@MajestiesL@showerskittles@stockdaddyg@Aella_Girl Which gets us back to it being ill defined. Does hitting require a hand? Open or closed. Soft and playful count? Or only hard.
I'm not trying to be an ass, just the word "hit" is ambiguous.
@showerskittles@stockdaddyg@Aella_Girl Right are we talking about a little spank while in doggy style. That is hitting, and requires consent. If you're far from vanilla, I'd be surprised if that wasn't in your repertoire.
Amazon just got caught running a secret price manipulation operation with Levi's, Home Depot, Walmart, and many more.
Every time you "comparison shopped" online, you were looking at prices that were already rigged.
Here's what happened:
Amazon would monitor prices on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Chewy in real time. The second a competitor listed a product cheaper than Amazon, they'd contact the brand directly and tell them to "fix it."
And the exact emails are now PUBLIC.
Amazon sent Levi's links to two Walmart listings with the subject line "styles of concern." They basically said the prices on Walmart are too low and we have a problem.
The next day, Levi's responded: "I talked to Walmart and they have partnered with us to take Easy Khaki Classic fit back up to ladder SPP price, $29.99 immediately."
Levi's literally called Walmart and told them to raise the price. Because Amazon told Levi's to make the call.
Walmart complied. Then Amazon matched the HIGHER price.
Both retailers ended up charging more. The customer paid extra. Nobody competed.
Same playbook with Hanes:
Amazon sent them links showing Target and Walmart prices were lower. Hanes confirmed they "reached out to Target and Walmart to have the prices increased."
Target increased the prices. Walmart increased the prices. Amazon kept their margins.
But it gets even worse...
Amazon told Allergan (the company that makes eye drops) that their product was "suppressed" on Amazon because it was cheaper on another site.
Allergan responded: "Walmart got their price back up to $16.99." Amazon then unsuppressed the listing.
They did this with pet treats on Chewy. Furniture on Home Depot. Products across dozens of categories spanning YEARS.
The mechanism is simple but terrifying:
If you're a brand and you sell cheaper on Walmart than on Amazon, Amazon suppresses your product, removes you from the Buy Box, buries you in search results, and effectively makes you invisible to 300 million customers.
Brands can't afford that. So they call Walmart and Target and say "raise your prices or we'll lose our Amazon listings."
Walmart and Target comply because they need the brand's products.
Amazon captures 40 cents of every dollar spent online in America. That gives them the leverage to set prices across THE ENTIRE internet. Not just their own platform.
So turns out, you were never comparison shopping.
You were looking at a coordinated price floor set by Amazon through backroom phone calls between brands and their competitors.
"Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable."
3 separate antitrust trials are now scheduled for 2027. The FTC has its own case. 18 states plus the DOJ are piling on.
This is literally happening during the WORST affordability crisis in a generation. Groceries up 25% since 2020. Housing unaffordable. Wages flat.
And the largest ecommerce company on Earth has been secretly coordinating with brands to make sure you can't find a cheaper price ANYWHERE.
"Competition" in retail is just a fantasy.
In 2008, evolutionary anthropologist Katie Hinde began studying breast milk from rhesus macaque mothers. What started as a routine study turned into a groundbreaking discovery. She found that mothers raising sons produced milk richer in fat and protein, while those raising daughters had different nutrient balances. This led Katie to a radical conclusion: milk is not just nutritionโitโs information.
Her research revealed that milk shapes behavior, not just growth. For instance, first-time mothers produced milk with higher levels of cortisol, influencing their babies to grow faster but also become more anxious. Katie also discovered that milk changes based on the babyโs immune needs. When a baby is sick, the motherโs milk quickly adapts by producing more white blood cells and targeted antibodies.
Katieโs work, which challenged the scientific consensus, was largely ignored. She launched a blog, Mammals Suck Milk, to spark discussions, and her findings, including that every motherโs milk is unique, gained widespread attention. In 2017, she took her research to a TED stage, and in 2020, her work was featured in Netflixโs Babies. Today, as a professor at Arizona State University, Katie continues to revolutionize our understanding of infant development and lactation.
Katie Hinde didnโt just study milkโshe uncovered a living, responsive communication system, revealing that nourishment is intelligence. Her discovery shows that sometimes the biggest revolutions begin by listening to what others ignore.