"Many people assumed it was, mostly because the announcement came the day before April Fool’s, but also because the idea seemed to poke fun at Amazon’s omnipresence, making it visibly manifest with little plastic one-click shopping buttons adhered to surfaces all over your home," writes Ian Crouch in The New Yorker. "There was also something slightly off about the promotional video...."
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Oh for the love of Pete.
It's not that hard to buy stuff before you run out.
The very definition of First World White People's Problems.
If I ever see that in a friend's house, I'm pushing the button. Twice.
I love it.
My local grocery store is very good but has had a trend of stopping carrying some of my preferred brands, either because I'm an old fogey and don't like shampoo that smells like fruit or because they exchange the store brand for national brands. I've been finding my self buying such products from amazon, and I'd prefer it be easier. I'm going to look into this, post haste.
Two opposite reactions :)
I shutter to think what kind of "WANT" buttons Laslo would have scattered about.
Man, you really Like Tide.
I'd prefer an iPhone app that works like Apple Pay (or whatever it's called), where the phone is the device and it can read the product you put it near and then touch the spot on the phone to order it.
I don't like little plastic things having to be stuck everywhere. And what's to stop kids and other pranksters from pressing the buttons?
Anyway, I don't feel horrified by the idea of turning the house into a big vending machine where you can push on anything and get another one sent to you. I'm not nostalgic about the physical enterprise of shopping in stores.
Last Sunday I ordered an item from Amazon somewhere around mid-morning. It was same day delivered before 5:00pm.
How da do dat?
I don't like that if you order from Amazon this way, you won't be going in through The Althouse Amazon Portal and costlessly showing love for the Althouse blog.
Amazon ruined their subscription service by putting everything your ordered off the subscription-eligible list.
Too much cheap stuff shipped free, I guess.
I know that Amazon has local 'lockers' of items, so I'm guessing that's how day did dat.
I'm against the Althouse (or anybody) portal deal, by the way.
It increases the Amazon cost and so increases your cost, as any guy knows.
It's not free stuff.
"I don't like little plastic things having to be stuck everywhere. And what's to stop kids and other pranksters from pressing the buttons?"
You don't stick the buttons where kids and pranksters can get at them. I would probably put them in a drawer somewhere or some other safe place. It's just a convenience to push a button rather than surf the internet and probably get distracted into going to face book and Althouse and wasting time.
Maybe they'll make it so you can set up all your buttons to go thru a portal like Althouse automatically every time.
"And what's to stop kids and other pranksters from pressing the buttons?"
You get a phone notification so you can cancel.
And that's when you order a razor strop.
"You get a phone notification so you can cancel."
All the more reason why this should just be a button on the phone!
I guess some people like the idea of the house looking like a big vending machine, but other than that, I don't want to hide the buttons in a drawer. I keep track of my phone. I don't keep track of what's in the junk drawer.
I definitely need to buy some AMZN stock soon.
Woulda Coulda Shoulda bought it at around 180 just a few years ago. I can remember buying books from Amazon two or three years before it became public.
I don't think Amazon has ever turned a profit.
Amazon on the other hand is a great place. I've ordered some 300 romantic comedies recently and every one has come promptly and correctly, with no mistakes, mostly in 1s and 2s per package.
"I'd prefer an iPhone app that works like Apple Pay (or whatever it's called), where the phone is the device and it can read the product you put it near and then touch the spot on the phone to order it."
You can pretty much do that now. Amazon's smartphone apps will scan any bar code and bring up the page on the site where you can buy the product.
On the other hand, the if you browsed this you might be interested in this feature gets you into hard-to-escape dead ends, where a genre has been crossed.
"All the more reason why this should just be a button on the phone!"
I guess they're thinking you just punch the button and get on with what you're doing instead of a multi-step process where you stop what you're doing to locate your phone, find the icon, etc.
That gives you too much time in which you might decide to put the product on your Costco list instead or see if the local store has a bolder coffee blend in the same price range.
"You can pretty much do that now. Amazon's smartphone apps will scan any bar code and bring up the page on the site where you can buy the product."
All right then. I guess that explains the plastic buttons. I noticed them, but not the app.
The sinking feeling that comes as you yank a garbage bag out of the box and meet no resistance from further reinforcements is also an opportunity to ask yourself all kinds of questions, from “Do I want to continue using this brand of bag?” to “Why in the hell am I producing so much trash?” The act of shopping—of leaving the house and going to a store, or, at the very least, of one-click ordering on the Amazon Web site—is a check against the inertia of consumption, not only in personal economic terms but in ethical ones as well.
Oh, JESUS.
