561–570 of 769 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to imagine Amazon actually starting a bunch of retail locations. They'd probably buy Whole Foods or something…
Surprising to me that Whole Foods still doesn't have this tech integrated. You'd think that'd be the "beta" step after the Amazon Store's "alpha" step.
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.
Turns out that math is hard and people are difficult to predict.
The last few times I've gone to my local pharmacy (Rite Aid) I've watched a single cashier operate more than one checkout registers at a time. She did this because it took so long to process payment and print a receipt -- e.g. while she waited for my payment to go through (via credit card) she'd ring up the next customer on another register. She's trying to ring up the most customers per minute possible and using a s…
the first gen kiosks were pretty bad (slow, overly sensitive, no way to go back if you click the wrong thing, etc) but the current ones are solving those issues and have all but eliminated lines in my experience
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Doing something well means you already imagined doing something well first. Or, in other words, "imagining doing something well" is necessary, but not sufficient to actually do something well.
Ie. Good ideas are valuable
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
Execution can bring profit. Ideas might not.
History is full of examples of visionaries coming up with ideas that have inspired and fueled others--in some cases whole industries have been founded on these ideas. For instance, Doug Engelbart gave the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968 [1]. It was a proof of concept, but the ideas he talked about were implemented by other companies--who profited from it.
It is unfortunate that we live in a world where ideas hold such little monetary value, but they're most certainly not worthless.
It it just me or are people massively underestimating this? I feel like the impact of this will be close to the self driving car in terms of a vast rollout of massive new automation. I've been to Amazon Go a few times, the small one in NYC, and the selection is underwhelming but the walk out experience is amazing. And since then I've fantasized about just walking out pretty much every time I'm in a grocery store. The…
indeed when i think back to how the self driving car revolutionized.. oh wait what year is it?
But these stores exist today and make traditional cashiers obsolete in no uncertain terms, potentially across the entire brick and mortar retail industry, and the response is "eh, there's already self checkout lanes".
It really feel to me like one of those moments where people shrug off the iphone when it first launches.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Doing something well means you already imagined doing something well first. Or, in other words, "imagining doing something well" is necessary, but not sufficient to actually do something well.
To me, that's part of the reason why thought pieces are valuable to me. Also, unconventional tracks at academic conferences, like provocations at DIS 2020 [1] (which I cite here since it's on my mind because I'm personally applying to it right now).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The closest I have to this today is the grocery store nearest me - I walk in, I pick up a scanner (you can use an app on your phone but I use their scanner because my phone locks immediately with a passphrase when unused so it's ghastly for this purpose) and I just wander about scanning items and putting them into bags. The scanner shows its estimate of the price paid, which in my experience is always 100% accurate b…
We used to have that in some of our supermarkets years ago, but they've all disappeared over the years. It's all a mix of self-help checkouts/human checkouts now. Not sure why.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do it at Apple, but afaik Apples system is based mostly on trust? You just scan and pay with your device, then walk out. Granted, I haven’t tried to steal so there could be more tech than I realize.
I know someone who worked at an apple store a few years ago and they told me that they really had no way to know and lots of products were stolen.