Tag: amazon

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Corporations are Bad People Day – Palm

If you have been to a Whole Foods recently, you have probably seen the scanners that allow you to pay with your palm because setting up an account with Amazon and giving them your information is just waaay easier than pulling out a wallet out of your pocket.

Well that palm scanning technology, aka Amazon One, (maybe because Prime or Plus was taken) is coming, albeit slowly, to a bar near you.  Not only does it pay the barkeep but it also is an age gate.

But Amazon isn’t doing this for you, they are doing it for the data and you will probably not be surprised to find out that Amazon One’s palm scanner also keeps a record of your scans, and that record will be available to that barkeep you just paid.  Now, that is good in that you may be prevented from having too many drinks but but do you want that data out there?

Amazon One plans will give it a test drive in Denver at the Sandlot Brewery and Silver Bullet Bar, at Coors Field where the MLB’s Colorado Rockies play baseball slightly better than the Nuggets play baseball.

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Not Whole

Not that I was spending a lot of beer money at Whole Foods but I will be taking that number down to $0. It’s not due to that “whole paycheck” catchphrase, I never bought into that. You can spend a lot at any grocery store. It is due to the direction that the company has taken since being swallowed up by Amazon.

Suddenly, there were Echo’s everywhere, Prime deals and lockers. And, yes, the company points to how they pay everyone $15 an hour but they paid for that by reducing hours and expanding work duties. And each time that I get asked if I am a Prime member at check-out makes me feel like I am being watched and that Amazon is cataloging what is being bought.

Other grocery stores are tracking my purchases, I know. But when I buy a Pilsner Urquell at Trader Joe’s, I don’t feel like that company is going to do anything nefarious with that data point. But with Amazon, I feel that they would really like to converge that purchase to sell me more and more stuff.

This could change. Maybe Bezos diverts his spaceship company money to NASA or espouses a Wealth tax and I will be swayed back. But for now, beer shop local.

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A Podcast & A Beer – Prime(d)

I am turning away from the Amazon.  I avoid buying from it and try to choose local instead.  I do still shop at Whole Foods but the dollars spent is decreasing.  I just don’t like some of their business practices and that is where I draw the line with beer as well.  You can be a hard competitor.  You can negotiate for days.  You can hold secrets close to the vest.  Just don’t run roughshod over your employees and customers for an extra buck.

All preamble to suggesting a listen to Prime(d) with co-hosts Carolyn Adolph and Joshua McNichols who turn a critical eye onto Amazon from Alexa to personal data.  It gets a little jokey and gimmicky but it also gives the listener a firm grounding in all things Bezos.

To drink with this pod, I would look to Pike Brewing (skip Elysian unless you want to play up the sell-out angle). I would go for the Pike Pale or their XXXX Stout for old-school traditional Seattle. You could also pick up a Stone beer since that company has PR issues as well as a Virginia HQ separate from their West Coast base.

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Pop Down


Every twice-in-awhile you see something on the interwebs and can’t believe it’s true. This post states that Amazon is opening a pop-up bar in Tokyo.

April Fool’s in October, right? But Amazon owns Whole Food’s and is selling Alexa in the produce section and it doesn’t seem as far-fetched.

But other than price, why would one go to an Amazon branded bar? For a robot to make a drink? or maybe selection you can’t get elsewhere. I certainly don’t think it’s for the ambiance.

Maybe Amazon will pop-up in Los Angeles but my suggestion would be to make it part of the community it is in. Have local brewers, distillers and vintners in house. Go ahead and tout some hyper expensive whiskey but also talk about whiskey history and its future. Don’t be some sterile glassed in enclosure.

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Beer Books

A little website housekeeping here. I have made a literary addition to the Search Party Favorites tab.

Instead of trying to link up each separate beer book, I piggybacked on Amazon’s program. So you can see my what beer books are on my shelf.