on that. We'll just charge the next guy 5% more the one that has a lot of money to afford that.

[00:09:46]You know, dynamic pricing in real time will absolutely destroy us financially.

[00:09:55]And they're always going to be pushing to the top. The way the gig economy has been semi ruined by this race to the bottom, this dynamic pricing in terms of what they're willing to pay you to take a run. You know, I've seen [ __ ] on Uber as low as two, three dollars. Three dollars for like a quarter mile or a mile. It takes you a [ __ ] 20, 30, 40 minutes to do it.

[00:10:20]I've been I've been had Uber rides that wanted to pay me $4 and I don't do Uber anymore, by the way.

[00:10:27]Um that paid me $4 with a stop.

[00:10:33]I had to stop and wait for a [ __ ] go in and buy all their cigarettes or whatever the [ __ ] they were buying.

[00:10:40]Yeah, dynamic pricing.

[00:10:43]Great for the stock market, bad for us little lowly plebs.

[00:10:49]You know, the top 10% of American wealth is responsible for 50% of consumer spending.

[00:11:03]Which means these corporate bros aren't marketing to your broke ass or my broke ass, you know.

[00:11:11]They're marketing to the wealthy because the wealthy are the ones buying [ __ ] They don't care if you starve. They don't care if you can pay your bills.

[00:11:21]They don't care if your electricity bill is goes up 200% and then your property taxes jump and everything just keeps going up and up and up because we're just printing money like no tomorrow.

[00:11:32]They don't care.

[00:11:35]You know.

[00:11:36]So, I don't go to Walmart anymore. After seeing that, I was like, "Nope. I'm noping right the [ __ ] out. No more Walmart for me."

[00:11:45]You know, I might do a delivery for them every now and then.

[00:11:49]But, I will not set foot in a Walmart.

[00:11:53]I'm I'm sticking to that.

[00:11:56]You know, it it doesn't matter.

[00:11:59]Walmart's not going to give a [ __ ] because the top 10% they don't care.

[00:12:03]They'll go in, "Oh, you're going to rake another 9.5% out of me? Okay. There you go."

[00:12:10]That they otherwise wouldn't have got.

[00:12:11]They're getting it because they're stealing your information.

[00:12:16]They're also selling your information.

[00:12:18]You know, all that monitoring they do of you in the store, they're selling that to other people to make even more money.

[00:12:27]You know, the greed has gotten so far out of control. You know, it's one thing to be greedy when it comes to RAM and computer prices and things that honestly we can probably live without. It's a whole [ __ ] new level of evil when you're doing it on essentials like food.

[00:12:47]And yes, all the food aisles had these dynamic price tags in them.

[00:12:54]And when I watch saw the little piece that when I saw the little piece that More Perfect Union did on this, I was like, "Yeah, we're fucked."

[00:13:06]>> [laughter] >> We're [ __ ] If you use a delivery app, you're already getting you're you're getting dynamic pricing to no tomorrow.

[00:13:13]You're paying more than you otherwise would for a product base solely on the algorithm's understanding of your habits, your finances, and your spending habits, and what you're willing to pay.

[00:13:26]Every once in a while, it's going to throw a bigger price at you.

[00:13:30]And if you say, "Oh, it still seems a little pricey, but I'm buying it anyway." Well, guess what?

[00:13:36]Next time you go to buy that same item, it's going to go up a little more. And it'll keep doing that till you say, "Well, [ __ ] I can't buy it anymore."

[00:13:45]Then maybe it'll go down a little bit.

[00:13:47]You know.

[00:13:49]That's it. That's how it's going to work, and it's going to do it in real time the minute you walk through the door of the store.

[00:13:55]And if you get all your [ __ ] delivered, and you're doing it through apps, you're already you're already getting nailed with that.

[00:14:01]It's already doing it. Amazon been doing it for years.

[00:14:05]And uh, you know, what once Uber showed that they can turn something that wasn't profitable into profit after taking over the market, any retail, you know, seller is going to try and do the same thing.

[00:14:21]You know, and your data's already out there for sale. They've been mining your data for a long time now, and you know it.

[00:14:29]You know, I I don't know anybody who's not aware that their phone isn't listening to every [ __ ] word you say and tracking everywhere you go and doing all of that stuff. All of that data is out there. It subsidizes, you know, you can buy a smart TV for like $355 inch.

