So… Amazon (the latest big name, not the only one)

Someone explained a long time ago to me how it’s 95-99% profit due to exactly what numbers you described. It’s pretty messed up…

The profit margin on Coca Cola for a store like KFC is basically 100%.

Also, do you use all of the coupons? If you do, you can end up spending 2-3x of the coupon value easily if you are careful not to buy anything else.

Part of what you’ve described is market economics. They want your loyalty and they want to track your purchases to sell that data to advertisers. Do they need an app for that? Absolutely not. They can and do host websites with the same deals and all you have to do is login. The reason they push you to their app is because either the app is something they spent a bunch of money on and want to increase customer adoption. Or, they have added massive new tracking capabilities and want to spy on their users on behalf of advertisers, so they need you on their app.

None of this is related to the technical aspects of this question. In fact, most of these companies would resist you installing their app on an “app server” simply because then they wouldn’t be able to track your location and other phone details easily. Defeating the purpose of your idea.

Oh, and as for the watermelon - there’s a sweet spot between the prices which is usually $5 if you use their loyalty card and not their app. That’s the price you pay for your phone’s privacy and resources - a buck. Not a fair trade, but it is what it is.

p.s. I hear you about the three prices thing. It’s frustrating. Grocery shopping is not simple. It’s all about hunting for deals and accepting the time vs money trade off. I’m sorry you are in this situation. I am too.

Why does it need to be an app then? And why one server?

Literally, what you’ve described is the www. The browser is your thin client. It connects to not one but many millions of servers and is able to use their resources to run queries, access menus, place orders. All that jazz.

Oh, and with the ridiculous advancements in technology, streaming services and games work amazingly too! Video streaming is so well studied that every Tom, Dick, and Disney has started their own streaming service and is charging through the nose for it. Every year, folks get arrested for running Plex servers or IPTV with millions of hours of pirated content that is used by thousands of their happily paying customers (more happy than Disney’s customers).

And Amazon Luna and Xbox and PlayStation have all shown how game streaming can be so easily done over HTML5. The only blocker on making that the default way of gaming is Apple’s greed. Not that it’s a good default. There’s something to be said about mobile hardware and chip design that has made amazing advancements in the last few years in the GPU space, making on-device processing really worth it.

Don’t remember what it’s called but there’s an internet law - that any advancement in hardware will immediately be offset by more expensive software requirements which will consume more of those resources. Looking at you, Chrome. Also looking at you, react framework.

Recently made some jam. Was really impressed by how low tech the process was. Just cook some fruits, separate the roughage and branches and seeds, etc. Add sugar and cook it again. I believe you also have to add pectin if the fruit you’re turning into jam doesn’t have a lot of it.

Then bottle the stuff and enjoy it with bread for a long long time!

Short answer - Yes. https://stinkycandlecompany.com/products/fart-candle

Longer answer - all smellable scents are composed of chemicals that our scent receptors can understand, primarily by having the chemical compounds actually arrive into our noses and touch the receptors. What that means is that a fart is composed of very fine “shit particles” that float about till they enter your nose and cause you to smell it.

While an individual fart may be difficult or impossible to bottle, since it contains very few particles needed to either store or replicate successfully, the existence of fart candles displays that farts can be emulated by scent manufacturers by studying the chemical composition of farts.

I wonder how many farts it would have taken for scent manufacturers to successfully replicate a particularly pungent fart!

Fixed That For You.

Me too!

Does it complete the infinity symbol in the next 28 days?

Aunty Samantha?

Clearly, she’s Possing OP.

Could it be that the one who tweets is also this scammer?

I’ve used pyTK to make some apps for personal use. Good stuff, somewhat easy to use once you follow some tutorials.

Very Monkey Island feels. Love it!

Steam Deckies screaming from the rooftops about “YEAR OF LINUX!!!”

Waiting with bated breath to see what happens next!

Now that you’ve dubbed OP a tech person…

Hey OP, can you help me fix my printer? It’s only printing “RED RUM RED RUM” for some reason.

Flow chart it. And write it down. Don’t just do it in your head the first few times.

I did this -> this happened. If I’d done that -> this would have happened. Conclusion: I should do that in such situations.

Even if you’re not accurate in the beginning, this is what will get you into the mental model of analyzing your mistakes and assessing different paths. Once you get the hang of it on paper, do it in your mind.

I had a bout of this thinking a few years ago. If you keep at it, improving yourself and nudging the other person along, you grow out of this fugue state. If it reaches breaking point and one of you can’t relent, you’ll break up and move on.

But if you don’t, and it blossoms, it becomes a wonderful space to be in.

A very wise person once told me that the person you spend your life with must be first and foremost, your best friend. If they’re not that, then it’ll always be an uphill battle.