topic Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008 in SmorgasBoard

Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:23:17 GMT

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/23/factory-job-cuts-reported-around-financial-crisis-and-covid-levels-for-june-sp-says.html

The number of factory layoffs in America reached comparable levels to COVID and the 2008 Financial Crisis according to CNBC.

The news locally tells me that Kroger is shutting down grocery stores in Illinois, and they're not shutting them down in the "high crime areas" in Chicago, which is mostly where Walmart has bailed on (but not exclusively), it's in the wealthy areas. Like they announced a closure at Gurnee, which is not a bad place. And that lot is usually full. I just moved from around that vicinity back down into Cook County recently.

No, this is something else. In an economy that's really tepid and fragile, I mean, when you're the most expensive grocery chain out there, and you're just not very competitive, this happens, and I think if anything it will strengthen Jewel-Osco, which is a dedicated grocery with overall "basket" prices that are very favorable compared to something like Walmart, although with a wider selection, better service, and higher quality especially on meat, produce, and deli where Walmart hasn't really made a quality push.

If the previous administration hadn't blocked the Albertson's-Kroger merger, I think what would be happening now is the corporate bigwigs at Kroger shutting down a lot more total stores in the combined company, and raising Jewel-Osco prices to be in line with Kroger and slashing quality on things, especially meat, and sticking the store shelves with Kroger brands which are mostly lower quality than Jewel-Osco's with rare exception.

The only Kroger brand I found that I like more than Signature Select is the orange spice tea and Spotlight coffee. But those alone haven't been sufficient to get me into a Kroger store.

I think the problem for Kroger is they've just gotten so greedy that sales are probably falling, which is what happens when you're in a bad economy and a can of vegetables is 50 cents higher and a pound of meat costs a dollar more than Jewel.

They should quit being so greedy, you can't get away with that in a market that has thriving competition, which is what blocking the merger has preserved. The States had to take that over and fight to block it in light of this very hands-off federal government, and thank goodness for that.

Things are ugly and people cannot afford to add anotehr 20% to their grocery bill to cover Kroger's profit grab.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:38:55 GMT

Kroger is the worst. Personalized pricing, surveillance pricing, dynamic pricing, facial recognition, ESLs with cameras...whatever you want to call it, they just suck. Aldi gets 95% of my business.

And automation is driving a lot of the factory cuts. Companies can’t find people to show up on time and stay off their phones. Machines never call off and work 24/7 without complaining. One of the best jobs right now it robot maintenance. You learn how to program and maintain bots and you'll never want for a job.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

FicoMike0 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:42:28 GMT

I noticed Kroger is building a new store near me. I shop there sometimes and have no complaint with them. I suppose we mostly shop Meijer and aldi. I sometimes hit Aldi's cousin, trader Joe's.

The highest price store here is giant eagle, but they do run a nice store.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 01:43:01 GMT

@FicoMike0

Remember Big Bear back in the day? They were the hoity-toity grocery story when I was a kid. Kept the prices high to keep the riff-raff out.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 01:57:25 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
@FicoMike0

Remember Big Bear back in the day? They were the hoity-toity grocery story when I was a kid. Kept the prices high to keep the riff-raff out.

Before Kroger bought Mariano's there was an actual guy in the store playing the piano while you shopped.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

Realist — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:04:51 GMT

It's the slow burn into a recession or depression. No one will admit it, but company by company, some to many have been in decline for many quarters, and companies have been laying off for many quarters now. How they balance the stock market is amazing. They only need to control enough of the high performers, to give off the illusion that everything is fine. There's only seven or so stocks they need to balance to portray the power of a stock market- in which everyone translates into economic prosperity.

If you run through the charting of all of the big name players, you will find we're more in it than you know. Time - is the only thing separating us from the perceived reality of that failure.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:21:07 GMT

@Realist wrote:
It's the slow burn into a recession or depression. No one will admit it, but company by company, some to many have been in decline for many quarters, and companies have been laying off for many quarters now. How they balance the stock market is amazing. They only need to control enough of the high performers, to give off the illusion that everything is fine. There's only seven or so stocks they need to balance to portray the power of a stock market- in which everyone translates into economic prosperity.

