29 ms·

Amazon Dash

621 points by sheri 13y ago

pepijndevos 13y ago
You could also take it to a store and scan things there. See what you get, pay less. I know someone who runs a book shop, and he frequently has people browse for books, only to buy them online later for slightly less.
EGreg 13y ago
Amazon is making service backed devices. As opposed to selling them.
alaskamiller 13y ago
Number of steps to scan grocery by phone: 1. Find your phone 2. Unlock 3. Swipe left to home page three or maybe four 4. Visually scan for the AmazonFresh icon and tap 5. Wait for loading 6. Start scanning action 7. Confirm and pay Number of steps to scan grocery by Dash: 1. Get device from drawer or pantry 2. Press one button and scan 3. Confirm and pay For the target demo (30+, married, households with children), option 2 wins hands down. Because you will easily be distracted and stop using option 1 and not complete checkout. Amazon knows CPG and commerce better than you do.
- rycho 13y ago
  most people keep their phone on them most of the day, especially those willing to grocery shop online. i don't feel like finding a phone and pressing maybe, 3 buttons, is any slower than finding some other gadget tucked in a drawer somewhere in your house, and pressing one button. i don't see the point of the hardware here, even though finding an app on my phone is apparently 4 steps.
  - robotresearcher 13y ago
    Moms do the lion's share of household grocery shopping, and are less likely to have functional pockets than men. This gizmo is going to be hanging on the pantry door.
  - aspidistra 13y ago
    > some other gadget tucked in a drawer somewhere in your house It's designed with a loop so you can hook it somewhere handy. They show this in the video at 1m27s.
  - mkempe 13y ago
    Amazon is creating services and products based on observed behaviors and needs in households with multiple people. You're making claims about what other people want based on how you feel. Creating things people want and are willing to give you money for requires paying attention to what they actually do and use -- not just what they say they do, nor how you feel they should be acting.
- WalterBright 13y ago
  It's also why I continue to wear a watch despite carrying a cell phone.
  - bm1362 13y ago
    Exactly, that is an excellent analogy.
- hansy 13y ago
  Not to be a pedant but you're neglecting steps in your Dash algorithm that you implemented in the phone version (possibly creating a visual bias). Number of steps to scan grocery by Dash: 1.) Find scanner 2.) Turn on scanner 3.) Start scanning action 4.) Find laptop (or mobile phone) 5.) Navigate to browser 6.) Sign in to Amazon Fresh Account 7.) Confirm and pay I don't honestly think the Dash would provide a discernibly faster experience, but I do believe it would be the option your target demographic opts for simply because the Dash is explicitly designed for this type of task. Just because my phone can turn on the television doesn't mean I won't reach for the remote every time.
  - mikewhy 13y ago
    they also didn't account for the kids "helping out" and not putting the Dash back where you expect it. Also, if something like this gets baked into iOS or Android the steps change to "Swipe from home screen. Select 'Scan'." Though I trust Amazon here and assume their hardware works in more situations than a phone's camera
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - Too 13y ago
    1. Do you have to find your frying pan every time you cook food also? This is a kitchen utensil with a dedicated storage location. Its not comparable to finding your phone which might still be left in your car even. 2. I think its very unlikely a device like this in year 2014 will have a power on button. Scan and power on will most likely be the same thing. Charging battery of yet another device is still a hurdle though 4-7 is something you only do once a week, and this action could still be done on the phone,
- lowglow 13y ago
  Classic over engineering. "Number of steps to scan grocery by phone" Most people just use pencil + paper, or notepad/note app on phone. Never have I seen people actually use technology while shopping unless it's a typed out list.
  - stephencanon 13y ago
    Agreed. In fairness however, my wife and I use grocery lists on our phones all the time (though it's only two steps, not the OP's 7: (1) "put peaches on my grocery list" (2) confirm).
  - tdicola 13y ago
    Yep I agree. I've tried lots of to do lists, apps, etc. and always keep coming back to the pen and paper stuck to the refrigerator. Siri adding stuff to notes through voice rec worked pretty well, but it's a gigantic hassle to be cruising through the grocery store constantly turning your phone on and off to go through the list. Although nicely executed, I really don't see Dash being more than something a gadget freak uses for a few weeks and then sits in a drawer forever. Also doesn't help that the area for Amazon Fresh is so small too.
  - jasonlotito 13y ago
    So, I built an app for exactly this type of scenario[1]. My wife would ask me to buy something, and then forget, so she'd send an updated email. And then an updated updated email. And then possibly a text message. Of course, it goes from being 2 things to 10 things quickly. And then I'd have to deal with actually keeping the list orderly and constantly checking what I did have in the basket already (more difficult with 20+ items). So, I wrote an app. It was funny, building a "twodo" app. But honestly, I just needed something that worked. I mention all of this because it did start with trying to use what we already had. [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodo/id834991291?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodo/id834991291?mt=8
- scep12 13y ago
  Alternatively, if you had an 'always listening phone' like the Moto X, your flow might go something like this: Option A 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item} 2. Screen turns on, tap to confirm your purchase Option B 1. Find the Dash device 2. Scan the item (if you haven't already discarded or recycled it, and haven't ruined the barcode in the process of opening it) 3. Confirm and pay To me, Dash feels like a (possibly unnecessary) stopgap on Amazon's part. I understand they have the means to try things like this, but selling a device seems superfluous given the developing capability and direction of phones. As an Amazon customer, I hope Option A is their endgame.
  - nolok 13y ago
    > 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item} Outside theory, I don't see that working very well in the real world currently. On amazon fresh website, there are currently 229 results for "green apples" 8 results for "granny smith apples" 2 results for "1 granny smith apples" Same with ham, eggs, or any other products really. Sure, the user could be more specific, but then it gets a lot more work and problematic than simply scan the damn barcode for this "4-in-1 pack of organic spanish strawberry yoghurt march special offer".
    - kalleboo 13y ago
      "Phone, order green apples" "Same type as last week?" "No, the ones I bought before that" "OK, ordered XXX apples"
      - scep12 13y ago
        Steps 2 and 3 may be better in the hands of the consumer -- in other words, while you can get away with probabilistic guesses for an initial query, you'd be better off leaving the consumer with an interface they can pick & choose from instead of trying to pull a Siri.
    - scep12 13y ago
      First - what's simple about "simply scan the damn barcode"? Simplicity is telling your phone that you ran out of pasta sauce, not stocking a barcode scanner in your pantry. The hardware may be sleek, but amazon's solution most certainly isn't. For a company with amazon's resources, I'd expect more. Next - presuming that you bought something from Amazon, why do you need the barcode? If I recently bought and/or regularly buy granny smith apples from Fresh, it's quite easy to figure out the most probable buying targets for queries of "apples." Further, if I regularly buy 5 different types of granola bars, now I can use one query and a checkbox instead of scanning each box individually. (Sidebar: how do you use Dash to scan produce that you've already consumed? Do you have to keep the containers around?) In the big scheme of things, figuring out which product you probably want to buy based on your buying history (and that of others) is a trivial problem compared to the other problems that had to be solved for "always listening" and such. Amazon's job ends up being the easiest in that stack.
asnyder 13y ago
I wonder if this will lead to showrooming of groceries, like Amazon's done with books. The only thing preventing this is the wifi requirement, but of course one can already do this with their phone. Though it does make it even easier.
- patja 13y ago
  I'm not sure that would help them. Amazon Fresh doesn't have a great record for beating grocery store pricing. See http://www.cnet.com/news/amazonfresh-vs-supermarket-a-hands-on-shopping-test/ http://www.cnet.com/news/amazonfresh-vs-supermarket-a-hands-... which matches my personal experience when I've compared baskets of products my family commonly purchases. I will say when we used it, the produce quality was very good which was one of my concerns. Seems like they went above and beyond to address the fear of not picking your own apple. I can't see ever paying the $299 special prime membership they are requiring in some markets though.
  - azernik 13y ago
    The $299 annual fee does give some sticker shock, but annualized that's only about $6 per week (more like $4-5 if you already have a regular Prime membership and deduct that existing cost). Especially if you're shopping for 2 or more, that comes out to a pretty small tax on your regular grocery bill.
    - mullingitover 13y ago
      I signed up for the free trial (because that's the only way to see what they have available for sale). Browsed the prices, immediately canceled the free trial. I wouldn't use it even if it were free, tacking on $299 to pay for overpriced groceries is a non-starter. Granted I live only a mile from a grocery store, so it's not a compelling proposition to cut grocery store trips out of my life for that price. However, the people who'd likely get the most from this service (people living in rural areas) probably aren't going to have this service available to them anytime soon, if ever.
      - 13y ago
justinpaulson 13y ago
Why would they make a device rather than an app to do this? Seems pretty awesome as a service though...if Amazon Fresh was available here.
- Roritharr 13y ago
