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Amazon Moves "Buy Now" Into the Physical World, With the Dash Button
Zothecula writes The Amazon Dash Button is a small device that you can stick to walls or a variety of household appliances. Each button is associated with a certain brand or product, and when you set it up (via smartphone) you associate the button with a specific size or quantity (like, say, two 12-packs of Starbucks K-cups or one 2-pack of 50 oz. Tide detergent) and shipping speed. When you start to get low on said product, mash the button and Amazon takes care of the rest.
This one of those ideas perfectly balanced on the razor's edge between believability and absurdity that make the reader question whether it just might possibly be true.
(Pity it's April 2nd, which just means that somebody at Amazon is merely bonkers.)
These have no reason to exist. They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost.
A simple app for smartphones would've done the same thing, and more.
But that's not the same. When you're reaching for the detergent and notice that it's almost empty, you may not have your smartphone with you, and even if you do, you probably don't want to stop and launch the app so you can order more detergent, you'll just try to remember to order it next time you're at your computer. Though if you had a button right there on the cabinet, then you'd probably hit it right while you have the empty detergent bottle in your hand.
Admittedly this seems like unnecessary overkill, but it is definitely difference than a smartphone app and I can see why some might find it useful.
They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost
Many people would say the same about smartphones and their (mostly) 2 year obsolescence schedule.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
But this seems like it would be darn convenient. So much so, I'm prepared to revisit the price difference. Everyone here is busy and if a single button-press can really replace a trip to the store, it just might be worth it...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Step 2: Add a child-resistant packaging for the button, so your 2-year-old doesn't order you fifty jugs of Tide.
Sorry, i've learned my lesson pushing random red buttons. I still argue that a button that will vaporize 1/3rd of a planet from the core out SHOULD have had better protection from people like me, or at least a label with a warning. FINE, a label with a warning in MY language!
Seriously, though, isn't this taking "lazy" to a whole new level? Or have we been at that level, and no one mentioned it to me?
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
This + Amazon Toilet Paper + Drones = even MORE WIN
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't like Amazon as a company. I don't like the way they deal with vendors. I really don't like the way they deal with their own employees, down to the recent non-complete agreements for warehouse laborers! As a consumer, I love Amazon, though I do try to not support them.
Why do I want this button?
We keep paper towels and toilet paper in the garage. When we're getting down to one (or no!) rolls left, either I or my wife will say "Oh, we only have one more roll of paper tolls left--let's make sure to get more next time we go to the store." Of course, sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes we forget to add paper towels to the list. Sometimes our beloved family cat will decide to spray rancid piss down the hallway, and we exceed our EPTU (estimated paper towel usage). If we had a button in the garage next to our paper towels, and every time we were getting remotely low we just tapped a button and didn't think about it again...that's brilliant.
I would normally never buy this kind of product from Amazon as the local store prices are _always_ better (especially if you keep an eye out for coupons, sales, etc--but even without that). The button might change my mind.
This is seriously one of those ideas that's so simple and yet so brilliant at the same time.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
But this seems like it would be darn convenient. So much so, I'm prepared to revisit the price difference. Everyone here is busy and if a single button-press can really replace a trip to the store, it just might be worth it...
Not everyone has room for costco's usual super-sized product packages, I really have no room to store a 6 pack of ketchup, #10 cans of corn, or a 24 pack of paper towels, and many items would expire before I can use them. While I might save money by buying in bulk, without unlimited storage space, I appreciate using Amazon for just-in-time delivery even if I spend a little more money. Plus, as you say, there's the convenience factor -- going to Costco ends up taking at least a few hours from start to finish.
I regularly order 50lb bags of rice, jugs of juice, fruit 10lbs, all using my phone and the delivery person happily hefts it up the walkway to my door, along with a bevy of other items. I don't even have to talk to the guy - he leaves it in my safebox behind my side yard.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I can't see why I - or anyone else - would want this. So what exactly do I gain from getting one or more of these?
It's not hard to imagine use cases. Take, for instance, an 88-year-old senior who is trying to age in place but for whom a trip to the store isn't a trivial undertaking, and who has no interest in a smartphone (and sure isn't going to see a 4" HD screen).
Boom - more detergent shows up the day after tomorrow. Iterate through typical consumables - the UI is damn simple and the button is big enough for somebody with Parkinson's to manage. That's worth the effort for the responsible child to set up.
Now take a new mom who's half-covered in crap and hasn't slept all night. Only 10 diapers left. Boom - nap time.
I'm assuming there's a reasonable "boom" sound effect here. How much are ringtones?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Why use the button? Are you too lazy to use a smartphone app?
Why use a smartphone app? Are you too lazy to use a website on a desktop?
Why use a website? Are you too lazy to pick up a phone and call?
Why pick up a phone and call? Are you too lazy to write an order and mail it?
Why write and order and mail it? Are you too lazy to go out to a store and get it yourself?
Why go to a store? Are you too lazy to make it yourself?
What one person calls lazy is what another person calls efficient. Everyone is not like you. Stop judging other people based on your own experiences. Their's have been different.
Or it could just be a story from April 1 2012. This is Slashdot after all.
These have no reason to exist. They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost. A simple app for smartphones would've done the same thing, and more.
