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I've been fiddling around with the Albertsons API for fun. It's kind of neat to see a whole year's worth of purchases in nicely formatted JSON. I have half an

by davidw 2y ago

I've been fiddling around with the Albertsons API for fun. It's kind of neat to see a whole year's worth of purchases in nicely formatted JSON. I have half an idea to create something like a personal inflation tracker, but I'm still thinking about it. It's entirely possible that these goons will start fiddling with official statistics around things like unemployment and inflation to tell us that inflation is not actually happening any more and that therefore we must cut interest rates, or some such.

crtez 2y ago
Is it an official API? I’m not able to find any links about it, if you could provide some I’d love to look into my own purchases.
- araes 2y ago
  It's apparently an API, although it's both difficult to find, and apparently only available through an email request to Albertsons. The website is here: https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/amc/ https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/amc/ The email request is at the bottom. mediacollective at albertsons
  - davidw 2y ago
    I was actually just looking at the calls the web site makes to a back end and using that.
- davidw 2y ago
  If you get in touch with me (email or Blue Sky DM) I would be happy to think about how to share what I have so far, although it's not much at all.
duxup 2y ago
Changing data doesn't seem like their style, I suspect the pattern for this administration (based on past history): 1. Simply drop the topic and ignore it / drop the topic (arresting Hillary, china tariffs, etc). 2. Declare the problem fixed and again ignore it. 3. Blame the boogieman of the moment. And as usual just behave like children in order to fill the airways / distract.
- 9283409232 2y ago
  Trump's last administration drew on a NOAA hurricane map with a sharpie to try to convince people he was not wrong about a hurricane path. Changing data is his style.
  - duxup 2y ago
    I honestly think that one was ignorance more than direct malice. I think he is in fact as ignorant / incurious as he seems.
    - 9283409232 2y ago
      Both are bad. Trump was wrong because he was speaking on outdated information but he wouldn't accept that he was wrong so his administration created some data so he could say he was right.
      - duxup 2y ago
        Certainly bad. Arguably stupid is even more dangerous.
      - jcranmer 2y ago
        > he was speaking on outdated information I don't think there was ever any information, outdated or otherwise, that suggested that the hurricane was going to hit Alabama. The theory I've heard that the makes the most sense is that Trump saw a report about the damage it was going to inflict on the Bahamas, mixed up Alabama and Bahamas, tweeted condolences to Alabama, and the administration tried to defend his mix-up by concocting fake information to explain it. (In many respects, if he had just quietly dropped the matter, it would have been largely ignored since it was cleared up pretty quickly; it was the childish response to try to justify why it wasn't a mistake that made it such an issue.)
    - chneu 2y ago
      Stop making excuses for an abuser who has repeatedly shown he isn't as stupid as he'd like you to think he is.
rcpt 2y ago
It'll be funny when crypto people's "Truflation" reveals that the pro-crypto government caused more inflation than anyone.
kobalsky 2y ago
> It's entirely possible that these goons will start fiddling with official statistics around things like unemployment and inflation to tell us that inflation is not actually happening any more and that therefore we must cut interest rates, or some such. in the end statistics is a science, and results can be cross-referenced with independent sources. you may get away with a bit, but not with much [1]. [1]: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/argentina-loses-bid-to-throw-out-us738-million-hedge-fund-lawsuit.phtml https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/argentina-loses-bid-...
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  Don't rely on this. It works when bad actors are isolated and hoping nobody will notice, but not so well when there are tens of millions ready to repeat the official line, whether they believe it or not.
  - kobalsky 2y ago
    tens of millions? well then your problem is not that officals could fudge the numbers, your house is on fire, of course my comment doesn't apply.
- nanidin 2y ago
  And yet we have the saying "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics"!
pton_xd 2y ago
> It's entirely possible that these goons will start fiddling with official statistics around things like unemployment and inflation to tell us that inflation is not actually happening any more and that therefore we must cut interest rates, or some such. Like when the BLS overstated payrolls by 818k!! in March of last year, the largest negative revision in 15 years? And then the Fed did an emergency 50bps rate cut in September just as payrolls unexpectedly went up 250k and inflation seems to be coming back. The unemployment and inflation data has been inconsistent for a while now.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/job-openings-decline-sharply-in-december-to-7point6-million-below-forecast.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/job-openings-decline-sharply... https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm Still happening. We sure have been suddenly wild unaccirate with the job market while the Feds need to keep saying "everything is fine but...".
- relaxing 2y ago
  > Like when the BLS overstated payrolls by 818k!! So one Meta SRE? Is this supposed to be a lot?
  - dmoy 2y ago
    818k jobs, not 818k USD https://www.bls.gov/ces/notices/2024/2024-preliminary-benchmark-revision.htm https://www.bls.gov/ces/notices/2024/2024-preliminary-benchm... They're usually within +/- 0.1% for the estimate, that time it was 0.5% off
thuanao 2y ago
You may be interested to know MIT did a project called ["The Billion Prices Project"](https://thebillionpricesproject.com https://thebillionpricesproject.com) to scrape the web and calculate CPI. Sorry to all the tinfoil hats, it closely matched official CPI.
- jorblumesea 2y ago
  for now, wait until the Trump admin gets into full gear
- UltraSane 2y ago
  It will be interesting if that is the case by this time in 2026,2027, and 2028
el_benhameen 2y ago
I see an advertising API, but I don’t think that’s what you’re taking about. This sounds pretty interesting, can you point me to where you found it?

