
Free Shipping - daddy_drank
https://reallifemag.com/free-shipping/
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rubinelli
Instead of an Airbnb-style bartering economy, I'd expect a Netflix for
household items would be more feasible. No worries about strangers using and
breaking your things, no microtransactions to track.

That sounds specially interesting in denser areas. Make it fast and easy for
people to request and return stuff, and homes suddenly have a lot of extra
space.

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ghaff
Of course there are already a lot of rental places for expensive but rarely
used tools, party equipment, etc. Perhaps there’s the potential to reduce
transaction costs but the economics of renting a stand mixer still seem
challenging though.

I agree with your basic point that commercializing borrowing a tool from a
neighbor has been and will continue to be largely a non-starter.

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grenoire
Shopping has always been a tiny rush of happiness in many peoples' lives. I
think free shipping only makes this rush more convenient, accessible, and
addicting.

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hemiceha
I guess that's why so many people have Amazon Prime. And also, why they offer
multiple 30 day trials to every user...

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grenoire
"First one's on the house," said to me once an Amsterdam back-alley coke
dealer.

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thraway-burnout
I quite often do drugs, multiple types, though admittedly not cocaine. I've
never had the luck of getting this seemingly-common "freebie" everyone
mentions

~~~
monkeynotes
Maybe if you lived in poverty in a housing project where many dealers are
competing with each other and moving heroin, crack, meth, and fentanyl to
desperate people who want to escape.

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thraway-burnout
I guess

I did grow up in relative poverty, though not in a housing project. The area I
grew up in, at the time, had lots of Crack but no Meth/Heroin etc. Still,
never heard of it.

I'm quite sure it's an urban myth :-)

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ape4
How about a service to take things OUT of the house. eg I have some metal
waste - take that to a metal recycler. Used beverage cans (with deposit) to a
charity.

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emartinelli
In Brazil we have this [http://www.cataki.org/](http://www.cataki.org/) (pt-
br) an app that connects waste pickers to people who want to dispose reusable
or recyclable materials.

According to this site 800,000 waste pickers in the country and 300 registered
on the service.

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Hasz
Never knew Snapchat was funding magazines!

"Real Life is made possible by funding from Snapchat, and we operate with
editorial independence and without ads

Wonder how that happened.

~~~
clydethefrog
You can read all about it in this article:

[https://www.businessinsider.com/why-snapchat-is-funding-
real...](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-snapchat-is-funding-real-life-
website-2016-6?international=true&r=US&IR=T)

tl;dr: The editor wrote an interesting essay that caught the attention of
Snapchat CEO, which wanted more of this output.

What's interesting is that Real Life is highly critical about technology,
while you would expect based on the funding a sort of think tank creating pro-
tech fluff pieces.

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icebraining
> What's interesting is that Real Life is highly critical about technology,
> while you would expect based on the funding a sort of think tank creating
> pro-tech fluff pieces.

It's not an uncommon case. Black Mirror even lampooned it back in its second
episode (Fifteen Million Merits).

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contingencies
Parts of this article resonated strongly with me. At [http://infinite-
food.com](http://infinite-food.com) we are attempting to redefine urban food
distribution through shared storage and 'just in time' (JIT) production of a
wide range of hot or cold meals within a wholly owned and operated network of
kiosk-sized self-contained robotic service locations, combined with a managed
logistics system. Big wins from less real estate, less waste, less
transportation, meaning less costs and less environmental impact, plus of
course reduced cognitive and temporal load for the consumer (and optionally
kitchenless or applianceless apartments - part of a trend which I call SKINK -
_Shared KItchen / No Kitchen_). Big losses for the ritual of the grocery trip.
It's looking at food on demand as an urban utility instead of a scarce
personally owned resource, and choice and personalization as ever-present
instead of having to battle restrictive commercial menus or plan ahead and
self cater. I see our company as an early investment in a larger trend of
moving industrial processes out of the industrial revolution (central
industrial hub plus multi-party distribution to consumers) toward a more
distributed model supporting aspects such as personalization. Interesting that
the author identifies as an architect. Plus one for cross-domain abstractions!
NB. We use a pickup model and target 3 minutes to itch-scratching, but could
integrate with delivery (~30-60) if desired: we try to get closer to the
consumer with a vastly reduced retail form factor, to enhance the chance for
repeated and spontaneous use. Currently taking investment and beginning
manufacturing targeting China, HK and Macau!

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mido22
Can someone please summarize this bad take? I tried reading it but got lost
halfway.

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Spooky23
Sounds like the idea of a delivery robot isn't working out in testing, so now
focus is shifting to the notion of an Amazon robot associated with each
building to fetch packages from a truck. Sort of a mechanical coal chute,
except with a bunch of gotchas.

In my mind, this problem was solved a long time ago. We had these mysterious
outlets called stores that you went to and exchanged money for product. The
root problem here is that people that consumer product companies care about
(ie. not poor brown people) are moving to cities, and the belt of suburban
shopping centers isn't serving this population well. IMO this is a good thing,
as perhaps it will enable a return to smaller scale retail in vital urban
communities.

~~~
ant_li0n
I personally don't understand why 'last mile' is such a big deal. Personally I
would rather just order on walmart.com, have it ready for me to pick up at the
store. If I really want it, I can go get it the moment I get the notification.
Otherwise, I'll pick it up on the way home from work, or when I'm out and
about.

It's silly, but I don't want my neighbors thinking, "damn, they order a lot of
packages" and I don't want to worry about an expensive item getting lifted.
Seems to me the simplest answer is not to build a robot, but just to make
smaller versions of the big box store that are essentially a small warehouse
with a front office.

~~~
Spooky23
Amazon sees a unique opportunity to capture lots of market share and needs a
way to build a sustainable business. (Aka takeover the market and raise
prices) Amazon’s profit story is all about services.

Big box stores are kind of screwed because they overextended on debt and used
financing schemes that front-load tax benefits and create problems down the
road unless you always grow.

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hateful
I first heard about this idea in this video from 2014, and have been talking
about it ever since:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOK2aJ-0Js](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOK2aJ-0Js)

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ohazi
There are tiny traces of truth in that video, but like 90% of it is complete
nonsense.

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jpalomaki
"Autonomous Amazon Locker on wheels". Check from mobile the schedule and track
the exact location, go to pick up your goods when the vehicle is at your
house.

I could imagine using this as a delivery mechanism if the price was right.

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danimal88
I really hate the casualness with which returns are assumed to work. Many
goods aren't resellable after being returned with the end result being that
they simply get thrown away. Its soooo wasteful.

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Engelwood541
Conceptually this reminded me of "The Feed" from Neal Stephenson's Diamond age
book (without the nanotechnology)

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bsbechtel
This already exists today in the digital world. The cost to access anything
online is virtually zero.