  I think it has to do with the mental model. The Amazon Dash could be the first thing you think about when needing something, instead of your normal grocer, because its right there in your home. On a phone this would be just an application, which is easily forgotten and since its not special purpose hardware it's always more tedious to use then a device that has just this one purpose and those buttons.
- zo1 13y ago
  Have you ever tried to scan barcodes with a cellphone? For anything other than some sort of "novelty" "let's trying this cool new QR hipster app" type of situation.
  - CrazedGeek 13y ago
    Er, I have. 1D barcode scanning has been working perfectly on phones for at least a few years now.
donretag 13y ago
"Dash ... works directly with your AmazonFresh account" Which means it is only available in three locations (SoCal/SF/Seattle).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- opendais 13y ago
  SoCal is too big of an area to claim. It only works in a handful of zipcodes in So Cal. Source: I live in So Cal.
  - ChristianBundy 13y ago
    For anyone who's curious, it works in LA.
- hyperbovine 13y ago
  Why, that's hardly 20 million people!
  - sukuriant 13y ago
    All software must work for at least 150 million people to be considered remotely useful, haven't you heard? :D
jhprks 13y ago
Nice april fools prank amazon!!! LMAO
tetrep 13y ago
Why was a separate physical device needed for this? It seems like a simple smartphone application would work just as well, if not better as I would assume virtually all of the target audience for this service already have a smartphone.
- eridius 13y ago
  I assume the use case here is you're in the process of using up an item. The easier and faster Amazon can make it to order a new one, the more likely they are to get your business. If I'm cooking and I run out of flour, I'm not going to stop cooking, pull out my phone, unlock it, swipe over to the screen that has the Amazon app on it, tap that, wait for it to launch, click the button for Fresh, and then finally type (or speak). I'm just going to make a mental note and buy it later from Safeway. But with Dash, it's just grab the Dash from whatever convenient location you keep it, speak into the Dash, and put it back. That's easy enough that I would do it, and Amazon would get my purchase. Unfortunately, Amazon Fresh really kind of sucks (at least in SF), so the whole premise is flawed. Oh well.
- devicenull 13y ago
  Go scan a bunch of barcodes on your phone, in varying light levels and angles. The process is pretty terrible, phone cameras cannot beat dedicated barcode scanners at actually scanning barcodes.
binarysolo 13y ago
How does this differ from people using the mobile app? Mainly for Amazon Fresh integration?
- suyash 13y ago
  Agree, they should have implemented this functionality on the app itself vs creating yet another new proprietary device.
ngoel36 13y ago
How do I get a code?
- Aloisius 13y ago
  I imagine every single product you order from AmazonFresh would have one. This would really be for re-orders.
  - dgarrett 13y ago
    He's talking about the sign up code you need to order a free device. I'd imagine they're sending these out to Amazon Fresh users.
ngoel36 13y ago
I see absolutely no reason why this couldn't have been a mobile app with a bar code scanner and voice recognition...
- ztratar 13y ago
  Looks like there is also a mobile app. I bet they built custom hardware for a couple reasons: 1. Custom hardware sitting around reminds you of Amazon and your ability to order. Having a new device feels more futuristic, which does seem logically odd. 2. Durability. While cooking etc, you dont' want to touch your phone. This looks very easy to clean/throw around. 3. Barcode scanner speed. Apps with cameras are much, much slower at recognizing barcodes than this. This removes a lot of interface. Just scan it and you're done -- no hassle switching apps, holding the camera just right, etc. I bet this feels more natural.
- rb2k_ 13y ago
  Probably because nobody wants to use mobile apps with bar code scanners. Related: http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/ http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
  - Cyph0n 13y ago
    Genius. I've always wondered how many people actually take the time to scan QR codes on posters and such. I mean, don't companies track QR code scan-through rates?
  - chintanp 13y ago
    No posts on above tumblr as of now.
    - teach 13y ago
      (That's the joke.)
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    Which is the conventional wisdom (no one scans anything) but its not actually correct. I've done some QR tests which have picked up hits (not huge mind you but non-zero). There was also the story of the guy[1], on Sharktank, where one of his props was a QR code and he picked up customers who scanned it (from their TV) while watching the show. It isn't common, that is for sure. And the bar code folks don't make it easy for folks. Simply publishing the bar code database would be a huge 'win' for barcode adoption. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/how-a-startup-accidentally-hacked-shark-tank-with-a-qr-code/?source=gravity http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/how-a-startup-accidentally-...
jhprks 13y ago
People! amazon is known to be more sinister than google when it comes to april fools jokes, first it was using quad-rotors for delivery (which was stupid idea by the way) especially when it wasn't even april, now it is a little stick-like device automatically ordering food for you? what's next? a flying car? lol!
anandg 13y ago
If its real, this is going to revolutionize grocery shopping. Also, open up a new market for such devices.
- zanny 13y ago
  It is only available in 3 cities, has technology easily deployable to smartphones, and the prices apparently aren't any better. I always wish I could try amazonfresh, but like Google Fiber they are snails at deployment. And Amazon doesn't even have the "company has no experience with end user distribution" since that is literally their primary business.
lechevalierd3on 13y ago
Fruits and vegetables to not have a bare code, right ? How to make it simple for those fresh products then ?
- elwell 13y ago
  talk
- wehadfun 13y ago
  rtfm
- ars 13y ago
  They do actually have a bar code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_look-up_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_look-up_code But it says you can also speak to it.
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  ...press the mic button and say "bananas"?
wehadfun 13y ago
For some reason this made me thing of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
- dgarrett 13y ago
  The CueCat has a wire. Possibly a case of doing one thing wrong that ruined the entire product. We'll see.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    At the time, though, Bluetooth was neither common nor very easy to work with on home PCs.
  - chockablock 13y ago
    CueCat also required proprietary software to be installed on a PC or Mac. It was not a standalone device. And the industrial design! It was a chintzy elongated white plastic cat, with an IR window across the mouth. And it was finicky as hell to use, compared to a real barcode scanner.
- Uhhrrr 13y ago
  Indeed, if the CueCat had had specific ties to online grocers' shopping carts, there would be nothing new about Dash.
- nivla 13y ago
  This totally reminded me of CueCat. Despite CueCat being free, it was commonly sold on ebay because it made the cheapest barcode scanner on market. Amazon dash will end up being similarly awesome for hobbiest to hack on.
  - notatoad 13y ago
    it's free (with a $299/yr amazon fresh account). that's very much not the same thing as free.
dotBen 13y ago
HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a separate device") when consumers don't even see the duplication let alone the issue. They don't separate devices (or even apps) has having layers of similarity and just see things for their end functionality. My mother would see a phone and apps as completely separate functionality to a physical device like this. She probably would have the Amazon Fresh scanner, the (theoretical) Google Shopping Express scanner and the (also theoretical) Whole Foods scanner and wouldn't even consider the duplication, let alone be frustrated by it. She doesn't care about the potential for an "open standard"/"common standard". She also has an AppleTV and a ChromeCast connected to the same smart-TV that also has native apps within it (she mostly uses the native apps). Again, she sees no issue with that and might even buy an Amazon FireTV if she felt it was more compelling for one use. Ultimately we shouldn't assume consumers value convergence, especially when it creates ever increasing complexity in user experience (eg opening an app to snap a barcode vs pressing a single button on an Amazon Fresh scanner) ADDED: If you don't have parents that also work in tech, go visit them and just watch them use technology without prompting. Ask them about their experiences, their frustrations, their decisions behind purchasing specific equipment and downloading particular apps. It's very insightful.
- crazychrome 13y ago
  One thing I learnt over the years is as simple as this: don't be blind to challenge the current paradigm. once upon a time it's desktop application on windows. then the search. now it's app on mobile phone. I think you are on the right analytic route but somehow down to wrong direction. the mass market just doesn't want more than one ways to consume computing. at a given time, vast majority of consumer want to learn exactly one thing (WIMP, google, App with touch support) and then apply the knowledge everywhere. the cost of migration to new paradigm for the mass market is so high that minor mutations would have to live with sub 10% share. (think about MacOS in window's high day, bing/yahoo in google's day, and Nokia). will Dash have a market? yes. will it be successful? no.
vuzum 13y ago
Best idea ever, wow what a great product and functionality! This should be in every house! :-) Amazon acts like a startup still. Good for them!
jds375 13y ago
This is a cool service to integrate with AmazonFresh. A similar promising alternative is https://www.rosieapp.com https://www.rosieapp.com ... It's a pretty cool startup with similar goals.
aray 13y ago
Anyone know the battery life/lifetime of these? If it's months, that's a lot more convenient to keep in the pantry. As a kitchen appliance it makes a lot of sense, but I don't have any muscle memory for "charging" appliances.
- dgarrett 13y ago
  Here be speculation: It looks fairly large (plenty of battery room), has no display (not sure about scanner battery usage), and transmits little data over WiFi per use. With it's simplicity, there's no reason they can't use the lowest power MCU and WiFi modules they can find. All of these have good usability implications, but it looks like battery life was probably also a big design consideration.
