>“We definitely do see a slight change compared to the total population, we do see a slight pullback in overall basket,” John Furner, the chief executive officer of Walmart’s sprawling US operation, said in an interview Wednesday. “Just less units, slightly less calories.”
This implies they're looking at how people on GLP-1 analogs are behaving relative to the general population....but how do they know who is on the drugs?
They also probably have a pretty good model of what weight loss looks like absent semaglutide. The semaglutide patients probably have a different set of purchasing behaviors from dieters and LAP band surgery patients.
Could totally be creepy. But could also totally be a survey. Those are still probably pretty cheap to run on something like Walmart+ delivery customers.
No, I don't think it would be. The last four digits of a CC purchase at a pharmacy won't contain PHI. It will just say "pharmacy." But if you have some data to back that claim up, I'd love to read about it.
Maaaybe it’s against some law or privacy policy or mandatory annual training.
But do you honestly believe companies follow laws and policies if they think they can get away with not?
And even if you can ignore that corporations are regularly -publicly- wrist-slapped for failings in those areas and still believe they are virtuous, privacy-respecting, law-abiding entities (rofl) … are you ready to argue that no executive or other employee ever, (knowingly or unknowingly) uses data to run a calculation or check a theory against published policy?
The only thing that surprises me about the above scenarios is there’s a human alive who would believe their improbabl3a let alone, as “can’t” would imply, impossible.
I've never worked in the medical industry but I know many people who have, who basically told me HIPAA violations are extremely common and only enforced for a fraction of violations that actually occur. My ex used to work in medical insurance (for a very, very big company) and estimated that maybe 3% of HIPAA violations are actually enforced. I used to think HIPAA was a huge deal until she told me story after story of violations that were ignored.
I think HIPAA is the sort of thing where if you hear about it then it's taken seriously, but the overwhelming number of violations are just ignored and you never hear about them. I'd like to be wrong but unfortunately that's the information I've been fed by people more knowledgeable than me.
Walmart also has a pharmacy. I'm not an expert on the privacy laws here, but I'd be surprised if they couldn't use that information (even if it's a legally grey area).
> An increasing number of CEOs and investors are talking about how popular weight-loss drugs might change the economy and business. Earlier this week, the CEO of the maker of Pringles and Cheez-Its said the company is studying their potential impact on dietary behaviors. “Like everything that potentially impacts our business, we’ll look at it, study it and, if necessary, mitigate,” Steve Cahillane, the CEO of Kellanova, said in an interview.
Want dark? NEVER EAT PRINGLES/DEHYDRATED POTATES (mashed etc).
Sorry for the caps but its deserved.
Dehydrated potatoes aren't graded. Read on for gross information.
I recently had the pleasure of doing HVAC/controls for potato/onion storages in Washington state.
Some storages are so gross I couldn't believe it was legal. Dead and living animals/rodents and nests etc. Mold and bacteria, rancid water pools, truly disgusting. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the videos I took. Some of the climacell water tanks (some the size of pools) hadnt been cleaned in years and had so many dead frogs and whatnot they were literally bubbling cesspools. And had been running that 'water' over the climacell pads to then be blown all over the storage, products, and people working in them.
And that wasn't the bad part.
The bad part was seeing piles of rotted and disintegrating potatoes go to dehydration machines to become pringles, dehydrated mashed potatoes, etc. They don't throw away the piles that go bad. They let them sit and stew until they've a full load and truck em out.
The trucks would literally have black horrible smelling slime spilling out all sides of the trailer, the weighing station was beyond disgusting.
Sure, heat will kill the bacteria, mold, fungi etc, and they will all be bleached- but once you've seen it, it's life changing. I shop mostly at farmers markets now for my veggies/fruits. After seeing potato and onion storages, processing plants and whatnot, the things foos companies can legally do is fucking frightening. I used to love Pringles.
I'm on Zepbound, and it's clear there's going to be a day when grease, salt, and carbs will no longer run the world in 20 years when these drugs (and the mechanical injector) go off patent.
If I could invest in a 20 year short in the fast/junk food companies, I would easily do so.
It could. In the same way that when fossil fuel companies found out their business is destroying the planet they could have pivoted into renewables. But they didn’t.
