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Amazon Stops Selling Press-to-Order Dash Buttons (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-road dept.

Amazon's physical Dash buttons are no more. The e-commerce giant has stopped selling its tap-to-order Dash buttons as of February 28th. From a report: If you still proudly use a Dash button (or a few dozen), don't worry: Amazon plans to continue supporting new orders through existing Dash buttons so long as the public keeps using them. So what killed the Dash button's future? Well, by Amazon's telling, the device was a victim of its own success, since it helped nudge forward the concept of the connected home to what it is today. Daniel Rausch, an Amazon vice president who helped grow the Dash program from its start, said that back in early 2015, when the Dash button first came out, there were far fewer options for connected home gadgets. Amazon workers were trying to figure out a way "to make shopping disappear" for grocery list items like paper towels and printer ink and whatever else is pretty not-fun to go out and buy, Rausch said.

46 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Not-fun-to-buy? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    WTF

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  2. What a stupid idea that was by ReneR · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Who freaking brought / used this sh1t anyway? The only useful thing I could think about is a dash button for toilet paper, but otherwise, coffee beans?

    1. Re:What a stupid idea that was by aicrules · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why is toilet paper a meaningful use case for you and not anything else you buy regularly? It is equivalent to writing something on your shopping list, but instead of having to remember to do that and then wait till you're actually at the store, you just push a button and it ends up on your doorstep a couple days later. Toilet paper, laundry detergent, toothpaste, trash bags, dish soap, just go through your place of residence and think about all the things you buy repeatedly and it could be used for that. Doesn't mean it was a great method, but if you see it useful for one item, you probably would have found use for it on many items.

    2. Re:What a stupid idea that was by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 1

      OK, let's say I use these buttons. If I do this for a lot of my consumables, where do I put all those buttons? I can see soft-buttons on the amazon page, but actual physical buttons? IMHO, no wonder they quit.

    3. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly, a better solution is a house wide voice assistant.

      Hey Alexa/Google/whatever, reminder me to get . The next time you are at the store your phone gives you a notification to get . I did this years ago with Google Now why are we pushing buttons like in some game for babies.

    4. Re:What a stupid idea that was by mccalli · · Score: 1

      I did. I used it for razors and for dog dental sticks. I would always forget I needed them, so I placed the buttons right next to the slot I stored razors, and right above where I stored the dental sticks. In both cases buying online was cheaper than the shops*, in part because I always bought the largest pack of dog dental sticks available which many local shops didn't carry.

      They were, and are still, handy.

      * I'm aware of the holy wars it's possible to get into over razor blade choice. Suffice it to say I was happy wit my choice, and it was cheaper online to get the blades associated with that choice.

    5. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly, a better solution is a house wide voice assistant.

      Hey Alexa/Google/whatever, reminder me to get . The next time you are at the store your phone gives you a notification to get . I did this years ago with Google Now why are we pushing buttons like in some game for babies.

      Because the button doesn't require me to bug my own house.

    6. Re:What a stupid idea that was by lgw · · Score: 1

      You are right, it's a stupid idea....

      however, I know many people who bought these and hacked them to be used home automation buttons. Buttons that controlled switches, lights, scenes, routines, etc.

      I wouldn't be surprised if more people bought them for this purpose than what they really were meant for.

      Amazon's IOT team actually gave away a shitton of generic buttons at trade shows, to get people interested in using these buttons for home automation.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    7. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I buy dozens, maybe hundreds of different items on a regular basis. Really, separate buttons for all of them? I think not.

    8. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Solandri · · Score: 1

      The better way to do this, is to create a list of household consumables. Every couple weeks when you happen to be shopping on Amazon, you go down the list and buy any items you're running short of. No need to write down a new list, or remember to add an item to your list, or get a button to push (which your kid starts pushing over and over when he finds it and thinks it's a toy). If the list is smart, it'll auto-sort itself so recently-ordered items automatically get moved to the bottom of the list.

      Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't make it easy to do this. You can create a list with them, but when you order an item it gets removed from your list. I've had to do it with a task list on my phone (since those don't get deleted after you check an item as completed). It's a list of a bunch of stuff I buy at regular intervals. I check an item off as completed when I buy it. Every couple weeks I go through the list of "completed tasks" and uncheck stuff I need to buy again. That way the list serves not just as a reminder of what I need to buy, but also a reminder of what I might need to add to the need to buy list.

    9. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The only way I see a button for toilet paper being useful is if pressing the button got some delivered to the door of your bathroom in the next 5 minutes.

