Vending machine startup hopes to put bodegas out of business

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/14/vending-machine-startup-hopes.html

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Christ what assholes with their late stage capatalism.

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so…this thing like…mines my data, stores it on a central apple cloud and gets hacked by someone looking for nudez, and in return, I get a bag of stale chips…

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I’m calling the Poe Police; I can’t work out if this is in contravention of Poe’s Law.

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That’s because they likely don’t intend to actually build and market these things. This has all the smell of VC bait designed to attract investors so McDonald and Rajan can get a nice payday.

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I’m pretty sure when silicon valley incorporates as an independent nation state, that motto will be emblazoned on their gates.

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You know what would really redeem this? If they convert it to a pharmacy, and sell Martin Shkreli drugs at generic prices.

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Reminds me of that luxury transit service SF had a couple of years ago.

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Sooner or later shit like this is going to finally show people why we need socialism.

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There’s no way this can fail. How do I invest my life savings?

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So, once it connects to my app (and credit card) I’m holding the bag for anything that comes out until it locks again? Is that how it works? I’m assuming it must have a camera running all the time to prevent people from just looting it, too. So not only does it hurt small business owners, threaten community cohesion and displace cats, it cuts out anyone who doesn’t have a smart phone and credit card from buying necessities nearby, and opens those who do up to all kinds of fraudulent charges? Plus I’m being watched every time I walk by one?

Sounds… great…

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I don’t wind what is the main difference with a vending machine that has a POS or a coin slot. Like these Made in Italy for pharmaceuticals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNHHRdFF4po

or for raw milk

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If you don’t like it, don’t use it.

Sitting behind a counter and handing people change is not exactly an exalting activity, particularly if you have the ambition to offer goods 24/7. Automating this is hardly a hit to our collective humanity.

The problem with vanishing opportunities for low-skill workers is real and needs to be addressed, but this invention is at best a tiny symptom of the coming change.

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The problem as abuyet is that having to use a smartphone instead of coins or even a chip-and-pin POS is way more cumbersome. As I have stated automated vending machines are a mature technology, and some hof these have a system to communicate remotely if need restocking or there’s a failure, with a SMS

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I think you’re eliding the whole having a middle class concern and a community.

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Are they actually able to trademark or copyright such a ubiquitous term? Bodega?

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People are trademarking hashtags, and no one seems to be saying no. It’s rampant. #PillagingTheIntellectualCommons

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Will these machines vend Juicero packets?

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I am not. But the solution does not lie in spitting at the machines. US society is set up in way which offers no possibility of halting deployment of new profitable technology. So you need to solve the resulting problems in some other way.

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Is that a problem? It will either work or it won’t. It will either be convenient for the customer of it won’t. If it is - success. If it isn’t, it will crash and burn.

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