If you run through the charting of all of the big name players, you will find we're more in it than you know. Time - is the only thing separating us from the perceived reality of that failure.

Virtually nobody is buying the stock market lie anymore. If you're not in the 1%, you're feeling it. Hubby took the van in for service the other day. $170 for an oil change, they quoted $1K for brakes, and $4K for front end suspension! The van is worth maybe $500. He got the oil change and took the van home. He's going to take the van to a friend's house and do the brakes himself. I don't know what we will do when both vehicles die because used vehicles are very expensive now and new ones are completely out of reach for us. To say nothing of the insurance and gas.

I was looking at the Xcel Energy usage site the other day and it shows our effective electric rate going up from ~14c per kwh to 17c per kwh too (we have flat rate so it's not a demand adjustment).

Don't get me started on the grocery store and we went out to eat the other day at this place called Chuy's Tex-Mex. $15 for a house margarita! For two entrees, a margarita, a 0% beer, an appetizer with a happy hour appetizer discount, and 20% tip... $74!

Hubby works in a warehouse and we are just praying they don't axe his position because we will end up homeless in no time if he can't find something new.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:48:52 GMT

I feel you about the van.

My car needs a complete engine rebuild apparently because of crank walk. Ugh. It happened in the middle of my move but thankfully after I got all of the really important stuff down here.

I live next to the train and bus station so I told them that I really don't care to keep dumping money into a car and I plan to sell it to Carvana and dust off my bus pass.

At first it felt bad, but then I got to thinking "Gas is almost $5 a gallon, insurance is over $100 a month and keeps rising and they fleece you for having a bankruptcy, they fleece you for anything they can cite really, and you can just rent a car to go out of the region if you want."

I am centrally located. I can step out of my apartment and be anywhere in Chicago within an hour, anywhere Metra goes within 2-3 hours.

It's time to just get rid of the car, cut my losses, and tell Progressive Insurance and the mechanics where to shove it when it comes to all the costs.

You think the car means freedom, but what it really does is become a money pit that's holding you hostage. Some people have to play games with banks, mechanics, and insurance companies, and whatever the oil cartel wants out of us. I'm glad I can just upend the card table and walk away now.

As for groceries and eating out, eating out is a luxury expense. I do not wish to intrude on your financial business, but I would say that I am under fiscal pressure and have stopped eating out and we're no worse off for it. I know how to cook.

Yesterday I just decided to make it simple and make bacon, scrambled eggs, and biscuits with butter and blakberry preserves for dinner.

But I usually do more. My new partner is a very nice person but he grew up poorer than Job's turkey as the saying goes. Parents didn't have money for school uniforms so he got his cousin's hand me downs, and the government didn't bring electricity to the village until 1998.

Lost two of his brothers to contaminated drinking water.

As bad as it gets in America relative to how great it used to be, I'm glad that we have electricity and that despite a certain group's best efforts nobody is dying from water yet.

Some people are trying to make everyone's teeth rot out from lack of fluoride, and I'm convinced some of these people want to remove chlorine disinfection too, because what's a little cholera between friends.

Lack of fluoride hurts people in poverty the worst because they're the least likely to go to the dentist. Once you're in the dentist's chair the fillings start at $600 each. And that's considered a minor procedure.

They act like, in Utah, people getting the Measles is "normal and healthy" when it's not. They act like "What do you do?" when the answer is "roll up your sleeve and the vaccine is 99.8% effective".

There's an element in this country that wants to unleash the kraken and bring back third world living conditions.

You'd think they'd learn from their disease outbreaks, rotting teeth, and food poisoning, but some people can't be taught, even the hard way.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:54:22 GMT

For some reason, 80/20 ground beef is only $3 on Amazon Grocery. Limit 5 per order.

I've already gotten ten pounds of it.

