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Comment by wityak | Hacker News Reader

This is essentially a vending machine, but more importantly, and the reason it cannot replicate the NYC bodega experience... no cat.

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No cat, no bags of ice, no limes, no beer and no deli sandwiches - calling this vending machine "Bodega" when it doesn't have the staples of a bodega is offensive to my new york sensibilities.

And the owners don't robbed at gunpoint every few months.

Sorry, a high school friend's family owned a bodega in Bushwick before it was "gentrified." That's the main thing I remember about their business.

MVP. of course you can add a fridge and an alcohol locker that only unlocks depending on your age.

or no illegal slot machines. an East Village bodega used to poker and slot machine behind a curtain. not sure if they still do. around 2003.

This would be a vending machine if it was able to gate people from taking things they didn't pay for. This is just a cabinet. What stops people from completely clearing this thing out, without paying for anything?

"An app will allow you to unlock the box and cameras powered with computer vision will register what you’ve picked up, automatically charging your credit card."

From the second paragraph of the article.

"A hammer will allow you to unlock the unattended box and remove all the contents before anyone can be alerted that the box has been vandalized".

This sounds very exploitable.

* Fake account via throw away mail service * Block camera lens to blind computer vision with gum * Steal all the things

Bound to a credit card, so you have a name. Maybe even 20$ min charge, of which 10$ are profit. So if 80$ stuff gets stole you have 70$ loss and a you can file criminal charge.

You have the name of a person who was mugged a couple blocks away and had their physical credit cards stolen. Good luck filing that charge.

If they get robbed 70$ for every muggery in the area, you can avoid the worst areas and than it's all not too bad.

And if you have a stolen credit card, do you use it for 70$ worth of chips and nail-polish? I'd think there as more to get in any normal store.

I'll update my comp from vending machine to hotel mini-bar.

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