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Wow

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 05 2016 04:34 PM

Even a guy who covers the food retail biz is impressed. [youtube:3egcmtcw]NrmMk1Myrxc[/youtube:3egcmtcw]

cooby Dec 05 2016 04:45 PM Re: Wow

Yeah, but what about the poor security slobs? How will they know who is who?

d'Kong76 Dec 05 2016 05:42 PM Re: Wow

Freaky! I personally enjoy humans (except when they ask for proof that my middle-aged ass is over 21) and hope this technology doesn't become the norm any time soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I just got a text that a Fedex drone is about to land on my porch with some paperwork I've been waiting for. *rolleyes*

TransMonk Dec 05 2016 05:46 PM Re: Wow

I would use this. I use the self-checkout every time at the grocery store. I'm skeptical as to whether this technology currently works as nicely as it does in this promo, but I would love something like this.

batmagadanleadoff Dec 05 2016 05:51 PM Re: Wow

Coming soon, in early 2017. Great. We can run a poll to see what'll come to NY first: this or the Grand Mac.

A Boy Named Seo Dec 05 2016 05:51 PM Re: Wow

Amazon is going to destroy us all / make all our lives wonderful, one of those two. I'm torn by all this. I pay extra to buy frisbees at the neighborhood pet store and buy picture frames from the guy on the corner cause I'm scared that there will be no more local businesses in 50 years. But then I still buy shit on Amazon cuz I love the convenience of remembering I need some thing, clicking on my phone, and then it just shows up. If they actually built real grocery stores, that sounds good and all, but Johnny Cornerstore is still outta business.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 05 2016 06:09 PM Re: Wow

Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are the 4 horsemen of the 21st century economy. They're all up your azz everywhere -- TV, food, at some point they'll try and tackle transportation and housing. Just for context -- this will be a very small store -- smaller than a Wawa -- so will only carry a limited number of items. Will probably be a bigger hit to restuartants and c-stores than to grocery. Also, probably complicated enough to stock and maintain properly so any $$ saved from not paying cashiers will go to floor help. What it will do is relieve Amazon the cost of delivering that shit to people's homes, which is one of the major areas it still needs to address.

Edgy MD Dec 05 2016 06:15 PM Re: Wow

I'm always a little leery about idealized futures populated by cool, fit, white people of ideal, savvy consumer age, and one token light-skinned African-American female.

Fman99 Dec 05 2016 06:37 PM Re: Wow

Coming to my town, in about 40 years. We still don't have Uber yet.

Benjamin Grimm Dec 05 2016 06:41 PM Re: Wow

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Just for context -- this will be a very small store -- smaller than a Wawa -- so will only carry a limited number of items. Will probably be a bigger hit to restuartants and c-stores than to grocery. I'm guessing, though, that once they get the kinks worked out, and if it's successful, we would start seeing this play out in larger suburban-style supermarkets. I mean, that's where it would pay off more for the shopper. The line in my local convenience store is never very long. It's at the supermarket where this would really be useful. And also... I did a double-take at your Wawa comparison. Are New Yorkers familiar with Wawa now?

cooby Dec 05 2016 07:12 PM Re: Wow

Remember the ad where the people were in a coffee shop and they all swiped their debit cards and just left until one guy paid with cash and the cashier had to hand him change and it brought the whole place to a stop? None of those people ever had to put in a PIN. Thy never show that part. I think it has to be more complicated than this. Unless it's like ezpass or something

d'Kong76 Dec 05 2016 07:43 PM Re: Wow

The app is on the phone and in your possession so that's the id and no need for PIN or signing I guess? It will be interesting to see how it all plays out but I'm quite skeptical that we'll this on a large scale any time soon.

A Boy Named Seo Dec 05 2016 08:04 PM Re: Wow

speaking of cool (invasive) technology - anyone have Amazon Echo or Google Home?

Benjamin Grimm Dec 05 2016 08:06 PM Re: Wow

We have an Echo. It's a fun addition to the home as long as you learn to accept how many questions Alexa doesn't know how to answer.

