Pooper – Your dog's poop in someone else's hands | Hacker News Reader

Pooper – Your dog's poop in someone else's hands

pooperapp.com

I know the majority of dog owner are conscientious and that the actions of a few irresponsible ones are giving the rest a bad name, but I'll be disappointed if people start caring even less about where they leave dog poop. The entire marketing plan here is suggesting you can pay for the right to not be responsible.

I like dogs a lot, but I don't like it when people let their dogs poop on my lawn, even when they scoop immediately. I have kids too, and they play on the lawn. I don't make a stink about it (pun intended) but I'd certainly prefer to not have my lawn pooped on at all, given the choice.

People who don't like dog poop enough to pay to not have to touch it might be better off not getting dogs. An app probably won't be able to save you from ever having to scoop at your own house, right?

You're going to get a lot of dirty looks from people when you walk away leaving your poop there. I have the nicest lawn on the block (artificial grass) and at least once a week I get a nasty surprise from a careless dog owner so I'd be skeptical if you told me some pooper as a service app was coming to pick it up later.

yeah, seems like dangerous idea.

Pooper may very well want you (or your neighbors) to be customers as well, instead of just the dog owner. There are neighborhoods in my city that are wealthy enough and have enough public land that I can imagine people using this app on their walks just to have a cleaner neighborhood.

Also, in places like NYC where not picking up after your dog is actually illegal, you could have a very interesting time trying to explain to a cop that someone is going to come right away to clean up after your dog. And in the time it takes Pooper to arrive, someone may have already stepped in it, so employing Pooper shouldn't exempt you from getting a fine for the violation.

I'm finding it hard to see how such a business could scale up. If you have a car (which you'd probably need to be able to collect poop quickly over a large area), driving for Uber would probably be a more pleasant and better-paying job. How could Pooper compete for all the employees needed to run this labor-intensive business?

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