raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Jul 29, 2020 8:12:19 GMT -5
I can't help but wonder how restaurants will fare in the future. I think more than a few people might realize the money they spend eating out and cut back. I was a kid in the 70s-80s. We had fast food about twice a year and one "fancy" dinner out each year. No one back then ate out multiple times each week. Not to mention no one paid $6 for coffee... I think that's just your personal experience and not representative of society as a whole. I remember a completely different 70's and 80's. People around here love to reminisce about all the great restaurants from back then that have since closed down due to people NOT eating out as much anymore and have been replaced by mostly fast food and take out with just a handful of sit down that don't often don't last long in our town. I grew up with going for shrimp or prime rib practically every Friday night with my grandparents, and weekends in the summer we would drive sometimes long distances because there was a chicken Q going on in such and such a town that we had to hit. My mom didn't go or take me out to eat, but she was a single parent, and probably has an eating disorder to boot because she practically never eats now...and very rarely at a restaurant where you'd get "all those excess calories" She did get me McDonalds at least once a week though. I eat out much, much less now than I did back in the 70's...unless you count $2 burgers from the gas station for lunch as eating out. We ate out about once a week in the 80's. Fast food once a week or so. I don't like to eat out all the time, but I don't see any problem in eating out once or twice a week and can't wait to get back to it. If I didn't work, or at least didn't work so much cooking might be fun. As-Is it's just a chore.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 29, 2020 8:42:14 GMT -5
I spend a freakin' fortune on groceries. That’s because you made the financially stupid decision to have children.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jul 29, 2020 9:25:44 GMT -5
I spend a freakin' fortune on groceries. That’s because you made the financially stupid decision to have children. yes, you're right. Damn, they eat a lot.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2020 11:44:16 GMT -5
I don't think we will do sit-down dining as much as in the past because there are very, very few restaurants I trust to do a good amount of sanitation and routinely monitor staff health. We do take-out regularly but have only done seated dining once since March. We went to a locally owned restaurant with impeccable quality standards and very stable staffing. The kitchen personnel and waitstaff haven't changed in years. At their price point ($75/100 per person at dinner), they can afford to maintain distance between patrons. Besides, it's the only place I know where I can get Manchego cheesecake.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Jul 29, 2020 12:20:22 GMT -5
I can't help but wonder how restaurants will fare in the future. I think more than a few people might realize the money they spend eating out and cut back. I was a kid in the 70s-80s. We had fast food about twice a year and one "fancy" dinner out each year. No one back then ate out multiple times each week. Not to mention no one paid $6 for coffee... I think that's just your personal experience and not representative of society as a whole. I remember a completely different 70's and 80's. People around here love to reminisce about all the great restaurants from back then that have since closed down due to people NOT eating out as much anymore and have been replaced by mostly fast food and take out with just a handful of sit down that don't often don't last long in our town. I grew up with going for shrimp or prime rib practically every Friday night with my grandparents, and weekends in the summer we would drive sometimes long distances because there was a chicken Q going on in such and such a town that we had to hit. My mom didn't go or take me out to eat, but she was a single parent, and probably has an eating disorder to boot because she practically never eats now...and very rarely at a restaurant where you'd get "all those excess calories" She did get me McDonalds at least once a week though. I eat out much, much less now than I did back in the 70's...unless you count $2 burgers from the gas station for lunch as eating out. My 70's/80's childhood resembles what LifePartTwo describes. We rarely ate out anywhere. My HS bff's family, however, ate out every Friday at Ponderosa for a long stretch. Before that, it was a really good, really large pizza from a small local chain.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 29, 2020 14:20:52 GMT -5
During my 60's childhood, we were thrilled when we got to go to McDonald's or buy a hot dog after swimming.
We rarely ate out. Had to be a special occasion.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jul 29, 2020 14:25:02 GMT -5
I think that's just your personal experience and not representative of society as a whole. I remember a completely different 70's and 80's. People around here love to reminisce about all the great restaurants from back then that have since closed down due to people NOT eating out as much anymore and have been replaced by mostly fast food and take out with just a handful of sit down that don't often don't last long in our town. I grew up with going for shrimp or prime rib practically every Friday night with my grandparents, and weekends in the summer we would drive sometimes long distances because there was a chicken Q going on in such and such a town that we had to hit. My mom didn't go or take me out to eat, but she was a single parent, and probably has an eating disorder to boot because she practically never eats now...and very rarely at a restaurant where you'd get "all those excess calories" She did get me McDonalds at least once a week though. I eat out much, much less now than I did back in the 70's...unless you count $2 burgers from the gas station for lunch as eating out. We ate out about once a week in the 80's. Fast food once a week or so. I don't like to eat out all the time, but I don't see any problem in eating out once or twice a week and can't wait to get back to it. If I didn't work, or at least didn't work so much cooking might be fun. As-Is it's just a chore. I like cooking but at this point it's becoming a chore a long with everything else lately. So yeah I want to eat something I didn't cook more than once a year. Oh well add that to the list of ways I am contributing to the downfall of American civilization along with being a working mother, not having enough saved to retire right this minute, picking a non-YM approved major in college while attending a private university to obtain it and not washing and reusing my plastic baggies.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2020 14:36:42 GMT -5
I don't think people will go back to once a year eating out, but I do think many people will reduce their eating out expenses, whether forced by job loss/downsizing or desire.