It's like $11 a pound at the grocery store.

It's in vacuum sealed containers. You can just freeze whatever you won't use right away.

Amazon Grocery needs to be built out a bit but I think they could replace the store.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:05:30 GMT

lol I couldn't imagine how that conversation with hubby would go.

"Have you ever thought of taking the bus?"

He has to get up at 5AM as it is to make it to work on time as it's about an hour drive from here and he needs an hour to wake up before he leaves.

He has his scooter and a motorcycle, which covers his trips for most of the year, especially lately where we don't get much snow in the winter anymore anyway, but he still needs a vehicle for those days.

The restaurant was my treat because we had a big fight that day about, you guessed it, money. We usually eat out once or twice a month but that's getting to be too much. That said, the meal I got was $16 and provided me with two meals, it's the ~$22 for two drinks that did us in.

Fluoride is industrial waste that was added to the water supply because there was nothing better to do with it. Yes, it has benefits for teeth, but it has other health consequences. I alternate between tap water and ZeroWater (which filters near 100% of the fluoride) and brush with David's nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste. I haven't had to have a filling since I switched from Sensodyne to that, my tooth sensitivity is way better, and my hygienist always compliments me on my oral care. Your other points are spot on though.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:56:13 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
lol I couldn't imagine how that conversation with hubby would go.

"Have you ever thought of taking the bus?"

He has to get up at 5AM as it is to make it to work on time as it's about an hour drive from here and he needs an hour to wake up before he leaves.

He has his scooter and a motorcycle, which covers his trips for most of the year, especially lately where we don't get much snow in the winter anymore anyway, but he still needs a vehicle for those days.

The restaurant was my treat because we had a big fight that day about, you guessed it, money. We usually eat out once or twice a month but that's getting to be too much. That said, the meal I got was $16 and provided me with two meals, it's the ~$22 for two drinks that did us in.

Fluoride is industrial waste that was added to the water supply because there was nothing better to do with it. Yes, it has benefits for teeth, but it has other health consequences. I alternate between tap water and ZeroWater (which filters near 100% of the fluoride) and brush with David's nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste. I haven't had to have a filling since I switched from Sensodyne to that, my tooth sensitivity is way better, and my hygienist always compliments me on my oral care. Your other points are spot on though.

Well, you know, I've been pretty wiped out by this move and everything, so the car is just not high priority if I have to let something go at this point. I'll recover faster without it and it will stop finding new ways to burn holes in my pocket.

I told the shop if they can figure out how to rig it so it runs and just doesn't leak oil and I can offload it then that's what I'd like to do, and maybe that involves a tighter fitting seal or something. I don't know. I'd like to get it to where it's running and not throwing oil everywhere long enough to get $1800 for it because that's the best I'm gonna get and honestly I would never want to offload something like this to a private buyer and obscure that it has an engine problem.

Yeah, Dave Ramsey is right, when money becomes a problem in a relationship it's going to be the thing you're in there fighting over all the time.

When I do go out to eat I like to just get one drink and split it, or even ice water. Nobody working a fast food restaurant gets paid enough to care if you're splitting a drink.

Yes, the restaurant industry is getting hit hard because less customers are showing up. With $100 at the grocery store I can eek by through an entire week. With $100 at a restaurant, well, that depends, but normally two meals at a cheap one and less than one meal for two at an Outback Steakhouse. You'll never win financially at a restaurant v. cooking at home and having leftovers later on.

So the car and eating out are some holes in the budget I can do something about. I can't really improve on our incomes too much but I can soomewhat control expenses.

The RTA said I could always have a free transit pass as long as I renew it every 5 years. The cost of insurance on the car was $1400 a year PIF and even if I cut it to Liability, that would only get it down to $950.

Then there's all this $5 a gallon gas, and the repair bills, the state wants over $160 to renew a license plate every year, the city wants $50 for a sticker.

Mechanics want hundreds or thousands of dollars on a routine basis.