      But I've never really had the issue of completely running out of toilet paper.

    10. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ha ha, oh wow, did you just suggest an overlap exists between dashbutton users and privacy enthusiasts?

      Please, go on, my Friday is dragging on and I could use the laughs: Describe in your words what you think incognito mode accomplishes.

    11. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Thrakkerzog · · Score: 1

      They made an IoT button as well, which was quite a bit more flexible.

    12. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I was thinking that if someone went through paper towels that fast that the best thing to change in their lifestyle wasn't the ability to buy them more conveniently.

    13. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      But there seem to be so few items that one typically goes though so much faster than other items that makes it worth having such a silly device. Add to that the tendency of Amazon to separate orders into as many shipments as possible resulting in immense waste. It would be better perhaps for a monthly shipment that you could easily tweak (overloaded on toothpaste so uncheck the box).

      Overall though it would be much better if people would just head to the store. The idea of there being only a single retailer in the world with people never leaving their homes is most certainly not a utopia. It may be nice for those who are shut in and unable to easily leave the house, but when I see otherwise fully fit and toned hipsters with piles of Amazon packages on their doorsteps while the stores down the street are closing down, it's a bad omen for civilization.

    14. Re:What a stupid idea that was by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      And then during the next week you get 12 different Amazon boxes on your step, all packaged in boxes far bigger than are necessary. I suspect their garbage pickup has to come multiple times a week just to handle the trash. It would be better to just mark the items down in your phone and then push a "buy it all now" button later on when you have a full order. If you're in an emergency then head down to the local drugstore (and walk, it'll do you some good).

    15. Re:What a stupid idea that was by rthille · · Score: 1

      For almost all of my dash buttons, I placed a single order, to get the cost of the dash-button back on a product I would have ordered anyway. Though, just yesterday I did place a 2nd order for AAA rechargeable batteries. Not sure if the kids are losing them, or I'm just replacing non-rechargeable with rechargeable.

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  3. Re:install an always listening microphone instead by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    I think the "subscription" model is the replacement. For some things, it makes sense. For others, I expect they will want people to use Alexa.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  4. Never understood those by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least with a subscription, you get a chance to review prices and see if you want to go through with it.

    Seriously, press a button and get it sent to you at some random current price?

    1. Re:Never understood those by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These are not for the type of people who care about prices. Seems to be more and more, since many are also happy to pay a premium for someone else to pick up their Taco Bell for them.

    2. Re:Never understood those by pz · · Score: 2

      At least with a subscription, you get a chance to review prices and see if you want to go through with it.

      Seriously, press a button and get it sent to you at some random current price?

      Not just that, but suppose I see we're low on toilet paper. I push the button. Later in the day, my wife also sees we're low. Push the button. Then the next morning, my oldest child sees we're low. Push the button. Then my youngest child, watching everyone push the button wants to do the same. So now we have four orders for the same thing before the first delivery arrives?

      I've not acquired a Dash button, so I have to think that the engineers at Amazon figured out how to prevent this scenario that would clearly lead to elimination (or destruction) of the button and substantial dissatisfaction from multiple customers.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    3. Re:Never understood those by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      Or have a kid walk up and press the button multiple times.

      I know they said they had protections to prevent a child from ordering 100 cases of toilet paper, but how robust were they? Would they allow an order of toilet paper to be sent every week just because the child pushed the button?

      At least, I can prevent my kids from accessing Amazon on my smartphone/tablet/computer and can order whatever I need there.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    4. Re:Never understood those by RLaager · · Score: 1

      I don't have one, but when I looked at them before, Amazon said it won't place a second order until the first order is delivered. Also, you get a notification of the order, so you also have the option to cancel it.

    5. Re:Never understood those by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      So instead of the cat merely playing with the toilet paper roll and leaving it all through the house, the cat figures out how to order a hundred rolls of the stuff to be delivered the next day.

    6. Re:Never understood those by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I actually think there are a lot of twenty-somethings who think that as long as there's some money leftover in the paychecks that it should be spent. And I think this has been true for several generations. Amazon and Uber are just the modern ways to be naive about finances.

    7. Re:Never understood those by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Who reads their email that often? No wait, don't tell me, I probably don't want to know.

  5. Dash, meet Alexa by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real problem here is simply that a Dash button gives you one less reason to consider an Alexa device.

    So, goodby Dash.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Dash, meet Alexa by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Yeah, why have one general purpose IoT device rather than two dozen single-purpose IoT devices? Heaven forbid I change the WPA2 key.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:Dash, meet Alexa by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Yeah, why have one general purpose IoT device rather than two dozen single-purpose IoT devices?