BTW, I grew up in an upper-middle class family. It wasn't that we couldn't afford eating out more. But, at least where I grew up, people just didn't do it very often.
When I got into high school and worked/drove, then there was more fast food, etc... because I paid for it.
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cktc
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Post by cktc on Jul 29, 2020 14:49:51 GMT -5
I'd like to limit my eating out to sit down twice a month and fast food twice a month. We were bad before, probably eating out at least 3x/week and most of that was fast food. Thankfully now that we are in the habit of cooking at home more we don't have that weekly burger/fried chicken/pizza craving.
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on Jul 29, 2020 16:14:24 GMT -5
It's not so much the cooking part. I am sick to death of dishes. We do have a dishwasher but a fair amount of stuff gets hand washed. DH does them a lot but he had dental surgery last Friday. For me it's deciding what to cook that has become the most boring part. I dont mind the cooking and cleaning, but the decision making seems to be getting harder.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2020 16:41:04 GMT -5
It's not so much the cooking part. I am sick to death of dishes. We do have a dishwasher but a fair amount of stuff gets hand washed. DH does them a lot but he had dental surgery last Friday. For me it's deciding what to cook that has become the most boring part. I dont mind the cooking and cleaning, but the decision making seems to be getting harder. Totally agree! I love to cook and love to try new recipes but now I have to factor in DH's WeightWatcher needs and availability of ingredients, yada, yada. Some days I can embrace it as a fun challenge but other days it's a PITA
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cronewitch
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Post by cronewitch on Jul 29, 2020 17:20:26 GMT -5
Dining out prices bother me too much to do it often. I remember 15-19cent burgers and full meals for 49cent in the 50-60s. Dollar menu was fine in the 80s even a couple years ago. Now my dollar sandwich is 2/3 when I only want one. BK has nuggets 8 for a dollar but online is 4 for a dollar. I can afford to spend 5-10 for a fast food meal but won't do it. I don't see how a teen thinks spending an hour's wages on a burger is worth it. In the 70s we started getting a full meal for two people for $2 and got 21 cents change. I own MCD stock but don't eat their food now. I am shocked it is still popular but it is a small family will order whatever they want and not complain it cost $30 or even more.
I don't have a food budget at all but won't over pay, buy for my house and ISOs house and might spend 200-300 a month.
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pooks
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Post by pooks on Jul 29, 2020 18:50:53 GMT -5
I think I am noticing the reduction in SKUs at my local grocery stores. For the last 3 weeks and probably 6 trips, I have been looking for the same 4 items and coming up empty. Not remarkable items, but things my household prefers over other brands. I am noticing a well stocked section of say salsa, but only 2 brands and not the brand I want.
As far as eating out goes. As a child in the 80's, eating out was a very rare occurrence. Pre pandemic we ate out about 3 times a week, now we get takeout once a week. I am still not saving any money though. I was at the beginning. Maybe it is all the mask buying.
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Blonde Granny
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Post by Blonde Granny on Jul 30, 2020 8:09:53 GMT -5
I spent $88 on Tuesday at the Walmart Neighborhood Market. That should last me for at least 3 weeks. I'm still working on emptying the garage freezer.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 30, 2020 9:51:18 GMT -5
Isn't there a phenomena where the more choices we have, the harder it is to decide? Some sort of decision paralysis? And I feel like we want choices, for the most part, only when we're getting something new because then we want to ensure we being presented with ALL the options and making the BEST decision. After that, I think the general public chooses the same product until they're forced to choose again due to lack of availability. Having fewer options is so not a bad thing. Some brands seem to want to capture EVERY market and others are good with doing awesome in the portion they already have. From an outsider's perspective, I feel like innovation spreads companies too thin, especially when so many could work towards being more ethical in the products that they already make.
Not the intent of this thread but the comment about fewer SKUs made me think of it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2020 10:22:55 GMT -5
Living with DH's long-term disability and problems walking taught me that often our stores are just unnecessarily too big. Part of the reason we now have these monster stores is because of all the products they need to contain.
I've never understood why we need 300 different types of shampoo and 2 aisles of laundry detergent choices.
