There is a certain charm about the local store that has anything you may need in a pinch. If you are not fortunate to have a grocery store or two within a short distance from your home, the neighborhood mom-and-pop store on the corner is a life-saver, especially in big cities. But now, a few former Google employees are hoping to create a way to replace that store with an app and a vending machine, thus planting the seed for the next thing Millennials could potentially be blamed for killing.
According to Fast Company, Paul McDonald, a former Google product manager, is launching Bodega, with the help of another former Google employee, Ashwath Rajan. The name is inspired by the name commonly used for those corner stores where you buy milk when you realize at the last second that you need it. The premise is pretty simple. Customers use the Bodega app to unlock a kiosk on the street to purchase whatever non-perishable products are found inside that they need. It’s basically a vending machine. Cameras in the vending machine will monitor what you pick up from the pantry box and the app will then be charged for the goods taken, thus preventing the issue of someone using the app to open the box and take whatever they want without paying for it.
“The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” McDonald explained in a story published by Fast Company. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”
The war against brick-and-mortar bodegas is now officially on, and a lot of people are taking sides.
I will cut these guys up, press them in a Juicero and drink them before I let them disrupt something that needn't be disrupted.
— Djankeste Mi'em (@mikeyil) September 13, 2017
if you replace my bodega with a fucking box i will launch you into the sun
— leon ? (@leyawn) September 13, 2017
a vending machine is not a bodega
— Greg Howard (@greghoward88) September 13, 2017
yeah then where the fuck do the bodega cats hang out https://t.co/G9Ogox9h83
— darth:™ (@darth) September 13, 2017
Weird that they're calling this heinous vending machine "Bodega" and not "Gentrification Box" https://t.co/xPCozclRRD
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 13, 2017
His local bodega probably ran out of his favourite vape juice and moustache wax, and now he wants revenge.
— OnyxandCake (@onyxandcake) September 13, 2017
"You know who really needs to be taken down a peg?? Those dang seniors offering convenience and a smile, and they have been for 40 years!"
— Shelley (@sweatermetal) September 13, 2017
Ivy Leaguers use education to invent cabinet…
— Daniel Edelman (@d_edelman) September 13, 2017
I thought tech was supposed to be solving the problems of the world. This is a solution to a nonexistent problem
— Nathan Doyle (@trivianate) September 13, 2017
Is that stupid box gonna sell me 2 single newports ?
Is that stupid box going to heat up my chicken sandwich ?
No… its not.
Fcuk your box— skyxxx: (@PorschePedro) September 13, 2017
But, it seems there could be a design flaw, or perhaps a misguided trust in poeple for these boxes the former Google workers may have overlooked.
Pretty sure a sledgehammer would solve this problem.
— Benjamin Shipbuilder (@BenShipbuilder) September 13, 2017