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How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

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Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#31

Post by smudgymcscmudge »

Eridrus wrote: post #15

This is basically a fancy vending machine, so I'm not really clear on why this got funded, but on the other hand vending machines are a thing. They don't actually seem to be trying to displacement bodegas from the get go, but rather putting their machines in upscale places like lobbies and gyms, but I'm still a bit confused by this whole thing, is the premise that these places are more likely to accept a pretty vendi…

This article is the first and only thing I’ve read about Bodega, and I the same thought as you.

You can do ok running vending machines, but it isn’t any kind of disruptive business. I wonder what kind of spin they put on Bodega to sell it to investors.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#33

Post by ilamont »

If the startup were called "Vendoogle" or "Quikbox" I don't think there would be so much outrage.

Local mom & pop stores have been under assault by all kinds of well-funded rivals for decades, including CVS, Target Mini-Stores, gas station franchises, and bottling companies working with vending machine distributors. Nevertheless, the little corner stores still keep ticking in many areas thanks to goods and services not offered by these bigger competitors, including specialty food, extended hours, and money transfer services.

However, if Target were to rebrand their mini-stores as "Red Bodegas" or something similar there would be similar outrage. It's one thing to compete, it's another thing to play dirty by usurping the little guy's brand or throwing your weight around too much in a very obvious or threatening way.

If I were McDonald and Rajan, I would use this opportunity to rebrand to something more acceptable, offer a mea culpa, and maybe even figure out some way to work with real bodegas and local stores (shared distribution for certain items to lower costs? Machine learning for real bodegas' inventory? "Local" goods? Spillover sales?)

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#34

Post by 0x27081990 »

There’s a lot of hate and resentment in that article. Sure, maybe Bodega isn’t the brightest startup. But who cares? If it’s a bad idea, nature/market will make it go away.

If bodegas/corner stores whatever are worth it, people will continue to buy from there and Bodega nor any other “shiny” startup will stand a chance against them.

My guess is she doesn’t believe in freemarket and thinks that someone can simply kill corner stores by throwing money at a startup.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#35

Post by TeMPOraL »

Seriously, out of all the problems this start-up represents, the author chose to focus on cultural appropriation? Now the article did touch on other things as well, but the central point leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The author seems disconnected from reality, too. Want to talk about the real problem? Start with how such companies will affect the unskilled labour market.

Also: people publishing these articles are - like always - fast to write about how the tech culture is perceived, but also stubbornly refuse to take the responsibility for the fact that they're who create that perception in the first place. Juicero and Bodega are one but thousands of startups in SV. Yet they define the tech culture through them... because writing about those gives them most outrage-driven clicks, in a self-reinforcing loop of caricature.

I defer to SSC for the much saner critique of SV: http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/11/silicon-valley-a-realit...

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#36

Post by kmonad »

Not many people here seem to have read the article, or read so quickly to misinterpret it. This is not a rant about 'appropriation' or naming choices - that's only one of the facets of ignorance by the founders discussed in the piece. More importantly, the author makes their case that some ideas, in particular that of a vending machine, are so disconnected from the daily lives of what the author might call 'normal people' that it's offensive to dump significant money into them (or wasted on them, I suppose). That latter part is, I believe, the real offending bit.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#37

Post by wink »

rjsw wrote: post #10
wink wrote: post #6

When reading about things like this I'm always wondering if I'm the odd one out or others' perceptions are really off. Background: I live in Munich, Germany which grew from ~1.3m to 1.5m people in my lifetime. I've never lived in the city center, and never outside. Just in "normal" neighborhoods, as I'd call them. And the same discussion about "brick and mortar book stores" and their downfall and people lamenting the…

Germany is different. Corner shops elsewhere can be open longer hours.

It depends on the "Bundesland"/state. Yes, there are exceptions but these are usually only disguises call shops who have some alcohol, cigarettes, newspapers, and maybe toast and some basic food.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#38

Post by falsedan »

gcatalfamo wrote: post #19

I don't want to always sound critic of the USA, but if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care. You would get awful reviews if you weren't doing a good job of it, but aside from that, why would anyone really be offended? If you guys were coherent, places like Olive Garden should never exist. And I am not even starting on how much of…

> if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care

I bet many people would care, but they would not persistently & vocally voice their discomfort for fear of retribution/confrontation.

> how should we Italians feel about being always portrayed as "pizza, mafia, gobbledygook mamma mia"?

In popular media? Complain to the broadcaster/studio/publisher, support organisations like the Italic Institute of America to do this on your behalf.

Why should you do that? Because you think that the stereotypes unfairly prejudice Italians who may be denied opportunities in those countries.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#39

Post by TeMPOraL »

S_A_P wrote: post #30
gcatalfamo wrote: post #19

I don't want to always sound critic of the USA, but if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care. You would get awful reviews if you weren't doing a good job of it, but aside from that, why would anyone really be offended? If you guys were coherent, places like Olive Garden should never exist. And I am not even starting on how much of…

Rightly or wrongly, there are people here in the US that make it a hobby to become offended and make a big deal of how offensive it is. Obviously it would do everyone some good to use discernment with their actions, but everyone should also not try to look for how you can spin something that was probably tongue in cheek into something offensive. Is bodega a great idea? Probably not, but I don't know what the entire o…

The problem is, unfortunately, becoming a world-wide phenomenon, because the entire media industry runs on generating outrage to capture the audience.

Re: How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

#40

Post by gcatalfamo »

S_A_P wrote: post #30
gcatalfamo wrote: post #19

I don't want to always sound critic of the USA, but if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care. You would get awful reviews if you weren't doing a good job of it, but aside from that, why would anyone really be offended? If you guys were coherent, places like Olive Garden should never exist. And I am not even starting on how much of…

Rightly or wrongly, there are people here in the US that make it a hobby to become offended and make a big deal of how offensive it is. Obviously it would do everyone some good to use discernment with their actions, but everyone should also not try to look for how you can spin something that was probably tongue in cheek into something offensive. Is bodega a great idea? Probably not, but I don't know what the entire o…

That's my point. Critics of their business model do sound valid, but people that are shocked about so-called "cultural appropriation" should, trying to be polite here, see more of our wonderful planet and really understand cultures, which are very, very, very different from the cultures you believe to witness when changing neighborhood in your town.
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