Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Go

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 1001 posts

Re: Amazon Go

#641

Post by TeMPOraL »

odbol_ wrote: post #504
delegate wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think you're right and that's why I think this is bad. Economically it makes more sense to buy cheaper and faster. But this eats into the fabric of society and offers nothing in exchange. And what are all these people supposed to do then ? Sleep all day ? They will fight back with their votes at first, which they are already doing in the US and Europe.. Then there's the centralisation, control and privacy part…

How about those people go teach their local kids about science? Or volunteer to take care of the homeless or the elderly? That seems like it would benefit society much more than talking to a few bored people in a checkout line.

Except they won't, because nobody will pay for that. It's easy to find an alternative occupation - it's much more difficult to propose one that's reachable when you consider the starting point and economic reality (living costs money; retraining costs money; people low on the ladder usually don't have cash to burn).

Re: Amazon Go

#642

Post by leereeves »

CrLf wrote: post #500
Ph0X wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point isn't that we save 2 minutes, it's that there's now 10 less job we need. And that may seem as a negative at first, but the idea is that as more and more job get automated, prices should go down until the point where people will not have to work full weeks anymore, or rather, focus on learning and reaching higher education, rather than doing dummy work all day (aka just scanning items non stop for 8 hours).

The Earth's population isn't getting any lower, those 10 jobs lost mean 10 people that will need support from the rest of society, just to survive. It's utopian to think job losses mean everybody gets their workload reduced, as this has never happened before. Automation has never reduced anybody's workloads. In fact, every reduction has happened to either eliminate de-facto slaves (industrial revolution) or because e…

Workloads have been reduced before.

The 40 hour workweek is significantly shorter than the 6 12 hour work days people used to endure.

Why not reduce the workweek again, to say, 32 hours?

Re: Amazon Go

#644

Post by rewrew »

A bunch of grocery stores here on the West Coast are replacing their self checkout lines and going back to checkers. They're saying that it's to "improve the customer experience" but people in the industry know (due to tests done by other retailers who bypassed the technology once they tested it, like Costco), its because of product loss/shoplifting. I know it's not apples and oranges but I do think that the loss margin is going to be so high on this that only Amazon will be able to eat this -- and I think they know this.

Re: Amazon Go

#645

Post by uw_rob »

anonbanker wrote: post #308
justusthane wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because increasing food waste is a great way to express your displeasure at Wal-Mart?

Making Wal-mart a party to food waste is a great way to harm the corporation. Any animal rights activist will agree that a cow or pig dying for schadenfreude is only marginally worse than a cow or pig dying to feed someone.

Wal-mart doesn't care about waste - I doubt any big corporations do. What Wal-mart does is just pass along that cost to every other customer, and in the end that is the only person you are hurting.

Re: Amazon Go

#647

Post by pasbesoin »

crazypyro wrote: post #429
delegate wrote: post #387

Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…

Trying to save jobs that are no longer the most efficient way of solving a problem is not the way to promote the value of humanity, in my opinion. People want groceries as cheap and fast as possible. They don't go to the grocery store for social interaction and forcing the majority of people to pay extra for something that only the minority get value out of is not a competitive strategy. If humanity were to take your…

I, too, enjoy many of my social interactions while shopping.

I think that, per the grandparent, current initiatives are not grasping nor addressing the entire scope of the existing... "paradigm" -- sigh, to try to find a word for it.

To reduce it severely but pertinently, in the news recently, "studies show" that people who feel valued and that they have a roll in society, family -- in life -- they live longer.

And what happens when we stop interacting with each other? When that daily communication between work domains and social classes ends? Again, reduction to the almost absurd -- but we're living it -- we get President Trump.

Trump may end up doing ok -- we'll see. But the shock on many maybe liberal, Amazon Prime shopping upper middle class faces? Try actually talking to, with, and not at, the people around you, serving you.

When people stop to think about it, I think most find value in the people around them, much more than the things.

Not all value is encompassed in the fastest delivery for the cheapest price. (Which Amazon seems to be increasingly falling down on, anyway, per my recent experiences.)

Re: Amazon Go

#649

Post by chongli »

ceedan wrote: post #630
chongli wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, please don't ever forget this: the people who work at your grocery store are nice because they would be fired if they were rude to you. You may think they are your friends but they really aren't. They would not be there if they weren't getting paid for it.

"They would not be there if they weren't getting paid for it." That's not true. There are nice people in the world.

I know what volunteering is: I do it myself. Every week I spend several hours helping kids with their homework at a local school. This is not at all the same thing as spending 8 hours a day working a cash register, dealing with rude customers without being rude in return, being expected to cover coworkers' shifts when they're sick, working during holiday hours instead of spending time with family, etc. etc. etc.
Post reply on HN