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Comment by david38 | Hacker News Reader

Weight is the simplest by far. 50,

Otherwise, build a box, and the smallest box that fit the pumpkin determines its size.

I wonder if they run into issues selling by weight. Customers are usually paying more for the visual size, not however much water a particular item has in it.

Does the weight increase linearly with size? If it’s especially hollow, probably not, while an especially large and hollow pumpkin may be uncommon and should be sold for a high price.

Edit: I guess a better question would be, can you predict desirable carving qualities and visual size accurately as a function of pumpkin weight?

FWIW: Selling by weight seems to be common (and quick) in Minnesota.

Take a "sample" of pumpkins, weigh them, have the humans write down their prices and fit a pumpkin weight -> price model. A pumpkin is sort of a hollow shell if you discount the weight of the goop inside, so the weight should increase with the square of the diameter.

Weight is beautifully simple, but the process of unloading 100lbs of pumpkin to be weighted & loading them back in your cart might be a significant driver of the queue latency.

Grocery stores pipeline the unloading & loading steps.

Just roll the wheelbarrow right over an in-floor scale! Subtract the wheelbarrow's own weight, which can be printed on the wheelbarrow itself. Or for something more high tech, put a QR code on the wheelbarrow and you can periodically update its empty weight in the database when it's empty and scan it at checkout.

This is basically how it works at my local landscaping store where they sell gravel by weight.

That wheel barrow is probably half full of water bottles, coats, and whatever other random crap the kids needed. Probably a kid in there too!

I’ve sold pumpkins on a farm before. It’s a social experience where you pay for the pumpkin “ticket” at the end.

Whole families dress up for the experience. People love being in a pumpkin patch and searching for their favorite pumpkin. They love doing it with their family. They enjoy the risk of wheeling them and guessing how much they weigh.

And the farm makes more money when they grow heavier pumpkins.

This isn’t an activity to be taken so seriously.

Scales and measurement aren’t really necessary. I could eyeball and wobble a pumpkin very quickly and give a fair price. But then I am having all the fun, not the customer.

Put the tech into making it a better experience!

Oh is that tractor pulling a wagon? Got to go!

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