Ya'll always get the most detail of every social media platform.
I am so happy to live in the Arizona Phoenix metropolitan, or larger Phoenix area.
I used to shop at Fry's, which is our area's local Kroger store. And if it didnt have something, Walmart, because thats what my parents did when I lived in Maricopa. I live in the big city now though, and this feels wildly unethical. Especially because Walmart has put digital price tags into their store. Every time Ive walked in, once I see the price tags I walk back out. I can get the same stuff elsewhere. Kroger is also planning on rolling these out and while my local Fry's doesnt have those awful things yet, I know its just a matter of time before they appear.
I dont want to be charged higher prices.
Larry Ellison and Oracle have profiles on 5 billion people worldwide and does sell this data to large American corporations. There is no way these profiles are not being used as part of the digital price tag system. I am just guessing here, not saying they are. I just suspect it strongly.
So, this meant I needed new stores. I defaulted to other options while I do research. I havent even done much research on the most ethical companies yet.
However, back in COVID times, Walmart had stopped being 24 hours. This caused me to need a grocery store for night time. That is when I had found Winco. It has all the same brands as Fry's and Walmart (except Kroger, but Winco has their own generic brand). Its 24 hours. And its employee owned, so it is a step above in being ethical because the workers share the profits. Employee owned is significantly better than corpo stuff. So the easiest place to default to is Winco, but it is more of a drive than the two I had previously shopped at.
Sadly, it is still the same brands, so I am still looking for a store with locally grown things that are not selling big government corpo brands.
Back when tiktok shut down that one time, I jumped ships to XiouHongShu (rednote), and they taught me the most GOATED period tea pain relief recipe as well as some tips for periods that I would never know otherwise. Those Chinese girls know what they are doing. Did you know iced drinks cause cramps?
Basically I replaced water with the period tea though. It works better than any pain reliever I have ever tried. Its a thing of raw sugarcane (the plant), a chopped ginger, and Ive been putting in like quadruple but some Chinese dates/jujubees. Fill the pot with water. Boil. Once boiling strain into containers. I love it so much and am so thankful.
But in order to find the raw sugarcane, I went to the closest Asian market, Lee Lee's International Supermarket. Lee Lee's isn't just Asian though. Its International ie foreign stuff. And I used to only go there for period tea, fish, rice, and jelly straws.
But since its closer than Winco, I tried doing all my shopping there and I actually have been able to find most of what I buy at Lee Lee's, just from foreign brands instead. I dont know much about the foreign brands but I do know shipping isnt good for the environment. But at least they arent US corpo brands.
I also went to CVS for pads and other pharmacy goods. Got my shampoo half the price it normally is. And Ive been hearing from other people that CVS is considered expensive so Im thinking of checking out other pharmacies. I used to just go to the one in Fry's but Im avoiding Fry's. I need to do research to find out which pharmacy is the most ethical. I also should probably try something other than pads.
But I did all this without research! I switched my shopping away same day just by using other stores that I already went to for other reasons more heavily.
And thats the benefit of living in a metropolitan!