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Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

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Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#301

Post by Timon3 »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #294
Timon3 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is, but not nearly as restrictive. Stores can be open from at least 6 to 20 any day of the week other than Sunday I just looked up the corresponding law for Austria, and they are allowed to open from 6 to 21 on weekdays, and 6 to 18 on Saturdays. Doesn't really seem more restrictive? > and in most states in Germany, Sunday trading has been at least partially permitted. Not really. For each Bundesland there ar…

> Doesn't really seem more restrictive? You misread the law. Only for a total of 72 hours. So if you were to open from 6 to 21 you couldn’t open Saturday at all and would have to close early ok Friday. In practical terms most supermarkets in Austria close at around 7pm.

Ah, that is indeed a big difference. Thank you for clarifying!

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#302

Post by ethbr1 »

piecerough wrote: post #285
fullstackchris wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not austrian but I live in austria. at first I was like, okay, higher inflation post covid like everything else, but now at this point where I see prices still rising, it's starting to just feel like a blatant cash grab HOWEVER, i will add - what do people expect when you give everyone 500 extra EUR a year via this klima bonus? how is that supposed to reduce inflation? my guess is the grocery chains are leaning into…

What is this klima bonus?

https://www.klimabonus.gv.at/en/

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#303

Post by ethbr1 »

Aurornis wrote: post #263
SenAnder wrote: post #242

And this is why scraping is under technical and legal attack. To maintain their panopticon, where they see all, while you get only a pinhole view of, in this case, the economy.

Scraping is huge business for people who don’t have your best interests in mind, too. There are many businesses built on the idea of gathering as much of people’s data as they can find in the public internet and selling it to anyone willing to pay. Contrary to what many people thing, Facebook, Google, and other companies do not sell your data! They are ad companies that use their private data to target ads, but they…

> Scraping is huge business for people who don’t have your best interests in mind, too.

I liked how the thread observed that competitor supermarkets were rapidly converging prices on adjustments.

And assumed this meant collusion.

Why collude when you can just hire grey-market high frequency scrapers to detect your competitors' repricing and trigger your own?

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#304

Post by stefan_ »

dublinben wrote: post #180
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #169

Governments should mandate published prices for all goods sold in supermarkets, it would be good for competition and almost trivial for the companies to publish CSV files with barcode, price, start and end dates. Of course doing do would be disastrous for the supermarkets, so I can imagine they would fight and lobby politicians vigorously.

Supermarkets seem like an undeserving target for this scrutiny. Profit margins for grocery stores are only 1-3%, so they're hardly engaging in price gouging. The average U.S. household spends less than 10% of its monthly budget on groceries and other food.[0] This number is half of what it was in the middle of the 20th Century, and probably lower than any time in history.[1] [0] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-h…

This is what people keep repeating about ISPs - "look, they don't make any money!"

Yes, yes, you can offer a terrible service, stifle competition, ripoff customers and not make any money - all at the same time! Such is life in the local maximum.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#305

Post by lotsofpulp »

Xeoncross wrote: post #300
lotsofpulp wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example in the US, when TikTok became too popular, politicians quickly reacted to avoid having a major social network that was backed by a foreign country. Legitimately in the name of consumer protection, of course, but clearly also other interests. Funny how the US very selectively protects its consumers. What happened to TikTok in the US?

Instead of the US three-letter agencies having everyone's location, friend groups, bio-metric info, personal photos, etc.. via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.. ByteDance was getting all the data and sharing with the CCP. So Trump and others tried to ban it or make ByteDance sell the app to a US company. Honestly, I was kind of okay with that. As much as I hate western governments spying on us, I hate that fascist…

But as far as I know, nothing changed, and

> politicians quickly reacted to avoid having a major social network that was backed by a foreign country.

Politicians did not do anything to change this.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#306

Post by KeplerBoy »

piecerough wrote: post #285
fullstackchris wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not austrian but I live in austria. at first I was like, okay, higher inflation post covid like everything else, but now at this point where I see prices still rising, it's starting to just feel like a blatant cash grab HOWEVER, i will add - what do people expect when you give everyone 500 extra EUR a year via this klima bonus? how is that supposed to reduce inflation? my guess is the grocery chains are leaning into…

What is this klima bonus?

It's a nice little scheme that incentivizes saving CO2.

There's a CO2 tax on gas and other fossil fuels, part of this tax revenue is then, once a year, distributed back to taxpayers. The idea is that people who don't consume a lot of fossil fuel earn money through this scheme, while those who user above average pay more than what they get back.

Of course this is not well communicated from the gov and random cash appearing in everyone's account can accelerate the already high inflation.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#307

Post by I_am_tiberius »

elAhmo wrote: post #267
I_am_tiberius wrote: post #147

I don't understand why people, at least in Vienna, go to alternative stores. There are so many small stores with much better food prices in Vienna. I guess prices need to rise even more until people change their behavior.

Can you share some examples of such stores?

If you live in the 2nd district, I can recommend this one (also, fruits/vegetables are much better than what is offered by the big supermarket chains): https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=16667717-d66d-49b1-ac8c-cc6fb...

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#308

Post by dylan604 »

Aurornis wrote: post #263
SenAnder wrote: post #242

And this is why scraping is under technical and legal attack. To maintain their panopticon, where they see all, while you get only a pinhole view of, in this case, the economy.

Scraping is huge business for people who don’t have your best interests in mind, too. There are many businesses built on the idea of gathering as much of people’s data as they can find in the public internet and selling it to anyone willing to pay. Contrary to what many people thing, Facebook, Google, and other companies do not sell your data! They are ad companies that use their private data to target ads, but they…

>Facebook, Google, and other companies do not sell your data!

this does not excuse the pervasive tracking that occurs by "we collect for internal purposes only" vs "we sell to anyone". an invasion of privacy is still an invasion of privacy whether they do it for their own fetish purposes or distributing it to the public.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#309

Post by opportune »

inglor_cz wrote: post #101
martopix wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no point comparing across countries

Commodities are routinely compared worldwide, and peanuts could be considered commodities. They are certainly closer to commodities than to services etc., even when packaged for the individual customer in fancy wrapping. I would understand your argument if you were talking about services.

The US produces the 5th most peanuts of all the countries in the world (interestingly, Sudan makes more). It may be a commodity but it’s a local one that doesn’t have to be internationally shipped or be taxed via tariffs. Also, in the US we don’t have VAT and apply sales tax post-hoc, so comparing store prices is really skewed by that.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#310

Post by Xeoncross »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #305
Xeoncross wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of the US three-letter agencies having everyone's location, friend groups, bio-metric info, personal photos, etc.. via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.. ByteDance was getting all the data and sharing with the CCP. So Trump and others tried to ban it or make ByteDance sell the app to a US company. Honestly, I was kind of okay with that. As much as I hate western governments spying on us, I hate that fascist…

But as far as I know, nothing changed, and > politicians quickly reacted to avoid having a major social network that was backed by a foreign country. Politicians did not do anything to change this.

Yeah, since the ban started with one party - the other party worked to block it. Eventually it all fizzled out.

It's kind of how politics work in our country since we only have two parties.

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