Yeah just put them right outside the super walmart
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2 ex-Google guys secure venture capital, re-invent vending machines
- Thread starter The Technomancer
- Start date
Yeah just put them right outside the super walmart
Zoe
Member
Products don't have to be put in slots, and you never have to worry about something not coming out properly.
I could see a variation of this working well in company break rooms.
Japan has some pretty advanced vending machines that sell some pretty big items.
I'm not sure if vending machines exist that sell 12 packs of toilet paper, but I know I have personally bought like giant 2 liter beer cans with handles.
ClosingADoor
Member
Looks easy to plunder. One drunk guy and your fancy vending machine is broken and all your stuff gone.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
This is also basically their anecdote pitch yeah, literally "put people in contact with products more so they are more likely to buy"
Yeah, I hate this for a lot of reasons. For one, this is just a vending machine. A vending machine accomplishes everything this does. It's just a sleeker, more high-concept version of something that already exists. Which is fine, enough, I suppose, but...
This doesn't compete with a real bodega. For one, a bodega's selection would cream this thing. There are five corner stores within four blocks of me, and even the smallest of them has 5X the products this thing has. Any hot food? Hot coffee?
Boo.
EDIT: After reading some other replies, I will admit, yes, this does have value for more rural/suburban areas that don't have access to corner stores.
This doesn't compete with a real bodega. For one, a bodega's selection would cream this thing. There are five corner stores within four blocks of me, and even the smallest of them has 5X the products this thing has. Any hot food? Hot coffee?
Boo.
EDIT: After reading some other replies, I will admit, yes, this does have value for more rural/suburban areas that don't have access to corner stores.
kitschykitty
Member
Bigger items might need more involvement from the consumer which I don't think this would fulfill well. Can I read the instructions or nutritional info on any of this, or if I pick it up do I have to buy it? If I can put it back couldn't I just take the bag of cereal out of the box and put the box back?
It's a concept that hasn't had its optimism beaten out of it by the real world yet.
It's a concept that hasn't had its optimism beaten out of it by the real world yet.
Zoe
Member
But are those giant beer cans sitting next to a box of tampons?
Dr. Feel Good
Banned
This can work in specific areas. College campus, music festivals, the beach, etc. where there is limited competition and consumers are in a bind. but in high density public areas I think they need to be concerned of vandalism and way too much competition nearby... I mean a 7-11 would offer all of these things at likely a lower price.
The Amazon Go store seems more like the actual model of the future, but that is an extremely high up front cost that requires a large existing customer base.
The Amazon Go store seems more like the actual model of the future, but that is an extremely high up front cost that requires a large existing customer base.
parrotbeak
Member
It's more efficient because all the profit goes to Silicon Valley execs instead of small business owners in your community.
Silicon Valley was a mistake
This is a much smarter idea i would actually use cos often i don't have the nessecary coins in my pocket
This is a much smarter idea i would actually use cos often i don't have the nessecary coins in my pocket
Most cities don't have the ubiquity of corner bodegas plus 24/7 Duane Reades found in the boroughs. It's certainly not everywhere you go in the rest of the country.
Dumping one of these things in the lobby of apartment buildings in other primary, secondary, or tertiary cities outside of NYC would theoretically offer an easy method of filling the emergency "out of _____" need without having to hop in your car and head to a grocer with late-night hours.
I doubt it's a profitable model given the limited selection, presumably high mark-ups, etc, but I get the idea.
Dumping one of these things in the lobby of apartment buildings in other primary, secondary, or tertiary cities outside of NYC would theoretically offer an easy method of filling the emergency "out of _____" need without having to hop in your car and head to a grocer with late-night hours.
I doubt it's a profitable model given the limited selection, presumably high mark-ups, etc, but I get the idea.
Oh, well there you go then!
Hmmm, good point. Is the super Walmart open 24/7? Cus there was an ASDA that was 24/7 in my Uni town; but it was a little out of the way.
I'd stick them in the uni kids dorms or something.
See I'd be outraged about this but I know for a fact it'd work on me.
I can see buying microwave popcorn by the packet when you have the odd craving at work. But on a day by day basis? Cheaper to get a box
Zoe
Member
But then you're constrained by the size.
Er... it's definitely happened to me.
not to mention it's always nice to talk to and get to know the clerk / owner
Haunted
Member
This already exists, just not as a centralized organization.
Exactly.
The most hilarious part to me, is that they are asking to be able to install these not as a shared investment with the property owner (like vending machines) but as an amenity. Essentially, they are trying to make 100% of the profits even though they are utilizing someone else's property. Which to me seems...all kinds of arrogant.
Exactly.
The most hilarious part to me, is that they are asking to be able to install these not as a shared investment with the property owner (like vending machines) but as an amenity. Essentially, they are trying to make 100% of the profits even though they are utilizing someone else's property. Which to me seems...all kinds of arrogant.
