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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#531

Post by derefr »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #399
larzang wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you just bought a toilet seat, surely you want five more toilet seats, you toilet seat enthusiast you.

I've always assumed that was an artifact of free returns; if you bought one thing, maybe you're actually still shopping and want to know other options. I've noticed when I get these they're frequently more expensive than the one I already bought.

I've always assumed it was repairmen. Some people really do need to buy toilet seats again, and again, and again, each time they do a job that requires replacing one (without ever needing a bulk order of 100.) They also might switch brands depending on whichever one is cheapest at the time; or order several different ones for different concurrent jobs to see which turns out best (like Backblaze does with hard drives.)

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#532

Post by smeyer »

kryogen1c wrote: post #299
boublepop wrote: post #246

Aaaand there’s the play. Amazon wasn’t trying to compete with other retails stores by leveraging their tech edge, they were positioning themselves to becoming the single provider of retail checkout solutions for the future. You either opt-in to giving Amazon all your retail data, or you become the only old fashioned “wait in line to get served” store on the street. And where is the competition? Is there anyone at all…

Fear not! Yesterday I shopped at a big box grocery store where all I did was scan my cart with my phone, pay with the attached card, and walk out the door.

What brand grocery store was that?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#533

Post by danShumway »

mikem170 wrote: post #521
filoleg wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even need to be a special app, it could just be another Apple Wallet/Android Wallet card. If you tried the Amazon Go app, it is literally just an app that displays a QR code that you use to scan when entering the store. That's literally it, no notifications, no other extra functionality, nothing. As soon as Apple Wallet/Android Wallet integrate it, it will become even more seamless. A good example for peop…

A QR code can be displayed as a saved image. The Amazon Go app on Android requires the following permissions: Identity find accounts on the device add or remove accounts Contacts find accounts on the device Location approximate location (network-based) precise location (GPS and network-based) Wi-Fi connection information view Wi-Fi connections Other receive data from Internet view network connections create accounts…

I notice it's also labeled as displaying ads. And this is Amazon's debut offering. It's not going to get better from here as they get more adoption. I do not want this app on my phone.

Everything I know about about the mobile ecosystem tells me that if an app/card/integration is required for an unrelated service, it's going to go downhill over time. Everything I know about Amazon means that they are definitely going to eventually be advertising to me and pushing notifications and 'reminders' and whatever -- because they already do with the online store.

Even the charging example getting brought up as proof of this working: I can't imagine signing up for a special credit card that was required to fill up my car at a gas station. That's not innovative. The current system is I can use any credit card, or cash, or (increasingly) mobile pay at any gas station without any account with no decrease in quality of service. And with the current system, someone else can borrow my car without also needing to borrow my credit card or phone.

I'll stick my neck out and predict that over the next 3-5 years, ChargePoint's app and web interface are going to get progressively worse, and progressively more invasive. This is based purely on the knowledge that they require an online account and special credit card just to refill a car. I don't think there's any reason to have that business model other than a plan to eventually leverage the card/account in invasive ways.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#534

Post by sequoia »

filoleg wrote: post #440
sequoia wrote: post #388

I won't do it. Because 1. I value what's left of my privacy more than saving a minute of human interaction here and there (are you really that busy? I'm not and I have 4 kids) 2. I won't contribute to twisting the arms of my local retailers and forcing them into amazon's yoke. In short: to hell with this. Edit: yoke

Famous last words, as I predict this going just as well as people in 2020 who use cash-only everywhere or, more extreme example, people not using any kind of cell phone just to avoid tracking by carriers. When you decide to make it really difficult for the world to engage with you, the world will make sure to make it just as difficult for you to engage with the world as well.

To some extent I already do this. I deleted Facebook and twitter and have an inactive instagram I don’t check. Yes I am making it more difficult to “engage with” me by some standards. I do have email, cell, and text message and you can find my contact by googling me so it’s not like I’m actually hard to contact, but yes it is a hurdle some people won’t jump.