What the hell is wrong with this guy, that running out of trash bags triggers an existential crisis targeting The Evil Consumerism?
Does he actually think like that, or is it an elaborate pose as The Ultimate New Yorker Writer?
I rather like the idea of seamlessly being able to reorder a household good at the moment I realize I need to, not needing to remember to do so later.
(Re-evaluate the brand of trash bags?
Look, man.
Either I've already done that and chosen the one I chose, or I've decided the benefits cannot possibly be worth the effort.
They're bloody trash bags.)
Does anybody remember buying stuff in stores? They don't have anything that fits your needs, where Amazon has it right there.
Except groceries, where the opposite happens.
"I don't think Amazon has ever turned a profit."
That is the main criticism of Amazon because Jeff Bezos is more concerned with growing the company than returning profits to the shareholders.
That is the main criticism of Amazon because Jeff Bezos is more concerned with growing the company than returning profits to the shareholders.
That resembles a scam that companies used to run. I wonder if it can be analysed the same way.
The scam was that a high P/E company buys low P/E companies, and the result is that the high P/E company shows earnings growth.
Investors pay a premium for growth, and so the stock price of the high P/E company rises more, giving it a higher P/E.
Rince and repeat.
No actual growth is happening.
Oh and he's not returning profits to shareholders. He doesn't have any profits.
Our host said: 'd prefer an iPhone app that works like Apple Pay (or whatever it's called), where the phone is the device and it can read the product you put it near and then touch the spot on the phone to order it.
The Amazon App for iOS does that.
Press the camera button in the search bar, scan the bar code, and it takes you straight to the order page for it, if it exists.
One-click Amazon purchase, at least - I don't know about Apple Pay's level of integration, but I know Amazon can use it at some level.
(My iPhone is a 5S, thus no Apple Pay for me yet.)
In the meantime, it's a great place to shop.
rhhardin said: I don't think Amazon has ever turned a profit.
Well, you'd be wrong.
I use the Amazon app all the time. Scan barcode, tap to place 1-Click order. It's particularly good for ordering books you notice out at someone's office or house. Or for doing a price comparison while shopping in another store.
And I agree with rhhardin that the problem with the subscription service is the removal of products.
"Oh and he's not returning profits to shareholders. He doesn't have any profits."
He doesn't have profits because he continues to pour money into making capital investments in the company so that it will grow even larger. Amazon is taking a very long term view.
No, profits are profits whether reinvested or returned. The stock price ought to be indifferent to which happens, by the way.
The Sigivald correction is correct. Amazon has turned profits in the past.
"No, profits are profits whether reinvested or returned. The stock price ought to be indifferent to which happens, by the way."
Profit is what remains after all the costs of producing or providing a service are subtracted from revenue and capital investments are included in the cost.
I've ordered some 300 romantic comedies
Who are you?....and what have you done with rhhardin??
Profit is what remains after all the costs of producing or providing a service are subtracted from revenue and capital investments are included in the cost.
Depreciation is included in the costs, but it's meant to represent an actual cost as well as possible, with respect to what happens to capital.
If capital investment itself were part of the cost, you wouldn't have depreciation.
I like Amazon's app. It's easy, almost too easy. I checked into televisions a few months ago before buying one at Best Buy. About a week later, I "pocket purchased" one. Fortunately, I was able to cancel immediately. That would have been tough to explain to my long suffering wife!
Probably more if a problem with the phone them the app anyway.
I watch a couple romantic comedies a day, for what the popular idea is about such stuff, and looking for good ones.
Most important, why are they the good ones.
The idea is after Stanley Cavell's lit crit of remarriage comedies.
I don't hit much really recent stuff though because the price hasn't fallen for the DVD yet.
For a toddler who's exploring the world and developing his motor skills, these buttons will be a welcome source of fun and adventure.
"If capital investment itself were part of the cost, you wouldn't have depreciation."
Depreciation is the wear tear of equipment, buildings or whatever. Capital investment is money spent on new buildings, equipment or whatever and profit is what is left after both of those are accounted for.
Depreciation is the wear tear of equipment, buildings or whatever. Capital investment is money spent on new buildings, equipment or whatever and profit is what is left after both of those are accounted for.
If that were true, you'd be writing off capital investment twice.
Once when you buy the machine, and again as wear and tear happens.
They don't let you do it twice.
You haven't lost any money when you buy a machine. You can get the money back by selling the machine, for example. Your net worth is unchanged. So they don't let you write it off when you do the investment.
@rhhardin, I'll yield on the accounting, suffice to say this quote from the link below was my point.
