Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

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NoReturn said:
It hurts my brain so bad that people buy the match of things for which they don't also own the "thing". Why would you wear a Ferrari hat if you don't own a Ferrari?
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Not to mention that some of the things that people buy when they can't afford the actual thing, i.e. the said Ferrari hat, have nothing to do with the actual thing at hand. Sure, I can understand maybe buying a poster of a Ferrari, or a model version of a Ferrari, but a hat?
 
melty said:
It depends, I'm not rich either so I could just be full of it, but it's at least places I've been with rich people or know they go to. I like them, but I wouldn't go to a place just because it's expensive, but if it looks interesting and has good reviews. The most expensive place I went didn't have better food than other expensive places, it just had crazier service, which isn't worth it to me. But some of the best food I've ever had was from expensive/"fancy" places, and it's things that you would never think of or would really struggle to make well yourself. I like them and keep going so I guess it's worth it to me, but I can see why other people wouldn't think it's worth it. Also I don't drink, drinking really runs up the bill at those places, so that helps.

Foodieism could be it's own thread, there is a lot of woo and pretention there and unfortunately I have some of those habits myself.


This is also true.


It's just annoying how much stuff you have to do to go to a "good" place at Disney that's maybe not even good. I don't plan going to Disney a year ahead or have any of their magic signature 5 star platinum VIP exclusive pass bullshit. I would pay more if they had some good place that you didn't have to plan way ahead for but instead you have to do both? But I'm obviously not their market I guess.
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I have to say the Japanese restaurant in Epcot was worth the money. We don’t drink a lot, but didn’t hold back on ordering good food and it wasn’t more than $60 each, including apps. But the service was wild. Super quiet and calm, one waitress writes while the other just listens to you and asks questions, hot towels for face cleaning... it was a bit uncomfortable but I could get used to it.
 
Interesting these Burger insights on Disney Theme Park Restaurants.

My experience in the US has been a widely varying gambit. A memorable one used to be Burn’s Steakhouse in Tampa, if you like steak and having a tour through their massive wine collection.

As for over here, my experiences with the Michelin Guide have been satisfactory, with the only discrepancies explainable by personal preference: if you like a modern looking place, the culinary great but otherwise stuffy looking Chateau restaurant ain’t going to do it for you.

Otherwise let locals lead you, especially in Italy where it is sort of custom that restaurants dish up a more authentic and cheaper experience if you have a local with you at the table.

Depending on where you are they do “scam” tourists with relatively shittier dishes or higher prices, but if you do not know any better as a tourist…

This way I have encountered places that provide amazing culinary experiences, yet do not have a Michelin star purely based on a technicality that is of no concern to most patrons, unless you are a food critic.
E.g. no reservations, but a large speak easy foyer to have a nice whiskey/gin/wine until somebodies whisks you away when a table is ready. The most amusing one to me was a place that explicitly prohibited “No ties/diner apparel” for a more homely experience.

But yeah they usually turn to shit the second they consider “expanding”, because the “easiest” logistics demand conformity. Or it falls when good personnel leaves.

Food places in South Africa generally have been great, gotta love the “corking fee” that then allows you to bring your own wine. They only have the odd habit of snatching your plates and glasses away the second you are done with them: not great when with company that hates being observed.
Then again in the US everyone cuts their food, then start a one handed assault on their food with just the fork and the leftovers go into a “doggybag” while at a high brow place. Funny those quirks.
 
NoReturn said:
It hurts my brain so bad that people buy the match of things for which they don't also own the "thing". Why would you wear a Ferrari hat if you don't own a Ferrari?
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You are not a member of the social class that Ferrari hats are marketed towards.
biiguy said:
I guess I'm not counted in that.
I don't buy B&J ice cream ( I stick with local brands), never went to Starbucks, and don't buy Brand Names... certainly not clothing.
My big extravagance is forays to second-hand book stores.
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You are also not a member of the social class that these heavily branded products are marketed towards.

Bugl said:
Being rich sounds exhausting. I'd much rather go to a middle-class fake fancy place than pay to smell the chef's farts.
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You have not been raised in a cultural environment that encourages deference towards culinary expertise and creativity.


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Xerxes IX said:
Photocards would actually make it BTS themed, at least, then stans wouldn't have to obsess over paper bags.

