(no subject)

[pebblerocker]

I've had a sudden wave of anonymous spam comments on LJ over the last week; rather than ban anonymous commenters I've set LJ to screen them so at least they don't show. If it keeps up I may turn on the CAPTCHA thing for anonymous comments to save me deleting them all. It's not as if I'm a big-name blogger with lots of unregistered readers wanting to weigh in :o) Seriously, I have had as many spam comments on my LJ in the last few days as I had in the previous five years. One more thing to like about Dreamwidth...

A thought I had while standing in a long queue today: I don't know if supermarkets are trying to make it inconvenient for smokers to buy cigarettes or if they're just trying to prevent theft by having all the tobacco products locked up and needing a supervisor to get them out, but it certainly makes shopping inconvenient for the rest of us. Wouldn't the whole problem be solved by not selling cigarettes at all? Absolutely no risk of people trying to steal them or underage people trying to buy them, greatly reduced hassle for staff and for customers, and addicts would certainly be prepared to go out of their way to visit a special smokers' shop for their supplies. The only argument against it is that supermarkets probably make a good bit of money out of cigarettes, even after paying for all that wasted staff time on every sale.

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Someone else on my flist had that problem as well - from the comments it sounds like bots are working out how to get round captcha :(

I have my settings so that I don't come up on search engines, so maybe that helps.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

A friend said she has had a lot too, despite having captcha on. I have my LJ set to registered users only which includes OpenID and other users on sites like Facebook as long as their email address is verified by LJ. She's decided to tell her anonymously commenting friends to use that and ban all anonymous commenting. It looks like the way to go.

I also have screening on non-friends with links as that's how a lot of spammers work.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope you will be able to get rid of that spam. To tell the truth, I would be more than unhappy if it happened to me.I rely on my settings that are, I believe, something like vilakins has.
About the cigarettes - yes, I did notice the same situation in our supermarkets here - after all, they all belong the the same chains. I do not smoke myself but I like your idea. However, as you have said, this is a matter of money...as usual.

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

In the UK they sell cigeretes in separate kiosks within the supermarket, so smokers have to queue to get them, but don't impact on other shoppers when they do so.

[pebblerocker]

Now there's a sensible idea! Do they check ID at the kiosk too? It's very frustrating when a checkout is tied up unable to move anyone through and waiting for the one overworked supervisor to have time to authorise a tobacco purchase. I like the supermarkets with self-service checkouts, but they're a recent arrival here and we don't have them at our local.

[lolabobs.livejournal.com]

You have to be 16 to buy cigs (or 18? I can't remember! You can tell I don't smoke!) , So if someone looks under age they will be refused or asked for ID.
I can't imagine the logic that thinks to do this at ordinary tills with one supervisor having to manage them all!

The self service checkouts are everywhere here and getting more prevalent, which isn't always popular. I don't mind them for just one or two bits, but never a full shop!

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

In Canada we have that too. I had to think for a minute about whether supermarkets even sell cigarettes, because I can't remember seeing them. But I think they're at the customer service counter with the lottery tickets, staffed by a person who has authorization to open the cabinet. If you want smokes you get them and pay for them at that counter. Convenience stores have them too, and whoever is working there has the key to the cabinet.

[pebblerocker]

Heh. Here they're all at the service counter locked up, same as in Canada, but customers buy all their shopping (you know, $300 worth of groceries to scan through...) and THEN ask the checkout operator for their particular brand of tobacco. The operator has to ring a bell for the supervisor and wait for her to arrive, relay the request, wait while the supervisor walks the length of the supermarket to unlock the cabinet and back again with the cigarettes, check with the customer that it's the exact right type, then have the supervisor use her till key to authorise the purchase and scan them through. The process is streamlined somewhat if a supervisor is free at the time and if the customer is obviously over 50 and doesn't need an ID check. But really! Other countries have solved the problem in very sensible ways.