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Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

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Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#741

Post by aswegs8 »

crazygringo wrote: post #210
swatcoder wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always want to see a page with the product details and price before I click "buy". Reducing the number of clicks is not going to make me change my decision. This is compounded by the multi-headed monster that large orgs like theirs have no choice but to become. If customers could trust that every day essentials had a relatively stable price and availability pattern like they trust from their local grocery store (…

This a million times. I swear I will never understand why Amazon's supply, organization, and pricing for household goods is such a disaster. Because their experience for mainstream books is mostly perfectly fine -- there's a single listing for each book, and the price doesn't change much, just some discount from list. It works. But for things like paper towels or Tide or whatever, it's utter chaos. Multiple listings…

Agreed. Everytime I order supplements, I have to create a spreadsheet to compare the price per active ingredient weight. Hard to standardize such a thing, of course, but for a lot of other household articles it would definitely be possible.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#742

Post by Ylpertnodi »

bentt wrote: post #728

My kids have grown up with Alexa devices. They use them as speakers, to listen to Audible, and as ways to communicate with us. I've been under the belief that the devices do not spy on us, based on a few test articles I read. If I ever heard that that was not the case I'd jettison them all from the house.

You're very trusting. I won't let alexa in my home, let alone near my kids. How do you trust something that you can't know what is being done (ie recorded for later, later use - see the github nodelete stories) with it?

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#743

Post by itscrush »

bentt wrote: post #728

My kids have grown up with Alexa devices. They use them as speakers, to listen to Audible, and as ways to communicate with us. I've been under the belief that the devices do not spy on us, based on a few test articles I read. If I ever heard that that was not the case I'd jettison them all from the house.

I think it's a subjective call on what you consider spying. Amazon and its integrations / 3rd parties are certainly using what they can gather based on Alexa interactions to better sell and serve their ad ecosystem at minimum right? And I've never seen someone leave theirs muted/red in practice.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10920 among others are certainly available in this question space to help navigate your own tolerances.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#744

Post by code_duck »

prepend wrote: post #432
ghaff wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd not even that I care much about small deviations--I just don't trust that something really crazy won't happen if I put it on autopilot. If I walk into Walmart and grab a big armful of Bounty I'm fairly confident things will be fine.

I switched to Walmart a few years ago and their online experience has been more consistent. Although I detect it’s starting to drift as they switch to a “marketplace” approach similar to Amazon.

Ordering items from the system where you are buying products from a local Walmart store for pickup or delivery works very well. I find their Amazon-style marketplace chaotic, high priced and fairly useless, though.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#745

Post by shermantanktop »

crabmusket wrote: post #395
shermantanktop wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Babies just need to learn to cry only when the diapers in the garage are running low. How hard could that be?

Clearly the feedback loop is too long currently. If we could instantly dispense diapers onto the baby as soon as it started crying, that would improve learning outcomes and encourage experimentation.

Sounds like a virtuous cycle to me!

Babies who cry a little at a time will be awash with diapers, leading to secondary market opportunities. Now we just need a two-sided marketplace to capture that business and charge a modest fee.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#746

Post by hinkley »

swatcoder wrote: post #100
paxys wrote: post #86

The core issue is that Amazon envisioned Alexa as a product that would help it increase sales. Smart home features were always an afterthought. How convenient would it be if people could shout "Alexa order me Tide Pods" from wherever they were in their home and the order got magically processed? That demo definitely got applause from a boardroom full of execs. The problem is that consumers don't behave like that. Thi…

> I always want to see a page with the product details and price before I click "buy". Reducing the number of clicks is not going to make me change my decision. This is compounded by the multi-headed monster that large orgs like theirs have no choice but to become. If customers could trust that every day essentials had a relatively stable price and availability pattern like they trust from their local grocery store (…

You also might get counterfeit Tide full of melamine or lead.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#747

Post by hinkley »

jonhohle wrote: post #501
booi wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculous that I have to have a spreadsheet with pricing information and links for household goods just to spot check and make sure I'm getting the actual price per quantity that I want due to the multiple dynamic listings that change every day nightmare. Don't ask how many times I receive more or less than I thought I would or something came in 10 packages of 3 instead of 1 30x package.

I worked at Amazon when Fresh was rolling out in Seattle. A coworker thought he was ordering 10 bananas but when his order arrived he received 10 bunches of bananas. Generously, he brought them in to share along with the story. I’m sure they made a lot of banana bread the following week.

At least he didn’t order a truckload like Shiv Ramdas’ brother in law:

https://cheezburger.com/12444421/twitter-thread-frustrated-h...

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#748

Post by hinkley »

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #368
crazygringo wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a million times. I swear I will never understand why Amazon's supply, organization, and pricing for household goods is such a disaster. Because their experience for mainstream books is mostly perfectly fine -- there's a single listing for each book, and the price doesn't change much, just some discount from list. It works. But for things like paper towels or Tide or whatever, it's utter chaos. Multiple listings…

I gave up trying to purchase Nikon OEM batteries on Amazon. It's easy on B&H, but I cannot (or do not know how to) exclude the hundreds of cheaper knock-off batteries that are inferior in every measure. I also tried to get an OEM battery grip for my Nikon D850 - but again near impossible on Amazon. This grip is $380 from Nikon, and its possible to get a knock-off for $29. Why get the original? It increases the camera…

B&H is one of the places I check first before ordering on Amazon, which is about fifth on any list because fuck Amazon.

There’s a CS book I want to read but because the author self published I can only find it on Amazon. I need to try the book store at his university, and I’m not going to buy from Jeff until I’ve tried that avenue.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#749

Post by jjk166 »

maccard wrote: post #338
fantasybuilder wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't come up with a single item that I would blind order. At most, I could ask Alexa to add an item to a shopping list and then verify the list and place the order myself.

I would love to order a bunch of things - toilet paper, kitchen paper, toothpaste, mayonnaise, sriracha, foil, dishwasher and laundry tabs. Anything that isn’t a weekly purchase that I find myself out of when I want to use it. The problem isn’t that I don’t want to blind order it, it’s that I don’t trust blind ordering it from Amazon.

With the exception of foodstuffs, where I don't want to have to worry about perishability and storage, I've got most of these on scheduled deliveries - toilet paper every 4 weeks, laundry tabs every 6 months, etc. Once you figure out the appropriate rate and with a little bit of buffer stock to account for variability, you never run out of anything.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#750

Post by hinkley »

bombcar wrote: post #698
rickdeckard wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Amazon didn't create this. Even supermarkets position products at different height to steer their sales, and the majority of customers grab the laundry detergent from the mid-shelf with the most sensational pricing-tag. A specific book is also a far more unique product than i.e. "laundry detergent". To be comparable, you would have to compare laundry detergent to a genre of books, and maybe also the publi…

I wonder how true that is. I guess it’s your first time buying detergent it might work but most people I know have a specific detergent and they buy the same one no matter where on the shelf it moves.

Your choices are influenced by exposure, and I don’t mean Tuesday. I mean your entire childhood and adolescence as well.

How did you decide on that brand, really? And what was your second choice? Even if you narrowed down to three options by pure rationalism the tiebreaker is often emotional. Then we convince ourselves the decision was objective even when it was not.

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