I can't wait for these...
Jun. 22nd, 2006 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lostcarparkSony are planning to introduce robotic stores (that's vending machines to you and me):
Personally, I'm all for these. How often have we gone into an electronics store, know what we're looking for, having already compared alternatives online, only to have some twit of a sales rep start regurgitating the dumbed-down explanation of how it works that he's clearly misunderstood and has has no idea of what he's really talking about.
And then there's those crazy impulse buys. We're geeks. We see something cool We want it. We can't help ourselves. The sales guy is useless, so whe we ask "is this compatible with X?" we get a blank stare. All we really need to see is the product specification, but the guy looks like he's a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. But we have to have it, so we take a chance. We should know better because we've been burned before, but we hope tat this time might be different. We get it home, take it out of the box, and we find it has a non-standard connector, so we need to trek back to get the right adapter cable.
How much easier it will be to see our cool gadgets through the glass of a vending machine (sorry, robotic sales assistant), select an item and see all the product specs on an LCD screen, see what adapter cable we need (and will hopefully be hanging on the rack next to our gadget), insert our credit card and bingo, the gadget is ours!
Just like shopping online, but without having to wait for the product to be delivered.Initially there will be seven of them in the US, but eventually they should find their way over here. Personally, I think they're a great idea, and I can hardly wait.
Of course, I'm probably setting myself up for a big let-down.
Personally, I'm all for these. How often have we gone into an electronics store, know what we're looking for, having already compared alternatives online, only to have some twit of a sales rep start regurgitating the dumbed-down explanation of how it works that he's clearly misunderstood and has has no idea of what he's really talking about.
And then there's those crazy impulse buys. We're geeks. We see something cool We want it. We can't help ourselves. The sales guy is useless, so whe we ask "is this compatible with X?" we get a blank stare. All we really need to see is the product specification, but the guy looks like he's a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. But we have to have it, so we take a chance. We should know better because we've been burned before, but we hope tat this time might be different. We get it home, take it out of the box, and we find it has a non-standard connector, so we need to trek back to get the right adapter cable.
How much easier it will be to see our cool gadgets through the glass of a vending machine (sorry, robotic sales assistant), select an item and see all the product specs on an LCD screen, see what adapter cable we need (and will hopefully be hanging on the rack next to our gadget), insert our credit card and bingo, the gadget is ours!
Just like shopping online, but without having to wait for the product to be delivered.Initially there will be seven of them in the US, but eventually they should find their way over here. Personally, I think they're a great idea, and I can hardly wait.
Of course, I'm probably setting myself up for a big let-down.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 11:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 11:28 am (UTC)And I'm prepared to lose a Mars bar if it doesn't drop properly, but if my iPod gets stuck on the way out of the machine?
And how fast would these things get vandalised? They're full of really expensive stuff that is protected by nothing but a layer of glass with some anonymous company miles away in charge of it - it's not like breaking into a shop where the store manager can be alerted quickly.
I dunno, I just don't see the advantage. You can go to a 24 hour supermarket most nights if you really desperately need a new mp3 player or camera and while the sales people might not know much you can ask to see the instruction book or something. If the machine doesn't give you the info you want that's it, end of story.
I'm not excited.
Where I've seen these sort of things ...
Date: 2006-06-22 12:38 pm (UTC)Hard to ram raid, 24 hour security, and the glass is *really* tough!
The advantages are:
1) better range of products than the 24hour supermarket
2) better range of leads, adapters etc. (we can hope!)
3) most 24hour supermarkets don't seem to restock particularly quickly while I'm sure this will be wired up to the internet so every transaction is registered and stock levels will retrigger restocking (every time something is sold out, they are losing a potential sale from everyone that comes past until the item is back in stock)
And if they really wanted, they could add a "live" help desk somewhere (over the internet) so that if you needed more help, you could click on a link and "chat" with someone (touch screen keyboard or possibly even a webcam link, why not?)
But I'd be unlikely to buy anything from one because the prices will be higher than the internet, and there's no opportunity for saying "if I buy the 60Gb iPod, will you thrown in a spare charger free/for five quid less?" as you can in a "real" shop.
Re: Where I've seen these sort of things ...
Date: 2006-06-25 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 10:34 pm (UTC)Although the similarity to a chocolate vending machine is obvious, I think there will have to be a lot of differences too. Obviously you can't let an iPod drop from the top rack to the floor and let the purchaser fish it out, so there has to be a much better delivery system, and it will probably include either photographing or videoing you collecting the item so it can be proved that it was successful. If we can assume the system will have a live connection of some sort, then it will be possible to immediately contact someone who can verify that the delivery failed and refund your credit card.
I think the vandalism aspect will me dealt with by only putting them in secure locations. Airports and shopping malls, as stated below. Actually I think they could be really good in 24 hour supermarkets. Supermarkets have a tendency to run out of just the item you want, and when they get it back, forget to restock the vital accessory cable (if they carried it at all). If they have a "live" connection and can automatically reorder when stocks are low.
I think the information aspect is where they have the potential to be fantastic, or to fall flat on their face. If they have lots of useful information about every product, including balanced reviews, and you have the option of calling a "live" assistant if you need more information, and they can put knowledgable people in their call centres, then it could really work. On the other hand, if they just give what you can find on a website, without the ability to search for other opinions, then there's no real benefit.
I'm brobably being naive, and I shouldn't get excited about them, but if done right, they could be a really useful alternative.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 12:13 pm (UTC)You enjoy it - they'll be great!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 01:06 pm (UTC)I dont trust technology that much