There's nly so much that can be done with a Social Security check and some odds and ends, and the car is eating too much of that, and if I don't get rid of it it's going to become a huge problem more than it's worth. It'll deplete me and then I'll have to ask my new partner to start footing more of the bills.

So it's like a cowboy when the horse is dying anyway, he pulls out his gun and shoots the horse, and it's not to be mean to the horse, it's because it's at the end of its life and he has nothing to spare to feed a horse that can't work anymore. At least this is just a machine.

I looked into the water issue, and I mainly use Amazon Basics filters for the Brita, I have a lot of them. They just had a Prime Day sale $14 for 6 of them, that's a good price, very good filter. Very competitive with the brand name standard Brita filters. It's actually German Brita that's making the Amazon one, at their factory in the UK.

German Brita tried entering the US as Mavea some years back. If you still have a Mavea (they stopped selling them because nobody knew what they were), you can still import Brita Maxtra+ filters off Amazon UK and they'll fit and work, and Waterdrop also makes some that fit, albeit with mixed reviews.

These are not a "purification" filter, the carbon and ion resin will just improve on a few points, and they work best on organic pollutants and some heavy metals, even when they make no specific claims they do something to contaminants of concern.

I found a pile of Brita Elite filters for 99 cents, factory sealed, at Goodwill. Those are better, but it's all about the problem you're trying to fix.

We get very good water from Evanston, it's from Lake Michigan, we have advanced water treatment plants, there's nothing that bad about it other than some slight taste issues.

I looked at Costco water delivery and they wanted over $1700 a year for water. That's more than I pay in car insurance, for the car I'm getting ready to offload because it's breaking me.

Ideally, all water in the US would be as safe as it is here. Illinois has made water quality a high priority and is ahead of the nation in removing and replacing lead service lines. The major impediment is getting homeowners to work with the city.

In some cases, Waukegan (where I lived) was having problems getting Hispanic/Latino people who are US citizens to even open the door because they're worried anyone who says they're from the government might be ICE, and they don't want to be falsely arrested, disappeared, and then maybe released after a month or three when ICE admits they're a US citizen or legal resident, so sometimes you can't even get someone to answer the door because they think the guy from the water department is a setup.

It's one of those things where the culture of fear has made having members of the public who haven't done anything wrong worried about interacting with their government, or reporting to the police that they're a crime victim, which is sad because we're dealing with that when someone has been assaulted or the city just wants to upgrade their pipes so they're not being exposed to a poison substance in the water.

That's what the mayor told us.

It's pretty bad when people who are allegedly law enforcement professionals don't bother to make sure they have their facts in order or at least let you grab a pair of pants or shoes in the middle of winter, but I suppose that's where we are now. And it's having some very serious effects on trust across the board.

Being able to tell someone your home was upgraded to lead-free service pipes makes the house more valuable if you go to sell it, so these people who are afraid to answer the door are foregoing building home equity because they're afraid they might end up in some other country.

Having experienced serious police misconduct myself, I know how traumatizing it can be many years later even if they agree to wipe it from your record. Nothing can ever undo the mental pain and anguish that it causes. Even the locals tend to act with complete impunity when they're wrong, so I can only imagine if it was the feds.

They often don’t face consequences: they can wreck your life, and you spend years picking up the pieces while they remain police officers and continue on. I've spent time in therapy sessions on this topic alone, and it helps me to think about them as a force of nature really, almost like a tornado that blows through and carries your house and car away. Something to be avoided if you can.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:54:34 GMT

Yeah he may have to give up having a personal vehicle at some point. That's not a topic I want to broach today though.

We don't fight much but when we do, it's typically about money or money adjacent. We ultimately just decided to loosen our savings goals so both of us have more breathing room. What's the point of saving a bunch of money when you're sacrificing everything else? We are both in our late 30s, early 40s, and we both have a pessimistic outlook about the direction of the economy and the country, so at least we will be in good company when everything blows up.