Fman99 Dec 05 2016 08:20 PM Re: Wow

Benjamin Grimm wrote: We have an Echo. It's a fun addition to the home as long as you learn to accept how many questions Alexa doesn't know how to answer. I could just ask the cat questions all day, and get the same result.

Benjamin Grimm Dec 05 2016 08:24 PM Re: Wow

Practical uses for Alexa: [list:oxwscs7k]Weather reports, anywhere in the world. You can ask her to play the song that's been stuck in your head. Tells you which local theaters a is showing a particular movie, and the showtimes. In late summer of 2015, I often found myself asking her "How are the Washington Nationals doing?"[/list:u:oxwscs7k]

d'Kong76 Dec 05 2016 08:25 PM Re: Wow

I rely on my Magic 8 Ball for all my key answers... [fimg=350:1o3ni5om]http://knotsosubtle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/magic8ball.png[/fimg:1o3ni5om]

sharpie Dec 05 2016 09:21 PM Re: Wow

I buy nothing from Amazon. I use them for research in my job but, living in NYC, it isn't hard to actually go somewhere and get anything plus we're never home during the day so I don't like packages being left. Hell with their creepy stores -- all the fun of shoplifting, but you have to pay for it. I mostly deal with local merchants wherever I go and try not to shop at corporate stores/restaurants (difficult when buying gas and such).

batmagadanleadoff Dec 05 2016 11:42 PM Re: Wow

Great. Four years from now, disgruntled and unemployed supermarket cashiers will vote Trump into a second Presidential term after Trump promises to levy an additional 40% sales tax on Amazon Go products.

Ceetar Dec 06 2016 01:34 AM Re: Wow

Fascinated by this. Always curious out they stop someone from walking in without an Amazon account or is there security at the door kind of thing? Also, couldn't I just remove that cupcake from the package and walk off with it? I assume the tag is in the packaging. Also that means packaging or repackaging everything. more waste. at least until they get universal buy-in, which is of course coming. This is how things will progress and I'm interested to see how the algorithm works. Even if there is security getting in, can't I just kill the app the second I walk in and then not be logged in? turn off my phone? The uses for this are endless, but I'm still unsure how we check for people that aren't opting in without government intervention to create a national ID that always runs on your phone, on or off. And at that point, might as well just embed it in us at birth. Then you get into the 'scarier' security stuff as well. This technology will help do away with lines and entry-ways. You don't need to swipe your metrocard, just get on the train, the train doors will see your phone and charge you. Just walk into the movie theater and find a seat. Sneak down to better seats at Citi Field? auto-charged for the upgrade. Your car is parked on the street for 4 hours, you get billed for 4 hours. no feeding the meter. But no rushing back to beat the meter maid (and no back to back parking) 4:05 and you get a ticket. Just sit down at a restaurant and order what you want. If you're treating, you can click on your phone and tell it "my treat" and it'll comp any/all at your table. You can even set a given/default tip for your server. Your server can have his account set up to get paid in Amazon points, or JetBlue miles, or simply cash. Or Czech Koruna's if they choose. You know how if you don't have EZ Pass they basically just tell you to drive through and they'll bill you? Well if you sit down at a restaurant and don't have a phone on you, chances are you'll get facial scanned, looked up, and billed anyway.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 06 2016 03:42 AM Re: Wow

Need to scan your app at the entrance. No Ammyzon account, no credit card on file etc etc, no service.

cooby Dec 06 2016 11:07 AM Re: Wow

I went thru the ezpass lane by accident once (basically I just couldn't make it to a cash lane because of traffic) and got billed and fined by mail a month later, along with a picture of me doing it

Ceetar Dec 06 2016 03:51 PM Re: Wow

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Need to scan your app at the entrance. No Ammyzon account, no credit card on file etc etc, no service. sure, but after? can't I just turn it off?

A Boy Named Seo Dec 06 2016 05:48 PM Re: Wow

I would feel like such a shoplifter, just walking around Amazon-Mart putting shit in my bag.

Frayed Knot Dec 06 2016 05:59 PM Re: Wow

Until you saw the bill and all the boutique prices at which point you'd feel like a victim.

