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Comment by solatic | Hacker News Reader

#1 probably is solvable. In a warehouse, before the meat is packaged, take a 360 degree photo of the portion, and tie the photo to a unique identifier for that portion of meat. Users browse through all the portions in an app, pick the one they want, and that's the one which gets picked off the line and sent to them.

The real problem with that is Goodhart's Law. If you measure for visual appearance, you'll start targeting visual appearance, and the pressures which led suppliers and farmers to value large but flavorless product will only get worse.

The best solution for consumers is a simple weight measurement, and a focus on speeding up logistics to keep the product as fresh as possible. Amazon is uniquely situated to win the logistics game, but it'll take time.

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You're forgetting the object is 3-D so it needs a much bigger picture (3282.8 degrees?), a firmness rating, a yet-to-be invented smell-o-vision attribute AND a complete update every hour.

Perfection is the enemy of good...

A picture would probably go 80% of the way there for most folks.

For packaged goods, maybe. Have you ever watched how people pick out specific apples from the bin? Do you ever sniff the package of raw chicken before you put it in your cart? Have you ever seen somebody tapping on a melon before buying it? Buying perishable foods is a sensory experience which cannot be easily mimicked.

I've never seen anyone sniff packaged raw chicken. I find the thought hilarious. Do you demand to sniff the meat when you go to a butcher? As for the other examples, supermarkets throw away so much that basically everything left is uniform. You get more variety at markets but even then the wastage is sadly high.

I take it you don't shop for perishables, much?

If you're going to a butcher, you should expect 4 star meat since you're paying 4 star prices. A butcher that sells questionable product probably won't be around for too long.

Whereas the chicken breast on special at the local Whole Foods may look fine but have a dodgy smell indicating that it's not as fresh as it may seem. Your nose will let you know if there's a lot of e. coli growing on that chicken.[0]

And no, everything on the shelf is not uniform. Watch how people buy fresh produce. Blemished produce gets put back.

[0]http://www.greatlakesbiotech.org/news/2017/6/4/the-smell-of-...

That doesn't make sense. You have them cut it, ask to smell it, then give it back to wrap it?

Actually yes, a good butcher will offer you a chance to inspect the cut before packaging it, definitely including smell as an option. (Though arguably the things people smell for, you can often smell as it is being cut, without needing that much proximity.) Some of the higher end butchers even let you touch it (with gloves) if that helps you be satisfied with your cut.

Late reply - my point still stands, I've never seen anyone sniff chicken in a supermarket. Whether you do or not, doesn't mean everyone else does. Practically, no one does.

Sorry, but most people don't care. You can pretend they do, but they don't. get out of your box and stop trying to sell to yourself.

Ever eat a freshly peeled, juicy, brown banana? What about a soft, mushy, bruised apple?

Me neither.

Those aren't the options, but nice attempt at a strawman...

> #1 probably is solvable. In a warehouse, before the meat is packaged, take a 360 degree photo of the portion, and tie the photo to a unique identifier for that portion of meat.

So, pick your meat yourself based off of old photos of the meat?

I think it's safe to presume that the cut won't change just because it's packaged.

Or have the person doing the grocery shopping live stream themselves in first person with the option to ping the recipient if there are any decision points that need attention.

That sounds horrible for everyone ... the shopper, customer, and everyone else in the store.

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