We have Denver Water, which is also some of the best water in the country, just hard because of our proximity to the mountains. Despite that though, pharmaceuticals and other waste products are increasing in concentration in water around the country. There's not really much they can do about that. ZeroWater filters substantially more than any other filter on the market. The downside, of course, is it strips the minerals too, which is why I alternate.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:29:05 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
Yeah he may have to give up having a personal vehicle at some point. That's not a topic I want to broach today though.

We don't fight much but when we do, it's typically about money or money adjacent. We ultimately just decided to loosen our savings goals so both of us have more breathing room. What's the point of saving a bunch of money when you're sacrificing everything else? We are both in our late 30s, early 40s, and we both have a pessimistic outlook about the direction of the economy and the country, so at least we will be in good company when everything blows up.

We have Denver Water, which is also some of the best water in the country, just hard because of our proximity to the mountains. Despite that though, pharmaceuticals and other waste products are increasing in concentration in water around the country. There's not really much they can do about that. ZeroWater filters substantially more than any other filter on the market. The downside, of course, is it strips the minerals too, which is why I alternate.

I would say the point of saving money is so that when something bad happens that drains you rapidly, you don't end up depleting more than your savings and ending up in credit card debt and possibly bankrupt.

I've found that living lean during good times helps you brace for the bad. And I'm living that this month. My spouse became unreasonable, wrecked our marriage, spent years cursing at me and saying he hated me and that he found me fat and ugly, and I internalized a lot of that and then I finally decided I had enough and I moved out on him and found someone who treats me better.

Saying all those nasty words to someone hurts whether it's true or not. I don't think it's true. I'm not a straight up ten but I'm not "ugly", and aside from that, people have worth regardless, and that includes me, and I'm madder than Hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

But my point is, money gave me the option to get up, and leave. And in the end he saw that and panicked because he realized he was the one with the problem and all he could do was stand there with his jaw dropped open while my movers were taking my stuff out of the house.

If I let the good times roll, I would have no options.

Whatever it is for you, savings gives you options when bad things start happening. Debt products are not a safety net, they just create more danger.

I say all this while sitting here eating two biscuits left out of a can I cooked and some leftover scrambled eggs. I don't throw things away. This is lunch. Tonight it's a leftover beans and hotdogs recipe I made a couple days ago.

Probably $10 saved right there. If half of all days are leftover days, then your average spend is what needs to be considered.

People keep saying eating out isn't that much cheaper. Okay, case in point. The steaks at Outback got really small. It costs me and the partner over $100 to get two steak dinners with salad and a baked potato. I can make that meal for $55 at home. I know, steak is expensive, but there you go, half the cost of a similar restaurant meal.

I got laughed at back in the 1990s when I decided to take Home Economics as an elective. There's so much gender stereotyping, especially then, and look how that turned out. Almost all the men from my generation can't cook, can't budget, they're all leaning heavily on restaurants and credit card debt because they never learned basic Home Economics. If they made Home Economics a required course, we'd be doing better as a society, I think.

You need to be able to function economically regardless of which gender you are. This idea that you'll go to work and find a woman to tend to the house is so outdated it's laughable. You are going to be so stretched that you'll be one of these people spending 150% of your income if you don't know Home Economics.

We need to step out of that mentality of "best looking horse at the glue factory" or "this is what the boss or the government did to me 10 years ago", or "this is where my stupid parents threw me out of the house without a spoon to feed myself and that was in 2002", or "I got married and supported his stupid immigration case and then he turned out to be very abusive."

If the mentality is this, we really never will get anywhere. We'll accept whatever was done to us and believe that failure is the only option.

He thought that it was going to go some other way, my spouse did. He felt like there was something he was going to get out of me and he was wrong. He can't get my Social Security check. Pretty soon there won't be a car. I told him he could have my car yesterday, just bring a tow truck because it needs a new engine.

I have a mean streak sometimes.