[00:14:45]You what You think that's because it's cheap? No, that it's that it's because it's selling your data. It's taking a screenshot of your screen every 2 seconds to see what you watch.

[00:14:58]You're You're the product.

[00:15:00]Doesn't matter what you do or, you know, they're going to squeeze their 5% on it anywhere you can. Whether it's deodorant or, you know, coffee or you name it.

[00:15:12]You know, you're you're It's going to be a race to the top.

[00:15:18]I don't know there's a way to combat it.

[00:15:21]You know, you're These are algorithms that are smarter than all of us.

[00:15:27]At least me, anyway.

[00:15:29]You know, the only way I can see to fight back against it is to just be like, well, nope.

[00:15:37]You know, just nope out.

[00:15:40]You know, cut down to the bare minimum.

[00:15:43]>> [laughter] >> I don't know.

[00:15:46]I don't see an easy solution to it.

[00:15:49]I just think awareness is helpful, you know.

[00:15:53]I was joking with with my girlfriend. I was taking pictures of the little price tags as I went so that at the very least it didn't change again between me walking from the [ __ ] thing to the register.

[00:16:05]I wonder if that's a thing or if it leaves it that price until I leave the store or what have you. You know, I don't know the how quickly it updates its prices, but you know, they they used to have to price test in different markets and it was not like specific to the person.

[00:16:28]You know, it it it it was price testing, oh, well, we ran it at this price in this market and this price over here and we made more money over here, so that's the price we go with everywhere.

[00:16:40]Price testing.

[00:16:42]You know, not a new concept, but when you add AI and surveillance and the lack of privacy that we have now now today, you're looking at uh price gouging on top of inflation for things that you need.

[00:17:02]Sucks, you know.

[00:17:05]I have as a gig worker, I have to battle the race to the bottom algorithm all the time by not doing shitty gigs. And if you're a gig worker, don't take shitty runs.

[00:17:17]If everybody stops taking the shitty runs that are at a loss, has to be more than a dollar a mile, people. Dollar a mile is like the minimum, by the way.

[00:17:26]Anything under a dollar mile, if you keep doing it, the algorithm's going to be like, "Oh, this [ __ ] can do that. Maybe we'll do 70 cents a mile next time."

[00:17:36]Let's show him 60 cents a mile. Let's see if he'll take that.

[00:17:39]And problem is, in a saturated market, somebody's taking it. They don't They're desperate enough that they don't care that they're taking a loss on their vehicle. They just run that. They're like, "Oh, I don't need 20 bucks, bro.

[00:17:52]Got to go get my [ __ ] six-pack of beer."

[00:17:57]>> [sighs] >> You know, that's that's the that's the problem with the gig economy. Well, that's about to be the everything economy.

[00:18:06]You're going to be tracked from the time you walk out of your While you're in your house, you're being tracked.

[00:18:11]Anytime you're on a computer, you're being tracked. Anytime you're on your phone, you're being tracked. It's tracking everything about you. It knows everything. And then, if you're a credit card person, guess what? You got You're getting all your purchases All that information's out there.

[00:18:26]And sold.

[00:18:28]It's not private.

[00:18:31]You know, you got these apps. I see I see advertisements for it all the time where you put all your financial [ __ ] into one app.

[00:18:40]Mhm.

[00:18:41]Yeah, you need to know how much I make, what my bank accounts are, where all my credit cards are, where my debt is, how much I spend, how much I earn, my credit score, all of that [ __ ] And you want it all in in this one app. And you're not sharing that with anybody.

[00:18:58]Course not.

[00:19:00]Mhm.

[00:19:02]Uh what happens when Walmart knows that the second you walk into an aisle and can on the fly have an AI be like, "Oh, this [ __ ] You look at his what's score, blah blah blah." It does all of this in a split second. Change the price before you even get to see the item.

[00:19:17]It knows in that aisle what you're likely to go for and it will try and squeeze another 5%.

[00:19:24]Real-time price testing based on your personal data.

[00:19:30]It's coming soon to everything near you.

[00:19:34]Cuz if Walmart succeeds with this, if you just keep going, "Ah, I could still got to go get my [ __ ] you know, my Great Value water. I still got to go and get my my diapers and [ __ ] I got to go to Walmart. It's the cheapest place."

