Hacker News Reader

Comment by armchairhacker | Hacker News Reader

Seriously though, how does someone even come up with something this dumb? How does one go about thinking of and actually implementing this? How did the development process go through without someone interjecting "why the fuck are we spending $1000s on 6ft LEDs when we can just use glass?"

View on HN

I would imagine this is the kind of thing you'd commission if your job title was, say, chief innovation officer at a soft drinks company.

What else would you do?

Try yet again to make talking vending machines?

I think they are drink coolers without any moving parts (well I guess there's a compressor), not vending machines. I bet there are cameras everywhere and you're expected to self-checkout. Or just check-out at a counter.

I recently bought something with self-checkout at an appliance store, so not groceries. Grabbed a thing of a shelf, scanned it at a touch screen terminal, payed for it with my contactless payment ring and just walked out. No human contact whatsoever. If that isn't future then I don't know what it.

I'd probably try to experiment with weird ideas like unsweetened beverages, carbonated coffee, carbonated tea, carbonated oat milk, and bitter flavours like orange peel.

Too much bigclivelive from YouTube

try to find a artificial sweetener that was indistinguishable from sugar. That would be the holy grail for soft drinks.

I'm pretty sure they've been trying, but our bodies have evolved to distinguish actual sugar from anything else for a very long time.

That would be left-handed sugar. Chemically identical, tastes exactly the same, fully indigestible.

The only downside is the diarrhea. :p

Most people are incredibly dumb. This includes the rich and powerful; most of them just happened to be lucky enough to be born in the right place, at the right time.

Some bean counter came up with the idea that they have a captive audience which they can force to watch ads.

I think this is one of the stupidest things I’ve seen. But to be honest, I won’t be surprised if this actually increases revenue since people are going to buy what they buy and it’s not like they will go to another store due to this.

I think I would go to another store due to this. I think that non-HN type people like my dad or my mom would probably go to another store due to this.

Not being able to see what's behind the glass makes it take longer to shop. People abandon webpages that don't load quickly enough - why wouldn't they abandon stores where you have to open each door on an aisle of refrigerators just to see what's available?

The door clearly shows what's on offer.

If everything works perfectly, if there are no bugs (like, y'know, the failed one in the pictures in TFA), if it correctly tracks inventory, and if the pictures that they use match what people are looking for... then it might work. In reality, it will not.

Recently, I ordered some hardware at Lowes for pick-up at customer service. The website said they had like 80 of these things in stock. I got a call an hour later from a worker saying they couldn't fill the order, though they could try it at another store. Apparently, the website's idea of their inventory, and the actual inventory haven't matched for any products since last summer. I expect this to be the case more often than not for these coolers.

Unless it's on an ad break.

Because changing stores is not as easy as clicking away from websites. This could be due to choice of items that are available, price, distance from home/office and so on. And, not to forget inertia/habits. Also, what’s behind those doors is only a part of the shopping list.

I think most people will be annoyed, curse it, and then get used to it.

I would love to be proven wrong since this is not the direction we should be going.

I probably wouldn’t change stores. But these drinks are impulse buys. I’d be a lot less likely to impulse buy one if I can’t actually see the product.

This is what happens when you let your world be taken over by marketing and insurance companies.

Perhaps it's for quickly updating the price tags for items inside refrigerators? E-Ink tags are ubiquitous but often handle low temperatures poorly.

A simple green and black lcd is fine for prices.

Because advertisements.

Ads.

You can also see cameras and IR blasters on the top of each door for facial tracking.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com