Those "high end" Disney World restaurants are always a laugh because Disney World food had a reputation for being horrendous overpriced crap. Can't imagine it's gotten any better with all the fad chasing like for "plant based" stuff and pretty looking Instagrammable food. Any good food there probably does cost way too much though. Also, before Be Our Guest was a thing the huge high demand money sink restaurant was Cinderella's Royal Table, where the main draw was that it was on the second floor of the hub castle and there are princesses. BOG got its $62 prix fixe model from that restaurant since it was basically designed to be a second Royal Table. Disney knows what it's selling to people there and that's the experience and it works great on the Parks megafans, both the boomer consoomers with kids and the childless millennial Disney stans love these restaurants.


Disney World is built around having everything planned out and reserved ahead of time since you can make your reservations up to 180 days in advance. I've been there before with family and we all agreed it wasn't worth it because you had to have everything reserved months ahead of time if you want to do anything like eat at a table service restaurant.
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I had a friend who worked at BOG pre-pandemic and told me stories about dads losing their shit because they needed to be seated by the magic rose. It's a nice spot, but it's also apparently the worst seats in the house?

YoungHustle said:
I have to say the Japanese restaurant in Epcot was worth the money. We don’t drink a lot, but didn’t hold back on ordering good food and it wasn’t more than $60 each, including apps. But the service was wild. Super quiet and calm, one waitress writes while the other just listens to you and asks questions, hot towels for face cleaning... it was a bit uncomfortable but I could get used to it.
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Epcot in general had the best food. Probably because you had people from their home countries handling things instead of a pure Disneyana experience.
 
Education Lottery said:
Epcot in general had the best food. Probably because you had people from their home countries handling things instead of a pure Disneyana experience.
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Sadly last I heard all those people lost their jobs when the pandemic shutdown happened. I have no idea if they were ever brought back, or if more people from their home countries were hired.
 
Education Lottery said:
Epcot in general had the best food. Probably because you had people from their home countries handling things instead of a pure Disneyana experience.
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It's kinda hit and miss. I have no idea what's going on with Nine Dragons in China. It's like they got trapped trying to make kinda-authentic Chinese food that Americans would still be willing to eat.
 
I still think Apple consoomerism is some of the worst out there mainly because any reasonable person can tell that Apple are artificially inflating their prices to make their products seem better than they actually are yet hordes of people wait days, sometimes weeks outside of a store just to buy the latest $1000 device that's only slightly better than the last iteration.

How anyone is supposed to justify selling a fucking monitor stand for $1000 is completely insane to me, it's just brand loyalty bullshit for rich kids, not much else to it.
 
KokoroKoroki said:
I still think Apple consoomerism is some of the worst out there mainly because any reasonable person can tell that Apple are artificially inflating their prices to make their products seem better than they actually are yet hordes of people wait days, sometimes weeks outside of a store just to buy the latest $1000 device that's only slightly better than the last iteration.

How anyone is supposed to justify selling a fucking monitor stand for $1000 is completely insane to me, it's just brand loyalty bullshit for rich kids, not much else to it.
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I think they're just running on conspicuous consumption at this point.

We used to use iPhones at work since they were the only thing that could be locked down enough. Now we're using Samsung phones. Our IT staff switched en masse from MacBooks to Thinkpads running Fedora. They appear to be losing the techbro market, at least.
 
Going to share my experience with Disney food from a few decades. I have eaten at a lot of place in Disney, including Victoria and Alberts a few times. Good place, pretty standard fine price fixe dining. They don't allow kids to eat there so its even nicer. Not gimmicky compared to fine dining I have been to in other places at all.

Disney's overall counter service dining has gotten better over the years. Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, most places served the same mediocre burgers or terrible individual pizzas. Eventually that started changing and places started serving passable more diverse options. As for sit down, Disney does have a lot of good places in park. Epcot is the best at it, but Animal Kingdom has Tiffins which is pretty great and has a great attached bar/lounge. However there are two indicators that a Disney restaurant is going to suck: character dining and "instagrammable" dishes.

Character dining is the older of the two. It has always been around and used to be limited to a few places around the property. But at some point in the 2000s it exploded. More and more restaurants became character experiences, which meant prices went up and the food quality went down. Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle used to be really good, and it always did have a photo op with the Princess in the waiting area, but once the characters started walking around everything else went downhill. The big problem with the Magic Kingdom is a lot of the sit down restaurants were already mediocre, and a lot of them became character dining. Its the only park on property where I would say the counter service places are better than the sit down.

