Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions • Hacker News Board

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

#751

Post by marcosdumay » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:15 PM UTC

rickdeckard wrote: post #628

asfodelsu wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many places in Europe: Normal price per item big letters, price per Kg small letters. Problem solved

Comparable unit-pricing: A mandate brought to you by the European Union. You know, this allegedly evil entity that always hassles with the free market and annoys global companies. /s

> and annoys global companies

Lol... Meta is doing a huge campaign here in Brazil about how they won't provide us their AI services because they are annoyed by that entity.

It has been quite a help to the government popularity.

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

#752

Post by hinkley » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:18 PM UTC

ipaddr wrote: post #412

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…

You have one supplier of a book. You have many suppliers of generic products. Target gets from one supplier. The multi vender estore offers something different. The low prices, large selection more supplied inventory are some benefits.

See I don’t understand how they have multiple vendors for Kraft or Johnson and Johnson products. There are no multiple suppliers.

Coca Cola I can understand, but those are all franchisees and the parent company watches them like a hawk. Mostly what they make is purified water to mix with the syrup they got from corporate to reduce shipping costs and losses.

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

#753

Post by tracker1 » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:19 PM UTC

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 (…

Exactly... I'll order an item a few times a few weeks apart... then the next time it's suddenly 50% higher priced. No real reason why. I've taken to actually ordering direct from a few different mfgs for a few things Amazon has had that local stores haven't simply because Amazon's pricing is sometimes unreasonable.

That they outright lie about "retail" when doing sales is also offputting. The irony is I've started to appreciate Prime Video, and now they charge extra for that without commercials. It's infuriating all around.

That doesn't even begin to cover counterfeit, expired or other problems on fulfillment such as saying it'll be there tomorrow until the order is placed and you get it 4 days later, or maybe not at all (lost?).

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

#754

Post by AceyMan » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:20 PM UTC

Damogran6 wrote: post #740

xp84 wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unit price labels here in the US are hilariously messed up. The items you want to compare will be say, a pack of 6 granola bars or a 10 pack. The unit prices will be like: #1: $0.37 / ounce #2: $6.50 / pound or even: #3: $1.82 / each (a price per item) This will even be common within the same exact brand too. The stores seem so bad at picking a consistent unit for a product category that it seems malicious, but i…

Oh, they have plenty of time to do it. We have created lots of MBAs...people who want to take advantage of their education, and to do so they want to squeeze a little more profit. And they're bored. And they need to stand out from their coworkers. Therefore 'price per net weight' becomes a thing. And Surge pricing. (Peanutbutter M&Ms are an egregious example...the share bag price varies 20% depending on the calendar,…

Well, Peanutbutter M&Ms are sacred manna, so they are a bad example.

At my Ralph's (=Kroger), all the large bags dissappear minutes after getting loaded into the shelf.

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

#755

Post by nelsondev » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:21 PM UTC

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #742

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?

Yet in your house you likely have a mobile phone, a computer, perhaps a Smart TV; all with microphones and a long history of privacy breaching hacks.

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

#756

Post by crazygringo » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:29 PM UTC

emj wrote: post #624

crazygringo wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. And given that there are probably 50 different common conversions you'll encounter in cooking, both between imperial units and between imperial and metric, not to mention common weight-vs-volume conversions of things like flour, good luck in not only memorizing them all but getting them exactly perfectly right every single time . You mess up a single conversion and your finished baked goods go straight in th…

I do not understand how a voice assistant help with this, it has never worked for me. Seems like pretty hard things to do on the fly with recipes. Weight to volume conversions are rare here but sure I do those on the fly so I guess it makes sense, do you really do you guys really do it that often? If you do extensive conversions of recipes you will need to get the ratios correct as well it is just not something I see…

> I do not understand how a voice assistant help with this, it has never worked for me.

What do you mean it has never worked? What do you ask your assistant, and what does it respond?

> Seems like pretty hard things to do on the fly with recipes.

What's hard? I don't understand. If you need a quantity in unit x, but you only have a measuring cup or spoon in unit y, then you ask for the conversion and then you measure out that amount in unit y.

I genuinely don't understand the difficulties you seem to be encountering.

> do you really do you guys really do it that often?

Yes, literally all the time.

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

#757

Post by ysacfanboi » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

advisedwang wrote: post #303

ysacfanboi wrote: post #275

Please realize, for this to be true, there must be another incentive. I.e., Alexa devices are government-subsidized spyware. What are the advantages for Amazon? - Mic-popping, Camera-popping, mobile phone backdoor access, network sniffing, device activity monitoring across all wifi/bluetooth connected networks. - Sidewalk (remember this? Amazon "borrows" your wifi, for free...) Unplug Alexa devices. Remove the Alexa…

I'm not saying that smart home stuff isn't amazing for the surveillance state... but I am quite happy to believe a company just made a strategy mistake, no behind-the-scenes government deals needed. We've seen companies build expensive products without monetization plans, especially when they are worried about getting cut-out by a compentitor many times.

If that makes it more palatable for you, then I understand why you need to prioritize this level of reasoning.

Amazon culture is fail fast. Not many products at Amazon last this long, boasting multi-billion dollar losses YoY. Name another product at Amazon that does this, for this long.

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

#758

Post by gdilla » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:43 PM UTC

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…

All i use it for is kitchen timers, occasional weather and traffic check. It's like yelling at your phone, which is slightly better UX than the phone.

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

#759

Post by dilyevsky » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:46 PM UTC

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…

> This is also why Amazon's Dash buttons failed. I always want to see a page with the product details and price before I click "buy".

Dash button was great and i stopped using amazon completely over it’s cancellation precisely because i don’t want to go to the app or the website. They canned it because they can’t upsell you on random crap you don’t need

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

#760

Post by burnte » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 3:50 PM UTC

martin_a wrote: post #738

burnte wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that consumers don't behave like that. This is also why Amazon's Dash buttons failed. As an owner of several Echo devices and a former owner of the Dash buttons, my household LOVED the Dash buttons. Never once have we ordered anything via Alexa, nor do we want to. With the button, you selected the EXACT item with a single button. With Alexa, you have to explain what you want, don't necessarily know t…

> With the button, you selected the EXACT item with a single button. With Alexa, you have to explain what you want, don't necessarily know the price, seller, etc. Hm, but wasn't the price of items ordered through the Dash buttons subject to change, too? Like last week when you set everything up it was $5 per item, but sellers changed and now its $15? Sounds risky to me without checking the order confirmation mails...

They only sold the buttons for specific brand names. The only one that had a brand I used was Charmin, and we had a specific pack size picked. The price was only going to change a little based on the market for toilet paper, so we didn't check it often. I had another for Dial soap but Dial discontinued the product I bought.