These guys' stupid idea is a vending machine that sells bigger stuff? This has been around forever, it's not new. The tech bubble can't burst fast enough.
It is a shit idea. It has less selection than a corner store and sells basically the same shit you could get out of a proper vending machine without having to link your credit card. You need to satisfy demand, not try and create it.
Exactly! And the fact that it doesn't handle perishable items means that it would never wipe out corner stores. I could see it being popular in college dorms though. When you want mac n cheese, you gotta get that mac n cheese!
I bet that these guys have made no preparation for refunds, and that some hourly employee is getting massive numbers of calls... don't worry though, because next month they will sub contract a Philippine call center that can't actually process any refunds. Then after a few months of that, they will 'relaunch,' the relaunch will actually require Bodega members to waive their rights to refunds. Then a few months after that one of the co-founders will commit suicide, and will be buried in a Bodega machine styled casket. Finally, a year or so after that, the other Founder will quit, or be forced out by the VC money, someone will be brought in to sell what assets they have and we can all have a laugh at how stupid Tech People are.
don't worry though, because next month they will sub contract a Philippine call center that can't actually process any refunds already have found out that there's no market for it and have folded.
Reminds me of other bay area failures: the"rolls of quarters" delivery service, and the tech bro who tweeted in response to local laundromats being displaced, that poors should just use laundry delivery services
“The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” co-founder Paul McDonald, a former Google product manager, told Fast Company. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 ft away from you.”
This is what bodegas are now... Like damn seriously these guys need to stop and think about business or economics for like a hot second. Bodegas are already ultra-available and the reason we have a bodega on every block instead of every apartment building is because there's some small fixed overhead considerations like stocking and storage where being slightly bigger is an advantage.
yeah, kinda weird -- they allow driverless cars (in fact didn't the national govmt make it illegal for US states to disallow driverless cars?), they allow $2000 purchases with electronic payment methods, but they won't trust fingerprint sensors (or now face recognition) to verify the identity of the buyer, and thereby his age?
Well to own a credit card you have to be 18 so theres that. Also that isnt under the jurisdiction of the ATF. Neither is weed tho, and you can't buy that online either, despite it being legal in many states.
startup culture is probably the worst thing to happen to the world outside of social media. In fact, they are basically the same thing now that I think of it.
I am from NYC, born and bred. Bodegas are not just "corner groceries." They’re ethnic, immigrant-owned stores that serve specific communities here in NYC, and they’ve become cultural institutions of sorts, like the Italian-American pizzeria, the Irish bar, the African-American barber shop or the Jewish kosher deli. Like those types of businesses, they’ve become an integral and expressive part of the communities they serve and have characteristics that lend them a certain color, life and distinctiveness that separates them from the lifelessness and coldness of a corporate run store.
People have been getting very angry and sensitive about the appropriation of bodegas by hipsters, because that is the demographic that on one hand always goes out of its way to drive these types of places out of business for being "too gauche/tacky/ethnic" but then, true to hipster culture, reinvents and supplants them with a sanitized version that uses the gaucheness as a selling point, but under the guise of "hipster irony", or "kitsch."
Try to imagine what that’s like. Try to imagine living in a neighborhood with a bodega run by staff you and everyone else in that neighborhood knows intimately and have for years. It’s the place where locals stand in front of and gossip, where you and your neighbors meet and greet regularly, the place that has certain ethnic items you can’t find anyplace else, like cafe con leche, Mamita’s ices and penny candy. Plus, you’ve come to appreciate the unique quirks of a bodega (the bright, colorful signage and flags, the neon signs, store layout and cats) precisely because it’s so cheerful and lively compared to the cold, uninviting, fluorescent look of a chain store.
Then hipsters move down the block, sneer that your bodega is nothing but a filthy, disgusting, rat-infested drug den with nothing but cans of expired food and cat poop everywhere. What’s more, the unique signage and color are derided as being cheesy and stupid. Then enough of them move into the neighborhood to where there’s enough demand for a 7/11. A 7/11 moves in, rent soars, and the bodega has no choice but to close its doors.
A year later, the hipsters that brought in the 7/11 start fondly "remembering" the bodega they drove out, but in a condescending "so-tacky-but-oh-so-ironic-in-a-pink-flamingos-dogs-playing-poker-sort-of-way." Then they start capitalizing on and exploiting the thing they once hated so much with ironic "bodega-themed" tees, baseball caps and crappy vending machines that have the illusion of being "affectionate" but are really making a mockery of what bodegas are all about and are an attempt to reinvent and lay claim to this phenomenon for a demographic that never had any real appreciation or respect for what bodegas were all about.
