[pengaru]

I know this isn't the cause, but it becoming a privilege to not face gauntlets of sugary garbage on the way to cashiers isn't helping.

The higher-end stores like Whole Foods, New Leaf, hell even Trader Joes, treat their customers with enough respect to not immerse them in trash while waiting in a slow-moving line at deliberately understaffed cashier lanes.

You can't even buy something from AutoZone without being surrounded by a Fry's-style maze of diabetes anymore. Late-stage capitalism is absolutely awful, there's zero built-in concern for society's wellness. We'll have strip-malls filled with dialysis centers and these businesses still won't stop peddling fructose to the masses. Race to the bottom indeed.