Amazon Dash AIBU to be very cautious of this brave new world?

[beluga425]

So, say your button pressing 5 yo has an extended visit to the loo. Next day 5000 loo rolls appear.

It's sobering to think if a bunch of UKsters were gulag'd we would only be able to come up with a Facebook page and an argument over gender fluidity.

We need an ark.

"B".

Well an online order on my phone takes about ten minutes so it's hardly a push. This sounds like a faff to set up and you'd still have to shop for the items that you can't order by pushing a button.
Nice idea but I can't really see the point!

Nice idea but I can't really see the point!

Which suggests it's not aimed at you ?

One thing I have noticed of late - in the real world as well as online - is that there's quite an "it's all about me" attitude to everything. Maybe I am over sensitive, as I have to sit through presentations where a senior colleague has to repeatedly remind staff that the future is not about them - it's about their children.

The Internet of Things is coming. If not to us, to our kids. Who will use it to care for us in 20, 30 years time. At least Amazon are starting to bottom out some problems well in advance.

I wonder if at Amazon towers they have specced a version of this that can be integrated into a community hub such as a care home, or sheltered accommodation? So the residents can order when needed, but it's just aggregated into a single - weekly maybe - delivery.

With an eye to the long term, it's initiatives like this which may threaten -or kill off - the retail behemoths in the UK. After all, if you are ordering "X" brand washing powder and "Y" brand toilet tissue, do you care if it's fulfilled (key word there) by Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons, or whoever ?

Amazon have been around over 20 years now. In all that time as a customer I have seen them organically innovate and evolve. Whenever I work on projects, I hold Amazon up as the paradigm of online retailing. They're not perfect, but who is ?

Ugh, so rather than just adding toilet roll/washing powder etc to the weekly shop it's better to individually send these products out, and to hell with the environmental cost of delivery?

It's the middle tier I have ditched - I can't remember the last time I was in Sainsbury's or the like. I go to Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose because they are smaller (round here) and cover what I need. Amazon fills in a lot of the space in between but I do love Argos, I hope they survive.

KidLorneRoll
that was my thought exactly. It cant be environmentally friendly to deliver each item separately.
Plus it also seems childish and self indulgent to suddenly run out of something you use regularly and need hand holding to manage it. Like someone who doesnt get that the electricity bill arrives every 3 months and acts surprised about it.

Great! another category of e-waste destined for landfill after 12 months, minerals strip mined from the earth for their manufacture and extra fossil fuels burned making all these single delivery journeys. Well, nevermind, it's not like we need a planet to live on is it?

I'm an Amazon Fresh customer and they sent me a little scanner to keep at home to help with the shopping. And the whole family love it - a quick scan or a voice command, and a product gets added to the Fresh basket. I get to review the items and decide whether we actually need something or if DS is trying to sneak sweets through, and then just book the delivery.

This, imo, was what I was hoping for back in the late nineties in terms of the internet just making things work. Given we live above our shop, my staff have also taken to using the remote to help reorder supplies, and it's great. Things happen quickly and easily and efficiently.

Even without the business use, though, I'm disabled and struggle with fatigue, and this has genuinely been a huge improvement. Much less time keeping on top of stuff, and stuff can happen even if I have a bad week and need to stay in bed.

I had a good look at the buttons, but decided they weren't for me because as a pp said, the kind of things I'd use the button for I already get on subscribe and save, dishwasher tablets being a case in point.

Personally I'm looking forward to seeing where the internet of things takes us. Life is hard right now, and anything that makes it that little bit easier, or frees up a few more minutes of time before the brain fog sets in is worth looking at for me.

If they are route planning properly, to urban areas this may not be inefficient in terms of fuel use (though will probably be packaged to death). I did get a packet of tick removers delivered to me at my DM's house via Amazon Prime the other day, that didn't feel right.

She lives in the quiet bit of your average local backwater.

If they are route planning properly, to urban areas this may not be inefficient in terms of fuel use

Of course, in other news, Amazon have proposed using drones for delivery.