- Ma8ee 13y ago
  I could imagine that it is months. Compare with the kindle that needs charging not even once a month even with frequent use.
revelation 13y ago
Why is Amazon gold plating their fresh service when they didn't manage to meaningfully expand it since 2007?
- nandhp 13y ago
  It was expanded last year from just Seattle to also include San Francisco and LA.
  - dalek2point3 13y ago
    how popular is it in places where it is open? any numbers? when is it coming to Boston?
    - simcop2387 13y ago
      In Santa Monica and Culver City in Los Angeles market I usually see 2-3 amazon fresh trucks on my daily commute to and from work. It's rare anymore that I don't see one. I've also seen several companies that are using them to stock the company fridge with things like milk. It looks like it's taking off fairly well anecdotally. I don't know if there's been any numbers published though. The biggest hurdle I've seen with it is that the site for it is woefully underpolished. It's not buggy but it tends to be slow, and a little obtuse to browse on at times. If you have something specific in mind it's really easy to find it, but if you wanted to say just look at the different types of potato chips they have, it can get a little unwieldy at times.
- techsupporter 13y ago
  Even if they hadn't expanded beyond Seattle, Seattle is their "home market" where lots of their employees live and a rather good market for a wide-availability grocer. Fred Meyer stores nor its QFC sibling hold a candle to any halfway-decent actual-Kroger from back home. Safeway is just Tom Thumb with a 20% markup. This isn't exactly the Dallas/Fort Worth grocery region, with 11 (yes, eleven) full-service grocery chains. Besides, having innovation on a local scale probably matters as much to Amazon as innovation on a national scale because it gets them shopping data and a "test platform" that can serve as the basis for expansion.
Dorian-Marie 13y ago
And when you go to somebody else place, you like something, "ok, I will add it to my Amazon shopping cart", etc... So many use cases this is amazing.
dgarrett 13y ago
It'll be interesting to see what Amazon does to continue to get more information on people's shopping habits.
joshdance 13y ago
Grocery stores should be worried. Amazon is predator that will take on any market it thinks it can win. Pretty soon they will not only be competing against the store next door, but the Amazon grocery warehouse with all the advantages of scale and convenience.
beejiu 13y ago
How does the voice feature work? Is it computer voice recognition, or does your voice get sent to a person to interpret?
- gnews 13y ago
  actually it could be a combination of both. since amazon already have mechanical turk, it might make sense to fallback on manual interpretation.
- sib 13y ago
  It's automatic (computer) speech recognition.
redditmigrant 13y ago
I like the simplified dedicated device for creating a low friction experience, however one downside of having this as a separate device rather than an app on your phone is that you are more likely to loose it, forget where you kept it, etc. etc.
joeld42 13y ago
I hope that's a bottle opener on the top.
- pcurve 13y ago
  hah! I think it's a genius design detail. They want you to hang it in the kitchen somewhere, so it's always accessible.
- johnpowell 13y ago
  I assumed it was so you could put it on your keyring.
bluthru 13y ago
Listening to a young child carefully pronounce words for the narration was a bit distracting and slightly irritating. A sentence or so would be fine, but narrating the whole video was an exercise in patience. Or do I just have a cold, black heart?
- mfrommil 13y ago
  I think the point was "so simple a child could explain it".
- aspidistra 13y ago
  You took the words right out of my mouth. The chirpy music, too, but the kid's "How was that?" at the end tipped me over the edge. It's one thing to be fed a dose of cute, another to have a tonne of it shovelled on you.
- darkstar999 13y ago
  Sorry, you have a cold, black heart. I liked it.
  - AVTizzle 13y ago
    I thought it was adorable, and a stark contrast from a lot of Amazon's other less-than-thrilling product videos
- cookiecaper 13y ago
  The ad panders practically exclusively to parents (almost every shot is a parent with child), and they're probably more specifically targeting female parents (the ones who more often do the grocery shopping). I thought it was a cute concept but also found the narration a bit grating, and I'm the parent of multiple small children. My wife would probably think it's adorable though.
elevenfist 13y ago
Sounds like this would only real be useful for packaged, processed goods. I'd have trouble trusting the quality of perishable items over the internet...
- Zotabite 13y ago
  Amazon Fresh is a little different. The Fresh warehouses do have cold storage. They are delivered to you in totes/containers with appropriate amount of dry ice. Same day delivery by drivers that directly work for Amazon.
- sib 13y ago
  Amazon Fresh produce is quite good in general
blobbers 13y ago
Has anyone else noticed that this completely rips off Hiku? Or is this repackaging the same product? http://hiku.us/what-is-hiku/ http://hiku.us/what-is-hiku/
- svas 13y ago
  I wonder if this will be the death of Hiku? Amazon's product is definitely going to be cheaper than $79 price for Hiku with (obvious) heavy ties into the Amazon ecosystem. I suppose they could try to pivot and cater to a different ecosystem (Google shopping express, or the like), but seems like an uphill battle.
  - listic 13y ago
    Maybe Hiku could offer their services to the rest of the world? From its homepage, I don't get it whether its business model requires tie-in with a retailer.
- robkatcher 13y ago
  Hi this is Rob one of the founders of hiku. A buddy of mine pointed me to the discussion going on here, great dialogue. Like many have mentioned, we find the appeal of a dedicated device tends to be embraced more by non-techies. We like to say hiku is more Kathie Lee (http://tinyurl.com/mxjxml8 http://tinyurl.com/mxjxml8) than Engadget (http://tinyurl.com/nbpyg97 http://tinyurl.com/nbpyg97). The part of hiku that 'remembers for you' is in market now (scan/voice, list on your iPhone), shops for you is coming (integrated commerce). If any of you are interested in playing around with hiku, we would welcome your feedback. We are backordered but will begin shipping again end of this month. Use hackhiku at checkout and we'll knock off $20 (limited to the first 10 people). We use our API externally for retailer integration, and are considering making that public or at least opening up more private access. So if you are interested in someday creating something with hiku, we would welcome your input there as well. Happy to discuss more offline, rob@.
- zo1 13y ago
  And the hiku does what, exactly? One of the most useless websites I've ever seen. It barely has any details on what the hiku is or what it does; and if I wanted more info, I'd have to go to their support section on another domain to peruse their "FAQ". No thanks.
mfrommil 13y ago
Amazon needs to scale Fresh in order for it to be more successful. On a micro level, scaling could come in one of 2 ways: (1)increase order frequency or (2)average order size. (1) Order frequency - Right now, a typical customer likely picks up groceries when they're out and it's convenient. This very well could be on the commute home from work, later at night, etc. With Dash sitting around the kitchen, Amazon has now created a very tangible reminder in the form of the Dash device to order your groceries, rather than waiting until it pops into your mind (and possibly not buying on Amazon). (2) Average order size - As someone posted above, it takes 1 or 2 button clicks to reorder an item using Dash. Compared to the current way of online grocery shopping, Dash eliminates a lot of possibilities of forgetting to reorder something you intended to, because it is so simple. Compared to on the PC when you may forget to browse the snacks category, for example, and you forget to order chips and cookies. Way less likely to happen with Dash. This doesn't address price concerns, but in terms of convenience for Amazon Fresh customers & increasing Fresh orders/order size, this seems like a massive win-win for Amazon and their customers.
thebokehwokeh2 13y ago
What a time to be alive.
dangrossman 13y ago
Based on the comments, I'm guessing few poeople here have ever worked retail and held a barcode scanner. Break out your phone, load up your barcode scanning app (there's 20 seconds right there even if the phone is in your pocket). Now try to actually scan something with it. You'll spend another 30 seconds lining up the little on-screen window with the code, rotating things, waiting for the camera to focus, and even having to move to another location if you're not in bright lighting. It's a terrible experience and that's why you don't see stores checking people out using the camera of an iPad. A barcode scanner, on the other hand, just works. You point it in the general vicinity of the barcode, press the button, and it's scanned. You don't have to perfectly align anything, be in specific lighting, or wait for a camera and an app. I'm sure you've seen cashiers run multiple things over a scanner in under a second. Amazon Dash isn't just a subset of your phone's functionality. It's a dedicated barcode scanner, which is hardware you don't have on your phone.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mattmanser 13y ago
  In England we have a lot of self-serve counters with scanners built in. Is that not something Americans have yet? Anyway, it doesn't 'just work'. Often you stand there like a lemon trying to scan again and again. You can pick out the people who've barely used them as they always take an age to scan everything. And each major supermarket has their own version of these things and they're all equally as cumbersome to use, so I think barcode scanning gets easy with practice but it definitely doesn't 'just work'.
  - jonknee 13y ago
    Lemons are a good example of something that works poorly for self checkout. They are small and round which is hard to have a barcode label displayed on. They're worried about weight and that you aren't stealing. It's often much easier to scan a barcode when you're holding the scanner and not the object. Though in this case, you could also just say "lemons" and be done with it.
mcintyre1994 13y ago
I've been expecting Tesco (UK) to do this for ages. They have supermarkets literally operating on this sort of device, you scan+bag as you go, and they have a decent national delivery service.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago
