after making quick work of Brooklyn and similar takeovers all over the country, tech bro hipsters are coming after one of the last remaining mom and pop PoC owned businesses left

https://www.fastcompany.com/40466047/two-ex-googlers-want-to-make-bodegas-and-mom-and-pop-corner-stores-obsolete

I can see it now
the app will be called Google Bodega
Becky and Chad won't have to go to that "sketchy" store anymore
sucks for Papi and his family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG6guvFbSAM

Does it make a greasy chopped cheese?

I was gonna say, if it can't make me a bacon+egg+cheese or sell me a loosie, what's the point.

If they hadn't named it Bodega no one would care.

Those of us who live/work in walkable or close-knit neighborhoods that actually have these so-called mom/pop stores (or convenience stores or corner stores or bodegas) do care about potentially losing those in favor of fancy vending machines.

I frequent 5 such stores and losing for machines would be terrible. Where am I gonna get my Juicy Twists and loose Fruit Roll-Ups and loosie cigarettes and blunt wraps?

like SoWhat said.. unless you can get loosie's and beer from these things it won't have much of an impact.

Uber? Lyft? fuck do I care?

the closest convenience store is a hilly mile-long walk each way

i don't get why people in cities would want a large vending machine instead of an actual corner store though

but no one is walking past a corner store to get shit from their vending machines...

once you are in your complex tho, sure.. why go out in the snow if you can get a roll of TP down the hall?

They plan to have 100,000 of these which means they need a workforce who drive around in a truck and restock all the boxes. They will also need local distribution centres where the delivery drivers pull out of. It's more efficient logistically to have a traditional bodega store like we have today.

that way everybody wins.

in between rides, Uber/Lyft drivers can swing by the Amazon center and pick up restocks for Google Bodega

if Amazon chipped in by adding their recently purchased Whole Foods products in this bodega/vending machine start up.

and I live in Charlotte.

Pretty sure Amazon is working on their own robot kiosk type stores. Coulda sworn someone linked a story about a year ago.

Amazon delivering stuff by drones always sounded crazy to me. This makes a lot of sense for them.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-bodega-startup-apology-20170913-story.html

There's definitely a market for this idea. They should have just called it something else.

and I guess if I could walk 20 steps instead of leaving my building I would use it for a few items if it was cold out or I needed a condom.

Trying to think if THEY really use Bodegas like that anyway? Always seemed like it was mostly us up in those spots.

I haven't been to BK in a few tho...

So the outrage is based on the insensitive use of the word 'bodega' and not the actual consequences facing the real people who run bodegas?

I'm so finished with this generation.

Do you not understand framing?

marketing?

must read more Lakoff

Calling it bodega puts it in direct competition with them. These are integral parts of the community in big cities... the word in context is offensive..

if they called it poppops and it was marketed as what it is.. convenience vending for people who live in mixed use apartments it wouldve been fine..

they thought they'd be fresh a "disrupt" a neighborhood staple and got their asses handed to them..

thanks for saving me the keystrokes

If Bodegas are 'integral' parts of the community than this new business idea is a threat to them no matter what it's called.

Is it offensive if it's called 'Cornerstore'?

And the name is not what puts this idea into direct competition with Bodegas....it's the service provided that puts them into direct competition with Bodegas.

Because lots of other businesses compete with bodegas. Duane Reade, CVS, Rite Aid, delis, grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. Whenever a new one of those opens up, it's not news.

It's the use of the name bodega (specifically) that's getting attention here. Partly because of appropriation, and partly because it's a slap in the face to actual bodegas because it implies that it can replace the service they provide.

In journalism and PR, 'dog bites man' is not news because it's commonplace. But this is more 'man bites dog', something unusual, thus the negative PR and attention.

They should have called it something else, and this would have just been a new amenity that you'd start seeing in apartment lobbies.

Aren't bodega's essentially convenience stores owned by Spanish speaking people?

This business idea ups the ante on consumer convenience so it's targeting the market niche that is most specific to bodegas.

In anycase...the proof is in the pudding because the same conversation is happnening here in Toronto in the absence of the term 'bodega' and the same conflict between advanced vending machine entrepreneurs and convenience stores is happening. In short...bodega owners are not going to like this regardless of what it's called.

No...

they are not just a matter of convenience..

postmates is convenient

>Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores >Obsolete

>Paul McDonald, who spent 13 years as a product manager at Google,
>wants to make this corner store a thing of the past. Today, he is
>launching a new concept called Bodega with his cofounder Ashwath
>Rajan, another Google veteran.


They even named the app "Bodega."

is called 'cornerstore'. Offensive or not?

It's going to cost jobs and family businesses. My local shop owner was talking about with the customer in front of me a couple weeks ago.

A name change would help IF they weren't quoted saying they were coming for Bodegas.

IMO they can't compete with Bodegas but why the fuck would you frame your marketing as taking out the "little guy" instead of taking out big box stores or Amazon?

They told on themselves. Investors prolly love the idea but I think their market isn't really the type to go to Bodegas in the first place. Shit sounds like an idea for white women who refuse to shop at Bodegas clbecause they have a cat in the store.

Does everything hipsters touch have to be douche-y, sterilized and Blackman-free?

Fuck that shit. Papi don't give me attitude when I come in to buy cigars.

Suddenly the radicals are the capitalists and the arch-conservatives are leftists who want to freeze time. It's the 19th century all over again.