But you know what? I’m fine, and I feel a lot better without inviting the behavior manipulation and stress of keeping up with these social platforms.

You don’t have to be an RMS style purist to set boundaries. It’s just a matter of privacy/liberty vs convenience tradeoffs and what you’re comfortable with.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#535

Post by skierguy »

beloch wrote: post #514
mherdeg wrote: post #234

This is just an observation that doesn't contribute meaningfully to discussion, but ... Twenty years ago this web site would 100% have looked like an April Fool's joke. Don't know what to make of that. Maybe it's that although retail feels almost exactly the same as it always has, under the hood lots of parts have really been moving, and I just haven't noticed? The parallel observation is that when Gmail was announce…

IBM viewed this tech seriously enough to be marketing it to the public in 2006. It wasn't a "Hey, we're making this." ad but more of an, "We're cool because we're working on this, sorta maybe." ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzFhBGKU6HA 14 years later, it's still vaporware. There are a lot of fairly tough problems that need to be solved to make it work. Today, Amazon is probably better positioned to sucker/bully…

I was with you until that last line. Maybe it's because I never saw IBM in its prime or because I only happen to hear about IBM when there's a ton of media spin on a product that never shows up as anything more than a gimmick (IBM has 5nm chips in 2017!!! Look at Watson!). I just don't find laughing at IBM to be that far-fetched of a concept.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#536

Post by derefr »

lazersharkman wrote: post #434
WalterBright wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and marrying that to what Amazon already knows about you. Amazon is always putting up ads for me based on my purchase history, but they're never what I wind up buying. I have no explanation for what is wrong with their algorithm.

The worst was when I searched for gorilla glue once. Good ol' Jeffy B thought I'd also want a $100k watch, a racecar/nascar (themed) Bible, and an anatomical model of some gonads. Pretty sure I still have the screencap somewhere

Sometimes you can learn a domain-specific life-hack from that kind of thing. I'm guessing, for this example, that gorilla glue is the secret weapon of taxidermy—for all your mounting-a-deer-to-the-wall needs.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#537

Post by jp555 »

tmilard wrote: post #478
arcadeparade wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of this old IBM ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzFhBGKU6HA

Yes, IBM "thinks" the future. Other companies build them. Conclusion : ideas are worthless, Execution is key

And in what universe is great execution devoid of ideas?

Do you mean to say that doing something well is way better than imagining doing something well?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#539

Post by smeyer »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #235
bradlys wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - actually, it does happen often enough... I'd say it's much higher. I know a lot of HN is full of people who don't pay attention to prices (for whatever reason - probably the inordinate amount of obscenely high incomes) - but it's really common outside of this crowd. When I was poor - I thoroughly examined prices and only bought things that were on sale. If it rang up and wasn't the price that it said it was -…

If it rings up for $12 when it's labeled as $10, you can usually get it for $10 if you tell someone it rang up wrong.

In MA it's even better: if a grocery store item was labeled as $10 and rang up as $12, you'd just pay $2. The rule is that the item is free if it's less than $10 and $10 off if it's more than $10 (although this only applies to one item; you can't just go grab 20 of them).

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#540

Post by radicalriddler »

tzs wrote: post #320
chipperyman573 wrote: post #296

This post looked kind of weird to me so I looked up the whois, it's registered to godaddy. Which is odd because it is not the same registrar as amazon.com or aws, and aws operates a domain registration service so I can't imagine a real amazon service would use godaddy. Combined with the fact that there's no concrete plans set in place, it seems really fake.

If someone else had registered the name at GoDaddy before Amazon wanted it (it was registered in 2013), and then Amazon bought it from them, would Amazon transfer it to their normal registrar right away or let it stay where it is until it is time to renew?

I doubt Amazon would care about transfer fees, but having used Godaddy, they would've been hard to play with.
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