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Walmart wants to test "in-fridge delivery" for Silicon Valley customers with August Home "smart locks":
Here's how the test will work: I place an order on Walmart.com for several items, even groceries. When my order is ready, a Deliv driver will retrieve my items and bring them to my home. If no one answers the doorbell, he or she will have a one-time passcode that I've pre-authorized which will open my home's smart lock. As the homeowner, I'm in control of the experience the entire time – the moment the Deliv driver rings my doorbell, I receive a smartphone notification that the delivery is occurring and, if I choose, I can watch the delivery take place in real-time. The Deliv associate will drop off my packages in my foyer and then carry my groceries to the kitchen, unload them in my fridge and leave. I'm watching the entire process from start to finish from my home security cameras through the August app. As I watch the Deliv associate exit my front door, I even receive confirmation that my door has automatically been locked.
While some may find the idea creepy, others have downplayed the creepiness factor:
"Five years ago consumers wouldn't have assumed they'd let a stranger drive them from the airport, much less stay in their house," said Forrest Collier, the CEO of eMeals, a platform that offers shopping lists based on recipes and loads the items into online shopping carts at Walmart and Kroger (KR) . "Now both Uber and Airbnb are billion-dollar companies."
For now, the fridge restocking service will only be available to Silicon Valley users of August Home. Customers will get a notification through their August Home app every time a delivery person drops off their food.
[...] Even though this Walmart service sounds "creepy on the front end," said Collier of eMeals, "it's really not as creepy as letting a stranger sleep in your bedroom."
Also at LA Times, Reuters, SiliconBeat, and CNET.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:49PM (10 children)
I get the distinct impression that Walmart is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
Of the household chores that need doing, buying groceries is neither particularly strenuous nor unpleasant - most areas have decently good grocers or farmers relatively nearby, and this service will likely be unavailable or too expensive in places that don't. And the grocery stores are getting efficient enough that it's basically "Go through the store picking up what you want, be out in the parking lot 10 minutes later".
Also, going out and doing your own shopping allows you to examine the produce in particular before buying it, something this service would not.
Finally, if you still wanted somebody to handle that last mile, the other option is to pay somebody else (formally or informally) to do it, e.g. "Hey, Mike, here's $5 to go get me a gallon of milk. Keep the change."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Sunday September 24 2017, @06:45PM (3 children)
"buying groceries is neither particularly strenuous nor unpleasant "
For most people it isn't.
You aren't yet elderly, or in poor health. We have an aging population that often can't drive anymore, are limited in physical mobility, otherwise frail, etc. Often elderly don't have a neighbor/relative they feel they can ask to help with that.
Though it's a niche market, grocery delivery is a definite one. People in those situations who can afford it would be willing to pay more for it. Some such services already exist.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Sunday September 24 2017, @07:27PM (1 child)
Jesus, how hard is it to open tins of cat food? C'mon!
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Touché) by jelizondo on Sunday September 24 2017, @11:49PM
Count your blessings! Clearly you are young and have no idea (yet) of the many ways your body can betray you, may you live long enough to find out.
I had a temporary sickness that made it extremely painful to walk, grab anything or even open a goddamned can of soda. It was over in a couple of days but it made realize how old people feel; and it’s not just the pain it is the sense of impotence and rage that it brings.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Sunday September 24 2017, @09:20PM
yes?
and therefore...
they are AT HOME when the groceries are delivered, and don't need some newfangled lock that other people can open.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @12:32AM (5 children)
I have 11 kids.
I grab 2 or 3 of them to assist me, hop in my 15-passenger van (longer in back then the typical 12-passenger vans), and head off to Publix. I fill 3 shopping carts top and bottom, packing things carefully. This takes 2 to 5 hours, probably 3 or 4. I get a receipt that is about 6 feet long. I get a bill for $1000. After bagging, I have 4 carts to push out to the van. I load groceries into every spare spot in the van, tossing things over seats and sliding things under seats. Once home, I enlist more kids to help bring things into the house. Something probably gets squished or shattered.
Repeat that at least once a week, with extra 1-cart trips to get things that run out quickly. For example, I need 2 gallons of milk per day, but I can only spare enough refrigerator space to hold 4 gallons at once.
The idea that this is "neither particularly strenuous nor unpleasant" is pretty funny. You should try shopping for 13 people.
The "farmers relatively nearby" is pretty funny too. In most places that would get you exactly one thing, available once per year, in absurd quantity. Oh yes, I want 4000 cubic feet worth of asparagus! You say I have to wait 5 months? But I'm hungry now...
It's too bad that the service would disgust me. Walmart injects "solution" or "broth" into the meat. Walmart uses pink slime. If somebody else does the shopping, I might get moldy fruit or the oldest packages on the shelves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @01:54AM
Damn, you sound like you need Costco/Sams/ALDI.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @02:05AM
You should try a condom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @04:10PM (2 children)
Too many kids. Seriously you have too many kids. People like you are bad for the world. Why do you and the missus feel the need to create almost 6 replacement copies a piece.
Unless of course you've adopted or fostered. In which case thank you. Either way I am guessing at least half of those are yours biologically. SO STOP IT. you pumping out that many kids is going to hurt their lives, and their kids lives.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @07:28PM (1 child)
Typically in one breath we hear "stop having kids because of pollution" and in the next breath we hear "we need to import young people" or "we should save lives in poor countries". Put it all together, and it meets the UN's definition of genocide: this is a campaign to effectively wipe out specific cultures, religions, and races. (those being more-or-less "western civilization")
If we fail to have kids, and we import the 3rd world, then America becomes 3rd world. A nation is largely a people with its culture, not merely a chunk of land and a set of changable laws. It will be a long dark age if the USA and Europe become like Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
My wife is hard-core Catholic. Birth control is a sin. I tried but gave up on religion; I'm an atheist. I proudly accept evolution and my role in it, desiring to win bigly. So we're compatible in a strange way, popping out 11 kids the all-natural way in less than 19 years. My wife is good for several more I think. We might end up with 14.
Evolution is about to deal a brutal crushing blow to the sorts of people who live in a city with less than 3 kids. That mindset is strongly maladaptive in our current environment; it is strongly selected against. There will be a political impact.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:50AM
> ... hard-core Catholic.
Sounds more like a throwback Catholic to me.