Imagine this, and you will then understand the anger and frustration that residents of NYC have had to deal with for the past decade.
48 comments
1 SnapshillBot 2017-09-14
I can take a 9-inch dildo up my butt, because I'm an adult and I solve my own problems
Snapshots:
I am a bot. (Info / Contact)
1 offthewag0n 2017-09-14
Guy on the left here has the face of a SRDine.
1 asdjfweaiv 2017-09-14
So it's a hotel mini-bar, except in public. Yeah, this will set the world on fire. /s
This is prime /r/shittykickstarters level material right here.
1 Thhueros 2017-09-14
It's always really enjoyable to see bougies get cucked by capitalism and then whine about it
Death đź’€ to corner stores.
1 2Cthulhu4Scthulhu 2017-09-14
Tbh the only thing that could make this better is if it was sponsored by Whole Foods.
1 Fokusfaehre 2017-09-14
Bougie is the worst term that could possibly have been spawned by shitty online anarchism RP. Just say bourgie you fucking dimwit.
1 Thhueros 2017-09-14
How dare you imply that I am an anarchist.
1 ProbablyABigFatJerk 2017-09-14
DEY TUK ER JERBS, HOMBRE!
1 jack_be_numb 2017-09-14
These guys' stupid idea is a vending machine that sells bigger stuff? This has been around forever, it's not new. The tech bubble can't burst fast enough.
1 grep_var_log 2017-09-14
It's a bodega, so it actually dispenses weed when you tap in the secret combo.
1 makes_people_cringe 2017-09-14
yeah it's literally a cabinet with a camera in it
1 Zentoff 2017-09-14
That sounds like a shit idea tbh
1 MegaSeedsInYourBum 2017-09-14
It is a shit idea. It has less selection than a corner store and sells basically the same shit you could get out of a proper vending machine without having to link your credit card. You need to satisfy demand, not try and create it.
1 lisalisa07 2017-09-14
Exactly! And the fact that it doesn't handle perishable items means that it would never wipe out corner stores. I could see it being popular in college dorms though. When you want mac n cheese, you gotta get that mac n cheese!
1 battles 2017-09-14
I bet that these guys have made no preparation for refunds, and that some hourly employee is getting massive numbers of calls... don't worry though, because next month they will sub contract a Philippine call center that can't actually process any refunds. Then after a few months of that, they will 'relaunch,' the relaunch will actually require Bodega members to waive their rights to refunds. Then a few months after that one of the co-founders will commit suicide, and will be buried in a Bodega machine styled casket. Finally, a year or so after that, the other Founder will quit, or be forced out by the VC money, someone will be brought in to sell what assets they have and we can all have a laugh at how stupid Tech People are.
1 SamWhite 2017-09-14
1 ahbslldud 2017-09-14
This but unironically.
1 ricardogce 2017-09-14
I think these hipsters are awful people with an awful idea, but this guy somehow manages to make them look good.
1 pepperouchau 2017-09-14
If those vending machines then where are the cats huh
1 charlesgrodinfan 2017-09-14
Reminds me of other bay area failures: the"rolls of quarters" delivery service, and the tech bro who tweeted in response to local laundromats being displaced, that poors should just use laundry delivery services
1 jack_be_numb 2017-09-14
This is what bodegas are now... Like damn seriously these guys need to stop and think about business or economics for like a hot second. Bodegas are already ultra-available and the reason we have a bodega on every block instead of every apartment building is because there's some small fixed overhead considerations like stocking and storage where being slightly bigger is an advantage.
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
I thought progressives loved progress?
Obviously those easy manufacturing jobs for dumb whiteys aren't coming back, and the even easier Bodega jobs for brownies will soon be a thing of the past as well.
Nobody needs cashiers anymore, they've been made obsolete by technology years ago, they're like horse-carriages after the invention of the automobile.
1 oshnyve 2017-09-14
and the specific technology is vending machines, which have existed for decades...
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
vending machines aren't good enough.
1 offthewag0n 2017-09-14
Bodegas can fight back against the Bodega-box through the use of innovative new technologies such as the refrigerator and selling cigarettes and booze
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
why shouldn't the vending machine have those too?
1 pepperouchau 2017-09-14
Amerikkka is pretty reluctant to sell tobacco/alcohol without a manual ID check
1 Sebaceous_Sebacious 2017-09-14
I used to see functional antique cigarette vending machines and coke machines loaded with beer on military bases sometime
1 shitsfuckedupalot 2017-09-14
Because ATF requires more age authentication than a porn site
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
yeah, kinda weird -- they allow driverless cars (in fact didn't the national govmt make it illegal for US states to disallow driverless cars?), they allow $2000 purchases with electronic payment methods, but they won't trust fingerprint sensors (or now face recognition) to verify the identity of the buyer, and thereby his age?