I do think we will lose some products during the pandemic and that might not be a horrible thing. But, it represents jobs lost, so that's not great either.
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Blonde Granny
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Post by Blonde Granny on Jul 30, 2020 10:24:06 GMT -5
Dining out prices bother me too much to do it often. I remember 15-19cent burgers and full meals for 49cent in the 50-60s. Dollar menu was fine in the 80s even a couple years ago. Now my dollar sandwich is 2/3 when I only want one. BK has nuggets 8 for a dollar but online is 4 for a dollar. I can afford to spend 5-10 for a fast food meal but won't do it. I don't see how a teen thinks spending an hour's wages on a burger is worth it. In the 70s we started getting a full meal for two people for $2 and got 21 cents change. I own MCD stock but don't eat their food now. I am shocked it is still popular but it is a small family will order whatever they want and not complain it cost $30 or even more. I don't have a food budget at all but won't over pay, buy for my house and ISOs house and might spend 200-300 a month. My YNAB dining out budget has been $100 per month until this happened. As of today, I've stopped at McDonalds 3 times for a burger, fries and soft drink. Total for those times has been $27.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 30, 2020 10:57:39 GMT -5
Living with DH's long-term disability and problems walking taught me that often our stores are just unnecessarily too big. Part of the reason we now have these monster stores is because of all the products they need to contain. I've never understood why we need 300 different types of shampoo and 2 aisles of laundry detergent choices. I do think we will lose some products during the pandemic and that might not be a horrible thing. But, it represents jobs lost, so that's not great either. If it takes the available options of Gain detergent from 100 each of 100 different scents to 200 each of 50 scents, I don't think it'll be jobs lost. Even if we lose different brands, it's not "jobs lost" so much as "jobs reallocated" because the demand will still be there. It will just move to the remaining brands and THEY will need to hire more people to keep up.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jul 30, 2020 11:11:58 GMT -5
It took me awhile but I went through my bank statements and credit card bills from January forward. I'm sure I got some gas, maybe some clothes in the amounts as its just Sam's, Krogers, and Big Lots and it's a lot what I have spent. I can do better I'm sure. This is for 3 of us. There's a few McD's in there too.
January $990.56 February $910.01 March $611.78 April $1403.07 $301.01 of that was meat and this was when we were helping tenants with food May $494.67 June $826.00 July $512.98 We are eating from the stockpile. Somewhere in there I missed our second meat run, I $300.00 think about $300 again, so will add that.
total $6049.07
I think we can do much better then this.
I need to add that likely includes paper products and all detergents, so there is that.
DD and I ate lunch at Red Lobster the other day. Over $40 for 2 and wasn't even that good. Got half sick that afternoon, I won't go back there. We do spend quite a bit picking up sandwiches from Subway, everytime I'm in town.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 30, 2020 14:03:39 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2020 18:30:44 GMT -5
Interesting. I think the previous tactic of these major brands was to fill vast expanses of store shelves with 90 versions of the brand- in Coke's example, regular Coke, Orange Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, diet versions of each, plus Coke Zero....and I think this "simplification" will result in some jobs being eliminated. I'm sure they'll need fewer people to keep track of the branding, image, advertising, supply chains, etc. for fewer products. The aisle that always blows me away is OTC meds and supplements- an infinite number of allergy remedies, cold remedies (daytime and night-time), pain remedies.. I can understand why we need some variety (aspirin, for example, shouldn't be give to children) but it's way too much.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jul 30, 2020 20:38:09 GMT -5
I'm going to try cooking from my stash and just get basics. Not add to it. If I don't stuff will be getting thrown away and that is just wasteful.
I told hubs we can put off more meat for awhile. We have quite a bit but low on ground beef. Not a problem can grind a roast into ground beef if we need some. I buy a quantity, did in March and May so ok. But I know we can do better, that's a lot of money to spend on people.
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nittanycheme
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Post by nittanycheme on Aug 3, 2020 11:58:12 GMT -5
For me it's deciding what to cook that has become the most boring part. I dont mind the cooking and cleaning, but the decision making seems to be getting harder. Totally agree! I love to cook and love to try new recipes but now I have to factor in DH's WeightWatcher needs and availability of ingredients, yada, yada. Some days I can embrace it as a fun challenge but other days it's a PITA I am still doing blue Apron, which is great. I don't have to think of things to make 3 days a week - I just need to remember to look at my options and pick ones I want. sometimes I forget and I just get the default, which is still usually ok. And they still have WW friendly meals. They are marked that way, and they even put a barcode on the recipe sheet to allow you to scan it into the app. This has actually helped keep my grocery budget relatively stable since their prices haven't changed, and it really cuts down on the meals I need to cover from shopping. I did stock up a lot, so a lot of what I'm getting now is fresh fruits and vegetables, bread (although i try for sales when possible and freeze it) along with a few other things like cereal and breakfast items as needed.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Aug 5, 2020 9:27:02 GMT -5
I haven't been to the store this month. I did an order on Amazon for $38.
