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Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

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Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#31

Post by ergot_vacation »

nkrisc wrote: post #13

Everyone here who’s worked for some moderately large corporation knows exactly why this was done: it’s a flashy pet project for some “labs” team in an otherwise boring retailer and maybe they’ll recoup some of the cost in ads, minus whatever they lose for it being an awful idea. Some charismatic product manager sold it to execs as “being the future of connected retail” or some other BS. In a few months they’ll be rem…

As a rough estimate, what percent of US economic activity is large piles of money being tossed into a flaming dumpster for the sake of someone's ego? Because every year it seems higher.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#32

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

nkrisc wrote: post #13

Everyone here who’s worked for some moderately large corporation knows exactly why this was done: it’s a flashy pet project for some “labs” team in an otherwise boring retailer and maybe they’ll recoup some of the cost in ads, minus whatever they lose for it being an awful idea. Some charismatic product manager sold it to execs as “being the future of connected retail” or some other BS. In a few months they’ll be rem…

Doesn't every new innovation (produced by a corporation), good or bad, generally come from the experimental arm of said corporation (e.g, R&D division)? You have teams dedicating to maintaining the core business, and you have teams exploring areas along the fringe of your TAM.

HN's comments following Bitcoin's launch have made me acutely aware of how hostile we can be towards new ideas.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#33

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

lamp_book wrote: post #5

A boring dystopia indeed. One day someone will be hunched over on a sidewalk, dying of thirst, and a patrolling Nestle®-branded drone senses (using state-of-the-art machine learning "customer needs" technology) his predicament. The drone hovers there projecting a holo-ad about Nestles hot product "Nectar of Life" which is just water from the region's last remaining aquifer cut with brackish water from the coast. The…

Misplaced ad spend, he’s not the target market. Needs more ML to tune the model, which it’ll get by A/B testing further destitute cohorts.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#35

Post by ergot_vacation »

armchairhacker wrote: post #11

Seriously though, how does someone even come up with something this dumb? How does one go about thinking of and actually implementing this? How did the development process go through without someone interjecting "why the fuck are we spending $1000s on 6ft LEDs when we can just use glass?"

Most people are incredibly dumb. This includes the rich and powerful; most of them just happened to be lucky enough to be born in the right place, at the right time.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#36

Post by wyldfire »

foxfired wrote: post #26

I do not blame cooler screen for selling this technology to anyone. But I want everyone to consider how much it takes to bring about a technology like this to a grocery store. If this is any of the big chain groceries, the manager doesn't even have the authority to put a sticker on the glass door. This was vetted by hundreds of people and none of them thought... glass? Business class tickets were purchased, hotels we…

> Still no one thought... glass?

I'm sure it came up. Customer experience vs revenue for in-store billboards. Ad revenue won.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#37

Post by pfdietz »

pydry wrote: post #27
armchairhacker wrote: post #11

Seriously though, how does someone even come up with something this dumb? How does one go about thinking of and actually implementing this? How did the development process go through without someone interjecting "why the fuck are we spending $1000s on 6ft LEDs when we can just use glass?"

I would imagine this is the kind of thing you'd commission if your job title was, say, chief innovation officer at a soft drinks company. What else would you do?

Try yet again to make talking vending machines?

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#39

Post by tantalor »

foxfired wrote: post #26

I do not blame cooler screen for selling this technology to anyone. But I want everyone to consider how much it takes to bring about a technology like this to a grocery store. If this is any of the big chain groceries, the manager doesn't even have the authority to put a sticker on the glass door. This was vetted by hundreds of people and none of them thought... glass? Business class tickets were purchased, hotels we…

> will be replaced with an ad

I'm not sure what that means. These already are ads. They are directly advertising the products literally inside the case.

Re: Sorry, we replaced that old technology, “see-through glass”

#40

Post by the-pigeon »

wyldfire wrote: post #36
foxfired wrote: post #26

I do not blame cooler screen for selling this technology to anyone. But I want everyone to consider how much it takes to bring about a technology like this to a grocery store. If this is any of the big chain groceries, the manager doesn't even have the authority to put a sticker on the glass door. This was vetted by hundreds of people and none of them thought... glass? Business class tickets were purchased, hotels we…

> Still no one thought... glass? I'm sure it came up. Customer experience vs revenue for in-store billboards. Ad revenue won.

Yes. People see something dumb and decide the designers and business people involved are idiots. But often the business people and designers have very different goals and know that it's dumb. But they don't think it being dumb conflicts with their goals.
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