The other problem is Instagram. Disney has put more and more effort in to making certain items look a certain way so people can take photos of them. Themed to a movie or character. The problem is they are all awful. These often sacrifice actually tasting good to get a certain look and are often stale, old, and chemically tasting since they sit there for long periods and need to look just right. Sure you can take an Ubi cake and decorate it with food grade glitter so it will look like Thanos' testicles, but whats the point if it tastes horrible? And there is the ever present problem of Disney continuously trying to chase the success of Butterbeer at Universal. Nothing like some dairy free weird tropical Blue Milk at Star Wars land so you can take a photo of it once and then throw the rest of it out!
 
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Quixotic Man said:
The other problem is Instagram. Disney has put more and more effort in to making certain items look a certain way so people can take photos of them. Themed to a movie or character. The problem is they are all awful. These often sacrifice actually tasting good to get a certain look and are often stale, old, and chemically tasting since they sit there for long periods and need to look just right. Sure you can take an Ubi cake and decorate it with food grade glitter so it will look like Thanos' testicles, but whats the point if it tastes horrible? And there is the ever present problem of Disney continuously trying to chase the success of Butterbeer at Universal. Nothing like some dairy free weird tropical Blue Milk at Star Wars land so you can take a photo of it once and then throw the rest of it out!
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I swear LeFou's Brew was just some Disney exec wondering just how disgusting they could make a drink and still have people buy it.

"You know what would go really well with apple juice? Fake toasted marshmallow flavoring"
 
KokoroKoroki said:
I still think Apple consoomerism is some of the worst out there mainly because any reasonable person can tell that Apple are artificially inflating their prices to make their products seem better than they actually are yet hordes of people wait days, sometimes weeks outside of a store just to buy the latest $1000 device that's only slightly better than the last iteration.

How anyone is supposed to justify selling a fucking monitor stand for $1000 is completely insane to me, it's just brand loyalty bullshit for rich kids, not much else to it.
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Their shameless shilling of how environmentally conscious they are is rich too, we all know they want your shiny new Apple product to become ewaste just in time for the new one to come out. Look at Airpods which are unrepairable once the battery goes bad, and similarly the glued in batteries on their laptops where the official way Apple has to replace them is replacing the whole upper case assembly.

Quixotic Man said:
Its the only park on property where I would say the counter service places are better than the sit down
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Anything to say about Cosmic Ray's? It was basically a meme for how bad the food there is.
 
Xerxes IX said:
Their shameless shilling of how environmentally conscious they are is rich too, we all know they want your shiny new Apple product to become ewaste just in time for the new one to come out. Look at Airpods which are unrepairable once the battery goes bad, and similarly the glued in batteries on their laptops where the official way Apple has to replace them is replacing the whole upper case assembly.


Anything to say about Cosmic Ray's? It was basically a meme for how bad the food there is.
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I can't really say anything about Cosmic Ray's now, but it always had the standard burger menu, and was the worst one of those in the park. Doesn't help that it has completely sterile theming that resembles a 90s mall food court. The only redeeming feature I remember is the audio animatronic crooner show, which is campy as all hell.

Edit: I wanted to remember why Cosmic Rays decorations screamed 90s so much to me and now I remember why. Nothing says 90s to me like fucking teal and purple decor.


Cosmic rays.jpg
 
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eternal dog mongler said:
That's just every restaurant though.

If back of house doesn't even remember working their shift that's how you know the food is good.
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If the head chef doesn't make several customers and employees cry in a single shift and end his day getting shitfaced to take the edge off the amphetamines then you aren't working at a real restaurant.
 
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Quixotic Man said:
I can't really say anything about Cosmic Ray's now, but it always had the standard burger menu, and was the worst one of those in the park. Doesn't help that it has completely sterile theming that resembles a 90s mall food court. The only redeeming feature I remember is the audio animatronic crooner show, which is campy as all hell.

Edit: I wanted to remember why Cosmic Rays decorations screamed 90s so much to me and now I remember why. Nothing says 90s to me like fucking teal and purple decor.


View attachment 2254065
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That decor is so old that it has become cool again. They should embrace it.
 
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