Going to the grocery today to get milk, I buy 3 gallons at a time, will last well over a week, I hate running out of milk out here or bread. I have powdered milk back and can bake bread.
Need to go downstairs and make sure the mouse did not get into anything else. I have lots in plastic totes but need to move more into it. I have a bag of rice, powdered milk, steel cut oats, etc I do not want to lose. Also 25 pounds of sugar.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2020 9:31:42 GMT -5
Need to go downstairs and make sure the mouse did not get into anything else. I have lots in plastic totes but need to move more into it. I have a bag of rice, powdered milk, steel cut oats, etc I do not want to lose. Also 25 pounds of sugar. I have a problem with pantry moths- they'll even burrow under screw-on caps. I have to keep bran, oatmeal, farro, etc. in my refrigerator. They also infest the giant bag of bird seed I store in the garage but I think the birds like the extra treats.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Aug 5, 2020 12:14:24 GMT -5
I haven’t been grocery shopping in about 10 days. TD picked up milk, but that’s about it. The refrigerator is looking a lot less crowded!
Anyway, yesterday on my way home from PT I stopped at the road stand for veggies and fruit. I got apricots, peaches and cantaloupe, corn, green beans, cauliflower, summer and zucchini squash, red onion and cucumbers....$35 later, produce is restocked.
I need to run a few errands today, and then making a huge bowl of pickled veggies.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2020 13:59:52 GMT -5
Need to go downstairs and make sure the mouse did not get into anything else. I have lots in plastic totes but need to move more into it. I have a bag of rice, powdered milk, steel cut oats, etc I do not want to lose. Also 25 pounds of sugar. I have a problem with pantry moths- they'll even burrow under screw-on caps. I have to keep bran, oatmeal, farro, etc. in my refrigerator. They also infest the giant bag of bird seed I store in the garage but I think the birds like the extra treats. You should place stuff like pasta, flour, etc. rice, etc. in the freezer for a minimum for 24 hours after bringing it home from the store. The larva is usually in the product itself. ETA: You probably need to get rid of anything like that presently in your pantry. They are probably already infested.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Aug 5, 2020 14:00:43 GMT -5
The aisle that always blows me away is OTC meds and supplements- an infinite number of allergy remedies, cold remedies (daytime and night-time), pain remedies.. Just an add in to this: many of the same medicines/vitamins are just given new packaging and a new name and sitting on the self right next to the same product just labeled a different way and possibly priced differently... You can buy the exact same product (each at a different price point) from the same manufacturer my favorite example: Active Ingredients: Acetaminophen - 250 mg (Pain reliever), Aspirin 250 mg, Caffeine - 65 mg (Pain reliever aid) can be labeled as: Tension headache formula Migraine headache formula headache formula Back ache formula arthritis pain formula Menstrual/premestrual pain formula Really... does there need to be 6 different boxes of pills to choose between for pain? And what happens if you think these are different somehow and take 2 for a headache AND 2 for back pain?? Should I really have 3 or 4 different packages of the same meds in my "medicine cabinet" at home?? Funny story: I had the "menstrual/premestrual" labeled pills because they were the cheapest version of the "250/250/35" combo I could find. My male co-worker was moaning and groaning because his lower back hurt and he had an empty bottle of "back pain" pills at his desk - he forget to get a new bottle when he took the last one. I asked to see the empty bottle - and offered him my "menstrual/premestrual" pain pills. He was appalled/laughed - until he compared the bottles. Same product - different label. He took my offered pain meds and I knew he was feeling better an hour later because he was joking about how he was feeling "pretty" and 'witty" and "oh so bright".
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Aug 5, 2020 14:21:27 GMT -5
I'm about to bite the bullet and buy a large quantity of soup for darn close to full price. I liquidated my self-isolation supplies at least six weeks ago and have been haunting the soup aisle ever since. Soup, or at least the soup that I want to have on hand if I am directed to self-isolate, has not gone on sale at a good price since then.
I'd gotten quite used to being able to buy these soups at a 40% discount as long as I waited until the good sale hit. Now I have to face the fact that they probably won't go on sale again before it becomes wildly irresponsible to not have a self-isolation stash.
There's a whole lot of food inflation hidden in the way things are not going on sale nearly as often and going on sale for much higher prices when they do.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Aug 5, 2020 14:28:23 GMT -5
On the brighter side, can you imagine how cheap turkey is going to be this Thanksgiving, especially the larger birds?
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