Lefty Specialist Dec 06 2016 06:07 PM Re: Wow

Working in the publishing biz, I view Amazon as the devil. I buy nothing from them. Their marketing plan is basically to own everything by driving all their competition out of business.

Ceetar Dec 06 2016 06:26 PM Re: Wow

Lefty Specialist wrote: Working in the publishing biz, I view Amazon as the devil. I buy nothing from them. Their marketing plan is basically to own everything by driving all their competition out of business. Sure, but the other publishing companies marketing plan was to collude to artificially keep prices high so, I'll take Amazon any day.

Lefty Specialist Dec 06 2016 06:58 PM Re: Wow

Tomayto, tomahto. Five publishers (not my company) banded together with Apple to try to prevent Amazon from forcing them to sell to them at prices so low that they couldn't make any money. They lost, and Amazon has us all by the short ones. Companies will always find a way to make money, and fortunately 'real' paper books have had a bit of a resurgence lately, which is glossing over the fact that e-books are a drag on profits. The ones who are getting hurt are authors. Big advances are few, and royalties are getting squeezed.

batmagadanleadoff Dec 06 2016 07:30 PM Re: Wow Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Dec 06 2016 07:44 PM

Lefty Specialist wrote: Working in the publishing biz, I view Amazon as the devil. I buy nothing from them.... I love reading and I love browsing in book stores. The real ones. Mortar and brick. I could easily kill an hour walking into one and looking at the books, the new ones, the ones I've never heard of. I don't need to have a specific book in mind to do this. But I doubt that I've bought more than one book, two tops, from a mortar and brick book store in the last six, seven, eight years combined. The savings from buying from Amazon is too significant to pass up. On new releases, 10-15% less at least and more than occasionally, as much as 50%. And you can get used books in practically brand new condition for as much as 75% or even more off the retail store price. If you don't care that much about the condition of the used book, you can get them for less than the shipping price. ebay is another good source for book shopping, both new and used books. The only book that I can remember buying from a physical store in the last several years was kind of an impulse buy. I simply had to have that book right there and then and I couldn't wait for the few days the mailing process would take. The savings are so enormous that you must really have to believe very strongly in the principle that's driving you to boycott Amazon.

Ceetar Dec 06 2016 07:41 PM Re: Wow

I have yet to be convinced most of the principles against Amazon to be anything but "damn this newfangled technology" And a lot of it's "with that much power they might take advantage of the consumer worse than we were!" People are still making music. movies. writing books. Entertainment and storytelling is at an all-time high for sure. Yes, there's an ebb and flow of the value of everything, books and authors included. 100 years ago reading a book was one of the very few ways to be told a story, now it's a drop in the bucket. All change comes with it's own problems that need to be overcome. Bookstores will mostly fade away or adapt. The one in my town is heavily author-appearance based.

Edgy MD Dec 06 2016 07:49 PM Re: Wow

Ceetar wrote: Entertainment and storytelling is at an all-time high for sure. I'm not sure what criteria you use to get to a conclusion of "for sure," but I certainly disagree.

Lefty Specialist Dec 06 2016 08:52 PM Re: Wow

And this is why there aren't any manufacturing jobs in this country. Sure, everybody wants everything as cheaply as they can get it. That's why Wal-Mart has destroyed downtowns across America. Trump knows he can't bring the jobs back. He's lying and he knows it. People want to get their T-shirts for 3.99. To get that price point you cannot manufacture at a living US wage. Therefore, the t-shirt gets manufactured in Vietnam or Bangladesh. Bully as he may, as long as there's a demand to buy things cheaper, jobs will disappear. Those Carrier jobs he 'saved' will vanish in a few years anyway. But in the meantime, he's set up an extortion racket where companies will demand government money to stay put. They've already been doing it but now it'll be on steroids. And every time a state has to drain its treasury to help fat corporations (United Technologies, Carrier's parent company, earned $7.6 billion in profits in 2015), Trump will be there to take credit. Of course the millions spent won't be spent on schools or roads or other things, but no matter. And yes, I pay more to buy from a book store. Because some things are worth keeping in business.

