5 ms·

HEY LOOK, IT'S EVERY SUPERMARKET EVER. Huge automatic glass doors, shopping carts, aisles with stuff on shelves. So fucking creative.

brailsafe 4y ago
If you're in the burbs. There's a reason sprawl sucks
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  I love my little patch in the burbs.
mid-kid 4y ago
A supermarket isn't designed to sell you on a product.
- LeoPanthera 4y ago
  ...what do you think they're for?
- the_lonely_road 4y ago
  They are literally designed to make you buy products. The milk in the back corner is the most famous example so that you have to pass by as much product as possible to get it and have less chance of not impulse buying. End caps…all the candy right next to the checkout lane, etc.
  - andirk 4y ago
    As a previous bagger boy gone stocker gone high-as-a-kite meat dept clerk, the milk is in the back because it is stocked from a walk-in fridge. People don't even buy much milk.
  - actually_a_dog 4y ago
    Or you can just walk past the deli and the bread section, like I do at my local Safeway.
  - mid-kid 4y ago
    I guess I worded it incorrectly. My point was that it's two completely different ways of selling you things. Supermarkets use all these techniques to subconsciously make you buy more things, but they rarely try to sell you a singular product. Product websites actively try to distinguish themselves, to make you feel that the product is unique and convince you it'll make your life better. Having the same style of website for every product ever feels like something that'd actively go against the goal of the website. After all, if two things look the same, why would I pick one over the other?
- nrb 4y ago
  Supermarkets are literally designed to sell you on products. Every single product placement is from a planogram meant to juice the sales per sqft of space, from which aisle the item appears to which row and where within the row it’s positioned.
- joshmanders 4y ago
  I... I'm awe struck by this comment..
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  I've been an active reader of HN for 5 years and this has to by far be the most wrong comment I have ever seen. Absolutely bone-headed.
  - actually_a_dog 4y ago
    Believe me, you're not even trying if that's the most bone-headed comment you've seen on here.
    - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
      I mean, there are certainly bonehead comments. Any time Jan 6 comes up, conspiracy theorists will come out of the woodwork and say it was a false flag operation done by Antifa or the Deep State. Nearly anything supporting NFTs is bone-headed. But this one was just baffling on another level. Like...what do you think supermarkets exist for? Just for people to look around and go "Neat! They put a whole chicken in a can!"?[0] [0] There actually IS a supermarket like that though. It's called Omega Mart, and it's a tourist attraction in Las Vegas. They sell weird shit like a household cleaning spray called "Who Told You This Was Butter? Seriously, Don't Eat This", "Emergency Clams", and a laundry detergent called "Plausible Deniability". But even in the case of Omega Mart, you can still buy all the products.
- thebitstick 4y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/ https://www.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/
ravenstine 4y ago
Supermarkets really need to get with the times. I mean, barcodes? Please. It's like they're not even trying.
- daveslash 4y ago
  Seriously. We're soooo over 1-d barcodes. Need to get a QR code on all that stuff. MMmmmmm.... Fiducial markers - that's hot
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    They usually use 2D barcodes for weighed items at the deli.
  - mikrl 4y ago
    brb patenting higher dimensional barcodes / tensor barcodes Finally, we can use holograms for something mundane!
    - marginalia_nu 4y ago
      Pretty neat. You can encode 100 megabytes of data in a 4x4x4x4 cm tesseract, just need to apply an appropriate rotation around two of its axes and then you can extract the information as it intersects with 3d space.
      - mikrl 4y ago
        That adds an additional temporal component to the scanning process which makes me hesitant. However, the idea is ridiculous enough to greenlight.
  - smitty1e 4y ago
    Just go full panopticon with a thousand cameras, so that the looters don't need to put in all that selfie effort.
    - 4y ago
alphabet9000 4y ago
this is a good analogy, in that some supermarkets feel soulless, whereas others feel really cozy, even though ultimately they both have aisles with stuff on shelves. it's like the difference between someone using a template versus making something by hand. there's a human feel to the latter.
- colonwqbang 4y ago
  I think you both have a good point. I guess it depends on what your relationship you have with food. Do you prefer your shopping experience to be predictable and efficient or do you like to discover something new and exciting. Realistically, most people who browse the web don't care too much about website design and just want something reasonably functional that's not too ugly.
VoodooJuJu 4y ago
This is a good point, but it doesn't invalidate the premise. The first sites to use bootstrap and this particular brochure template truly stood out. And today, with everyone using it, it still works okay, well enough to be a bona fide standard, but it of course doesn't work nearly as well as it did for those early adopters. What I'm saying is, the next big thing, for marketing in particular, may very well be derided in this same "Hey look..." manner after it takes off in popularity, but the pioneers of that next big thing are going to reap serious profits.
lamontcg 4y ago
or restaurants with plates
- anteatersa 4y ago
  Plates are sooooo 2010's if my food isn't served on a wooden board or a tile I'm not even interested.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    A wooden board is fine for a charcuterie plate. But what's ridiculous is breakfast being served on a shovel. Or a plaster mould of the chef's mouth. Or spaghetti being just dumped all over the table.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  https://old.reddit.com/r/WeWantPlates https://old.reddit.com/r/WeWantPlates
HomeDeLaPot 4y ago
And every apartment building, and every fast food restaurant... Why Everywhere in the US is Starting to Look the Same: https://youtu.be/UX4KklvCDmg https://youtu.be/UX4KklvCDmg

brailsafe 4y ago

If you're in the burbs. There's a reason sprawl sucks

stjohnswarts 4y ago
I love my little patch in the burbs.

mid-kid 4y ago

A supermarket isn't designed to sell you on a product.