With profit being the deciding factor it’s anyone’s guess what the people who are in charge of these companies will do to avoid bankruptcy.
As of late, I have started to look at the ingredients of many of the foods I consume, here in India, and it deeply saddens me that most consumers stuff themselves with such ultra-processed chemical laden, taste and mind altering foods.
I had to struggle a bit, but I have been able to wean off my kid from these foods and started making a lot of them at home.
My next target is to get a cold press machine and make the oils used for cooking at home too.
pop and fruit drinks
sweetened yogurt
sweet or savoury packaged snacks (e.g., cookies)
candies and cake mixes
mass-produced packaged breads and buns
margarines and spreads
breakfast cereals
cereal and energy bars
energy drinks
instant soups, sauces, and noodles
poultry and fish nuggets, hot dogs
many ready-to-heat products: pre-prepared pies, pasta, and pizza dishes
Also that consumers are increasingly aware of how atrocious the American diet is and want to eat food that's made out of food, not just endlessly processed nutrient-void corn covered in fucking sugar.
Presumably they're looking at comparable shoppers before and after one starts Ozempic during the same time period. Or are you implying people are starting Ozempic to avoid buying food?
I’d suspect it has something to do with signing up for an Ozempic discount card (which many people did / still do). Pretty sure they’re allowed to sell that data (their privacy policy seems to allow as much).
They should see this as a good thing (which it is).
Instead of seeing it as "Oh, noes, people are buying less junk food" they could see it as an opportunity to sell customers on more upscale goods with the cost savings. Instead of junk filled with soy and corn filler they can now buy smaller portions but with genuine ingredients without any fillers.
Take it as an opportunity to upsell a healthier lifestyle with tastier ingredients.
I don't take it but my wife does. I saw a reduction in our spending almost immediately because she's bringing home less from the grocery store and no longer interested in eating out. I've saving money even after our out of pocket costs (insurance covers none of this for us) and I have a happier wife.
Taking compounded tirzepatide ($6000/yr for 15 mg/wk) and lost ~120 lbs. Ironically, sugar tastes a lot stronger, and food generally tastes better, but I don't want as much. Haven't seen any other changes or improvements.
Not Ozempic, but same class drug. I am extremely lucky to have zero side effects, not everyone does, so understand what you could be in for. My experience isn't your experience. TANSTAAFL.
That said...pre-diabetic symptoms (genetic predisposition included) gone based on blood sugar readings. Lost a life-changing amount of weight over several months (i.e. it's not a 'loose 20 lbs in a week' weight loss drug unless you're using it in an very unhealthy way). Subjectively, cravings heavily reduced. Doc says blood work going in the right direction. So I can say cautiously it's a net win.
Ever since retail execs blamed their lack of profits on widespread shoplifting then walked that claim back with absolutely zero consequence I’ve worked on the assumption that they say absolutely anything they need to if it boosts short term stockholder gains.
The article is from October 2023. If you or someone else has a link to a more recent article where they take it back, I would be happy to read it as well!
There's an annoying paywall I don't care to ty to get around but the fact that your grocer can correlate you to your drug use is the real worrisome part here.
Walmart runs a pharmacy, and most people use the same payment cards to check out for food and for pharmacy purchases (and also happily offer up loyalty cards and other tracking identifiers).
Walmart is also one of the largest users of facial recognition technology.
Why would it be surprising or worrisome that the people you buy something from know what you bought from them?
The degree to which Walmart enthusiastically links things via payment cards has me considering going back to cash when I shop there. The first time I saw a series of in-store purchases unexpectedly show up in my walmart.com account history, I was not particularly happy.
There’s a difference between them having a record of your purchase and them accessing that record for business analysis reasons. If Walmart operated a medical clinic, would you comfortable with their corporate data scientists accessing your health records?
> one of the largest users of facial recognition technology
> Why would it be surprising or worrisome
...Are you serious? An unstoppable megacorp that continues to horizontally expand across a number of markets using some of the most invasive possible surveillance and tracking methods to correlate tons of tons of personal behavioral data of hundreds of millions of normal citizens, and you can't find the slightest thing worrisome about it?
This implies they're looking at how people on GLP-1 analogs are behaving relative to the general population....but how do they know who is on the drugs?