batmagadanleadoff Dec 06 2016 08:59 PM Re: Wow

Lefty Specialist wrote: Of course the millions spent won't be spent on schools or roads or other things, but no matter. . That's been the GOP game plan pretty much my entire adult life. And to the extent that they make up these shortfalls, it's by raising the taxes of the people that aren't at the top of the socio-economic ladder, which is kinda necessary anyways to offset the GOP tax cuts that benefit the very rich. Because it's not enough, as far as the GOP is concerned, that a tiny infinitesimal fraction of one percent of the population owns more than half of all of the wealth. That tiny group needs to own even more wealth.

TransMonk Dec 06 2016 10:47 PM Re: Wow

Lefty Specialist wrote: And this is why there aren't any manufacturing jobs in this country. Sure, everybody wants everything as cheaply as they can get it. That's why Wal-Mart has destroyed downtowns across America. Trump knows he can't bring the jobs back. He's lying and he knows it. People want to get their T-shirts for 3.99. To get that price point you cannot manufacture at a living US wage. Therefore, the t-shirt gets manufactured in Vietnam or Bangladesh. This is definitely the folly of the Trump vote...and I don't understand why this is so hard to understand.

Edgy MD Dec 06 2016 11:40 PM Re: Wow

Well, I imagine that folks believe a trade war can be won. Raise import tariffs to account equitably for the reality that we have labor and environmental restrictions and our competitors don't, so the thinking goes, and it creates a fairer marketplace, from the right-of-center perspective, or incentivizes labor and environmental standards overseas, from the left-of-center perspective. (There are still Democrats who advocate for a more muscular trade policy.) Now, it's not that simple and there are any number of countermeasures that our trading partners/market competitors could bring into play. But I understand the appeal of that perspective. We're the world's biggest consumer market, and the appeal of bringing that authority to bear is strong. And I imagine, at some level, trade policy can make a difference, if handled deftly and wisely, soberly and realistically. Of course it can. What I find remarkable isn't that folks have elected someone promising to restore US manufacturing power—lots of folks have offered that bill of goods—but that they've elected a hateful, unbalanced, proudly uninformed, absurdly impetuous, plutocrat, spiteful, thin-skinned, Know Nothing, fascist bully. That's where he's different.

batmagadanleadoff Dec 07 2016 12:59 AM Re: Wow

Edgy MD wrote: Well, I imagine that folks believe a trade war can be won. Raise import tariffs to account equitably for the reality that we have labor and environmental restrictions and our competitors don't, so the thinking goes, and it creates a fairer marketplace, from the right-of-center perspective, or incentivizes labor and environmental standards overseas, from the left-of-center perspective. (There are still Democrats who advocate for a more muscular trade policy.) Now, it's not that simple and there are any number of countermeasures that our trading partners/market competitors could bring into play. But I understand the appeal of that perspective. We're the world's biggest consumer market, and the appeal of bringing that authority to bear is strong. And I imagine, at some level, trade policy can make a difference, if handled deftly and wisely, soberly and realistically. Of course it can. What I find remarkable isn't that folks have elected someone promising to restore US manufacturing power—lots of folks have offered that bill of goods—but that they've elected a hateful, unbalanced, proudly uninformed, absurdly impetuous, plutocrat, spiteful, thin-skinned, Know Nothing, fascist bully. That's where he's different. What's remarkable? The majority of people are ignorant, either willfully or by design. They wouldn't be able to understand the first paragraph of your post if you gave them half a lifetime to do so. And the GOP preys and capitalizes on the ignorance of the electorate. I mean ferchrissakes, cash strapped adults who are definitely gonna need medical care voted for the party who's been threatening every single day with every breath they can muster, to dismantle the ACA before it ever saw the light of day. How the fuck does the GOP convince the working class, the people that live paycheck to paycheck that it's the right thing to do to have the wealthiest people and entities in America pay less taxes?

Edgy MD Dec 07 2016 04:14 AM Re: Wow

I said what I find remarkable.