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Walmart Wants To Deliver Groceries Straight To Your Fridge (consumerist.com)
New submitter Rick Schumann writes: Walmart has a new marketing idea: "Going to the store? No one has time for that anymore," Walmart says. They want to partner with a company called August Home, who makes smart locks, so a delivery service can literally deliver groceries right into your refrigerator -- while you watch remotely on your phone. Great, time-saving idea, or super-creepy invasion of your privacy? You decide. Here's how the company says it would work:
1. Place an order on Walmart.com for groceries or other goods.
2. A driver for Deliv -- a same-day delivery service -- retrieves items when the order is ready, and brings them to the customer's home.
3. If no one answers, the delivery person can use a one-time passcode that's been pre-authorized by the customer to open the home's smart lock.
4. The customer receives a smartphone notification when the delivery is occurring, and can choose to watch it all play out in real-time on home security cameras through a dedicated app.
5. Delivery person leaves packages in the foyer, then brings the groceries to the kitchen, unloads them into the fridge, and leaves.
6. Customer receives notification that the door has locked behind them.
1. Place an order on Walmart.com for groceries or other goods.
2. A driver for Deliv -- a same-day delivery service -- retrieves items when the order is ready, and brings them to the customer's home.
3. If no one answers, the delivery person can use a one-time passcode that's been pre-authorized by the customer to open the home's smart lock.
4. The customer receives a smartphone notification when the delivery is occurring, and can choose to watch it all play out in real-time on home security cameras through a dedicated app.
5. Delivery person leaves packages in the foyer, then brings the groceries to the kitchen, unloads them into the fridge, and leaves.
6. Customer receives notification that the door has locked behind them.
This seems to be a common failure in internet business when they get into grocery.
Same day delivery, across wide geographic area. specialized technology, higher staff amount, and trying to keep it affordable.
Food is a necessary thing, and it is something we don't want to kill our budget on. So we are more than willing to go out of the way to buy food at the store, especially if it will save us some money.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Delivery driver, making minimum wage and being treated like shit by Wal-mart, then tells his friends about the shit he saw in your house and 3 months later you get robbed. No thank you. What the fuck are these companies thinking and how fucking lazy are people? I'd only allow this if I was rich as fuck and had hired help to do this. Which at that point, they would be my employee, well compensated and not some untrustworthy Wal-mart meth head employee. But then the rich have been doing this for centuries already.
Smart locks are exactly the opposite too. If it's connected to the internet, it's hackable. End of story. Not to mention, a simple kick and the door opens anyway.
What about pets? Will they make sure to keep the door closed so the cat or dog doesn't bolt? Will they refuse to enter the house if there are pets?
What about grabbing something small in the fridge or elsewhere in the house? Does everyone have 360 degree surveillance in every room of their house now?
What about disputing the purchase if you don't get the things you bought? Something missing, wrong items etc.?
What about delivery guys taking pictures with their phones while they're in your house to, off the top of my head, either shame you on the net for old appliances, dirty dishes in the sink etc., or maybe to plan a future burglary now that they have ACCESS TO YOUR HOUSE to look around?
What about just doing your grocery shopping yourself? Is the world really so stressed now we can't do that?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Wow, I would never let an unknown person have unsupervised access to my home. Especially someone employed by Walmart.
Aside from all the new security issues that are opened up by generating one time access to a digital lock, doesn't this raise all sorts of red flags for people?
What happens when law enforcement decides that they want to sneak in an poke around? We going to have another of situations where they can make it fly just because the Supreme Court hasn't gotten around to pointing out that it isn't legal just because it is novel, like we have with feds intercepting internet and phone data?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I would love a service like this... except my great danes would eat the driver as he enters the house. I would need to figure out some compensating controls / mitigation to allow driver thru my house and into the kitchen area safely. I already have camera's all over my house and everything important is behind additional locked doors / cabinets. It's just one more than I don't have to worry about... why not?
Is there a notification when the delivery driver is stealing your stuff?
If we are getting food in highly secured containers shipped straight to your home can we get a locking refrigerator like in the movie Conspiracy Theory? Because I'd probably into that.
Walmart is almost literally the worst place to buy groceries. Their grocery prices are ridiculous, because they know their customers are already there to buy something else and will spend stupidly for the convenience.
Fuck right off Walmart
...something like Costco. I remember Amazon Fresh in LA and all their dry-ice totes and such. They can't compete with something like Costco doing that. They need a warehouse with freezers for perishables etc. just like Costco. But unlike Costco, Amazon then pays to have delivery fleet take inventory from warehouse to customer. Costco, on the other hand, has the customer PAYING A YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION to wander into the warehouse and do the delivery part for Costco on their own dime and time. Going to take pretty fancy drone to beat Costco at that game.