  I wonder if they tried it and found there are less opportunities to upsell so it doesn't pay off: If I'm only scanning products I have then where's the discovery and upsell?
  - mcintyre1994 13y ago
    That's a really good point actually. It's always interesting seeing how they upsell, thinking about it they're probably the best I've seen at it.
  - ukoki 13y ago
    One discovery method could be the "free upgrade". You feel good that they upgraded you to "premium" granola and when you run out, it's an easy upsell since you can just scan the box. They might even be able to get away with just giving you free stuff outright as a discovery method too, given the huge amounts of consumer behaviour data they must have — as long as their algorithms can predict you have a profitable% chance of reordering the item.
elleferrer 13y ago
I like how it's a separate device - it's too bad it's only available on the west coast though. AmazonFresh reminds me of "Webvan". Webvan failed during the dot com bubble, maybe Amazon is trying to start this kind of business model up again. I think the grocery delivery service is a great idea, especially now with everyone being so connected. Webvan only failed because they expanded rapidy and weren't able to attract customers at their speedy pace, plus back then not everyone was so connected.
cnaut 13y ago
This is the CueCat done right! Technology is similar but their is a clear use case.
mandeepj 13y ago
i think this is a big deal. When I am working in kitchen, i see lot of items needing refill, reordering etc...it is little cumbersome to stop your work, wash your hands and get the phone to take the note. Not to mention, once u pick your phone there are 100 hundred things going on - facebook, mails, texts etc to distract you for long time. Knowing this distraction, if I just say - "OK, I will just remember in my brain and will not pick up phone" then you know I never remember that task or things later. I think you can also use this device as your note taker incase you want to buy from somewhere else. Enjoy the convenience ;-)
anigbrowl 13y ago
I'm surprised this exists to be honest. Not because of smartphones, but because I thought RFID chips would be sufficiently disposable by now that we'd have smart refrigerators and trashcans. I had to buy a new refrigerator last year and I was struck by how many different kinds of ice dispensers there were (a feature in which I have no interest whatsoever) vs smart refrigerators. I found exactly one of the latter - the unfortunately named T9000 from Samsung (Komm vith me if you vant a snack...), which is really just a refrigerator with a tablet stuck on the front, didn't do very much, was completely locked down (understandable) and cost $4000.
- notatoad 13y ago
  RFID chips are sufficiently disposable if you can find a use case for them, but they don't really add anything to the average grocery shopping experience. having to take every item out of your cart and pass it over a scanner is a desirable pattern for the grocery store, as it's a great way to prevent theft. They don't want to find a way to eliminate this interaction, so there hasn't been a whole lot of reason put RFID tags on everything in the grocery store.
  - chockablock 13y ago
    Great point about the item-by-item interaction deterring theft. And of course it's not clear how you can use RFID to smooth purchase of items sold in bulk/by weight. Checkout lines must also be a real profit center with all the high-margin impulse buy items (magazines, snacks, etc) placed there.
- SethMurphy 13y ago
  I agree, this is just a Cuecat + wifi, which is actually great. Scanning barcodes is really not that much fun, and can get frustrating because of moisture, wear or just plain hard to find barcodes. An RFID system could avoid much of this. That being said if it took them 5 years to figure out the economic model for delivery, I imagine cheap (free) barcodes was a major factor in this decision.
lucb1e 13y ago
Does anyone know how they connect to WiFi? There's like two buttons and one beep for I/O. (Half joking: Or is it a Speak Friend And Enter kind of thing, where you have to speak the WiFi credentials.)
- Zotabite 13y ago
  (Full-on joking: you enter the credentials in binary) You press one of the buttons until it goes into AP mode and it beeps. Connect to it and provide your actual WiFi credentials and away it goes. Can't do speech recognition since that's done in the cloud and won't work without a Internet connection.
- ams6110 13y ago
  Would guess you have to do some initial setup on some other way, maybe via USB connection to your computer.
- pzb 13y ago
  It can run in AP mode and serves a webpage that asks for the key at which point it switches back to client mode.
beamatronic 13y ago
Didn't see this pointed out so far - The existing Amazon app can already scan bar codes.
plg 13y ago
"Apples" ... next day what shows up, exactly? 6 granny smith apples? a 15 pound bag of golden delicious? 3 MacBooks pro? ummm
- pcurve 13y ago
  You probably need to review the list on computer or phone to confirm the items, types, and quantity.
- davidcgl 13y ago
  Dash connects to your home Wi-Fi network and works directly with your AmazonFresh account. Say or scan items into your Dash, and then view the list on your desktop or mobile device to purchase and schedule delivery. You have to confirm the order.
cpezza85 13y ago
hook it up with an invite code :)
paul9290 13y ago
So you zap your grocery needs with dash and flying robot delivers it within 24 hours....
suyash 13y ago
If someone has an invite, can you please send me one as well. I don't have the Invite Code needed to participate.
babesh 13y ago
Wait till a 2 year old gets ahold of it and scans everything 10 times.
- sib 13y ago
  In this case, you scan or say what you want, then confirm the order in a GUI before it ships.
- squintychino 13y ago
  I doubt Amazon would be stupid enough to leave this possibility unaccounted for. Even the most basic purchase on Amazon requires you to put in a password to confirm your purchase. Why would this be any different? Or are you simply being a model HN contributor and nitpicking any little thing that comes to mind?
  - babesh 13y ago
    Amazon has had one click purchase for years on the web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click. The whole point is to not require re entering a password each time. In fact they hold the patent for it and have sued others for it. You have attacked me for misinformation whereas you are the one misinformed. EDIT: I am a Amazon Prime user and turned off one click because I saw my son clicking on stuff he wanted. And there is confirmation email. You basically have to rollback the purchase if you can. Sometimes you can't if it's shipped.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    No, the Kindle Fire on release didn't lock out random purchases - in fact no password required for any app purchase. So there is precedent from Amazon, though they've probably learned. Where do you see a keypad for this device? How will you enter a password?
alanh 13y ago
The :cue cat lives!
jameswilsterman 13y ago
So assumedly this will work in a store also? Could I go 'grocery shopping' at Whole Foods and end up having everything shipped to me by Amazon for cheaper? Can easily see this evolving into an Amazon price comparison tool for mobile use. Maybe I get a flash discount if the GPS has me standing in a Best Buy already.
- jonknee 13y ago
  They already have this with their smartphone app. You scan with your camera (which is slower than the laser based method of the Dash), but then see the product and pricing from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=aw_ppricecheck_iphone_mobile http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=aw_ppricecheck_i...
- atwebb 13y ago
  Well there's no screen, maybe it could yell at you or alert your phone? I actually thought that this is exactly what it was for when reading the first few bullet points and didn't think of home first, just a "Oh wow, they're making showroom shopping even easier."
- pcurve 13y ago
  "Maybe I get a flash discount if the GPS has me standing in a Best Buy already." That is hilarious! It doesn't have cellular connection, but it might have bluetooth.
olalonde 13y ago
My first thought: people are going to bring this to retail shops to get the benefits of brick-and-mortars shopping while benefiting from the low prices / delivery of Amazon. A lot of people already kind of do this. They go to a shop, find the items they like and look up on the web if they can get a cheaper price by ordering online. This version of the product might not be so practical for this use case though since it requires a WiFi connection and can probably only scan AmazonFresh barcodes.
- r00fus 13y ago
  Exactly. Which Amazon smiles at currently and encourages through their barcode scanning app (this will require internet access for Dash, though - unless it comes with some variation of whispersync).
  - chockablock 13y ago
    Or the dash could have an offline mode where it stores scanned barcodes for later lookup.
  - simcop2387 13y ago
    Says it needs an internet connection, but a cell phone as a hotspot would do that pretty easily.
ahunt09 13y ago
I can't believe this is not an April Fools' Joke.
thomasmarriott 13y ago
When food became mp3's — Amazon Dash / Fresh = Apple iPod / iTunes. Well done, Jeff.
LeicaLatte 13y ago
Now this feels like the future. I am curious what the upgrade cycles of these products will end up being. Can Amazon charge a subscription and keep giving me a new one?
turisys 13y ago
disruptive innovation at it's best.........
chunkyslink 13y ago
Nice try NSA! Seriously though, it worries me that there are more and more 'listening devices' in my home. We've seen what has happened recently with the NSA listening to calls. What is to stop the authorities getting a back door into all these devices and just recording everything?
- bayesianhorse 13y ago
  If this device is designed half-way smart it will have a microphone that is optimized for very close voices and a power management designed for short bursts of activity. Which means it will be next to useless for the sort of carpet-surveillance the NSA has been accused off.
- rsync 13y ago
  I really want nothing to do with 20 different cloud connected and voice-aware devices in my home. I'm not going to buy a Xbox One unless I can effectively mute the mic (not just the UI telling me I did) and I'm not having a nest thermometer tied to some weird social login/profile that I have to create in order to use it. I'm certainly not going to stick some amazon listening device in my kitchen.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

