7 ms·

A lot of comments are about other solutions (lockboxes, etc.) - these are solutions for a problem Amazon doesn't have. Amazon wants to own grocery delivery (pu

A lot of comments are about other solutions (lockboxes, etc.) - these are solutions for a problem Amazon doesn't have. Amazon wants to own grocery delivery (put your milk in your fridge), they want to own dog walking, they want to own plumbing and other house services. The article's correct that this is the first step in a larger plan, and I think at least fairly well thought out for that.

the_mitsuhiko 9y ago
It’s nice that Amazon wants to own that but I don’t want that service. They can keep it.
- merb 9y ago
  well the door service is helpful - if you have two doors. one front door locked via the amazon lock and a second door - locked regulary. i.e. most smaller aparatment buildings.
  - creaghpatr 9y ago
    Intersting idea...I had an Amazon package stolen off my porch this week, the thief opened it and saw it was the novel Watership Down, then threw it back on my porch. Stolen packages are a way of life in my neighborhood.
    - merb 9y ago
      well that's sad for you and good that you do not live in germany. most post services will actually give the package to your neighborhood if you are not at home. the first week in my new neighborhood took me a while to track some missing packages down. (well instead of bringing me the packages, which the people now do they wanted to know me, so they waited till I came to them...)
      - komali2 9y ago
        "to your neighborhood" Wait, was this a translation error? Did you mean "neighbor?" Or is there some "neighborhood representative" in every neighborhood in Germany?
        dspig 9y ago
        He means to whichever neighbor the delivery person found first.
        majewsky 9y ago
        No, "to a neighbor" is correct. Although the delivery guy will not make a dedicated effort to find an available neighbor because of time constraints. I suppose that when they deposit the package with a neighbor, it's because the neighbor received a package themselves, so they could ask them to take your package as well while signing off on their package. Most of the time, when you cannot receive your package personally, you'll get a card telling you to pick it up at a branch office of the postal services (which usually means some small unrelated shop like a drugstore).
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - dazc 9y ago
        I don't think this is a nationalistic issue, more a case of do you live in a major city or just somewhere else?
  - the_mitsuhiko 9y ago
    > well the door service is helpful - if you have two doors. one front door locked via the amazon lock and a second door - locked regulary. i.e. most smaller aparatment buildings. So then not just have a box where you can throw parcels in? If you have the second door locked then none of the amazon services envisioned apply.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      I don't personally have any issue with packages being stolen. But I suspect that, for people who live in a neighborhood where the occasional lifted package that was sitting in plain sight is an issue (but rampant theft is not), leaving a plastic tub with a small "packages here" label on the porch or wherever is probably a pretty reasonable thing to do.
  - gehwartzen 9y ago
    I have a shed outside Amazon could possibly have a key to.
b0rsuk 9y ago
I read about one of Arabic countries - I don't remember if it was the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, but one of the big names. The newspaper article claimed milkmen in that country walk into your house, take money lying on your fridge, leave the change, put milk into your fridge, walk out. You typically leave your house unlocked, the article claimed. That's a problem the country doesn't have.
- 1024core 9y ago
  I think it used to be like this in America too. The milkman would walk into your kitchen (via the back door, which was unlocked) and leave the milk in your fridge.
  - mustacheemperor 9y ago
    I live in an old house in a cooler climate and my place and most of my neighbors' have a special small two-way "cabinet" through the exterior wall in the back where the milkman used to leave your delivery, sort of like a mailbox built into your house.
  - b0rsuk 9y ago
    Sweden used to have a very high trust rating until very recently, too. If you watch some old movies, you can see very lax airport security. How times change. How did we end up trust each other so little ? What happened ? Is it really inevitable ? I don't think all change is progress. For example, some ancient Greek cities like Athens were more progressive on gay rights and sexuality.
- dr1337 9y ago
  Well in Saudi Arabia, the consequence of being caught stealing would be having your hands cut off. That's certainly enough of a deterrent for most.
  - b0rsuk 9y ago
    If it looks stupid, but works, it ain't stupid ? Hmmm.
jpk 9y ago
Sometimes I wonder how far Amazon will go, and if/when antitrust mechanisms will start tapping the brakes. They went from an online bookstore to the entire breadth and depth they are now with still higher aspirations. Where will they stop? Healthcare? Utilities? 2027: "We want to own all the water companies so we can plumb Amazon-Basics-knockoff Soylent to your faucets."
- opportune 9y ago
  I'm ready for this kind of obscene horizontal integration to stop. It's of course logical for tech companies to explore new areas to make money in, but if the end result is only a few corporations controlling most of our economy, it's not worth it. I don't even really see limiting horizontal integration as unethical/anti-business at all, if implemented well. Sure Bob Shareholder won't be able to directly invest the $X in profit from his Amazon/Google stock back into the company, but that profit would instead be given as dividends that he could then invest in companies that would be doing what Amazon/Google wanted to do anyway.
  - ryanwaggoner 9y ago
    It is sobering to think that Walmart's revenue is 2.6% of the US GDP. But then again, that includes a bunch of overseas revenue, so that's not exactly apples-to-apples. And it's actually comforting to see that Walmart is 4x the size of Amazon, because I don't think they have the same scope of ambition or cultural / technological relevance today. I certainly don't think that the Walmart of 2030 will be controlling all aspects of our daily life, though people may have worried about that 20 years ago. But companies ebb and flow and I suspect that Amazon will reach its own "dominance high point" in the next decade or two and then retreat in terms of ambition and relevance. New swaths of the economy will open up that Amazon is ill-equiped to dominate, just like has happened to corporations for the last century before them.
    - opportune 9y ago
      This is true, but then again Walmart gave up on anything more than being a supermarket (except for being an online store, but that's just them addressing their competition). Walmart isn't scary because they're not reinvesting their profits much compared to their competitors, which tells you they really aren't in "growth mode" anymore. Amazon hasn't given up yet and we'll see how long that takes. It could be the next Walmart, or it could be the next Enron, or even the next East India Company.