Walmart Wants To Invade Your Home -- To Deliver Groceries
As some others have already commented: Walmart is the LAST place anyone I know would buy groceries.. what's to keep the driver from casing your house while you're not home.. and so on. Utterly clueless idea from Walmart.
Also, how many of you only go to one store for all your food shopping? I sure don't, and I don't know anyone who does, either.
What I do when shopping for food is a) I decide on what I want to cook and eat. This is based on what is fresh, looks good, is in season and generally appeals to me. And b) it is low-stress time that I take off from all other things and concerns. The last thing I want is for this to be taken away and automatized. May as well automatize away going for a walk. This is seriously messed up.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
That must be the most demented comment all week. The name of whoever made that delivery is in a f****** database, for crying out loud! Even rapists have some desire not to get identified and caught.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
To use this system I have to setup an elaborate camera and door lock system just so I don't have to rub elbows with the proletariat at the grocery store.
independent contractor or Walmart is not responsible for any theft robbery or death
There must be some mistake. Nobody here is poor enough to shop at Walmart. Every slashdotter is a millionaire techturd.
Here's how the company says it would work:
1. Place an order on Walmart.com for groceries or other goods.
2. A driver for Deliv -- a same-day delivery service -- retrieves items when the order is ready, and brings them to the customer's home.
3. If no one answers, the delivery person can use a one-time passcode that's been pre-authorized by the customer to open the home's smart lock.
4. The customer receives a smartphone notification when the delivery is occurring, and can choose to watch it all play out in real-time on home security cameras through a dedicated app.
5. Delivery person leaves packages in the foyer, then brings the groceries to the kitchen, unloads them into the fridge, and leaves.
6. Customer receives notification that the door has locked behind them.
7. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
My company is going to deliver the food directly to your mouth.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
National grocery delivery is available from several supermarket chains to most of the population (admittedly, the distances between customers in the USA makes this impractical in more rural areas, where it is not in the UK)
The driver from several of these services will drop the groceries off in your kitchen.
You do however have to be there.
I have had no problems with quality in >100 orders.
No way ever will I do this.
I'd eat out of a dumpster before I would eat "food" from Walmart. That's not beef you're buying. It's part of a Chinese water buffalo that died from anthrax 8 months ago.
"A fucking database" indeed.
To get run over by there van on the way out.
I'm old enough to remember when the milkman delivered milk and eggs to a silver box next to the door step. If the milkman was inside in the kitchen, he was banging the lady of the house and not the fridge door.
3. If no one answers, the delivery person can use a one-time passcode that's been pre-authorized by the customer to open the home's smart lock.
4. The customer receives a smartphone notification when the delivery is occurring, and can choose to watch it all play out in real-time on home security cameras through a dedicated app.
5. Delivery person leaves packages in the foyer, then brings the groceries to the kitchen, unloads them into the fridge, and leaves.
Oh HELL no. Not a fucking chance, no no no.
If YOU want to let strangers into your home and let them scope it out, be my guest, but fuck all if I'm going to be up for that.
I give it 6 months TOPS before there's a rape, a robbery, pilferage, or it's found out that Joe Deliveryguy was casing homes in his neighborhood.
In conclusion, NO. No, no, no.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I need Walmart to deliver groceries straight into my belly.
You are welcome on my lawn.
What about the fact that all this is unnecessary if you put a secured, padlocked cool box (possibly even one with active cooling) outside your door and let them put the groceries in that? It's probably a lot cheaper than installing a smart lock plus video surveillance throughout your house and has no security implications. It might not keep them cool all day in the summer but if you arrange delivery for a 3-hour window before you return home it should do fine. Milk used to be delivered door-to-door in the UK and it was fine for an hour or so with zero refrigeration or insulation.
Of course this solution does not involve high tech locks, flying drones, autonomous delivery trucks or robots so it's clearly less amazon-y but who knows, perhaps it might work?
I seem to remember that someone used to make fridges that had a back door that went against a cutout in your outside wall so the milk man can put your milk in your fridge without entering your house. Also, some houses had little (12" x 12") double doors in the wall that the milkman could put our milk into and you could take it out from inside the house. We are talking decades ago when there were such a ting as milkmen rattling down your street at 5AM delivering milk. At they used wireless communication - you just put a note in an empty milk bottle asking for more milk. Oh, and yes they delivered in glass bottle that were washed and reused instead of making more trash. Never mind, it was a galaxy far, far away...
I do feel obligated to point out that the same is true of Uber drivers, and there have been Uber drivers prosecuted for rape, nonetheless.
Your "logic" isn't.
