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What are you surprised that people pay for, when there are free alternatives in existence? (kbin.melroy.org)

submitted 5 days ago by Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I was going through my Wal-Mart+ subscription plan that I got for free and I saw their offers. One of which was EMeals, that was a 60-day trial. I thought that this was like Blue Apron or other meal delivery services so I thought I'd take a crack at it and hope that it would get me on a path to eat better.

Turns out, it's just a meal planner. And it's absurd to me why and how would anyone pay for something when there are countless and countless recipes and meal planners readily available for free. Who'd the fuck would want to pay for a planner? That's like paying for a calendar app.

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[–] tht@social.pwned.page 4 points 4 days ago

Windows

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Tax return filings in the US. There are free options provided by the paid companies... So that they can prevent real changes.

Kinda like pharmaceutical companies when the public demands cheaper prices. The pharmaceutical companies fight back with "what if instead of that we set up some programs that people can use for cheaper medicine! Win win! Then you don't have to make any real changes that might hurt us?"

Same with taxes. The accounting software companies and advisors companies said "wait hold on, you don't need to make taxes simpler and tank our business. Keep them complicated and well offer free alternatives that are just as easy as our paid services that people can pick if they don't want to pay! Win win!"

Which obviously I think is a crap solution. However if you are paying for someone to do your taxes you should stop. There are a lot of easy free services out there that make it pretty much effortless. They are just as good as the paid services now.

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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 days ago

(Conditionally) journals, studies and some books. And, for that matter, most television, film and music.

Particularly when paying is not supporting the creator, only the publisher.

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