Can anyone join the dots yet ?

You know the old canard about the army being perfectly equipped to fight the last war ? It seems some companies are looking into fighting the next war (metaphorically)

I LOVE my Dash buttons. They're super easy to set up and I never run out of things like kitchen roll and laundry detergent.

I never run out of things like kitchen roll and laundry detergent.

Neither do I because I add them to my Ocado delivery and it all arrives in one go in one can.

The drone thing is surely not getting off the ground for a while (did you see what I did there). Need to sort out delivery points and how to stop people following the drone and nicking the stuff. I assume in the first instance they would have to deliver to a collection point where someone is there to receive and securely store the goods for collection.

I do think some of the Amazon innovations are more aimed at the USA. They don't really have online grocery shopping like we do (though correct me if I'm wrong anyone who knows better) so things like Amazon Fresh and these buttons seem to make more sense when you don't have that option. Grumpy I'm interested to hear how you find Amazon Fresh (are you in the UK?) and why/how it's different to doing a Tesco online shop or similar?
I use Amazon Pantry for dry / bulk items - eg DH is a stickler for kellog's crunchy nut and special K so when it's at a good price I'll fill a Pantry box with them and store them in the garage. And that is convenient because we have a cupboard that deliveries can be left in. But I don't see the benefit for fresh items.

The drone thing is surely not getting off the ground for a while

I did mention 10, 20 years upthread ...

Yes, and driverless cars will be a realistic option for the masses long before that. I was reading an interview with a historian the other day who thought the biggest challenge to governments of the future will be how countries will deal with the billions of people who will no longer have any economic value due to technological changes.

Yes, and driverless cars will be a realistic option for the masses long before that.|

Ding !

I was reading an interview with a historian the other day who thought the biggest challenge to governments of the future will be how countries will deal with the billions of people who will no longer have any economic value due to technological changes.

The key thing is energy. We need energy to survive. With energy we can grow crops wherever we like, make as much fresh water as we like, and warm/cool ourselves as much as we like.

The other key thing is there were already too many humans on the planet 4 generations ago, let alone now.

Mother natures books always balance when it's time for an audit.

moggle I'm in London. I use a range of online grocery suppliers because they all have subtly different ranges. And some are more reliable than others for some things.

Amazon Fresh gave me a month's free membership which I've continued after trialling. A lot of the actual fresh stuff comes from Morrison's and is good. But I also love that with a bit of planning I can get fish or meat or other things from small suppliers that are not an option for me otherwise as they don't have a physical shop near me, and until the blue badge comes through I'm pretty much confined to barracks.

So the range through Amazon is better even than Ocado in some product types, they're more likely to have an available delivery slot, and the scanner widget makes it a lot easier either for other people in the household to step up and take responsibility for reordering something we're low on, or for them to just add an item they like when they think about it without having to tell me or have me remember. Yes, something like Ocado's instant shop should obviate the need for some of this, but it doesn't quite - the algorithm sometimes buggers up and stuff doesn't appear in the order when it should, often quite arbitrarily, so the idea of a weekly top up I just have to check out when I've added anything else I need is quite handy.

As an aside, one of the other nice things about Amazon Fresh is that all the shopping comes in tough brown paper bags, rather than plastic ones, which is refreshing. While they don't have the special offers that Tesco and Ocado have, the prices are not bad, and the range is actually good enough I could see myself migrating entirely from the others to Amazon Fresh in future, if the service remains as reliable, and if they iron out one or two of the teething niggles .

all the shopping comes in tough brown paper bags

very American

Fortunately, they've adopted the European habit of putting handles on the bags, though, which was not a very American thing last time I went grocery shopping there

Fortunately, they've adopted the European habit of putting handles on the bags

It's that little twist isn't it, between being stupid and being clever ...

Well, I have ordered a couple for my Mum so that her carers can order household items for her, so they don't need to contact me to do it for them. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Playdoh?