Anyway, most people only act when the "torpedo hits the ship". You don't wait until the moment of impact to be ready for a disaster. As soon as the "torpedo is in the water", you need to be ready for it. In a naval ship they don't just go oh well there's a torpedo, this is the end of us. They shout "Torpedo, torpedo, torpedo!!!" and the whole crew knows what to do from the Captain down to the cooks. Everyone has a job whether it's trying to steer the ship or slam the bulkhead doors. And we need to adopt that mentality to our daily lives.

You know why Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon? It was because of a disaster that almost killed him on a Gemini mission.

He reacted without panic, simply figuring out what was going wrong and how to fix it, while his spaceship was out of control and at risk of an uncontrolled re-entry. He devised a procedure that was not in "the book" in under a minute and used the re-entry thrusters that were not designed to regain control of the ship to fix the problem that a malfunctioning thruster caused, and he saved his own life and that of his fellow astronaut, because he didn't panic. He stayed calm even though he knew he could die because of this and when the playbook didn't work, he invented a solution.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:44:11 GMT

We definitely will continue to save but I had some rather rigid savings goals for myself that hubby wasn't rushing to meet and I was just getting resentful. I've got enough in savings to pay the full rent and groceries for this place for at least 8 months by myself and hubby has another 4 months or so, it's just that hubby makes a lot more money than me since I have Social Security and I was not happy that he couldn't even meet my level of saving and then he was talking about blowing all his savings on transportation, which didn't sit well with me at all. That said, he has still come a long way from when he and I met when he didn't even have a savings account so I decided to just stop holding myself to such high savings goals and live a little so we can both be less stressed. Regardless, we are both doing better than a lot of people that couldn't even cover a $1K emergency expense, and I'm thankful for that.

Neither of us are particularly great cooks but we can read and follow directions so things turn out fine. The biggest issue is actually wanting to do it, which the motivation isn't really there for either of us a lot of the time, but I still manage to keep our grocery budget under control anyway.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:58:54 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
We definitely will continue to save but I had some rather rigid savings goals for myself that hubby wasn't rushing to meet and I was just getting resentful. I've got enough in savings to pay the full rent and groceries for this place for at least 8 months by myself and hubby has another 4 months or so, it's just that hubby makes a lot more money than me since I have Social Security and I was not happy that he couldn't even meet my level of saving and then he was talking about blowing all his savings on transportation, which didn't sit well with me at all. That said, he has still come a long way from when he and I met when he didn't even have a savings account so I decided to just stop holding myself to such high savings goals and live a little so we can both be less stressed. Regardless, we are both doing better than a lot of people that couldn't even cover a $1K emergency expense, and I'm thankful for that.

Neither of us are particularly great cooks but we can read and follow directions so things turn out fine. The biggest issue is actually wanting to do it, which the motivation isn't really there for either of us a lot of the time, but I still manage to keep our grocery budget under control anyway.

I couldn't have picked a better location for the new apartment had I known the car was going to die. It's effortless to get into the CTA. It stops right beside use.

I am so glad that I can quit sending all my money back out dealing with that car and start dealing with the cost of living.

I might be able to save $800-900 a month now that the car is gone.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:08:58 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
@crystal626 wrote:
We definitely will continue to save but I had some rather rigid savings goals for myself that hubby wasn't rushing to meet and I was just getting resentful. I've got enough in savings to pay the full rent and groceries for this place for at least 8 months by myself and hubby has another 4 months or so, it's just that hubby makes a lot more money than me since I have Social Security and I was not happy that he couldn't even meet my level of saving and then he was talking about blowing all his savings on transportation, which didn't sit well with me at all. That said, he has still come a long way from when he and I met when he didn't even have a savings account so I decided to just stop holding myself to such high savings goals and live a little so we can both be less stressed. Regardless, we are both doing better than a lot of people that couldn't even cover a $1K emergency expense, and I'm thankful for that.

Neither of us are particularly great cooks but we can read and follow directions so things turn out fine. The biggest issue is actually wanting to do it, which the motivation isn't really there for either of us a lot of the time, but I still manage to keep our grocery budget under control anyway.
I couldn't have picked a better location for the new apartment had I known the car was going to die. It's effortless to get into the CTA. It stops right beside use.