[00:19:54]And you let them get away with it.

[00:19:59]It's going to happen everywhere.

[00:20:01]So, take heed.

[00:20:05]They're trying to cover up that they did it according to that that documentary I saw.

[00:20:10]They changed their website when questions were being asked because there's there's a third-party system they use for the algorithm.

[00:20:24]And it was through Instacart that they were doing a lot of the testing as well and there was definitely discrepancies, different people being charged different [ __ ] Real-time price testing based on your personal data.

[00:20:38]You know, it used to be price tasting testing based on the market, you know.

[00:20:42]They would see what people pay here, see what people pay there, you know, that's that's part of capital, the free market, okay, I get it.

[00:20:50]But when does it stop being a free market if you're manipulating it?

[00:20:56]You know, if you're manipulating it based on me.

[00:21:01]That I know when I walk into a store that has dynamic price tags, that you're going to try and [ __ ] me as hard as you can.

[00:21:13]Well, I don't like getting [ __ ] hard all that much. So, I'm going to be taking some steps in the near future to reduce the amount of lube I need when I go to the grocery store. Please like and subscribe for more [ __ ] And I'll make more [ __ ] If you like my video, you want me to make more videos, or you want some exclusive videos every now and then where I go a little more deep into my personal [ __ ] please become a channel member.

[00:21:41]There's already some videos over there where I tried some [ __ ] and didn't work out.

[00:21:45]Um planning on a music release. And yes, I am going to be actively working on my album this week to get it out and finally.

[00:21:54]I might just go film some [ __ ] instead of using AI for the [ __ ] visual all the visuals.

[00:22:01]You know, because seems the landscape on YouTube is shifting a little bit and I don't want to get nailed with inauthentic content. So, I might take the camera out and film some footage for some of my music just to run in the background to the song.

[00:22:15]You know, I don't know. I'll have to figure that out as I go. But that's coming. You'll have And like I say, if if you're a channel member, the music is royalty free if you want to download it from YouTube and use in your content or whatever.

[00:22:31]>> [clears throat] >> But just you know, tell people about me if you do that, please. It helps. Then maybe I'll continue to make music. I don't know.

[00:22:41]Maybe I can dynamic price it.

[00:22:45]There's no dynamic pricing. Everyone gets everything that even at the lowest tier of membership.

[00:22:51]So, yeah, I'm not I'm not trying to say, "Oh, this [ __ ] is rich.

[00:22:57]You pay more."

[00:22:58]No.

[00:23:02]It's really just getting just out of hand. It's It's really getting out of hand. I'm sitting here looking at I'm at a Ultramar in Canada right now. $1.85 a liter.

[00:23:11]Which works out to about close to 550 a gallon, something like that. US.

[00:23:19]Yeah. Actually, let me let me ask the AI. I mean, we're all paying for AI, I might as well [ __ ] get something out of it.

[00:23:25]Uh I was close. It's 504 per gallon here in Ontario. It's going to be more expensive when I get into Quebec.

[00:23:38]What happens when the AI sees your parked car pull in, huh? And then you go to the pump and it raises you you know, "Oh, you're driving an F-150? Hey.

[00:23:48]We already know you're paying $400.

[00:23:52]Uh All right.

[00:23:55]At some point I would hope the greed would slow down.

[00:24:01]But as inflation continues to skyrocket, everybody's trying to get theirs.

[00:24:06]Everyone's trying to get as much money as they can out of you.

[00:24:11]It's not much you can do about it except stop consuming where where possible. But uh uh downgrading your life. You know, we're going to talk more about that cuz there are some changes I'm going to make to try and combat this inflation and this this price gouging and this horse [ __ ] You know.

[00:24:30]And it's a lifestyle choice I'm going to make again that I made a few times in the past. But I think now's the time is coming. So.

[00:24:41]But I'll talk more about that in my member only video that I'm going to do this week.

[00:24:49]Have a nice [ __ ] day.

[00:24:52]And [ __ ] And be careful in them Walmart, you know, I'm watching them dynamic price tags like a hawk.

[00:25:02]I might circle back to the aisle a few times just to see how quickly it'll adjust. Or what if there's 10 people in the aisle? What are you going to do then? Hi [ __ ] what if we all like the same [ __ ] Yeah.

[00:25:14]Price test this.

[00:25:16]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Ooh.