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Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#371

Post by nebula8804 »

khuey wrote: post #337
nebula8804 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the time they made towns all around the US do a dog and pony show to attract "HQ2" and then just located it where Bezos wanted to be all along. I remember AOC getting it right all along, she did the most milktoast of pushback in her district and it caused Amazon to huff and puff and just walk away(causing many property speculators to lose out). She got raked over the coals but a few years later and the…

> milktoast fyi since you may not have ever seen it spelled before it's milquetoast

I often make spelling and grammatical errors due to my declining typing ability. At least at this time that can help prove that I am not a bot for the time being (I think?)

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#372

Post by sparkler123 »

The Amazon Fresh in North Seattle had Just Walk Out. Initially you had to "scan in" and "scan out" and then they eventually removed the "scan out" (or scan in? can't remember). From a shopper's perspective, it was pretty good, and I was hopeful they'd figure out the tech. One time they overcharged me for a paper bag and there was no way to dispute it. It was only $0.08, but really rubbed me the wrong way. I know I got a fair bit of stuff for free as they seemed to err on the side of not charging vs. charging if they weren't able to figure it out, though.

I actually did find it saved me time. I would go in, grab a couple things, and leave, and it was actually a good experience to do that. I never did full grocery store runs there, though.

The aisles were always packed with workers picking/packing orders, which was frustrating to deal with.

One thing that was bad about it was that produce was all fixed price. At a normal store you pay per pound for an onion, but there every onion was $1 (or whatever the price was). Giant onion, tiny onion, all the same price. The produce got picked over in weird ways because of that.

Then one day they said, "okay, Just Walk Out is gone, it's just a normal grocery store now." Then it just became just a mediocre grocery store. There were definitely periods where aisles could be nearly empty, but lately it's been okay. Prices were great, though -- by far the cheapest in the area.

Their hot bar was extremely mediocre. I like the Whole Foods one, but theirs was just... not good. Half the time they didn't even have it stocked with food.

They had a little stand up front where kids could get a free piece of fruit, which mine liked.

It also had convenient returns for Amazon purchases, which was about half of what I went there for.

It was a convenient place for me, and I like it better than Safeway, but I can't say I'm too heartbroken that it's going away. QFC/Sprouts/Town&Country/Safeway are a few minutes in any direction, but they're more expensive. I doubt they'll turn this one into a Whole Foods either.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#373

Post by gamblor956 »

pasttense01 wrote: post #323
gamblor956 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon did not destroy diapers.com. Diapers.com aka Quidsi was already operating at a loss when it was acquired by Amazon. It's whole business model was using VC-funding to offer products below sustainable costs with the goal of eventually jacking up prices once they drove out smaller/local competitors. Amazon used its own business model against it by dropping prices even lower, knowing that the VC investors couldn't…

Walmart bought out jet.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet.com

5 years after it passed up on buying Quidsi, and after it's first disastrous e-commerce attempt...

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#374

Post by gamblor956 »

ipaddr wrote: post #363
gamblor956 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no listing. The story is made up. While the general premise is true (big company will try to rip off small company), Amazon doesn't have the magical power to get around patent law and the economic penalties are fairly harsh, which is why most companies don't do it. And no war chest of tech patents is going to get Amazon around a patent in the trucking industry because the inventor of the trucking gizmo couldn…

Tell that to a judge after 15 years millions of dollars and an out of date product.

It seems a lot of people on HN fundamentally misunderstand how patent litigation works.

If this trucking device actually existed, and for some reason was being sold on Amazon, and the inventor had sued, he would be living large these days off the settlement.

Yes, Amazon sellers have copied products before, but those aren't Amazon. Amazon prefers to just buy the competition (see, e.g., Diapers.com and Zappos).

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#376

Post by gamblor956 »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #314
gamblor956 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no listing. The story is made up. While the general premise is true (big company will try to rip off small company), Amazon doesn't have the magical power to get around patent law and the economic penalties are fairly harsh, which is why most companies don't do it. And no war chest of tech patents is going to get Amazon around a patent in the trucking industry because the inventor of the trucking gizmo couldn…

Amazon currently sells fake fuses that have probably already killed people. Amazon cares just slightly more about breaking the law then they about killing people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU

That's because criminal prosecution and product tort liability are not meaningful deterrents.

Patent litigation is a different thing entirely. The burden of proof is lower, and the payouts are higher.

To put things in perspective, Apple, Amazon, etc., have lost patent lawsuits worth hundreds of millions over trivial aspects of their devices that are just tiny parts out of thousands compromising the phone/tablet/whatever.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#377

Post by shermantanktop »

awkward wrote: post #181
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment completely misunderstands why NYC (and the core of most major cities) is not impressed by a supermarket. Wegmans is popular because Wegmansnis good. But if you have a local baker, a local grocer, a local deli, and a small grocery store within the same block, all within walking distance of your apartment, you don’t need to deal with the hassles of finding stuff within a massive supermarket. You get the hi…

You aren't renting walking distance to a butcher baker and candlestick maker for less than $3K for a studio. That's an aspirational lifestyle for a few neighborhoods.

A family member lucked into a studio in Brooklyn for 1500.

A rent-stabilized studio from a slumlord who is regularly fined for violations, on the ground floor of an interior shaft, right inside the exterior door where people come and go all hours.

But she’s very happy about it and her friends are jealous.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#378

Post by pixl97 »

silisili wrote: post #326
pixl97 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Walmart isn't a budget grocery store, The answer to this is complex, it has any number of products that are cheaper than products of similar quality from any other store. Places like Safeway/Aldi typically beat on price on very generic items that may or may not have similar quality. The biggest thing to watch for at Walmart is price discrimination dependent on location. Back in the days I used to shop with them (rea…

I found Lowes (hardware) to be one of the worst about this. I lived in an area with 4 Lowes, and never shopped at my local one because of how much more expensive everything was, and never clearance. I'm not talking a couple dollars, in some cases 4x the price of one just 15 minutes away.

In the days before places started requiring ID for returns an acquaintance of mine would pick up rifle scopes at one Walmart and return them at another Walmart on a route he took. Only once every few weeks to give employees time to rotate out. He could pay for a few days of gas with that arbitrage.

Re: Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

#379

Post by dpkirchner »

warkdarrior wrote: post #338
direwolf20 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the one where you flagged down a car on the street, but you could always call to book a taxi and those companies worked exactly like Uber — over the phone, because it was the pre–app era.

Uber also gives you a price upfront, and that is the most you will pay (+ tip, if you feel like it). I don't remember pre-mobile phone taxi system that gave you a price upfront. They used to list the price per mile, and then it was up to you to figure out the distance and make sure the driver took a reasonably short route. So no, the old taxi companies did NOT work "exactly like" Uber.

Also, Uber drivers tend to show up. It was always a crapshoot with regular cab drivers. I don't have experience with other car services, maybe they were better pre-Uber.
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