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In Canada all the big grocery chains have been merging but keeping their branding. So it will look like your town has like 7 different supermarket chains but there's 2 owners. Then again that's just the end-game of any capitalist system.
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Jun 16, 2017 17:16
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Raylen posted:Not sure what thread this should go in but Amazon buying Whole Foods is kind of hilarious. They really want to get their cashier-free stores going with this acquisition. drone delivered asparagus water 
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Jun 16, 2017 17:23
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Baronjutter posted:In Canada all the big grocery chains have been merging but keeping their branding. So it will look like your town has like 7 different supermarket chains but there's 2 owners. Then again that's just the end-game of any capitalist system. It's similar in the US. Safeway has been buying local chains for a while, but they keep the original name. It's the smart move since people usually have the local grocer they trust, and would maybe turn away from the national chain name.
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Jun 16, 2017 17:26
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Bird in a Blender posted:It's similar in the US. Safeway has been buying local chains for a while, but they keep the original name. It's the smart move since people usually have the local grocer they trust, and would maybe turn away from the national chain name. Nah they've been changing the names too. They recently bought up a local chain here and rebranded as "Safeway Community Market" lmao. Which is a shame since Safeway is terrible store almost all around. Hideously overpriced produce ($2-3 for a single bell pepper? yeah ok) that's often on the verge of being wilted or bad. They understaff and overwork their employees. Customer service desk is closed like most of the day despite hours indicating otherwise and almost no staffing at all in the store except the 1 cashier and 1 guy watching the 8 self-checkouts of which half are always broken and it's just a disaster.
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Jun 16, 2017 17:43
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Whole Foods is overpriced garbage from a company that hypes GMO fears so maybe the Amazon acquisition will help things.
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Jun 16, 2017 17:51
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Peachfart posted:Whole Foods is overpriced garbage from a company that hypes GMO fears so maybe the Amazon acquisition will help things. Whole Foods is strange in that it's generally overpriced but their 365 product line items are (sadly) often among the cheapest options in my area. However Whole Foods fresh produce is super-overpriced so I don't see how this acquisition helps Amazon in the area where grocery stores maintain a large advantage over online shopping. I guess we'll see!
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Jun 16, 2017 18:09
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Peachfart posted:Whole Foods is overpriced garbage from a company that hypes GMO fears so maybe the Amazon acquisition will help things. Yeah the founder/owner even said in some interviews he totally doesn't buy into "organic" or "GMO Free" but idiot yuppies and hippies eat that poo poo up and make him rich so lollll
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Jun 16, 2017 18:11
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Nocturtle posted:Whole Foods is strange in that it's generally overpriced but their 365 product line items are (sadly) often among the cheapest options in my area. However Whole Foods fresh produce is super-overpriced so I don't see how this acquisition helps Amazon in the area where grocery stores maintain a large advantage over online shopping. I guess we'll see! My local Whole is reasonably priced on fruit/veg, highly competitive on dairy products, and expensive on meat. I live in an area with a lot of ag/dairy and a lot of that is organic, although my whole will also stock non organic if it's local. I suspect the pricing at a Whole is massively dependant upon local availability which seems... Not necessarily bad? I'm guessing part of what Amazon is getting is access to produce suppliers and an established network of locations to install the Amazon pickup spots where people who use Amazon are likely to shop.
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Jun 16, 2017 18:41
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Raylen posted:Not sure what thread this should go in but Amazon buying Whole Foods is kind of hilarious. They really want to get their cashier-free stores going with this acquisition. Amazon is 
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Jun 16, 2017 19:17
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Bird in a Blender posted:It's similar in the US. Safeway has been buying local chains for a while, but they keep the original name. It's the smart move since people usually have the local grocer they trust, and would maybe turn away from the national chain name. In Oregon it's absolutely crazy how many people treat Fred Meyer as local even though it's been owned by Kroger for most of my lifetime. Xaris posted:Nah they've been changing the names too. They recently bought up a local chain here and rebranded as "Safeway Community Market" lmao. They also allegedly did some really shady poo poo with the stores they had to unloaded as part of their acquisition of Albertsons.
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Jun 16, 2017 19:48
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Haha holy poo poo Amazon "Amazon granted a patent that prevents in-store shoppers from online price checking" https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/15/15812986/amazon-patent-online-price-checking
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Jun 16, 2017 20:15
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Baronjutter posted:Haha holy poo poo Amazon I thought stores already did this is you used their in-store wifi (which is what this patent covers). Coinicentally, whenever I'm at my local Lowes and try to check pricing at Home Depot, the website frequently times out  Also, very clever of Amazon to patent this and then not allow anyone to license it so no one can implement the technology to block price checking.