LeoPanthera 4y ago
...what do you think they're for?
the_lonely_road 4y ago
They are literally designed to make you buy products. The milk in the back corner is the most famous example so that you have to pass by as much product as possible to get it and have less chance of not impulse buying. End caps…all the candy right next to the checkout lane, etc.
- andirk 4y ago
  As a previous bagger boy gone stocker gone high-as-a-kite meat dept clerk, the milk is in the back because it is stocked from a walk-in fridge. People don't even buy much milk.
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  Or you can just walk past the deli and the bread section, like I do at my local Safeway.
- mid-kid 4y ago
  I guess I worded it incorrectly. My point was that it's two completely different ways of selling you things. Supermarkets use all these techniques to subconsciously make you buy more things, but they rarely try to sell you a singular product. Product websites actively try to distinguish themselves, to make you feel that the product is unique and convince you it'll make your life better. Having the same style of website for every product ever feels like something that'd actively go against the goal of the website. After all, if two things look the same, why would I pick one over the other?
nrb 4y ago
Supermarkets are literally designed to sell you on products. Every single product placement is from a planogram meant to juice the sales per sqft of space, from which aisle the item appears to which row and where within the row it’s positioned.
joshmanders 4y ago
I... I'm awe struck by this comment..
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
I've been an active reader of HN for 5 years and this has to by far be the most wrong comment I have ever seen. Absolutely bone-headed.
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  Believe me, you're not even trying if that's the most bone-headed comment you've seen on here.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    I mean, there are certainly bonehead comments. Any time Jan 6 comes up, conspiracy theorists will come out of the woodwork and say it was a false flag operation done by Antifa or the Deep State. Nearly anything supporting NFTs is bone-headed. But this one was just baffling on another level. Like...what do you think supermarkets exist for? Just for people to look around and go "Neat! They put a whole chicken in a can!"?[0] [0] There actually IS a supermarket like that though. It's called Omega Mart, and it's a tourist attraction in Las Vegas. They sell weird shit like a household cleaning spray called "Who Told You This Was Butter? Seriously, Don't Eat This", "Emergency Clams", and a laundry detergent called "Plausible Deniability". But even in the case of Omega Mart, you can still buy all the products.
thebitstick 4y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/ https://www.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/

ravenstine 4y ago

Supermarkets really need to get with the times. I mean, barcodes? Please. It's like they're not even trying.

daveslash 4y ago
Seriously. We're soooo over 1-d barcodes. Need to get a QR code on all that stuff. MMmmmmm.... Fiducial markers - that's hot
- Gigachad 4y ago
  They usually use 2D barcodes for weighed items at the deli.
- mikrl 4y ago
  brb patenting higher dimensional barcodes / tensor barcodes Finally, we can use holograms for something mundane!
  - marginalia_nu 4y ago
    Pretty neat. You can encode 100 megabytes of data in a 4x4x4x4 cm tesseract, just need to apply an appropriate rotation around two of its axes and then you can extract the information as it intersects with 3d space.
    - mikrl 4y ago
      That adds an additional temporal component to the scanning process which makes me hesitant. However, the idea is ridiculous enough to greenlight.
- smitty1e 4y ago
  Just go full panopticon with a thousand cameras, so that the looters don't need to put in all that selfie effort.
  - 4y ago

alphabet9000 4y ago

this is a good analogy, in that some supermarkets feel soulless, whereas others feel really cozy, even though ultimately they both have aisles with stuff on shelves. it's like the difference between someone using a template versus making something by hand. there's a human feel to the latter.

colonwqbang 4y ago
I think you both have a good point. I guess it depends on what your relationship you have with food. Do you prefer your shopping experience to be predictable and efficient or do you like to discover something new and exciting. Realistically, most people who browse the web don't care too much about website design and just want something reasonably functional that's not too ugly.

VoodooJuJu 4y ago

This is a good point, but it doesn't invalidate the premise. The first sites to use bootstrap and this particular brochure template truly stood out. And today, with everyone using it, it still works okay, well enough to be a bona fide standard, but it of course doesn't work nearly as well as it did for those early adopters. What I'm saying is, the next big thing, for marketing in particular, may very well be derided in this same "Hey look..." manner after it takes off in popularity, but the pioneers of that next big thing are going to reap serious profits.

lamontcg 4y ago

or restaurants with plates

anteatersa 4y ago
Plates are sooooo 2010's if my food isn't served on a wooden board or a tile I'm not even interested.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  A wooden board is fine for a charcuterie plate. But what's ridiculous is breakfast being served on a shovel. Or a plaster mould of the chef's mouth. Or spaghetti being just dumped all over the table.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
https://old.reddit.com/r/WeWantPlates https://old.reddit.com/r/WeWantPlates

HomeDeLaPot 4y ago

And every apartment building, and every fast food restaurant... Why Everywhere in the US is Starting to Look the Same: https://youtu.be/UX4KklvCDmg https://youtu.be/UX4KklvCDmg