the_mitsuhiko 9y ago

It’s nice that Amazon wants to own that but I don’t want that service. They can keep it.

merb 9y ago
well the door service is helpful - if you have two doors. one front door locked via the amazon lock and a second door - locked regulary. i.e. most smaller aparatment buildings.
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  Intersting idea...I had an Amazon package stolen off my porch this week, the thief opened it and saw it was the novel Watership Down, then threw it back on my porch. Stolen packages are a way of life in my neighborhood.
  - merb 9y ago
    well that's sad for you and good that you do not live in germany. most post services will actually give the package to your neighborhood if you are not at home. the first week in my new neighborhood took me a while to track some missing packages down. (well instead of bringing me the packages, which the people now do they wanted to know me, so they waited till I came to them...)
    - komali2 9y ago
      "to your neighborhood" Wait, was this a translation error? Did you mean "neighbor?" Or is there some "neighborhood representative" in every neighborhood in Germany?
      - dspig 9y ago
        He means to whichever neighbor the delivery person found first.
      - majewsky 9y ago
        No, "to a neighbor" is correct. Although the delivery guy will not make a dedicated effort to find an available neighbor because of time constraints. I suppose that when they deposit the package with a neighbor, it's because the neighbor received a package themselves, so they could ask them to take your package as well while signing off on their package. Most of the time, when you cannot receive your package personally, you'll get a card telling you to pick it up at a branch office of the postal services (which usually means some small unrelated shop like a drugstore).
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - dazc 9y ago
      I don't think this is a nationalistic issue, more a case of do you live in a major city or just somewhere else?
- the_mitsuhiko 9y ago
  > well the door service is helpful - if you have two doors. one front door locked via the amazon lock and a second door - locked regulary. i.e. most smaller aparatment buildings. So then not just have a box where you can throw parcels in? If you have the second door locked then none of the amazon services envisioned apply.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    I don't personally have any issue with packages being stolen. But I suspect that, for people who live in a neighborhood where the occasional lifted package that was sitting in plain sight is an issue (but rampant theft is not), leaving a plastic tub with a small "packages here" label on the porch or wherever is probably a pretty reasonable thing to do.
- gehwartzen 9y ago
  I have a shed outside Amazon could possibly have a key to.

b0rsuk 9y ago

I read about one of Arabic countries - I don't remember if it was the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, but one of the big names. The newspaper article claimed milkmen in that country walk into your house, take money lying on your fridge, leave the change, put milk into your fridge, walk out. You typically leave your house unlocked, the article claimed. That's a problem the country doesn't have.

1024core 9y ago
I think it used to be like this in America too. The milkman would walk into your kitchen (via the back door, which was unlocked) and leave the milk in your fridge.
- mustacheemperor 9y ago
  I live in an old house in a cooler climate and my place and most of my neighbors' have a special small two-way "cabinet" through the exterior wall in the back where the milkman used to leave your delivery, sort of like a mailbox built into your house.
- b0rsuk 9y ago
  Sweden used to have a very high trust rating until very recently, too. If you watch some old movies, you can see very lax airport security. How times change. How did we end up trust each other so little ? What happened ? Is it really inevitable ? I don't think all change is progress. For example, some ancient Greek cities like Athens were more progressive on gay rights and sexuality.
dr1337 9y ago
Well in Saudi Arabia, the consequence of being caught stealing would be having your hands cut off. That's certainly enough of a deterrent for most.
- b0rsuk 9y ago
  If it looks stupid, but works, it ain't stupid ? Hmmm.

jpk 9y ago

Sometimes I wonder how far Amazon will go, and if/when antitrust mechanisms will start tapping the brakes. They went from an online bookstore to the entire breadth and depth they are now with still higher aspirations. Where will they stop? Healthcare? Utilities? 2027: "We want to own all the water companies so we can plumb Amazon-Basics-knockoff Soylent to your faucets."

opportune 9y ago
I'm ready for this kind of obscene horizontal integration to stop. It's of course logical for tech companies to explore new areas to make money in, but if the end result is only a few corporations controlling most of our economy, it's not worth it. I don't even really see limiting horizontal integration as unethical/anti-business at all, if implemented well. Sure Bob Shareholder won't be able to directly invest the $X in profit from his Amazon/Google stock back into the company, but that profit would instead be given as dividends that he could then invest in companies that would be doing what Amazon/Google wanted to do anyway.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  It is sobering to think that Walmart's revenue is 2.6% of the US GDP. But then again, that includes a bunch of overseas revenue, so that's not exactly apples-to-apples. And it's actually comforting to see that Walmart is 4x the size of Amazon, because I don't think they have the same scope of ambition or cultural / technological relevance today. I certainly don't think that the Walmart of 2030 will be controlling all aspects of our daily life, though people may have worried about that 20 years ago. But companies ebb and flow and I suspect that Amazon will reach its own "dominance high point" in the next decade or two and then retreat in terms of ambition and relevance. New swaths of the economy will open up that Amazon is ill-equiped to dominate, just like has happened to corporations for the last century before them.
  - opportune 9y ago
    This is true, but then again Walmart gave up on anything more than being a supermarket (except for being an online store, but that's just them addressing their competition). Walmart isn't scary because they're not reinvesting their profits much compared to their competitors, which tells you they really aren't in "growth mode" anymore. Amazon hasn't given up yet and we'll see how long that takes. It could be the next Walmart, or it could be the next Enron, or even the next East India Company.