1. That's creepy.
2. Is Walmart willing to take on the liability for theft?
3. Dogs.
4. Dogs.
5. Dogs.
+1
#DeleteFacebook
My logic works, yours is broken. There have been all sorts of people prosecuted for rape. The thing is that this supposedly risky behavior is not more risky than pretty much anything else. You are not more likely to be raped because you let people in that are known to be coming to your house. The whole idea a completely irrational paranoia, which, incidentally, is one of the things that does make it more likely that you will be the victim of a crime.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You monitor app while waiting for delivery. App knows if anyone is home or not because of the cameras. When no one is home, NSA spooks arrive to take over your house. App sends loop of non-activity to your phone. NSA spooks leave right before delivery arrives. Normal app function resumes. And now they have transmitters inside your toothbrushes and your microwave is running spyware.
... my local H-E-B and Kroger stores are providing curbside pickup.
You go online and pick your items. They gather those up and store (see what I did there) them on shelves and in refrigerators in an add-on room and then park in a special spot so a handler can put them in your vehicle.
When Amazon buys its own delivery fleet ... it's game over.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
My family used a service like this, called Streamline, for years in the 2000's before they went bust. Streamline installed a garage door keypad opener and even provided a refrigerator in your garage. This gave them access to whatever was in your garage, sure; we never had a single issue. When they went bust they even let us keep the full size refrigerator!
I live in an older home built in the 1950s. It has a box on the side of the attached garage that can be opened from the outside or the inside; it was designed for the milkman delivery. If homes could be designed with a larger compartment, enough to contain a refrigerator, then this could work fine.
No. Way too many potential problems. No.
After all, what is the risk of the groceries delivery boy graping you in the mouth?
Ezekiel 23:20
"The whole idea a completely irrational paranoia"
Spoken like an idiot that has never hired a maid service.
Please, come back when you've actually tried these services and have been either ripped off or had criminal acts performed upon you before opening your mouth again.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Of course, I suppose they could just skyrocket your premiums, and increase your deductible, but otherwise I could all but guarantee that there is no way you'd ever see a single penny a theft claim if you were to come home and find your place had been robbed while also being a subscriber of this kind of service.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Well, fuck that. I mean, how fucking lazy can you be?
I'll wait until Walmart wants to deliver groceries straight to my mouth.
#DeleteFacebook
With concerns over finding healthy meals to make as opposed to instant meals, I always find the 'chore' in grocery shopping is figuring out what to buy and how much of it. Once you figure out what to buy, going and getting it is almost like a vacation away from home. So I don't really understand services like this.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Let me get this straight:
You want me to let Walmart employees ( who are among the lowest paid workers there are ) into my home which is full of things that might be of financial interest to such a person ? Are you insane ? Even WITH live camera surveillance, not a fucking chance.
This is a burglars wet dream. Get inside, take a peek to see if anything is worth the trouble and come back later ( or get your buddies to do it for alibi reasons ).
As for the " smart lock ", more nope on that. If you haven't learned anything else, you need to learn that if it's internet connected, it's a security issue waiting to happen.
When I was a boy we had a guy called a milkman that came a few times a week to deliver dairy. I remember friends had a guy that I think delivered fritos/pretzels etc. If I remember right I think bread got delivered too. But all that changed when these new fangled supermarkets became a thing because they were cheaper. Exactly how Walmart (king of cheap) plans to implement door to door delivery at a reasonable price baffles me. Either the food is literally going to be garbage, like the produce no one else wanted, or the price is not going to fit the walmart profile. Now whole paycheck, they might succeed. But then the delivery guy is going to have to double as a massage therapist so the customer can get what they get in the store.
I've hired maid services, contractors, plumbers, electricians, appliance delivery guys, dog sitters, plant waterers, and I'm sure many others - all of whom I've let into my house while I'm not there by giving them a key (or leaving a key for them and giving them instructions as to where I left the key). I've never been ripped off, raped, or burgled as a result.
And this service is absolutely no different than what I've just described - except by giving them a key to the lock, they could technically make a copy (or just take the key), and come back and rape, murder, and burgle me all night long, whereas with this, I'm able to see them enter, see them leave, and know that they can't get back into the house because they had a one-use code that allowed them in.
Seems like it's an improvement on a system that largely works just fine already without all the safeguards you think you need. Perhaps the issue is that you don't know how to hire reliable, reputable people to perform these services for you, while other people do.
Bullshit, you're just an AC posting an contra-comment. Just like I am. Watch:
I too have used a maid service and have had many things broken and ripped off.
See? Easy.
HAhahahahahahahaha! no way dudes, no way.
You are an idiot if you think that will stop a criminal. Mark my words, this plan of Walmart's WILL lead to thefts, assaults and rapes. It's just a matter of time.