I am so glad that I can quit sending all my money back out dealing with that car and start dealing with the cost of living.

I might be able to save $800-900 a month now that the car is gone.

After the absolute bare necessities, including rent, phone, estimated electric/gas, internet, my portion of the groceries, etc., I have ~$800 left each month myself. The thing is, every month that slice is getting smaller because everything keeps going up. You can't even get a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread for less than $2 now. That same loaf of bread was $1.49 just last year.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 02:48:21 GMT

Yep, one reason I've stuck to the Brita-style "standard" filters is that Amazon Basics has come out with a very pocketbook friendly option.

I buy them for $2.30 apiece in the six pack and it's actually the "other" Brita that makes them, the one from Germany.

Those ZeroWater filters can get expensive, although I did find a bunch from Goodwill that were factory sealed for $2.99 each so if you use that system and like it, try Goodwill and you might hit paydirt.

At retail you pay 5.7 cents per gallon with the Amazon Basics Brita filters and over 80 cents per gallon with ZeroWater. Like anything, it adds up. When you're going through 14 gallons a week between two people two cats, it adds up. 80 cents for AB version of Brita that week vs. $11.20 or so with ZeroWater.

Multiply by 52, the ZeroWater balloons to $582.40 and the AB version of Brita is only about $41.60.

I think at the end of the day what matters is the Brita-style are a basic filter that drastically improves taste and knocks out a lot of common contaminants (according to lab tests, even some it's not certified for), and it encourages me to drink more water.

One reason why I used to spend so much on soda is because most of Indiana has really awful water. If you put it through your coffee maker, it'll break down in 1-2 months unless you're descaling it like mad, but you'll see the brew speed not working right long before that. We just don't have as many problems with the water in Illinois.

My mom used to use ZeroWater because Indiana tap water is gross. They're putting toxic waste into the pipes, quite literally in some cases.

Over in Andrews, Indiana, they're dealing with so much industrial pollution due to a military contractor just dumping PCBs and god knows what else straight onto the ground (there's a lawsuit, but you know how fast courts move, and the Indiana government is working against the citizens and delaying the process further as people can't even use their water to bathe because it's so dangerous).

The news said car parts factory and Trichloroethylene, but that's a separate issue entirely, there's also a lawsuit against Raytheon.

Some of the country has broken down to the point it's basically third world. I mean, I feel sorry for the people in Andrews. When I was in Huntington, I modified my sink even in violation of my lease, I didn't care, and I installed a carbon block system and that worked well I think.

They had the worst water of any place I've ever lived. It took me so long to get used to the fact that Chicago water isn't gross and won't destroy your applicances. I still have soda sometimes, but not often.

The water here is so refreshing, that after a little bit of "polishing" which is what these cheap filters are really good at, and being chilled in the fridge to the appropriate temperature of about 38-39 degrees F, I feel downright pampered.

ZeroWater would just be, well, overkill frankly considering the few problems there are, and it would suck over $500 out of my bank account per year vs Amazon Basics version of Brita.

There are some very good Amazon Basics products. The last time I tried Walmart's knock off of Brita, it clogged every half a gallon or so, just completely terrible, although they might have changed since then. It was about 7 years ago.

Price doesn't necessarily imply you're getting quality. Brita is anywhere between $4.60-over $6 per standard filter these days, I don't know why they even make them. Perhaps it's for people who balk at the cost of the Elite filter, which is good for 6 months or 120 gallons. (Same cost per gallon.)

If I go back to name brand it will be the Brita Elite.

My grandmother was on well water outside Marion, Indiana. It smelled like rotten eggs in her house from running the tap. She accidentally left and ran the sprinkler and it fell over and painted the house red with iron once. They had to pay to get it removed.

I laughed when I came over there and she had a Brita pitcher on the kitchen table. There's just no way that was ever going to work.

