Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free • Hacker News Board

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#421

Post by megous » Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 12:06 PM UTC

msh wrote: post #211

megous wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe to you, but until online shopping will be realizable via user chosen User Agent (like e-mail, etc.) via open API, online shopping will continue to suck horribly for anything but single items. Shopping for groceries online is complete hell, for one. There are queues online too. They are just at the delivery side, not at the checkout side.

I often shop for groceries online in these corona times, for a family of 5. I usually use nemlig.com (a danish online super market) and I dont have any issues with the UX. Its easier than searching for things in the physical supermarket. On delivery its not really a queue as I dont have to spend my time doing it.

Nemlig looks clean and good, with the category sidebar that mostly will not slide away, and as you type search, that's actually useful, and product list that's immediately in your face. Great! :) And this is exactly why I'd love the open API. To be able for people to make a client like this or better, and just use it everywhere.

Here we have to suffer through websites like this:

https://www.rohlik.cz/c300102000-ovoce-a-zelenina

where you open a category, then you see a whole screen useless stock image for a category, then you scroll down through a bloated list of subcategories, then there's half a screen of recipes, and then quarter screen of filters, and then finally you get to a algorithmically selected grouped product lists.

And you have to scroll through this every time you change a category, which is also a hassle, because of all the huge multi-column popups and annoying category images everywhere and the constant scrolling you have to do to get to the subcategories from the product list.

Other websites are not that great either, due to this being the first mover in our market. So they copycat it: https://www.kosik.cz/maso-drubez-a-ryby

It takes more time to select all I want online, with this interface, than a bus trip to a shop and back + typical 15 minutes in the shop for a moderate grocery shopping session.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#422

Post by the-dude » Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

plumeria wrote: post #319

the-dude wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to shop daily when I was poor.

Shopping daily does not implies being poor, I'd argue its mostly cultural, for example, many Japanese prefer to buy daily and keep low stocks on their pantries.

If you are poor, by definition you have low or no stocks.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#423

Post by ciceryadam » Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

etiam wrote: post #300

slt2021 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are prepaid visa/mc cards which can give you anonymity while still using card. accepting cash, means a store has to be staffed with people and it makes it more expensive to run business=>higher prices for products

> there are prepaid visa/mc cards which can give you anonymity while still using card. There kind of isn't, at least in Sweden. The option that does exist is a seedy borderline scam with exorbitant overhead and hidden usury fees, which will effectively confiscate your remaining money a few months in. Also, in stark contrast to real cash, it still results in a log of all the transactions and ties them up to one weakly…

>There kind of isn't, at least in Sweden. The option that does exist is a seedy borderline scam with exorbitant overhead and hidden usury fees, which will effectively confiscate your remaining money a few months in.

You can have a non-swedish Revolut/N26/Bunq/Curve account, and use that card instead, that way you are not directly linked to your cashless purchases.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#424

Post by Mauricebranagh » Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

bkor wrote: post #174

Mauricebranagh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just install an ATM in the pharmacy or don't Spanish banks allow their atms's to access other banks? Having a mobile bank that drives around is another solution.

> Why not just install an ATM in the pharmacy In Netherlands we used to have ATMs in loads of places. Stores had semi-moveable ones. That stopped due to criminals blowing regular ATMs up. The explosives sometimes took out entire walls and made the entire building unsafe. Most stores removed those semi-moveable ATMs. Similarly, loads of regular ATMs were removed, especially ATMs close to a house. As Netherlands tried…

I suspect the Spanish Police would be less gentle here :-)

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#425

Post by adamcstephens » Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

elindbe3 wrote: post #388

adamcstephens wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that our fellow citizens deserve dignity of work and an ability to feed themselves. This is but one example of automation displacing workers, but there are plenty of other examples that also include non automation related job eliminations.

So you're arguing the first one, never implement technology to save labor because people deserve the dignity of work. How far should we take this? Should we burn the tractors? We could create lots of new jobs for agricultural laborers. Or perhaps the government, instead of handing out welfare, could pay people to dig holes and fill them in again.

As above, you use a straw man argument. I said nothing of the sort, and your jumping to that conclusion is rude.

You’re welcome to ignore the questions I raise, but hungry people won’t give a shit about your philosophy when they upend the systems that have abandoned them.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#426

Post by zurn » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

_flux wrote: post #419

zurn wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That percentage is of "consumers", might not include the entire population.

Hmm, so who might be excluded?

That linked survey didn't include their definition. But young children are one big group that comes to mind.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#427

Post by dsco » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 10:17 AM UTC

gerikson wrote: post #269

dsco wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try starting a Blockchain company and they will violently fight you until they’ve (the big banks) have shut down your access.

As a Swede, I'm glad this is the case.

So give me the bull case where there’s a regulatory gray zone and institutions who really don’t understand technology get to decide how it should be operated. I’ve been in contact with Finansinspektionen on multiple occasions and there’s a pretty low understanding of technology in general. Another detrimental aspect is that there’s very little competition to the regular banking system because of this.

So since HN is a place primarily for technologists who like to push things forward, maybe you have a stronger argument than just saying that you’re a Swede?

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#428

Post by kebman » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

Thlom wrote: post #173

kebman wrote: post #117

I remember visiting a fully automated store already in the 90's in Tromsø, Norway. It was like an extended vendoring machine. It was quite fun watching the robot hand go up and down based on your order. I believe such stores were already common in Japan at the time. The shop didn't make it, though, and was discontinued after a year or two. Today automated checkouts are popping up in more and more shops in Norway, tho…

In the Coop stores (at least Coop Obs) you can use both the coop app and one of the handheld scanners to scan products while you pick them. Then you scan the device or your app in the checkout to pay.

Nice! I didn't know that. Thank you!