by davidw 2y ago

crtez 2y ago

Is it an official API? I’m not able to find any links about it, if you could provide some I’d love to look into my own purchases.

araes 2y ago
It's apparently an API, although it's both difficult to find, and apparently only available through an email request to Albertsons. The website is here: https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/amc/ https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/amc/ The email request is at the bottom. mediacollective at albertsons
- davidw 2y ago
  I was actually just looking at the calls the web site makes to a back end and using that.
davidw 2y ago
If you get in touch with me (email or Blue Sky DM) I would be happy to think about how to share what I have so far, although it's not much at all.

duxup 2y ago

Changing data doesn't seem like their style, I suspect the pattern for this administration (based on past history): 1. Simply drop the topic and ignore it / drop the topic (arresting Hillary, china tariffs, etc). 2. Declare the problem fixed and again ignore it. 3. Blame the boogieman of the moment. And as usual just behave like children in order to fill the airways / distract.

9283409232 2y ago
Trump's last administration drew on a NOAA hurricane map with a sharpie to try to convince people he was not wrong about a hurricane path. Changing data is his style.
- duxup 2y ago
  I honestly think that one was ignorance more than direct malice. I think he is in fact as ignorant / incurious as he seems.
  - 9283409232 2y ago
    Both are bad. Trump was wrong because he was speaking on outdated information but he wouldn't accept that he was wrong so his administration created some data so he could say he was right.
    - duxup 2y ago
      Certainly bad. Arguably stupid is even more dangerous.
    - jcranmer 2y ago
      > he was speaking on outdated information I don't think there was ever any information, outdated or otherwise, that suggested that the hurricane was going to hit Alabama. The theory I've heard that the makes the most sense is that Trump saw a report about the damage it was going to inflict on the Bahamas, mixed up Alabama and Bahamas, tweeted condolences to Alabama, and the administration tried to defend his mix-up by concocting fake information to explain it. (In many respects, if he had just quietly dropped the matter, it would have been largely ignored since it was cleared up pretty quickly; it was the childish response to try to justify why it wasn't a mistake that made it such an issue.)
  - chneu 2y ago
    Stop making excuses for an abuser who has repeatedly shown he isn't as stupid as he'd like you to think he is.

rcpt 2y ago

It'll be funny when crypto people's "Truflation" reveals that the pro-crypto government caused more inflation than anyone.

kobalsky 2y ago

> It's entirely possible that these goons will start fiddling with official statistics around things like unemployment and inflation to tell us that inflation is not actually happening any more and that therefore we must cut interest rates, or some such. in the end statistics is a science, and results can be cross-referenced with independent sources. you may get away with a bit, but not with much [1]. [1]: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/argentina-loses-bid-to-throw-out-us738-million-hedge-fund-lawsuit.phtml https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/argentina-loses-bid-...

anigbrowl 2y ago
Don't rely on this. It works when bad actors are isolated and hoping nobody will notice, but not so well when there are tens of millions ready to repeat the official line, whether they believe it or not.
- kobalsky 2y ago
  tens of millions? well then your problem is not that officals could fudge the numbers, your house is on fire, of course my comment doesn't apply.
nanidin 2y ago
And yet we have the saying "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics"!

pton_xd 2y ago

> It's entirely possible that these goons will start fiddling with official statistics around things like unemployment and inflation to tell us that inflation is not actually happening any more and that therefore we must cut interest rates, or some such. Like when the BLS overstated payrolls by 818k!! in March of last year, the largest negative revision in 15 years? And then the Fed did an emergency 50bps rate cut in September just as payrolls unexpectedly went up 250k and inflation seems to be coming back. The unemployment and inflation data has been inconsistent for a while now.

johnnyanmac 2y ago
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/job-openings-decline-sharply-in-december-to-7point6-million-below-forecast.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/job-openings-decline-sharply... https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm Still happening. We sure have been suddenly wild unaccirate with the job market while the Feds need to keep saying "everything is fine but...".
relaxing 2y ago
> Like when the BLS overstated payrolls by 818k!! So one Meta SRE? Is this supposed to be a lot?
- dmoy 2y ago
  818k jobs, not 818k USD https://www.bls.gov/ces/notices/2024/2024-preliminary-benchmark-revision.htm https://www.bls.gov/ces/notices/2024/2024-preliminary-benchm... They're usually within +/- 0.1% for the estimate, that time it was 0.5% off

thuanao 2y ago

You may be interested to know MIT did a project called ["The Billion Prices Project"](https://thebillionpricesproject.com https://thebillionpricesproject.com) to scrape the web and calculate CPI. Sorry to all the tinfoil hats, it closely matched official CPI.

jorblumesea 2y ago
for now, wait until the Trump admin gets into full gear
UltraSane 2y ago
It will be interesting if that is the case by this time in 2026,2027, and 2028

el_benhameen 2y ago

I see an advertising API, but I don’t think that’s what you’re taking about. This sounds pretty interesting, can you point me to where you found it?