621 points by sheri 13y ago

You could also take it to a store and scan things there. See what you get, pay less. I know someone who runs a book shop, and he frequently has people browse for books, only to buy them online later for slightly less.

EGreg 13y ago

Amazon is making service backed devices. As opposed to selling them.

alaskamiller 13y ago

Number of steps to scan grocery by phone: 1. Find your phone 2. Unlock 3. Swipe left to home page three or maybe four 4. Visually scan for the AmazonFresh icon and tap 5. Wait for loading 6. Start scanning action 7. Confirm and pay Number of steps to scan grocery by Dash: 1. Get device from drawer or pantry 2. Press one button and scan 3. Confirm and pay For the target demo (30+, married, households with children), option 2 wins hands down. Because you will easily be distracted and stop using option 1 and not complete checkout. Amazon knows CPG and commerce better than you do.

rycho 13y ago
most people keep their phone on them most of the day, especially those willing to grocery shop online. i don't feel like finding a phone and pressing maybe, 3 buttons, is any slower than finding some other gadget tucked in a drawer somewhere in your house, and pressing one button. i don't see the point of the hardware here, even though finding an app on my phone is apparently 4 steps.
- robotresearcher 13y ago
  Moms do the lion's share of household grocery shopping, and are less likely to have functional pockets than men. This gizmo is going to be hanging on the pantry door.
- aspidistra 13y ago
  > some other gadget tucked in a drawer somewhere in your house It's designed with a loop so you can hook it somewhere handy. They show this in the video at 1m27s.
- mkempe 13y ago
  Amazon is creating services and products based on observed behaviors and needs in households with multiple people. You're making claims about what other people want based on how you feel. Creating things people want and are willing to give you money for requires paying attention to what they actually do and use -- not just what they say they do, nor how you feel they should be acting.
WalterBright 13y ago
It's also why I continue to wear a watch despite carrying a cell phone.
- bm1362 13y ago
  Exactly, that is an excellent analogy.
hansy 13y ago
Not to be a pedant but you're neglecting steps in your Dash algorithm that you implemented in the phone version (possibly creating a visual bias). Number of steps to scan grocery by Dash: 1.) Find scanner 2.) Turn on scanner 3.) Start scanning action 4.) Find laptop (or mobile phone) 5.) Navigate to browser 6.) Sign in to Amazon Fresh Account 7.) Confirm and pay I don't honestly think the Dash would provide a discernibly faster experience, but I do believe it would be the option your target demographic opts for simply because the Dash is explicitly designed for this type of task. Just because my phone can turn on the television doesn't mean I won't reach for the remote every time.
- mikewhy 13y ago
  they also didn't account for the kids "helping out" and not putting the Dash back where you expect it. Also, if something like this gets baked into iOS or Android the steps change to "Swipe from home screen. Select 'Scan'." Though I trust Amazon here and assume their hardware works in more situations than a phone's camera
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Too 13y ago
  1. Do you have to find your frying pan every time you cook food also? This is a kitchen utensil with a dedicated storage location. Its not comparable to finding your phone which might still be left in your car even. 2. I think its very unlikely a device like this in year 2014 will have a power on button. Scan and power on will most likely be the same thing. Charging battery of yet another device is still a hurdle though 4-7 is something you only do once a week, and this action could still be done on the phone,
lowglow 13y ago
Classic over engineering. "Number of steps to scan grocery by phone" Most people just use pencil + paper, or notepad/note app on phone. Never have I seen people actually use technology while shopping unless it's a typed out list.
- stephencanon 13y ago
  Agreed. In fairness however, my wife and I use grocery lists on our phones all the time (though it's only two steps, not the OP's 7: (1) "put peaches on my grocery list" (2) confirm).
- tdicola 13y ago
  Yep I agree. I've tried lots of to do lists, apps, etc. and always keep coming back to the pen and paper stuck to the refrigerator. Siri adding stuff to notes through voice rec worked pretty well, but it's a gigantic hassle to be cruising through the grocery store constantly turning your phone on and off to go through the list. Although nicely executed, I really don't see Dash being more than something a gadget freak uses for a few weeks and then sits in a drawer forever. Also doesn't help that the area for Amazon Fresh is so small too.
- jasonlotito 13y ago
  So, I built an app for exactly this type of scenario[1]. My wife would ask me to buy something, and then forget, so she'd send an updated email. And then an updated updated email. And then possibly a text message. Of course, it goes from being 2 things to 10 things quickly. And then I'd have to deal with actually keeping the list orderly and constantly checking what I did have in the basket already (more difficult with 20+ items). So, I wrote an app. It was funny, building a "twodo" app. But honestly, I just needed something that worked. I mention all of this because it did start with trying to use what we already had. [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodo/id834991291?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodo/id834991291?mt=8
scep12 13y ago
Alternatively, if you had an 'always listening phone' like the Moto X, your flow might go something like this: Option A 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item} 2. Screen turns on, tap to confirm your purchase Option B 1. Find the Dash device 2. Scan the item (if you haven't already discarded or recycled it, and haven't ruined the barcode in the process of opening it) 3. Confirm and pay To me, Dash feels like a (possibly unnecessary) stopgap on Amazon's part. I understand they have the means to try things like this, but selling a device seems superfluous given the developing capability and direction of phones. As an Amazon customer, I hope Option A is their endgame.
- nolok 13y ago
  > 1. Ask your phone to buy {name of item} Outside theory, I don't see that working very well in the real world currently. On amazon fresh website, there are currently 229 results for "green apples" 8 results for "granny smith apples" 2 results for "1 granny smith apples" Same with ham, eggs, or any other products really. Sure, the user could be more specific, but then it gets a lot more work and problematic than simply scan the damn barcode for this "4-in-1 pack of organic spanish strawberry yoghurt march special offer".
  - kalleboo 13y ago
    "Phone, order green apples" "Same type as last week?" "No, the ones I bought before that" "OK, ordered XXX apples"
    - scep12 13y ago
      Steps 2 and 3 may be better in the hands of the consumer -- in other words, while you can get away with probabilistic guesses for an initial query, you'd be better off leaving the consumer with an interface they can pick & choose from instead of trying to pull a Siri.
  - scep12 13y ago
    First - what's simple about "simply scan the damn barcode"? Simplicity is telling your phone that you ran out of pasta sauce, not stocking a barcode scanner in your pantry. The hardware may be sleek, but amazon's solution most certainly isn't. For a company with amazon's resources, I'd expect more. Next - presuming that you bought something from Amazon, why do you need the barcode? If I recently bought and/or regularly buy granny smith apples from Fresh, it's quite easy to figure out the most probable buying targets for queries of "apples." Further, if I regularly buy 5 different types of granola bars, now I can use one query and a checkbox instead of scanning each box individually. (Sidebar: how do you use Dash to scan produce that you've already consumed? Do you have to keep the containers around?) In the big scheme of things, figuring out which product you probably want to buy based on your buying history (and that of others) is a trivial problem compared to the other problems that had to be solved for "always listening" and such. Amazon's job ends up being the easiest in that stack.

asnyder 13y ago

I wonder if this will lead to showrooming of groceries, like Amazon's done with books. The only thing preventing this is the wifi requirement, but of course one can already do this with their phone. Though it does make it even easier.

patja 13y ago
I'm not sure that would help them. Amazon Fresh doesn't have a great record for beating grocery store pricing. See http://www.cnet.com/news/amazonfresh-vs-supermarket-a-hands-on-shopping-test/ http://www.cnet.com/news/amazonfresh-vs-supermarket-a-hands-... which matches my personal experience when I've compared baskets of products my family commonly purchases. I will say when we used it, the produce quality was very good which was one of my concerns. Seems like they went above and beyond to address the fear of not picking your own apple. I can't see ever paying the $299 special prime membership they are requiring in some markets though.
- azernik 13y ago
  The $299 annual fee does give some sticker shock, but annualized that's only about $6 per week (more like $4-5 if you already have a regular Prime membership and deduct that existing cost). Especially if you're shopping for 2 or more, that comes out to a pretty small tax on your regular grocery bill.
  - mullingitover 13y ago
    I signed up for the free trial (because that's the only way to see what they have available for sale). Browsed the prices, immediately canceled the free trial. I wouldn't use it even if it were free, tacking on $299 to pay for overpriced groceries is a non-starter. Granted I live only a mile from a grocery store, so it's not a compelling proposition to cut grocery store trips out of my life for that price. However, the people who'd likely get the most from this service (people living in rural areas) probably aren't going to have this service available to them anytime soon, if ever.
    - 13y ago

justinpaulson 13y ago

Why would they make a device rather than an app to do this? Seems pretty awesome as a service though...if Amazon Fresh was available here.

