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You still have to have a membership unless you have a Costco cash card or go with a friend, and $60 or whatever upfront can be too much for many people. Also, i

You still have to have a membership unless you have a Costco cash card or go with a friend, and $60 or whatever upfront can be too much for many people. Also, it's a bit more expensive per visit since you need to buy in bulk. That being said, we have plenty of grocery stores in my area and they seem to compete quite well with Costco. I am not worried about these stores, and I don't plan on using them because I find them to be a privacy issue. I think there are plenty of people who either prefer cash or don't want to tie their food purchases to their Amazon account to keep traditional grocery stores in business.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago
Being poor is expensive.
judge2020 7y ago
I think you are being too optimistic with the last sentence. Whenever there is a tangible benefit that only has "mostly unseen" downsites, such as food prices being low since you're subsidizing Amazon training their rekognition software, people will take that benefit since the downside doesn't mean much to them (at least in the moment). Most people see their grocery bill going down non-unsubstantial amounts and take that as a good tradeoff for having cameras and sensors figure out what you're putting in your bag, and then later seeing that grocery visit in your Amazon order history.
privateSFacct 7y ago
On HN we often hear there are plenty of folks who like paying cash and don't want to tie purchases to a corp system. Then I go to a place like safeway and literally everyone pays with a credit card and gives up their phone number so they can get MAJOR discounts on purchases (ie, $1/item vs $3/item) and points towards things. Even the folks on EBT are using some kind of credit cards instead of the old vouchers.
- xxpor 7y ago
  EBT literally stands for electronic benefit transfer. I believe actual stamps have been gone for over 20 years at this point.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago

Being poor is expensive.

judge2020 7y ago

I think you are being too optimistic with the last sentence. Whenever there is a tangible benefit that only has "mostly unseen" downsites, such as food prices being low since you're subsidizing Amazon training their rekognition software, people will take that benefit since the downside doesn't mean much to them (at least in the moment). Most people see their grocery bill going down non-unsubstantial amounts and take that as a good tradeoff for having cameras and sensors figure out what you're putting in your bag, and then later seeing that grocery visit in your Amazon order history.

privateSFacct 7y ago

On HN we often hear there are plenty of folks who like paying cash and don't want to tie purchases to a corp system. Then I go to a place like safeway and literally everyone pays with a credit card and gives up their phone number so they can get MAJOR discounts on purchases (ie, $1/item vs $3/item) and points towards things. Even the folks on EBT are using some kind of credit cards instead of the old vouchers.

xxpor 7y ago
EBT literally stands for electronic benefit transfer. I believe actual stamps have been gone for over 20 years at this point.