the unstoppable local-biz-swallowing pseudo-monopoly that is AMAZON

why can't they detect your phone? i can jump on a bus and watch myself be driven down a road on GPS. if im playing Pokemon Go at a stoplight and the car starts, the app immediately warns me about playing while driving. people even pay for stuff these days using their phone. they don't need to be super creepy, they can just detect phones.

not buying the "no product IDs" line. if that were true you could just steal all that shit and they would have no way of knowing

they do detect your phone--I don't think you can get in the store without waving it at something. And sure maybe they're lying about the product IDs but then why else would they have hundreds of cameras watching everything? The push to make your face your most important form of ID has already started with the new iphone, unlocking yr Facebook account with a selfie, etc.

i don't think you should be able to unlock your phone until you've made a competent photogravure of a body part (doesn't matter whose)

Q: has there been a Black Mirror episode about this yet, and if so can anyone tell me how this particular innovation is predicted to destroy humanity in the near future, thx.

There was section in the article I linked to with the guy wrapping a product in a bag then trying to carry it out under his arm without getting billed, but he was billed. So it's got to be more than just cameras.

Q: has there been a Black Mirror episode about this yet, and if so can anyone tell me how this particular innovation is predicted to destroy humanity in the near future, thx.

Clearly a scenario where the computers won't let you leave until you've bought something, and those too poor to buy their way out get stuck in some warehouse doing menial indentured servant work until they can amass enough to get out. But they never can!

PICKS FROM OUR ALGORITHM

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Sunday, January 21, 2018 6:32 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Legit lols, it can't take long for actual bookstores to come up with this

xp
I'm not sure I get why this is so hard to believe. The camera registers you picking up the item and not putting it back, so you get charged. I mean just imagine a person followed you around the store and observed everything you did--concealing the product in a bag wouldn't do anything. Machine vision is pretty advanced

ALEXA HAS DETERMINED THAT YOU WILL ENJOY
*boop bleep bloop blop*

"The World Market for Rubber Sheath Contraceptives (Condoms): A 2007 Global Trade Perspective"

I've noticed lately that Amazon has adopted Google's obnoxious 'we'll just go ahead and assume that you were actually searching for this other thing because the explicit search string you entered couldn't possibly be correct' thing. No, I can actually spell, thanks.

You scan your phone on the way in. So they know who's there shopping, and presumably the system follows you and observes your shopping behavior. You pick something up. The cameras detect that it has left the shelf. If it goes back onto the shelf, it assumes you were just looking at it. If it goes into your bag, it's yours now.

What is interesting about that is that the cameras aren't there just to make sure you don't steal things (that would be much easier to do with RFID). They're there to observe and analyze people's shopping behavior - information that is pretty much golden in retail-world. And because Amazon ALSO knows what records, books, and sexual lubricants you like, they can cross-reference to get ever-more granular market segmentation information.

I know many people find that creepy, but it's much less about embarrassing/exposing YOU particularly (haha, as if they give a shit about you specifically). More about detecting ways to make people in general spend money.

Did more suburban white female knitting enthusiasts aged 35-54 look at the carrots that were at waist height? Or the carrots that were at eye level? Do they have different carrot preferences if they are also into Christian dating sites?

And what about the frozen lasagna? Are 90s grunge fans more likely to buy frozen lasagna that is on an end cap, or on a longer aisle? Do people who buy organic toothpaste buy fair-trade coffee? Do people who like gluten-free beer also buy unscented fabric softener?

What's the optimal number of paper-towel rolls for a 42-year-old man whose last record purchase was Chicago XII and who plays golf?

One thing I find fascinating about this is that, like everything in capitalism, it has to eventually reach a point of diminishing returns -- like at some point marketing will be so perfectly granular that you will only receive ads that are for products you will wind up wanting to buy, but you will still not have more money to spend.

a friend likes to joke about starting a marketing consultancy offering pico-targeting (this prob already exists)

man alive otm. The Wanamaker principle still applies (half of the money you spend on advertising is wasted, but you don't know which half).

We probably haven't reached that point yet. I think saturation is under-studied - in fact I'm sure of it, because of how many ads I see for things I already have, or for things that are functionally identical to something I just bought. Someone somewhere is working on that, but they're not there yet.

also the idea is to move your advertising dollars out of places that can't offer fine-grained data, as in the move from advertising with publishers to advertising with Facebook and Google

My one experience of pico-targeting was almost 20 years ago in pharma-world. Someone in my professional orbit got hold of DMV height/weight data and sent direct mail about a diabetes clinical trial to specific people based on their BMI. Intrusive? Yes. Possibly beneficial, even life-saving? Maybe, it's impossible to know at this remove.

Personally I don't give a shit if somebody at Amazon knows that I like carrots. Is that information going to influence me to buy more or fewer carrots, or different carrots? Maybe, but it's so inconsequential that I just can't get up in arms about.

We're not far off from a robot scanning the urine stream from my household sewer pipe. Let's say it determines that someone here has moderately high blood sugar, and someone else really likes weed? Not so comforting.