1 shitsfuckedupalot 2017-09-14
Well you still have to be at least 16 to drive a driverless car
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
but why is there no cashier inside every car to check your ID with his own human eyes, to make sure you're allowed to drive?
1 shitsfuckedupalot 2017-09-14
Theyre called police officers. You drive past like 5 a day
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
and if I'm at home, buying $1000 luxury lotion with my credit card, where's the cashier or police officer to check my identity?
1 shitsfuckedupalot 2017-09-14
Well to own a credit card you have to be 18 so theres that. Also that isnt under the jurisdiction of the ATF. Neither is weed tho, and you can't buy that online either, despite it being legal in many states.
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
lol
1 GreatNegotiator 2017-09-14
We will get there my friend.
1 takesteady12 2017-09-14
I wonder if they sell newports, malt liquor , and grabba leaf.
1 neutralvoter 2017-09-14
startup culture is probably the worst thing to happen to the world outside of social media. In fact, they are basically the same thing now that I think of it.
1 TinyJibble 2017-09-14
...that would be mayos. You were looking for mayos.
1 wwyzzerdd 2017-09-14
A glass door on a box full of non-perishable, easily resold, items? Well they won't be installing these in Oakland.
1 SexAttack 2017-09-14
Arthur C. Clarke's little known 4th law:
Any sufficiently progressive person is indistinguishable from a crazy homeless person.
1 shitsfuckedupalot 2017-09-14
How can you replace a bodega if you can't rob it with an airsoft gun painted black?
1 grey_derived 2017-09-14
I am from NYC, born and bred. Bodegas are not just "corner groceries." They’re ethnic, immigrant-owned stores that serve specific communities here in NYC, and they’ve become cultural institutions of sorts, like the Italian-American pizzeria, the Irish bar, the African-American barber shop or the Jewish kosher deli. Like those types of businesses, they’ve become an integral and expressive part of the communities they serve and have characteristics that lend them a certain color, life and distinctiveness that separates them from the lifelessness and coldness of a corporate run store.
People have been getting very angry and sensitive about the appropriation of bodegas by hipsters, because that is the demographic that on one hand always goes out of its way to drive these types of places out of business for being "too gauche/tacky/ethnic" but then, true to hipster culture, reinvents and supplants them with a sanitized version that uses the gaucheness as a selling point, but under the guise of "hipster irony", or "kitsch."
Try to imagine what that’s like. Try to imagine living in a neighborhood with a bodega run by staff you and everyone else in that neighborhood knows intimately and have for years. It’s the place where locals stand in front of and gossip, where you and your neighbors meet and greet regularly, the place that has certain ethnic items you can’t find anyplace else, like cafe con leche, Mamita’s ices and penny candy. Plus, you’ve come to appreciate the unique quirks of a bodega (the bright, colorful signage and flags, the neon signs, store layout and cats) precisely because it’s so cheerful and lively compared to the cold, uninviting, fluorescent look of a chain store.
Then hipsters move down the block, sneer that your bodega is nothing but a filthy, disgusting, rat-infested drug den with nothing but cans of expired food and cat poop everywhere. What’s more, the unique signage and color are derided as being cheesy and stupid. Then enough of them move into the neighborhood to where there’s enough demand for a 7/11. A 7/11 moves in, rent soars, and the bodega has no choice but to close its doors.
A year later, the hipsters that brought in the 7/11 start fondly "remembering" the bodega they drove out, but in a condescending "so-tacky-but-oh-so-ironic-in-a-pink-flamingos-dogs-playing-poker-sort-of-way." Then they start capitalizing on and exploiting the thing they once hated so much with ironic "bodega-themed" tees, baseball caps and crappy vending machines that have the illusion of being "affectionate" but are really making a mockery of what bodegas are all about and are an attempt to reinvent and lay claim to this phenomenon for a demographic that never had any real appreciation or respect for what bodegas were all about.
Imagine this, and you will then understand the anger and frustration that residents of NYC have had to deal with for the past decade.
1 Zozbot 2017-09-14
zoz
1 Zozbot 2017-09-14
zle
1 Zozbot 2017-09-14
zozzle
1 Ennui2778 2017-09-14
K
1 DickingBimbos247 2017-09-14
GOOD point