71–80 of 397 posts
Another student said: "You mean, a radio?"
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.
In addition to ads, this will also be used for companies to monopolize shelf space
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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.
Your last point confuses me. Bitcoin has made some people richer, some people poorer, but it has not made the world a better place, nor found much use as a currency, and there’s still not a convincing case for blockchain as an important algorithmic invention.
In between the two times this image was circulated, I visited a store and watched as a pair of people opened a glass door, held a long conversation, the closed that now totally frosted/condensed door which was now impossible to see anything through.
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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.
Ironic that Bitcoin is your example here, as it definitely did not originate in the experimental arm of a corporation.
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I think I would go to another store due to this. I think that non-HN type people like my dad or my mom would probably go to another store due to this. Not being able to see what's behind the glass makes it take longer to shop. People abandon webpages that don't load quickly enough - why wouldn't they abandon stores where you have to open each door on an aisle of refrigerators just to see what's available?
The door clearly shows what's on offer.
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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?
I recently bought something with self-checkout at an appliance store, so not groceries. Grabbed a thing of a shelf, scanned it at a touch screen terminal, payed for it with my contactless payment ring and just walked out. No human contact whatsoever. If that isn't future then I don't know what it.
Its pretty stupid with sports drinks, but I could see this being perhaps practical in a frozen food aisle. I often open the freezer, take out a product to read its nutritional facts, then put it back. I guess now I could just tap?