Roritharr 13y ago
I think it has to do with the mental model. The Amazon Dash could be the first thing you think about when needing something, instead of your normal grocer, because its right there in your home. On a phone this would be just an application, which is easily forgotten and since its not special purpose hardware it's always more tedious to use then a device that has just this one purpose and those buttons.
zo1 13y ago
Have you ever tried to scan barcodes with a cellphone? For anything other than some sort of "novelty" "let's trying this cool new QR hipster app" type of situation.
- CrazedGeek 13y ago
  Er, I have. 1D barcode scanning has been working perfectly on phones for at least a few years now.

donretag 13y ago

"Dash ... works directly with your AmazonFresh account" Which means it is only available in three locations (SoCal/SF/Seattle).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
opendais 13y ago
SoCal is too big of an area to claim. It only works in a handful of zipcodes in So Cal. Source: I live in So Cal.
- ChristianBundy 13y ago
  For anyone who's curious, it works in LA.
hyperbovine 13y ago
Why, that's hardly 20 million people!
- sukuriant 13y ago
  All software must work for at least 150 million people to be considered remotely useful, haven't you heard? :D

jhprks 13y ago

Nice april fools prank amazon!!! LMAO

tetrep 13y ago

Why was a separate physical device needed for this? It seems like a simple smartphone application would work just as well, if not better as I would assume virtually all of the target audience for this service already have a smartphone.

eridius 13y ago
I assume the use case here is you're in the process of using up an item. The easier and faster Amazon can make it to order a new one, the more likely they are to get your business. If I'm cooking and I run out of flour, I'm not going to stop cooking, pull out my phone, unlock it, swipe over to the screen that has the Amazon app on it, tap that, wait for it to launch, click the button for Fresh, and then finally type (or speak). I'm just going to make a mental note and buy it later from Safeway. But with Dash, it's just grab the Dash from whatever convenient location you keep it, speak into the Dash, and put it back. That's easy enough that I would do it, and Amazon would get my purchase. Unfortunately, Amazon Fresh really kind of sucks (at least in SF), so the whole premise is flawed. Oh well.
devicenull 13y ago
Go scan a bunch of barcodes on your phone, in varying light levels and angles. The process is pretty terrible, phone cameras cannot beat dedicated barcode scanners at actually scanning barcodes.

binarysolo 13y ago

How does this differ from people using the mobile app? Mainly for Amazon Fresh integration?

suyash 13y ago
Agree, they should have implemented this functionality on the app itself vs creating yet another new proprietary device.

ngoel36 13y ago

How do I get a code?

Aloisius 13y ago
I imagine every single product you order from AmazonFresh would have one. This would really be for re-orders.
- dgarrett 13y ago
  He's talking about the sign up code you need to order a free device. I'd imagine they're sending these out to Amazon Fresh users.

ngoel36 13y ago

I see absolutely no reason why this couldn't have been a mobile app with a bar code scanner and voice recognition...

ztratar 13y ago
Looks like there is also a mobile app. I bet they built custom hardware for a couple reasons: 1. Custom hardware sitting around reminds you of Amazon and your ability to order. Having a new device feels more futuristic, which does seem logically odd. 2. Durability. While cooking etc, you dont' want to touch your phone. This looks very easy to clean/throw around. 3. Barcode scanner speed. Apps with cameras are much, much slower at recognizing barcodes than this. This removes a lot of interface. Just scan it and you're done -- no hassle switching apps, holding the camera just right, etc. I bet this feels more natural.
rb2k_ 13y ago
Probably because nobody wants to use mobile apps with bar code scanners. Related: http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/ http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
- Cyph0n 13y ago
  Genius. I've always wondered how many people actually take the time to scan QR codes on posters and such. I mean, don't companies track QR code scan-through rates?
- chintanp 13y ago
  No posts on above tumblr as of now.
  - teach 13y ago
    (That's the joke.)
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  Which is the conventional wisdom (no one scans anything) but its not actually correct. I've done some QR tests which have picked up hits (not huge mind you but non-zero). There was also the story of the guy[1], on Sharktank, where one of his props was a QR code and he picked up customers who scanned it (from their TV) while watching the show. It isn't common, that is for sure. And the bar code folks don't make it easy for folks. Simply publishing the bar code database would be a huge 'win' for barcode adoption. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/how-a-startup-accidentally-hacked-shark-tank-with-a-qr-code/?source=gravity http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/how-a-startup-accidentally-...

jhprks 13y ago

People! amazon is known to be more sinister than google when it comes to april fools jokes, first it was using quad-rotors for delivery (which was stupid idea by the way) especially when it wasn't even april, now it is a little stick-like device automatically ordering food for you? what's next? a flying car? lol!

anandg 13y ago

If its real, this is going to revolutionize grocery shopping. Also, open up a new market for such devices.

zanny 13y ago
It is only available in 3 cities, has technology easily deployable to smartphones, and the prices apparently aren't any better. I always wish I could try amazonfresh, but like Google Fiber they are snails at deployment. And Amazon doesn't even have the "company has no experience with end user distribution" since that is literally their primary business.

lechevalierd3on 13y ago

Fruits and vegetables to not have a bare code, right ? How to make it simple for those fresh products then ?

elwell 13y ago
talk
wehadfun 13y ago
rtfm
ars 13y ago
They do actually have a bar code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_look-up_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_look-up_code But it says you can also speak to it.
TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
...press the mic button and say "bananas"?

wehadfun 13y ago

For some reason this made me thing of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

dgarrett 13y ago
The CueCat has a wire. Possibly a case of doing one thing wrong that ruined the entire product. We'll see.
- ams6110 13y ago
  At the time, though, Bluetooth was neither common nor very easy to work with on home PCs.
- chockablock 13y ago
  CueCat also required proprietary software to be installed on a PC or Mac. It was not a standalone device. And the industrial design! It was a chintzy elongated white plastic cat, with an IR window across the mouth. And it was finicky as hell to use, compared to a real barcode scanner.
Uhhrrr 13y ago
Indeed, if the CueCat had had specific ties to online grocers' shopping carts, there would be nothing new about Dash.
nivla 13y ago
This totally reminded me of CueCat. Despite CueCat being free, it was commonly sold on ebay because it made the cheapest barcode scanner on market. Amazon dash will end up being similarly awesome for hobbiest to hack on.
- notatoad 13y ago
  it's free (with a $299/yr amazon fresh account). that's very much not the same thing as free.

dotBen 13y ago

HN'ers asking why this isn't a cell phone app take note - this exemplifies why we (geeks) don't make good use cases for consumer tech and we should always be careful looking to our own habits and values when in a Product Development role. We're rarely the target customer and rarely behave like "average Joe". We're naturally resistant to superfluous redundancy ("My phone can already snap a barcode, I don't need a separate device") when consumers don't even see the duplication let alone the issue. They don't separate devices (or even apps) has having layers of similarity and just see things for their end functionality. My mother would see a phone and apps as completely separate functionality to a physical device like this. She probably would have the Amazon Fresh scanner, the (theoretical) Google Shopping Express scanner and the (also theoretical) Whole Foods scanner and wouldn't even consider the duplication, let alone be frustrated by it. She doesn't care about the potential for an "open standard"/"common standard". She also has an AppleTV and a ChromeCast connected to the same smart-TV that also has native apps within it (she mostly uses the native apps). Again, she sees no issue with that and might even buy an Amazon FireTV if she felt it was more compelling for one use. Ultimately we shouldn't assume consumers value convergence, especially when it creates ever increasing complexity in user experience (eg opening an app to snap a barcode vs pressing a single button on an Amazon Fresh scanner) ADDED: If you don't have parents that also work in tech, go visit them and just watch them use technology without prompting. Ask them about their experiences, their frustrations, their decisions behind purchasing specific equipment and downloading particular apps. It's very insightful.

crazychrome 13y ago
One thing I learnt over the years is as simple as this: don't be blind to challenge the current paradigm. once upon a time it's desktop application on windows. then the search. now it's app on mobile phone. I think you are on the right analytic route but somehow down to wrong direction. the mass market just doesn't want more than one ways to consume computing. at a given time, vast majority of consumer want to learn exactly one thing (WIMP, google, App with touch support) and then apply the knowledge everywhere. the cost of migration to new paradigm for the mass market is so high that minor mutations would have to live with sub 10% share. (think about MacOS in window's high day, bing/yahoo in google's day, and Nokia). will Dash have a market? yes. will it be successful? no.

vuzum 13y ago

Best idea ever, wow what a great product and functionality! This should be in every house! :-) Amazon acts like a startup still. Good for them!

jds375 13y ago

This is a cool service to integrate with AmazonFresh. A similar promising alternative is https://www.rosieapp.com https://www.rosieapp.com ... It's a pretty cool startup with similar goals.

aray 13y ago

Anyone know the battery life/lifetime of these? If it's months, that's a lot more convenient to keep in the pantry. As a kitchen appliance it makes a lot of sense, but I don't have any muscle memory for "charging" appliances.

dgarrett 13y ago
Here be speculation: It looks fairly large (plenty of battery room), has no display (not sure about scanner battery usage), and transmits little data over WiFi per use. With it's simplicity, there's no reason they can't use the lowest power MCU and WiFi modules they can find. All of these have good usability implications, but it looks like battery life was probably also a big design consideration.
Ma8ee 13y ago
I could imagine that it is months. Compare with the kindle that needs charging not even once a month even with frequent use.