But that's not the same. When you're reaching for the detergent and notice that it's almost empty, you may not have your smartphone with you, and even if you do, you probably don't want to stop and launch the app so you can order more detergent, you'll just try to remember to order it next time you're at your computer. Though if you had a button right there on the cabinet, then you'd probably hit it right while you have the empty detergent bottle in your hand.
Admittedly this seems like unnecessary overkill, but it is definitely difference than a smartphone app and I can see why some might find it useful.
They will just create more electronic wastes, not to mention the manufacturing cost
Many people would say the same about smartphones and their (mostly) 2 year obsolescence schedule.
If you are like me, you'd need a rack of these things in the shower. That seems to be the only place I think of certain tasks... always forgotten by the time I get out.
The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.
Is it truly cheaper at Costco once you factor in all the costs? Are you accounting for your time, gasoline, wear on your car, opportunity cost, membership fees, etc. Are you accounting for the fact that many people don't live conveniently close to a Costco (I'm one of them)? Are you accounting for the fact that many people don't have the storage space or vehicle capacity to transport a pallet of toilet paper to their house? What about those people who don't own a car like many in NYC?
My point is that there is no one size fits all economic answer. Costco is a great solution for many people. I could see these button things working well for a different group of people, particularly urbanites where the "local" Costco might be 30 miles away. If I lived in Manhattan and didn't have a car like a lot of people there Costco is a pretty terrible solution.
Amazon's deliveries need to be a lot more expensive to justify my spending over an hour of the precious personal time on errands per week.
I shop a ton at Amazon but are you seriously going to claim that your week is SO packed that you don't even have 1 hour to spend grocery shopping? Really? You'd have to be unbelievably busy or ill for me to believe that.
BTW, I'm a cost accountant professionally. Using your hourly billing rate as an opportunity cost only works if you would actually forgo that income if you spent that time doing something other than earning wages. Since most people shop outside of work hours there is no lost wages and so the opportunity cost is much smaller.
I for one was lazy decades before I got my first cellular (and not so smart) phone.
So you admit your are lazy rather than otherwise occupied. Got it.
It's almost like Amazon thought this out or something.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I think of it as putting a value on my time.
There is a value on your time. But it is demonstrably not your hourly rate on your job unless you are actually taking time away from your job. The rate is something different.
On a salary, the money keeps rolling in on a regular basis. If I squander a bit of it, I'll get more with the next paycheck. If I squander my time, it's gone for ever.
You haven't thought through the full implications of that statement. Earning a paycheck is essentially trading time for money. If you squander the money you earned, the time you spent earning it is wasted at the same time. The only difference is that the waste is time shifted but it is still wasted time that you will never, ever recover.
TFA states that the button-based orders are disabled after the first one, until the first order arrives. You're not going to have a child go manic on this thing, and end up with a pallet of Tide.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Amazon does ridiculous stuff like this regularly. Free shipping for Prime members was a crazy idea when it was first introduced. Now several companies have copied their prime model. I don't think these buttons are the end-game. They may be a wedge/marketing gimic that gets people to start buying household products from Amazon. I buy laundry detergent locally because I usually don't think about it until I'm almost out. Having a button staring me in the face reminds me 1) that Amazon sells it, and 2) that I might want to think about it a few days in advance on needing it. Once I get that habit, it won't be a stretch to get rid of the buttons and simply have a phone app that lets me easily order non-perishables.
Alternately, Amazon is hoping the price for these buttons becomes negligible as "Internet of Things" chips ramp up. Either way, homeowners buying name brand products through Amazon without even thinking about the price, is good for Amazon.
Or if not noon, at least by the time you are 12.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I present... the Easy Button from Staples. let the lawsuits begin.
seriously... think about this... you are doing laundry. you set the 3-year-old inside the washer basket because it keeps the little whirlwind out of the way, she/he cannot fall and get hurt, and besides, you know how messy kids get with chocolate. bored kid looks around, up and down, and hey! -- looky! -- there's a little orange button on the wall that looks like a toy. whack-whack-whack-whack for several minutes until you look up.
how are you going to return three semi loads of Tide Pods?
BAD idea.
There's a really helpful document linked in the summary that addresses this
Once connected, a single press automatically places your order. Amazon sends an order alert to your phone, so it's easy to cancel if you change your mind. Unless you elect otherwise, Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered.
Apparently (as usual) no one bothers to read TFA:
"What about accidental orders? Unless you set it up to do otherwise, Amazon only registers your first press of the button until your order is delivered. The company will also send you a confirmation alert via smartphone, giving you a chance to cancel any mistaken orders. Households with young children (or perhaps rascally teenagers) will want to be careful with this, or risk making canceling orders a regular routine."
So I suppose your scenario is possible, but only if you specifically override the default settings.
The Dash button might be useful in the office or the enterprise, especially if it could be configured to send the order requests to purchasing:
1: You are running out of tape media, and it is time for a quarterly offsite in a few weeks. Mash the button, get the tapes in a few days, continue on.
2: The office supply cabinet is low on pens. Mash the button for the style of pens that is needed, go on one's day.
3: Paper is low. Hit the button by the copier.
I can see a number of uses for this device, more than just ordering bathroom supplies for home.
You mean you read the article?
Turn in your membership at the door please.