Category: economic issues

Internet ads

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Love them or hate them (and honestly you’re a bit of a weirdo if you’re in the former camp), they’re part of our everyday browsing and doomscrolling experience. And I get the gist how they work: looking at your behaviour online, and then targeting ads to best lever a little more money out of you for the things that you know, love and need.

Except… they don’t always quite hit the mark, do they?

No.

I promise you that I have not looked up, discussed or in any way browsed anything to do with condoms in the last twenty-plus years. But still, I got a condom ad this weekend. But it wasn’t actually the condom bit that really confused me. It was the combination of products that I was being offered.

Because for me (and each to their own here), nothing completes a night of passion avec perles et nervures (oh la la!) than a bit of time spent poisoning rodents. And it’s even better when your presevatifs and pellets are 55% off.

Talk about killing the mice mood.

Take this flight ad. Decent prices, sure. We usually put the R in front of the number, but whatever.
But wait a second…

Newcastle-upon-Tyne (a bit random) 3½ times the price of a flight to London? I reckon I could pop on a Kevlar vest and get the train from Heathrow to Tyneside for less than that R6150.

Just.

But beagle-eyed readers will have spotted an additional issue here. Yes, the flight to Cape Town (one way, subject to availability, change and search dates). R589 does seem quite cheap until you realise that you’re already in Cape Town. Turn up to the check-in desk, present your ticket to the agent and prepare to be looked at a bit funny.

“Er… Sir. You’re here.”
“I know. What a bargain, right? Got it on an internet ad.”

And then you look at the price for Joburg and you do some rudimentary calculations and you work out that maybe the internet thinks you’re in Bloemfontein or Kimberley.

Why would anyone be there?

And even if they were, it still doesn’t explain the condoms and rat poison thing, does it?

Finally (for this post, at least) there’s this:

What a selection.

Selected for me, though?

“Tempting Whisper” Body Wash – no.
Brown Onion Soup – no.
Coffee pods – ok, yes.
Deep Heat Spray – only on Wednesdays.
Cesar 100g – pretty sure that’s not actually a lamb.
Cat Food Sticks – absolutely not.

The thing is, they’re wasting their money with all this misaimed stuff, and that means that the prices for the things that I do want to buy from them (from all the ads above, it’s honestly only the coffee) are just that little bit more expensive.

It does make for a good blog post every now and again though, I guess.

There is no diesel in Cape Town

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I don’t want to alarm anyone, but there is no diesel in Cape Town.

I went to a filling station earlier this afternoon and they didn’t have any diesel, and then I did some rudimentary extrapolation, and now apparently, there is no diesel anywhere in Cape Town.

That’s 1/1 or 100% of filling stations which did not have diesel.

And if you think that’s not quite comprehensive enough a study, then add to that the fact that every extrapolation that I have done today has proven that there is no diesel in Cape Town.

That’s 1/1 or 100% of the extrapolations that I have done which have proven that there is no diesel in Cape Town.

Worrying times.

I’ve been using Amazon

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and…?

And I’m pretty impressed. They’ve entered into the fray in SA with a mountain to climb in terms of getting market share in online shopping delivered to your door, given that Takealot have been around for a long while here with virtually no opposition.

But Amazon have started small and sensible: a limited product range, but each one with the guarantee that it will get to you cheaply and quickly. And it works. I ordered a soundbar and paid a whole R2 (less than a penny) to get it delivered that evening. I ordered a mousemat (because my mouse doesn’t like how shiny my new desk is) and it cost nothing to get it delivered the following day.

Compare this with Takealot, whose confusing price structure for deliveries actually makes it difficult to compare, but a next day delivery would likely be R50 or R75. Or you could pick it up at one of their depots for R35.

Same day? Virtually unheard of, but almost always in three figures. (Yes, unless you have their monthly subscription service, but I’m doing apples and apples here.)

And it’s sad to say that Takealot have been lounging on their monopoly. Their prices – always allegedly discounted – only ever match with the normal prices everywhere else. I’ll certainly be using Amazon whenever possible for those online purchases. And yes, using local businesses for stuff too, but only if they are willing and able to offer decent prices and service.

You do wonder though – how quick could an Amazon delivery actually be? Like, if you needed something small, but really – really – urgently?

Mere seconds, it turns out (this service is not available in SA) (yet).

Such a good video, if you have the time to watch. Some delicious, subtle, dry humour, some incredible engineering and some amazing attention to detail and high quality workmanship.

It’s the future. Now.

It’s expensive

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Printer ink I mean.

Except, you need context and so actually, printer ink isn’t that expensive.

But let’s pretend that it is, because then this cartoon makes so much more sense.

Of course, these days, you’d be looking at the ridiculous price of pixel light if you were moaning about a blank screen. And while it doesn’t cost much to light a single pixel, apparently, you need bloody loads of the things for them to work properly.

Problematic graphic

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I’m not a social scientist or an economist, but I’ve done enough looking at graphs to see when a graph doesn’t look good. Whether that’s to do with money or infectious diseases, a bad graph always looks… bad.

This isn’t a graph per se (I think that it’s a treemap chart), but it could be a graph if it were presented just slightly differently. But it still looks bad.

Really bad.

How people spend their disposable income is of course completely up to them. But that almost 55% of it goes on any one thing is bad. That almost 55% of it goes on gambling is really bad.

The fact is that when you spend money on anything recreational, you’re know that not going to get anything tangible back. You spend it on the “entertainment”. Gym fees, tickets for sporting events, video games, movie tickets. You spend it on the experience. You know that you’re not seeing that money again.

With gambling, however, you might just get something back. Evidence suggests that you’re unlikely to, especially long term. But that doesn’t stop people trying. In fact, it’s the number one reason that they do gamble:

The worrying bit is that because there is that chance of winning, the outlay on gambling is often overlooked. Because you might get it – or more – back. That’s not happening with a cinema ticket.

But it’s a false premise. South Africans are spending R1.1 TRILLION on gambling every year. And sadly, in the vast majority of cases, it’s money that they can’t afford to lose. This is not a second income stream, no matter how good you think your football knowledge is.

None of those links and none of these graphics make good reading. Gambling apps are now so easy to get hold of and use, and we are surrounded by ads 24/7: on the TV, on the internet, and – of course – at the racecourses, where it’s not unusual to see a horse sponsored by Betway winning a race sponsored by World Sports Betting at a track sponsored by Hollywood Bets.

And yes, I’ve posted occasional ads on here for various betting companies. Hey, gotta make ends meet. But I didn’t know it was this bad. So, while gambling addiction has always been a problem, this flooding of the market with betting apps and the insane 42% per year increase in online betting since Covid means that I won’t be doing that any more. They clearly don’t need my help (although they keep asking for it), and I don’t want to be part of the problem, which is obviously spiraling out of control.

I would say that this problem needs nipping in the bud, but I think we’re well into the flowering stage right now, and no-one is doing anything about it.