revelation 13y ago

Why is Amazon gold plating their fresh service when they didn't manage to meaningfully expand it since 2007?

nandhp 13y ago
It was expanded last year from just Seattle to also include San Francisco and LA.
- dalek2point3 13y ago
  how popular is it in places where it is open? any numbers? when is it coming to Boston?
  - simcop2387 13y ago
    In Santa Monica and Culver City in Los Angeles market I usually see 2-3 amazon fresh trucks on my daily commute to and from work. It's rare anymore that I don't see one. I've also seen several companies that are using them to stock the company fridge with things like milk. It looks like it's taking off fairly well anecdotally. I don't know if there's been any numbers published though. The biggest hurdle I've seen with it is that the site for it is woefully underpolished. It's not buggy but it tends to be slow, and a little obtuse to browse on at times. If you have something specific in mind it's really easy to find it, but if you wanted to say just look at the different types of potato chips they have, it can get a little unwieldy at times.
techsupporter 13y ago
Even if they hadn't expanded beyond Seattle, Seattle is their "home market" where lots of their employees live and a rather good market for a wide-availability grocer. Fred Meyer stores nor its QFC sibling hold a candle to any halfway-decent actual-Kroger from back home. Safeway is just Tom Thumb with a 20% markup. This isn't exactly the Dallas/Fort Worth grocery region, with 11 (yes, eleven) full-service grocery chains. Besides, having innovation on a local scale probably matters as much to Amazon as innovation on a national scale because it gets them shopping data and a "test platform" that can serve as the basis for expansion.

Dorian-Marie 13y ago

And when you go to somebody else place, you like something, "ok, I will add it to my Amazon shopping cart", etc... So many use cases this is amazing.

dgarrett 13y ago

It'll be interesting to see what Amazon does to continue to get more information on people's shopping habits.

joshdance 13y ago

Grocery stores should be worried. Amazon is predator that will take on any market it thinks it can win. Pretty soon they will not only be competing against the store next door, but the Amazon grocery warehouse with all the advantages of scale and convenience.

beejiu 13y ago

How does the voice feature work? Is it computer voice recognition, or does your voice get sent to a person to interpret?

gnews 13y ago
actually it could be a combination of both. since amazon already have mechanical turk, it might make sense to fallback on manual interpretation.
sib 13y ago
It's automatic (computer) speech recognition.

redditmigrant 13y ago

I like the simplified dedicated device for creating a low friction experience, however one downside of having this as a separate device rather than an app on your phone is that you are more likely to loose it, forget where you kept it, etc. etc.

joeld42 13y ago

I hope that's a bottle opener on the top.

pcurve 13y ago
hah! I think it's a genius design detail. They want you to hang it in the kitchen somewhere, so it's always accessible.
johnpowell 13y ago
I assumed it was so you could put it on your keyring.

bluthru 13y ago

Listening to a young child carefully pronounce words for the narration was a bit distracting and slightly irritating. A sentence or so would be fine, but narrating the whole video was an exercise in patience. Or do I just have a cold, black heart?

mfrommil 13y ago
I think the point was "so simple a child could explain it".
aspidistra 13y ago
You took the words right out of my mouth. The chirpy music, too, but the kid's "How was that?" at the end tipped me over the edge. It's one thing to be fed a dose of cute, another to have a tonne of it shovelled on you.
darkstar999 13y ago
Sorry, you have a cold, black heart. I liked it.
- AVTizzle 13y ago
  I thought it was adorable, and a stark contrast from a lot of Amazon's other less-than-thrilling product videos
cookiecaper 13y ago
The ad panders practically exclusively to parents (almost every shot is a parent with child), and they're probably more specifically targeting female parents (the ones who more often do the grocery shopping). I thought it was a cute concept but also found the narration a bit grating, and I'm the parent of multiple small children. My wife would probably think it's adorable though.

elevenfist 13y ago

Sounds like this would only real be useful for packaged, processed goods. I'd have trouble trusting the quality of perishable items over the internet...

Zotabite 13y ago
Amazon Fresh is a little different. The Fresh warehouses do have cold storage. They are delivered to you in totes/containers with appropriate amount of dry ice. Same day delivery by drivers that directly work for Amazon.
sib 13y ago
Amazon Fresh produce is quite good in general

blobbers 13y ago

Has anyone else noticed that this completely rips off Hiku? Or is this repackaging the same product? http://hiku.us/what-is-hiku/ http://hiku.us/what-is-hiku/

svas 13y ago
I wonder if this will be the death of Hiku? Amazon's product is definitely going to be cheaper than $79 price for Hiku with (obvious) heavy ties into the Amazon ecosystem. I suppose they could try to pivot and cater to a different ecosystem (Google shopping express, or the like), but seems like an uphill battle.
- listic 13y ago
  Maybe Hiku could offer their services to the rest of the world? From its homepage, I don't get it whether its business model requires tie-in with a retailer.
robkatcher 13y ago
Hi this is Rob one of the founders of hiku. A buddy of mine pointed me to the discussion going on here, great dialogue. Like many have mentioned, we find the appeal of a dedicated device tends to be embraced more by non-techies. We like to say hiku is more Kathie Lee (http://tinyurl.com/mxjxml8 http://tinyurl.com/mxjxml8) than Engadget (http://tinyurl.com/nbpyg97 http://tinyurl.com/nbpyg97). The part of hiku that 'remembers for you' is in market now (scan/voice, list on your iPhone), shops for you is coming (integrated commerce). If any of you are interested in playing around with hiku, we would welcome your feedback. We are backordered but will begin shipping again end of this month. Use hackhiku at checkout and we'll knock off $20 (limited to the first 10 people). We use our API externally for retailer integration, and are considering making that public or at least opening up more private access. So if you are interested in someday creating something with hiku, we would welcome your input there as well. Happy to discuss more offline, rob@.
zo1 13y ago
And the hiku does what, exactly? One of the most useless websites I've ever seen. It barely has any details on what the hiku is or what it does; and if I wanted more info, I'd have to go to their support section on another domain to peruse their "FAQ". No thanks.

mfrommil 13y ago

Amazon needs to scale Fresh in order for it to be more successful. On a micro level, scaling could come in one of 2 ways: (1)increase order frequency or (2)average order size. (1) Order frequency - Right now, a typical customer likely picks up groceries when they're out and it's convenient. This very well could be on the commute home from work, later at night, etc. With Dash sitting around the kitchen, Amazon has now created a very tangible reminder in the form of the Dash device to order your groceries, rather than waiting until it pops into your mind (and possibly not buying on Amazon). (2) Average order size - As someone posted above, it takes 1 or 2 button clicks to reorder an item using Dash. Compared to the current way of online grocery shopping, Dash eliminates a lot of possibilities of forgetting to reorder something you intended to, because it is so simple. Compared to on the PC when you may forget to browse the snacks category, for example, and you forget to order chips and cookies. Way less likely to happen with Dash. This doesn't address price concerns, but in terms of convenience for Amazon Fresh customers & increasing Fresh orders/order size, this seems like a massive win-win for Amazon and their customers.

thebokehwokeh2 13y ago

What a time to be alive.

dangrossman 13y ago

Based on the comments, I'm guessing few poeople here have ever worked retail and held a barcode scanner. Break out your phone, load up your barcode scanning app (there's 20 seconds right there even if the phone is in your pocket). Now try to actually scan something with it. You'll spend another 30 seconds lining up the little on-screen window with the code, rotating things, waiting for the camera to focus, and even having to move to another location if you're not in bright lighting. It's a terrible experience and that's why you don't see stores checking people out using the camera of an iPad. A barcode scanner, on the other hand, just works. You point it in the general vicinity of the barcode, press the button, and it's scanned. You don't have to perfectly align anything, be in specific lighting, or wait for a camera and an app. I'm sure you've seen cashiers run multiple things over a scanner in under a second. Amazon Dash isn't just a subset of your phone's functionality. It's a dedicated barcode scanner, which is hardware you don't have on your phone.