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Jun 16, 2017 20:20
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Baronjutter posted:Haha holy poo poo Amazon So it only works if you choose to use store wifi, and it's clearly got a bunch of prior art and obviousness which will destroy it if anyone ever challenges the patent. Not really a big deal.
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Jun 16, 2017 20:21
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wateroverfire posted:In some cases they overlook it because expats are a separate and exotic species whose ways are not like those of civilized folk and in other cases they make them get in line or get fired, I imagine. That is why I like being an English teacher here! I get to hang out in all the big companies but can still act like a mochilero!  But yeah, the work hours here are confusing, because people work so many hours, but things go so slowly. Especially in retail, its weird to think I've gotten used to thinking of a 5 person line as being a short line. And the grocery stores close at 10 PM. All of these work hours, but still things are so inefficient.
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Jun 16, 2017 21:00
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I was in a Sears Grand store last weekend and there were a grand total of 30 cars in the parking lot mid-day Saturday.
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Jun 16, 2017 22:07
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For some flipping reason my metro area is a hotly contested grocery market, by the end of this year we are supposed to have two Wegmans, some Publix, more Aldis than I can shake a stick at, and also at least three Lidl (Lidls? Lidlen?). It's completely insane how hypercompetitive the grocery market is, as one of the last few retail sectors still totally dominated by brick and mortar.
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Jun 16, 2017 23:25
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Still havent paid for gas for like 3 years thanks to Giant Eagle fuelperks.
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Jun 16, 2017 23:41
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Lote posted:Interestingly, Target, Costco, Walmart and other grocery stores are getting crushed in the stock market today. Maybe the bigger problem though is that if this is Amazon's foot in the door of brick-and-mortar sales, then it might expand into other categories.. Baronjutter posted:Haha holy poo poo Amazon
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Jun 17, 2017 00:28
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OneEightHundred posted:In 5 years everyone that shops at Whole Foods is going to have an unlimited high-speed mobile data plan so I'm not sure why they're bothering. Seriously.....why would I use store wifi? Data is relatively cheap and I'm not watching 4k movies on my phone while shopping. (and the only time I shop at Whole Foods is when I'm on an expense account so IDGAF)
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Jun 17, 2017 00:35
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Bird in a Blender posted:Do people try on frames/lenses in the store and then go order them online? I would never trust to order something like that online without being able to try them on first. It's actually becoming a trend that in really big markets they are opening a physical store to try on frames. If LC was smart they would partnerwith an online chain so people could come into our store to try on the glasses, but then prefer them online and LC gets a cut of the sale. That way they have an optician who fits them and can adjust the frame. LC wine because more business is sent their way.
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Jun 17, 2017 01:03
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OneEightHundred posted:.. Like someone else said, this sounds like developing an idea and securing the rights to it in order to sit on it forever and make sure nobody else tries that stuff against Amazon.
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Jun 17, 2017 02:48
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Just heard an interesting story from a cashier I know that a particularly up their rear end customer at a grocery story just threw around "Well Amazon just bought whole foods, bye bye *Insert Store X*!" when she didn't get an item stacked EXACTLY how she wanted so I'm guessing this is how its going to be used now. Lazy customer at Wal-Mart doesn't get their way, they'll just berate the workers that Amazon's at the door right now here to take away their job. Doesn't matter if there's a Whole Foods or not in the area, the min-wage workers will just have another thing to be attacked by some power tripping rural who demands satisfaction as they're trying to buy 20 boxes of Dew and Corndogs.
Crabtree fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jun 17, 2017 |
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Jun 17, 2017 02:54
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Willie Tomg posted:Like someone else said, this sounds like developing an idea and securing the rights to it in order to sit on it forever and make sure nobody else tries that stuff against Amazon. Which can't work, as the patent would never hold up in court. Filtering/replacing/outright blocking data access you don't like on your own network has hella prior art, and so does attempting to supply coupons when you detect certain actions. Everything else in the patent appears to be legally obvious extensions of existing concepts.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:06
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Motronic posted:Seriously.....why would I use store wifi? Data is relatively cheap and I'm not watching 4k movies on my phone while shopping. Just wait til jamming cellular frequencies is standard practice in big box stores. Wasn't there some hotel that was caught a while back jamming external signals to force people attending some conference to use their pricy add-on wifi?