      Wy indeed, I guess you'd rather have one internet connected microphone than ten dumb button-only units...

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. Re:very limited selection by MightyYar · · Score: 2

    flavor of laundry detergent

    Please don't eat the Tide pods.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  7. The Dash button needed an e-Ink display... by ctilsie242 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Dash button desperately needed an E-ink display. That way, it would be easy to tell what product the button is used for, and Amazon wouldn't be stuck with Dash buttons which people were not buying. Plus, it would give the advantage of being able to be used with products people did want to buy.

    1. Re:The Dash button needed an e-Ink display... by pz · · Score: 1

      ... and could be used to show the current price of the thing you're going to order to correct its biggest shortcoming.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  8. This wuz all planned! by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Riight - it has nothing to do with them being ruled illegal in Germany (and then inevitably by the EU...)
    https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

    1. Re:This wuz all planned! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The button itself is not illegal. The headline is wrong.
      The praxis to exchange the "programmed product" by a similar one is illegal. E.g. you have set it up to give you toilet paper of brand A and they send you some of brand B ... that is illegal.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  9. Wait... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Funny

    My Dash button is set up to order more Dash buttons.

    Now I'm going to be stuck with a useless brick.

    1. Re:Wait... by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Well obviously the public stopped using them. All you can order is cheese, laundry detergent, trash bags, and the like. Someone in marketing needs to be fired because they missed the market for this. The need dash buttons for beer, pizza, weed, Cheetos, hookers and blow. Network them, push three buttons and hooker shows up with a pizza, and a bag of weed. That is where the market is. The might need to make the buttons bigger for the beer and weed ones.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  10. Re:Good by Topmounter · · Score: 1

    Amazon's dash buttons never made any sense to me anyway. Apparently I'm not the only one.

  11. Single Item Per Button by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I liked the idea of simply being able to reorder as needed, but the fact they were like $10/button and only served 1 product always put me off. Before they came out I thought of a similar product, like barcode reader, that could sit in closets or pantries where you could scan the barcode from the item you were out of and it would add it to your shopping list. These buttons removed the list idea and conveniently ordered it right away, but were locked into the brand, size of packaging (24 count vs 36 count), and variety (e.g. no other scents or colors) for the button you bought. If it had a reader and screen, you could scan the item, pick amongst what Amazon is currently offering, and then buy it. That way if you wanted a smaller size, or were brand-agnostic and wanted a cheaper price, it would allow it.

    1. Re:Single Item Per Button by Local+ID10T · · Score: 2

      That functionality is built into the "Amazon Shopping" app for your cell phone.

      --
      "You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
    2. Re:Single Item Per Button by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the advent of the smartphone and its apps largely makes the idea irrelevant today. When I was thinking about such a device it was pre-smartphone adoption, but now is pretty quaint with all the things apps can do.

  12. Banned in Germany... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

    I'm sure being banned by regulators in Germany a couple of months or so ago had absolutely no influence on this decision.

  13. Hacked / Alexa by Darkk · · Score: 1

    The fact these buttons can be hacked to serve a different purpose makes it a moot point for Amazon. So killing it stops the $$ bleeding for Amazon and push for Alexa.

  14. Good idea, lazy implementation by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 2

    The Dash buttons were a good idea, leave them near the items you want to replenish and just hit the button when you notice you're running low.

    Unfortunately the button places an order immediately and doesn't handle multiple presses gracefully. There was no way to configure the thing with a maximum quantity to order, no way to hold orders for manual review and no way to specify what day you wanted your items to be delivered. The lack of features greatly limited the usefulness of the device.

  15. Re:install an always listening microphone instead by H_Fisher · · Score: 1
    I don't understand why this isn't getting modded up; I'd do it if I had points.

    Marketing MBA and data analytics guy here. Completely putting aside any privacy or security implications from hacking, no way in hell am I putting one of these listening devices into my home, to give marketers (like me, admittedly) one more avenue into ways to segment and profile me.

  16. Re:install an always listening microphone instead by reboot246 · · Score: 2

    The subscription model has a fatal flaw, but Amazon likes it. If you subscribe to buy a product on a regular basis, the price can go way high between one purchase and the next. I've read too many horror stories about people getting a nasty surprise when the cost of their toilet paper or laundry detergent nearly doubled.

  17. Amazon by sadafba786 · · Score: 1

    To maximize the power of your product listing , ensure that the negative reviews or the complete lack of reviews is taken care of on your listing page. Both are equally lethal!