Amazon has made ordering stuff online ridiculously easy with its huge warehouses shipping online orders to Prime members in an instant. Apparently ordering stuff online is just too damn hard though, so today Amazon announced it’s newest creation: Dash buttons.
The new Wi-Fi connected buttons can be placed throughout your home, allowing you to replenish supplies of your favorite products with just the push of a button. Once pressed, Amazon creates an order and sends an alert to your phone so you can cancel if the kids are spamming for more mac and cheese.
https://youtu.be/NMacTuHPWFI
My colleague Killian and I debated whether Dash buttons aren’t just an elaborate April Fool’s prank, but it looks like they’re the real deal. Prime members can request an invite to get three free buttons. That’s hardly enough to keep tabs on all the necessities in your house, but could be useful for people who can’t go out to purchase essential items.
just confirmed with amazon that this is actually a real thing
https://t.co/7cEA2Q6B8O
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) March 31, 2015
One sign that Dash buttons could be a prank is the “limited-time offer” on the company’s site. However, Amazon has also introduced a service it hopes will replace the buttons, called Dash Replenishment Service (DRS). With DRS, hardware manufacturers can essentially bake Dash buttons into their products.
Coffee makers that order beans through Amazon is the ultimate goal, rather than covering your house in buttons. Companies can either add a physical button to their hardware, or use Amazon’s services to measure consumable usage so that goods are ordered automatically.
Amazon is working with companies like Brother, Whirlpool, Brita, Quirky and others to build buttons into printers, washing machines, coffee makers, and pretty much anything else that needs a refill. DSR isn’t practical yet for cheaper items like paper towels, but Amazon hopes in the future sensors become so cheap, everything that ships will have a ‘tap to refill’ button.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
5 responses to “Amazon wants to turn your house into a shopping cart”
this is awesome
This is the dumb idea. How lazy do people have to be to not add low items to a shopping list? I have say, 300 different items in my pantry. Am I supposed to adopt this and put 300 buttons in there? People will still have to have a list. These buttons actually complicate matters by having two systems in place, instead of one. Plus, the buttons still have to be setup! These will not simplify anyone’s life… quite the opposite is my guess.
Not to mention how wasteful it is. Why make another plastic bit that’s just going to become trash when they can just add an ‘Order More’ button in the Amazon app? Hell, they could figure out when I need more by the frequency that I order. “Oh, you order detergent every six weeks. How about we automate that for you?” This is just a way to get some company’s logo in my house.
Hilarious. If April 1, a good prank to sell. If real, another fine example of how damn lazy this country is becoming.
Great idea, I hope hey bring this to the UK. I’m always forgetting rebuy stuff.