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Jun 17, 2017 03:10
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saintonan posted:Just wait til jamming cellular frequencies is standard practice in big box stores. Wasn't there some hotel that was caught a while back jamming external signals to force people attending some conference to use their pricy add-on wifi? That's not going to be standard practice because it is extremely illegal, especially since cell phone jammers often interfere with police communications. The FCC refuses to license them except for the military and certain police agencies (and those can only be federal agencies, or contractors specifically doing work for federal agencies), thus making them illegal to operate. Additionally selling or importing any of these devices, unless you're an authorized agency is illegal even if you don't operate them. Fines for selling, importing, or operating the devices range from $16,000 to $112,000 per incident, and if you've been operating it for like a week you can bet you're getting hit for multiple "operating' infractions. Similar laws are in place in most developed countries. Some of them allow authority for lower level government agencies than their respective national governments, but legal private business or consumer usage is very rare.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:28
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fishmech posted:Which can't work, as the patent would never hold up in court. Filtering/replacing/outright blocking data access you don't like on your own network has hella prior art, and so does attempting to supply coupons when you detect certain actions. Everything else in the patent appears to be legally obvious extensions of existing concepts. The patent doesn't have to be strong enough to hold up in a courtroom. It just has to be strong enough to get Wal-Mart and Target's internal counsel to look at it, decide it would be a pain in the rear end to fight, and quash any "intercept Amazon traffic" projects before they get off the ground.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:31
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Space Gopher posted:The patent doesn't have to be strong enough to hold up in a courtroom. It just has to be strong enough to get Wal-Mart and Target's internal counsel to look at it, decide it would be a pain in the rear end to fight, and quash any "intercept Amazon traffic" projects before they get off the ground. It can't do that. It's a very, obviously, weak patent. If they actually wanted to do such a thing, it wouldn't stop them in the least. In reality you don't bother to build such a system because if Amazon doesn't work right people are probably going to turn off the wifi, if they ever connected in the first place.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:39
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fishmech posted:That's not going to be standard practice because it is extremely illegal, especially since cell phone jammers often interfere with police communications. Part of the impetus for the FCC regs is also that early mass adopters of beepers/pagers were on-call EMTs and emergency personnel. Cell phone jammers could literally (indirectly) kill someone.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:51
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axeil posted:Wegmans is such a good grocery store I literally drive 40 minutes once a month to go to the one out in Fairfax instead of just walking to the grocery store down the street from my house. It's that much better. We buy a half dozen boxes of wine at a time from wegmans because it's so much cheaper.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:56
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asdf32 posted:We buy a half dozen boxes of wine at a time from wegmans because it's so much cheaper. A big part of the puzzle of your posting just fell into place
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Jun 17, 2017 04:17
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fishmech posted:That's not going to be standard practice because it is extremely illegal, especially since cell phone jammers often interfere with police communications. Wasn't there some high school teacher who put a cell phone jammer in his class (because "damned kids always on their phones!") and ended up getting into a ton of poo poo because of it? Edit: Yep, there was. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/florida-science-teacher-suspended-for-signal-jamming-students-cell-phones/ LanceHunter fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Jun 17, 2017 |
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Jun 17, 2017 07:25
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There was also a guy in Florida using one on his commute to and from work
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Jun 17, 2017 10:57
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fishmech posted:That's not going to be standard practice because it is extremely illegal, especially since cell phone jammers often interfere with police communications. Active jammers are illegal.passive things like Filling the walls with cement and steel plates is legal.
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Jun 17, 2017 13:43
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Seems like covering the walls and ceiling with Faraday mesh would be a great science lesson.
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Jun 17, 2017 13:56
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I bet someone could eventually get in trouble for something like faraday cages. Where something exists just to block signals an EMT could need or whatever. The funny thing is that a good way to block signals is to have a bunch of firewalls. The actual physical ones, not the network ones. Just throw a bunch of bricks and concrete in every wall and you are basically underground by a phone's perspective.
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Jun 17, 2017 14:19
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:Active jammers are illegal.passive things like Filling the walls with cement and steel plates is legal. Doing that is impractical for most retail locations, especially those in existing shopping centers. Hell, a lot of big box stores and supermarkets have outright skylights these days over the main sales floor - it's a big trend recently.
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Jun 17, 2017 15:05
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Willie Tomg posted:A big part of the puzzle of your posting just fell into place I really recommend black box to anyone who still looks down on boxed wine. Motronic posted:Seriously.....why would I use store wifi? Data is relatively cheap and I'm not watching 4k movies on my phone while shopping. Right, it's never occurred to me to look for store wifi in the last 5 years. Shared wifi is often worse than 4G anyways.
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Jun 17, 2017 15:10
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fishmech posted:Doing that is impractical for most retail locations, especially those in existing shopping centers. Sure. Most stores wouldn't want to block cell signals either. But if one did there are ways to build that in ways that aren't obvious you are trying to block cell signals.
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Jun 17, 2017 15:14
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Those fcc rules might not last forever, esp with repubs in charge willing to take corporate bribes to ease any restrictions
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Jun 17, 2017 15:27
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The corporate entities paying for the spectrum being jammed would have a problem with it.
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Jun 17, 2017 15:36
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