"The way most companies do business is to focus primarily on today's bottom line: The prevailing ethos in corporate America, after all, is that companies exist to make money for their owners — and the more and the sooner the better — so every decision should be made in the context of that.
The result of this is that many (most?) companies scrimp on things like long-term investments, customer service, product quality, and employee compensation, in the interest of delivering a few more pennies to this quarter's bottom line."
FRED/Business Insider
American profit margins just hit an all-time high.
This obsession with short-term profits has helped produce the unhealthy and destabilizing situation that now afflicts the U.S. economy:
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-letter-to-shareholders-2013-4
Rh, have you found any good ones? I can think of so few.
At the March 2009 stock market low AMZN could have been bought for about $50.00 per share. Currently at $372 per share and the chart looks good, its near the fifty day moving average line. That is a more than a seven fold return on investment.
Nice April Fool's.
Rh, have you found any good ones? I can think of so few.
1. Two Weeks Notice
2. The Proposal
would be my top two out of 250 seen so far.
I liked but have not thought seriously about Notting Hill, Erin Brokevitch (which isn't quite a rom com); and of course Get Smart (2008) which can be analyzed as a rom com among other things.
If we agree on those 5, maybe we can share a list.
The Proposal
Really?
I can watch Return to Me over and over again. Ditto 50 First Dates, but I actually liked Grown Ups 2 so I might not be reliable on that count.
rh - I'd like a longer list too. I enjoyed the five you listed.
Not sure if AA would let you post it, unless you link to them through her Amazon portal....
Many here are making a common mistake, thinking that corporations exist to make profits. Secondarily they think that that corps exist to distribute these profits to the stockholders as (taxable) dividends.
Wrong. Any profits a corporation makes are taxed, paying money to the govt does nothing to increase stockholder value.
If distributed as dividends, it gets taxed a second time as personal income to the stockholder.
The correct question to ask is whether Amazon has increased stockholder value or not. Have share prices gone up? And if so, enough that buying them was a good investment?
John Henry
An even more famous example of this is Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Corp. It has never split the stock and never paid a dividend.
I first heard of it back in the 70's shortly after it went public. I had read about Warren Buffet and had been impressed. I thought I should buy some B-H stock. It was about $300/share at the time and I thought way over priced. I thought of buying some in the 80s when I came into a couple extra dollars but it was around $3,000 and I thought it overpriced. I looked a couple other times and never bought because I thought it overpriced.
Current price is $216,500.00
$300 in the 70s doesn't look so overpriced now. I wish I had bought and held 3-4 shares.
John Henry
Just released "The Rewrite" is enjoyable, not a romcom exclusively though I guess it qualifies along the way.
A very nice analysis of the first love interest in the course of her writing about it and getting a script criticism that's pretty much right on, and you lose track of use and mention.
The Proposal
Really?
The dialogue is superb, the two are equally matched, and starting as unwilling opposites, they wind up together and fitting.
That's my ideal rom com formula, somewhat rarely well executed.
I think it expresses the situation of males and females in general, opposites that fit.
Oh "You Have Mail" was good too.
Just recalling offhand.
I spend more time looking for new ones at the moment. I'll go back over them sometime.
Okay. I think I remember being surprised to like Notting Hill when it came out. I can't remember the others; I'd have to watch them. (Maybe again. I don't know if I've seen them or not.)
Did you like Silver Linings Playbook? I particularly liked that one.
There are many old rom-coms I love, but I take it we're talking modern films here.
I would like to have a list of good romantic comedies. It's a genre I usually avoid as far as modern films go because most of them are so bad. It was not so back in the day. Romantic comedies used to be some of the best films.
I enjoy both You've Got Mail and Notting Hill. The Proposal seemed very forced to me.
Too much slapstick can ruin a romantic comedy. Sophie's Choice was ok, but Meryl Streep indulged in too many pratfalls to let the comedy develop naturally.
Did you like Silver Linings Playbook? I particularly liked that one.
Not particularly - an odd difference, I guess.
It starts with a problem that I don't find interesting enough, as if it's a plot device.
Which I suppose you need, but it shouldn't sppear as such.
The Proposal seemed very forced to me.
Andrew holding his own was amusing throughout. It was a nice equal match between two people who didn't like each other.
Then he cared for the girl and got the girl.
Some of the scenes were out of it, but some of them were great.
Most of these things are shot out of order, and sometimes they have to make do with what's been shot, and the continuity is loose in places, and they wind up being saved by a few scenes, in terms of liking them.
Get Smart is particularly loose but a favorite.
The Proposal, the water rescue, "Give me your hand" was a nice touch.
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