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mattmanser 13y ago
In England we have a lot of self-serve counters with scanners built in. Is that not something Americans have yet? Anyway, it doesn't 'just work'. Often you stand there like a lemon trying to scan again and again. You can pick out the people who've barely used them as they always take an age to scan everything. And each major supermarket has their own version of these things and they're all equally as cumbersome to use, so I think barcode scanning gets easy with practice but it definitely doesn't 'just work'.
- jonknee 13y ago
  Lemons are a good example of something that works poorly for self checkout. They are small and round which is hard to have a barcode label displayed on. They're worried about weight and that you aren't stealing. It's often much easier to scan a barcode when you're holding the scanner and not the object. Though in this case, you could also just say "lemons" and be done with it.

mcintyre1994 13y ago

I've been expecting Tesco (UK) to do this for ages. They have supermarkets literally operating on this sort of device, you scan+bag as you go, and they have a decent national delivery service.

pbhjpbhj 13y ago
I wonder if they tried it and found there are less opportunities to upsell so it doesn't pay off: If I'm only scanning products I have then where's the discovery and upsell?
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  That's a really good point actually. It's always interesting seeing how they upsell, thinking about it they're probably the best I've seen at it.
- ukoki 13y ago
  One discovery method could be the "free upgrade". You feel good that they upgraded you to "premium" granola and when you run out, it's an easy upsell since you can just scan the box. They might even be able to get away with just giving you free stuff outright as a discovery method too, given the huge amounts of consumer behaviour data they must have — as long as their algorithms can predict you have a profitable% chance of reordering the item.

elleferrer 13y ago

I like how it's a separate device - it's too bad it's only available on the west coast though. AmazonFresh reminds me of "Webvan". Webvan failed during the dot com bubble, maybe Amazon is trying to start this kind of business model up again. I think the grocery delivery service is a great idea, especially now with everyone being so connected. Webvan only failed because they expanded rapidy and weren't able to attract customers at their speedy pace, plus back then not everyone was so connected.

cnaut 13y ago

This is the CueCat done right! Technology is similar but their is a clear use case.

mandeepj 13y ago

i think this is a big deal. When I am working in kitchen, i see lot of items needing refill, reordering etc...it is little cumbersome to stop your work, wash your hands and get the phone to take the note. Not to mention, once u pick your phone there are 100 hundred things going on - facebook, mails, texts etc to distract you for long time. Knowing this distraction, if I just say - "OK, I will just remember in my brain and will not pick up phone" then you know I never remember that task or things later. I think you can also use this device as your note taker incase you want to buy from somewhere else. Enjoy the convenience ;-)

anigbrowl 13y ago

I'm surprised this exists to be honest. Not because of smartphones, but because I thought RFID chips would be sufficiently disposable by now that we'd have smart refrigerators and trashcans. I had to buy a new refrigerator last year and I was struck by how many different kinds of ice dispensers there were (a feature in which I have no interest whatsoever) vs smart refrigerators. I found exactly one of the latter - the unfortunately named T9000 from Samsung (Komm vith me if you vant a snack...), which is really just a refrigerator with a tablet stuck on the front, didn't do very much, was completely locked down (understandable) and cost $4000.

notatoad 13y ago
RFID chips are sufficiently disposable if you can find a use case for them, but they don't really add anything to the average grocery shopping experience. having to take every item out of your cart and pass it over a scanner is a desirable pattern for the grocery store, as it's a great way to prevent theft. They don't want to find a way to eliminate this interaction, so there hasn't been a whole lot of reason put RFID tags on everything in the grocery store.
- chockablock 13y ago
  Great point about the item-by-item interaction deterring theft. And of course it's not clear how you can use RFID to smooth purchase of items sold in bulk/by weight. Checkout lines must also be a real profit center with all the high-margin impulse buy items (magazines, snacks, etc) placed there.
SethMurphy 13y ago
I agree, this is just a Cuecat + wifi, which is actually great. Scanning barcodes is really not that much fun, and can get frustrating because of moisture, wear or just plain hard to find barcodes. An RFID system could avoid much of this. That being said if it took them 5 years to figure out the economic model for delivery, I imagine cheap (free) barcodes was a major factor in this decision.

lucb1e 13y ago

Does anyone know how they connect to WiFi? There's like two buttons and one beep for I/O. (Half joking: Or is it a Speak Friend And Enter kind of thing, where you have to speak the WiFi credentials.)

Zotabite 13y ago
(Full-on joking: you enter the credentials in binary) You press one of the buttons until it goes into AP mode and it beeps. Connect to it and provide your actual WiFi credentials and away it goes. Can't do speech recognition since that's done in the cloud and won't work without a Internet connection.
ams6110 13y ago
Would guess you have to do some initial setup on some other way, maybe via USB connection to your computer.
pzb 13y ago
It can run in AP mode and serves a webpage that asks for the key at which point it switches back to client mode.

beamatronic 13y ago

Didn't see this pointed out so far - The existing Amazon app can already scan bar codes.

plg 13y ago

"Apples" ... next day what shows up, exactly? 6 granny smith apples? a 15 pound bag of golden delicious? 3 MacBooks pro? ummm

pcurve 13y ago
You probably need to review the list on computer or phone to confirm the items, types, and quantity.
davidcgl 13y ago
Dash connects to your home Wi-Fi network and works directly with your AmazonFresh account. Say or scan items into your Dash, and then view the list on your desktop or mobile device to purchase and schedule delivery. You have to confirm the order.

cpezza85 13y ago

hook it up with an invite code :)

paul9290 13y ago

So you zap your grocery needs with dash and flying robot delivers it within 24 hours....

suyash 13y ago

If someone has an invite, can you please send me one as well. I don't have the Invite Code needed to participate.

babesh 13y ago

Wait till a 2 year old gets ahold of it and scans everything 10 times.

sib 13y ago
In this case, you scan or say what you want, then confirm the order in a GUI before it ships.
squintychino 13y ago
I doubt Amazon would be stupid enough to leave this possibility unaccounted for. Even the most basic purchase on Amazon requires you to put in a password to confirm your purchase. Why would this be any different? Or are you simply being a model HN contributor and nitpicking any little thing that comes to mind?
- babesh 13y ago
  Amazon has had one click purchase for years on the web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click. The whole point is to not require re entering a password each time. In fact they hold the patent for it and have sued others for it. You have attacked me for misinformation whereas you are the one misinformed. EDIT: I am a Amazon Prime user and turned off one click because I saw my son clicking on stuff he wanted. And there is confirmation email. You basically have to rollback the purchase if you can. Sometimes you can't if it's shipped.
- r00fus 13y ago
  No, the Kindle Fire on release didn't lock out random purchases - in fact no password required for any app purchase. So there is precedent from Amazon, though they've probably learned. Where do you see a keypad for this device? How will you enter a password?

alanh 13y ago

The :cue cat lives!

jameswilsterman 13y ago

So assumedly this will work in a store also? Could I go 'grocery shopping' at Whole Foods and end up having everything shipped to me by Amazon for cheaper? Can easily see this evolving into an Amazon price comparison tool for mobile use. Maybe I get a flash discount if the GPS has me standing in a Best Buy already.

jonknee 13y ago
They already have this with their smartphone app. You scan with your camera (which is slower than the laser based method of the Dash), but then see the product and pricing from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=aw_ppricecheck_iphone_mobile http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=aw_ppricecheck_i...
atwebb 13y ago
Well there's no screen, maybe it could yell at you or alert your phone? I actually thought that this is exactly what it was for when reading the first few bullet points and didn't think of home first, just a "Oh wow, they're making showroom shopping even easier."
pcurve 13y ago
"Maybe I get a flash discount if the GPS has me standing in a Best Buy already." That is hilarious! It doesn't have cellular connection, but it might have bluetooth.

olalonde 13y ago

My first thought: people are going to bring this to retail shops to get the benefits of brick-and-mortars shopping while benefiting from the low prices / delivery of Amazon. A lot of people already kind of do this. They go to a shop, find the items they like and look up on the web if they can get a cheaper price by ordering online. This version of the product might not be so practical for this use case though since it requires a WiFi connection and can probably only scan AmazonFresh barcodes.

r00fus 13y ago
Exactly. Which Amazon smiles at currently and encourages through their barcode scanning app (this will require internet access for Dash, though - unless it comes with some variation of whispersync).
- chockablock 13y ago
  Or the dash could have an offline mode where it stores scanned barcodes for later lookup.
- simcop2387 13y ago
  Says it needs an internet connection, but a cell phone as a hotspot would do that pretty easily.

ahunt09 13y ago

I can't believe this is not an April Fools' Joke.

thomasmarriott 13y ago

When food became mp3's — Amazon Dash / Fresh = Apple iPod / iTunes. Well done, Jeff.

LeicaLatte 13y ago

Now this feels like the future. I am curious what the upgrade cycles of these products will end up being. Can Amazon charge a subscription and keep giving me a new one?

turisys 13y ago

disruptive innovation at it's best.........

chunkyslink 13y ago

Nice try NSA! Seriously though, it worries me that there are more and more 'listening devices' in my home. We've seen what has happened recently with the NSA listening to calls. What is to stop the authorities getting a back door into all these devices and just recording everything?

bayesianhorse 13y ago
If this device is designed half-way smart it will have a microphone that is optimized for very close voices and a power management designed for short bursts of activity. Which means it will be next to useless for the sort of carpet-surveillance the NSA has been accused off.
rsync 13y ago
I really want nothing to do with 20 different cloud connected and voice-aware devices in my home. I'm not going to buy a Xbox One unless I can effectively mute the mic (not just the UI telling me I did) and I'm not having a nest thermometer tied to some weird social login/profile that I have to create in order to use it. I'm certainly not going to stick some amazon listening device in my kitchen.
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