Startup types always throw this shit around. I used to work for a place that was developing a machine that sold stuff too, and it was actually coming along pretty well. But the higher-ups always threw stupid ass company goals at everyone like "sell 50,000 machines by the end of the year" or "sign 100 companies as new customers by the end of the year" when development was nowhere near ready to sell and maintain machines in large scale deployments in the first place, and wouldn't be ready for years. It's just that executives like to impose fucking stupid goals on everyone, ignore reality, and call it leadership.
It's a bunch of happy dreamland bullshit that executives like to spout to the public because it sounds nice, all while the workers look at it and shake their heads because they know there's no way any of that is happening.
And of course, when it doesn't actually happen, it's the workers who get fired first.
YuriLowell
Member
Can't wait until people just steal the entire machine.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
The suburban idea is an interesting one because there's a tension at the heart of their model. If they want to customize them heavily they'll have a diverse array of products, but if you have a truck driving around a spread out suburban community every day you want it to carry a large quantity of a limited number of things so its not running out of stock
You would basically need an Amazon like central warehouse with everything that dispatches custom trucks every da-oh god
You would basically need an Amazon like central warehouse with everything that dispatches custom trucks every da-oh god
old manatee
Banned
I've got a silicon valley startup I'm trying to get off the ground. It's called LMND STND. For generations children have been setting up half-assed lemonade stands all over the country, but no more.
My idea is to lobby the government and use eminent domain to secure just a 2 foot by 2 foot patch of land from every property with a house on it. Then we will install a locker right out by everyone's mailbox that has shitty little cups of lemonade in it. A camera that is being powered by computer vision will keep track of how many shitty cups of lemonade you drink and conveniently charge your credit card. The logo is a brother and his little sister sitting behind a card table.
My idea is to lobby the government and use eminent domain to secure just a 2 foot by 2 foot patch of land from every property with a house on it. Then we will install a locker right out by everyone's mailbox that has shitty little cups of lemonade in it. A camera that is being powered by computer vision will keep track of how many shitty cups of lemonade you drink and conveniently charge your credit card. The logo is a brother and his little sister sitting behind a card table.
I don't think this would ever work here unless they were only inside existing shops with security, and then what is the point?
There are no vending machines in public places because drunk people either attack, piss or throw up on them, or all three.
Plus it would be super easy to steal stuff by waiting for someone to unlock it and then just running up and grabbing everything.
There are no vending machines in public places because drunk people either attack, piss or throw up on them, or all three.
Plus it would be super easy to steal stuff by waiting for someone to unlock it and then just running up and grabbing everything.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I think you should rebrand to Lemonadely
I'll take my consulting check now please
Shutupandtakemymoney.jpg
Throw in some shit about cloud connectivity and a mobile app.
You'll have investors throwing themselves all over you.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Heh, this is quite funny. I've actually looked into the vending machine market, and there's way too many variations that already exists to consider this a start-up. From vending machines that can accept all hot, cold and room temperature food/beverages, to vending machines that take large product and acts like a simple locker with weight scales calculating how much product is taken and left, and billing you once you close the door, etc etc.
Just too many variations to try to reinvent a saturated market.
Just too many variations to try to reinvent a saturated market.
I agree that this is a bad idea, but you do know you just effectively described an ideal capitalist scenario right?
An alternative that I've seen and experienced in Bogota is the ability get nearly anything delivered. Phone up X shop and some dude will turn up soon enough on a moped with your requested item. I was at a dentist for a check up and he ordered a bottle of coke which arrived about five minutes later.
Maybe, but if they can make it until driverless cars become widespread their costs are gonna go way down.
They could implement one of these
Basically, it hooks up to the cameras and the app, if the camera notices you walking away outside the green bordered "Purchase area" (2x2 feet) without having logged into the app to pay it will automatically taser you and call the police
Moose Biscuits
It would be extreamly painful...
So the money goes to a smaller group of people, so when we all get made redundant by machines then there are fewer heads to lop off and fewer houses to ransack?
That does sound more efficient!
I was going to say. If it's unmanned what stops someone going down and unplugging it and busting it open with a slim jim?
My work has an unmanned vending area taking up a corner and includes refrigerated stuff. There are 6 cameras pointed at everything and in the middle is the checkout sounds like the same concept. No idea what the shrinkage is for what they have but its been there for 4 years. So essentially, they have is a vending machine for stuff that cant fit in a vending machine
Nah man, sometimes you're just wrecked or anxious or whatever and just want to get your food and go.
When I'm depressed af and buying a pizza, a six pack of beer and a ton of chocolate I don't wanna interact with humans.
victreeb3l
Member
I've used a few vending machines in Switzerland that accepted Apple Pay and it was such a great experience.
VeryGooster
Banned
Leave the bodegas alone, you fucking leeches.
My doctor's office has a refrigerator that was retrofitted into being a vending machine. The sodas are almost frozen, the prefect temp
A lot of tech types think they can take things in everyday life and make it ~better~. They have some tech they think is cool, so they want to shoehorn it into everything.
Think a business entrepreneur version of a kid adding lens flares to everything because he just found the lens flare tool in Photoshop.