For us techno-recluses, another chance to shun human contact.
Reader Interactions
25Comments
Comments are closed.
Trackbacks
-
[…] Balloon Juice Tweet FILED UNDER: Doug Mataconis, Quick Picks, Science & […]
by Tim F| 25 Comments
This post is in: Science & Technology
For us techno-recluses, another chance to shun human contact.
Comments are closed.
[…] Balloon Juice Tweet FILED UNDER: Doug Mataconis, Quick Picks, Science & […]
M-pop
That’s amazing – I thought I was the only one who would like this idea. Now I know I’m not alone.
debit
It’s like that app was made for me.
Yutsano
Max please and thank you.
joes527
So … I can walk into an apple store, pick up some random piece of shit, hold it up to the jujube box that I have cleverly painted to look like an iphone, go beebeebeebeebeebeep, and walk out as if I had paid for it?
Cool.
Poopyman
My bet is that it was written by an Apple Store employee so he wouldn’t have to deal with so damn many people.
They’re geeks too, after all.
Chris T.
Heh, I can hardly wait until you need an iPhone to buy a new iPhone.
http://slowpokecomics.com/strips/QRcodes.html
replicnt6
That’s awesome. I like it. When’s it going to be available for Android?
PeakVT
Can’t wait until they write an app that allows you to buy stuff from your own home.
Comrade Mary
YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE APPLE APPS STORE SO I PUT APPLE APPS STORE IN YOUR APP
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: I’m still demanding Max pix as atonement here.
RossinDetroit
I can already deposit checks in my Chase account just by taking a picture of them. These things seem really obvious once they happen.
geg6
OT, but I think this will be a good first step, if true:
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Penn-State-planning-Joe-Paterno-exit-amid-sexual-abuse-scandal-110811
MikeJ
Anything to avoid talking to the idiots that work at the Apple Store. I have never had to deal with anyone at an Apple Store that didn’t take an hour to verify the fact that the stuff I brought in was fucked up, and fucked up in exactly the way I described to them both over the phone and in person.
Martin
@Poopyman:
The Apple Stores are really struggling with scale. I don’t think Apple anticipated they’d have to deal with this kind of customer traffic on a daily basis, and the last thing they want to do is turn off customer interaction simply to handle cash register volume (like every other store in the US has done).
The gambit here is that by letting people check out inexpensive items the shrinkage cost will be cheaper than the cost of building a larger store – which really is what most of these are up against. I can’t believe that our local stores aren’t up against fire codes on most Saturdays.
But if you think about it, as it stands there’s really nothing more than a psychological barrier stopping you from walking out the front door with those headphones. Apple Stores don’t make you walk the register/metal detector gauntlet like most electronic stores do. So long as they keep the high revenue items under observation (which isn’t that hard given how heavily staffed they are) they can afford to let a few low revenue items slip by.
And they already have self-checkout, so there’s not that big a difference between checking out on their iPhone and checking out on yours.
On the flipside, self-checkout and online retail is probably the single biggest source of job loss in the US – moreso than outsourcing. The retail job sector is at least 2x the size of the manufacturing sector, but instead of outsourcing work to China, retail is outsourcing it to the customer.
RossinDetroit
This is unpossible. Perfect things do not fail. Please report for reeducation.
sukabi
@MikeJ: wut? you mean the term “Genius” is a misnomer?
I had the absolute WORST 3 days last week dealing with Apple Care, the Apple Store, their ‘automated phone system’ and their ‘Geniuses’… the only good thing about the whole thing is that it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg, and the computer is fixed… f’n Apple store is as loud as a Chucky Cheese and about as appetitizing… UGH!
Bill E Pilgrim
Kind of funny, the first comment there says:
Please……whimper…. it’s the last human contact I had. And if you offer it…. I’ll take it! I know me.
Linnaeus
Somewhat OT, but it looks like Apple Store managers will be getting “union training“:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Go Apple.
Sentient Puddle
I find this to be both rather sad and a godsend. Which I think, on balance, just makes me depressed about myself.
ruemara
I love human contact! It makes me appreciate my cats and computers more. No app for me thanks. Nothing beats being condescending to “Genius” who believes I could not possibly know what I’m talking about.
joes527
@Linnaeus: meh. Sounds like the boilerplate “don’t do anything stupid that could end up getting us sued” talk. Training your managers to keep within the bounds of the laws is actually a good thing, and most big companies do it as a basic CYA.
Did I just defend Apple?
sukabi
@ruemara: yeah, talk about full immersion in ‘pretentious condescension’, I was about ready to gouge someone’s eyes out by the end of my ‘experience’….
Linnaeus
@joes527:
Maybe I’m being a little overly negative; I do agree that managers should be aware of the law and educating them about the law is a good thing. It’s just that I’ve seen trainings like this also become instruction in union “prevention”. I hope that doesn’t happen in Apple’s case.
Gromit
I guess that’s one way to look at it. Another would be that stuff like this lets you spend less time waiting for fairly meaningless human contact in an electronics store, and more time on actual quality human contact, like spending time with friends or family.