Brita makes water palatable, not potable. If you have severe water quality issues, you need a more intense system. Maybe even Reverse Osmosis.

When I lived in Huntington, I went to the grocery store and used the Reverse Osmosis machine at Kroger or Walmart. It was 37 cents per gallon compared to over twice as much to buy jugs of water off the shelf. There was a one time cost for the refillable jugs. It was such a nuisance but I was aggravated about the horrible water quality, and when you live over there you can't trust a darned thing the Indiana Department of Environmental Management says.

A while back, the Huntington County government spilled over 600 gallons of diesel fuel directly into the river and then tried to downplay it. :/

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:35:13 GMT

Yeah hearing about what others deal with when it comes to their water just blows my mind. I'm very thankful to live somewhere that has water that's safe to drink out of the tap. We have had consistent governance recently that refuses to bow to industry pressure on that one.

It's funny, I actually don't care for the flat taste of ZeroWater. I drink it because I know it's better for me as my alternating cuts down load from what toxins are there but I actually rather enjoy the taste of Denver's tap water.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

AndrewF — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:45:47 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
Yeah hearing about what others deal with when it comes to their water just blows my mind. I'm very thankful to live somewhere that has water that's safe to drink out of the tap. We have had consistent governance recently that refuses to bow to industry pressure on that one.

It's funny, I actually don't care for the flat taste of ZeroWater. I drink it because I know it's better for me as my alternating cuts down load from what toxins are there but I actually rather enjoy the taste of Denver's tap water.

They include a TDS meter which is a somewhat bogus way of determining water quality because for the purposes of drinking water, quality is objective and subjective.

ZeroWater wins the objective part. But people don't taste with a TDS meter, they taste with their taste buds.

And most people consistently prefer water with a high mineral content. Specifically calcium and magnesium.

Brita wins the subjective part because it removes the nasty tasting contaminants, like chlorine taste and odor, disinfection byproducts (like Trihalomethanes, which are what gets created when chlorine interacts with organic matter, Brita removes these and they are carcinogenic, but they also taste bad), and stuff from the plumbing that makes your water taste metallic, like brass and copper.

Most of the magnesium and calcium passes through, but it does get the larger particles that contribute the most to limescale in tea kettles and coffee makers.

In the UK, they specifically advertise "reduces limescale" in your kettle.

I only have to boil some vinegar in my kettle every year or so, and I have tea three or four times a day sometimes.

Usually herbal tea. Maybe Constant Comment or Earl Grey. IMO, Bigelow has the best tea. A friend in the UK even admitted Tetley is "not the best".

In Chicago, there's the Schiller Woods "magic water pump". Immigrants, mainly from Poland, love the stuff, because it tastes like the water they grew up with at home. Very hard water. I tried some a few months ago and I agree it has a very clean taste for well water, it's definitely mineral water.

I'm glad that there would be a riot here if anyone gave it to Nestle.

Anyway, that TDS meter with the ZeroWater, it doesn't measure down to parts per billion. Any amount of lead in water is undesirable, and the legal cutoff point is 15 parts per billion, but the lower you get it the better. You won't know whether ZeroWater is eliminating all of it without a lab test. It also does not measure microbes or disinfection byproducts.

However, the lab tests of ZeroWater samples have shown that it's very effective against lead (100% removal, the standard Brita makes no lead claim but in fact removed about 60% in a lab test paid for by a local news station, the Elite removes 100%), and disinfection byproducts are something even very basic granular activated carbon filters do well on, even the cheap ones like Amazon Basics.

The TDS meter cannot reliably tell you whether the water is a health concern. Most of what it will tell you about are harmless minerals like Calcium and Magnesium which are important dietary sources, and contribute to good taste.

Re: Factory Job Cuts Highest Since 2008

crystal626 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:55:29 GMT

Right, we don't even use the TDS meter unless the water tastes off before it's time to replace the filter.

I have seen plenty of lab testing though and there's nothing better than the ZeroWater until you get to reverse osmosis and distillation.