I think how this is really going to work out will be some standard where your self piloted car will interact with robots at the store to pick up your order, drive back home, and then notify you when it arrives.
Anything more than what we have now with humans isn't worth the effort.
On the upside, Walmart employees will now be able to make a substantial secondary income by ratting you out to the police.
https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
While you and I won't allow this , look at society today. Plenty of morons who will fall for this , despite the security risks. Walmart will then get away paying minimum wage , eliminating the supply chain and make more profits.
Mind explaining to me how it is creepy and an invasion of privacy? As it is, when I order groceries, the guy comes into my house with the groceries. The only difference, here, is that I'm not home for it. But he's being recorded on camera, so... it's not like there's really going to be any problem to deal with.
I mean seriously, how fucking anti-social and terrified of the outside world do you have to be for you to think this is creepy or an invasion of privacy? Jesus fuck, god forbid you ever have a gardener, lawn-keeper, maid, babysitter, dog-walker, or any other sort of service at your home. You must be in a state of constant terror or something?!
Anyway, I've pretty much never gone grocery shopping in my adult life. Growing up, I remember my parents and grandparents would go to the grocery store every single week. Maybe twice a week. There was a chore of putting a list together. Then running it by the spouse. Then loading up and driving to the store, spending an hour or so at the store, waiting in like, packing things into the car, driving back, unloading everything and putting it away, then remembering you also forgot something and running to the local corner store to pay double or triple the price for those one or two other things.
For my whole adult life (20+ years), I've just ordered my groceries online in a few minutes, they show up at my door and bring it into the kitchen. It's not a big deal and has saved me so much hassle and time and grief over the years. And it's usually available in any reasonably sized city. I've lived in five cities in four states in 20+ years and always had at least one if not two or three major grocery chains that delievered in the area.
No you haven't.
I suspect that 80% of the "fresh innovations" out there are just attempts to hoover up VC cash. It's snake oil peddled to the massively wealthy who honestly don't have the foggiest idea about how the tech works (or its viability), but are perfectly willing in a world of low interest rates to take a punt on practically anything that sounds vaguely techy.
If I was a sociopath, I'd be out there myself selling bullshit "smartX" ideas to moron VC firms, then just going through the motions until the funding runs out. That's what is going on here.
The startups are as stupid as the VCs. What makes me sick now is that the rich are so fucking rich that they don't even care that half their investment ventures are pure bullshit. Instead of being taxed or investing their money in society they peddle it on absolutely ridiculous shit like Juicero. They might as well just set it on fire.
I can't remember where I read this, but some clever soul once noted that the majority of startups create services that used to be done by the (male) founders' mom. This certainly seems to be one of those ideas.
Why?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
When you are paranoid, you miss actual signs of danger, because your system is overloaded.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Ah, yes, one common sign of paranoia is the insistence of being perfectly rational in the face of overwhelming counterarguments. Have fun being afraid all the time for no good reason. Of course you can waste and destroy your own life any way you want.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Source? Other than yourass.com or thinair.org
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
wally world with their smashed eggs and moldy cheese... in my refrigerator?
I have been waiting for this. I want to get a new fully stocked fridge delivered every day ... ok fine week .. and it should have all the groceries I want.
Make it happen Amazon. Alexa, make it happen.
Thanks.
Look, this isn't an argument.
Yes, but you're insane.
This is great!. I can stay in my basement 2/47 now.
This is an old story; it's been in the news for months that Walmart and others will be using "drones" for these kinds of home deliveries.
Pay for my time to do a literature search and you will get sources...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Pay for my time to do a literature search and you will get sources...
Translation: "I am talking out of my ass"
yea like art thou kitten me ? its really not september fools day so its real ? ...
... well NO WAY i'm letting anyone deliver unless they frackin registered and accountable, and minus"noway" i let anyone into my house LMAO
... if anyone did that here the risk of being shot would be severe ... mostly eaten by dogs i suppose but still
they have a thing called 'wink' here too , recently they advertise that they are using "local drivers" to bring your groceries (its a delivery service used by several bigger chain stores) and i asked them what references these drivers had b/c as good as i agree with most of my neighbours, there's some inbreeds here i wouldnt trust within 30 foot of my food unless they were chained and gagged
but i dont they have that
i suppose thats the claim against uber too, right
maybe its an american things like that doors song where the backdoor man is allowed to eat your chicken
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
Nothing new did it all time in the UK
Welcome. To the 21st century America. . A little late. . . Wait for trump to nix it for the coal. Miners
Yes it is.
If people start doing this, that will increase the soft targets for burglars, and reduce the odds of them trying harder targets like my house.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.