A middle case: Google notices that I'm shopping for a coffeemaker and starts aiming ads for different coffeemakers at me. Now, at some point in this process, I will have made my choice and executed it. At that point it's a waste of time to keep showing me different coffeemakers. I'm not going to buy another one for a few years. At that point, it should be showing me ads for coffee, filters, cups, etc. But we're not there yet.

ok ive got an idea.

we automate retail, but rather than robots or AI, we use cam-driven drones.

we make youtube stars, celebrities, and tv personality perform live cams for 8 hours a day, serving people food, entertaining them, etc. this is their job after all.

it is part of an internet nationalization act that also grants free public wifi in every major city.

a massive federal info infrastructure project makes this possible, funded in large part by the media personalities that benefit from the coverage these systems have provided in the past. also by having Facebook/Twitter/Google/etc all heavily taxed.

really hoping they don't go with Boston/Somerville but it feels like one of the most likely outcomes rn

http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/01/shoplifting-amazon-go-grocery-store.html

final image is v depressing

You can't get in without the app on your phone

Between this and MoviePass, I'm psyched to see myself already barred from IRL retail activity bcz I refuse to getr a cellphone. I know I'll live to see restrictions on my life as a citizen as well. #TryAndMakeMe

did anybody link to this yet? i just listened today. it MUST have come from this thread right?? well.. anyway

https://www.wnyc.org/story/amazon-antitrust-monopoly/

kind of mindblowing that amazon can crunch the traffic data from AWS to see which startups are doing good business, and then Amazon's venture capital arm invests in them or buys them outright

fucking hell

time to break up and/or nationalise amazon obv

Missed this from a couple weeks back: Jeff Bezos is the richest person in history

Like, I knew he was the richest person in the world but I hadn't quite made the cognitive leap that this likely meant the richest in the world ever.

yeah that is stupefying tbrr

pretty impressive for the owner of a company that has yet to actually make any significant profit iirc

time to start sharpening the guillotines

did this ever get posted here? (too large to embed, sorry): http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56abe654c08a80431d8bb4ef-1200-900/20160129_amazon_bi.png

too big to fail

what if amazon crashing is what does in the economy

amazon subprime morelike amirite

trademark that now imo

I was talking to my FIL recently about that, how Amazon's business model is very deliberately to not make a profit but rather to spend everything on eating the entire market for everything. Not sure if that means that there's some hypothetical point 20 years in the future where they actually do have monopoly power and start earning profits?

they will distribute 1/3 of america's food, clothing and leisure goods and employ a fifth of the workforce, leading to a semi-hostile government takeover
#illuminatiisreal

Ordered stuff from amazon there it's good

power washer?

Alas

ffs

(haha, as if they give a shit about you specifically).

oh, but they do. because you have specific money and they want it. and the more they know about you specifically, the greater their chances of acquiring that money which is in your specific pocket and not someone else's. but I agree that they don't give a shit beyond that very specific point. if you broke your neck, they'd only try to sell you a hospital bed.

Amazon is such a weird bloated machine now. Some items have become difficult to shop for just because there are so many different options, the sorting systems are so bad/broken, and the reviews are not reliable. E.g. you look for a certain kind of electronic item or light bulb and there are 30 different unknown chinese manufacturers and you're always taking a chance that you'll pick the one that's absolute shit.

Just last night on Amazon, I discovered a) a professionally-packaged bootleg DVD set of a TV show that has not been officially released on DVD, and b) a PS3 peripheral (explicitly advertised as compatible with the PS3) which features one-star reviews going back several years from people who unanimously confirm that said peripheral does not work with a PS3.

It's like a global flea market

if there's anything that links all the disparate "tech" companies now it's enabling brave new forms of con artistry

lol I should unbookmark this thread before I fall any deeper into the trench

you can get anything on there

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31UTUWZTFML._AC_US436_QL65_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Yyy8DAoXL._SL1097_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-6ECDPNBL._SL1097_.jpg

thisisfine.jpg

https://i.redd.it/pc6tbns245c01.png

Yes but it doesn't just eliminate them for one day so that's why it adds up to 2.8bn I mean this is simple stuff folks

billions of dollars and he still has no hair

fp'd for baldphobia

bald-exclusionary radical feminist

would rather see the mona lisa eat jeff bezos tbrr

Bleak

🤮 pic.twitter.com/gHSVSsR03k

— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) November 10, 2021

They're opening a big giant new warehouse in Oakland, as soon as this month... ggrrrrrreatt

comically bleak

Jeff Bezos’ new superyacht is so tall that it can’t fit under a landmark Dutch bridge.

So the bridge is going to be dismantled. https://t.co/oa8stnlMyA

— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) February 3, 2022

amazing or are we in boring dystopia territory

Amazon dropping its telehealth service Amazon Care.

jokes that write themselves

Cut Off The Spigot

https://www.tiktok.com/@cutoffthespigot?_t=ZN-8yxreACXhxe&_r=1

(an account that helps you quit big tech platforms and gives suggestions for alternatives)

Amazon worker dies on warehouse floor; colleagues continue working around his body – ‘Let’s get back to work’

https://www.livemint.com/companies/amazon-worker-died-on-warehouse-floor-as-his-colleagues-kept-working-for-over-an-hour-11776137787662.html

Recalling the supervisor’s response, an employee told The Western Edge, “Just turn around and not look. Let’s get back to work.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYmJWcroWsM

I tried to start a thread about it, there were no takers... but the 2024 film On Falling deals with the subject a bit... I thought it was a really great film but haven't heard anyone mention it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMlBMSdU7IY