At Home with Tech

Is Jet an Amazon Killer?

If you’re not a big fan of Amazon these days, you might want to check out Jet.com to save some money… Does that mean Jet can beat Amazon at it’s own game? It depends…

Okay… so Amazon may not be the friendliest place to work. Recently, a few of my friends mentioned to me that after reading The New York Times article on Amazon’s toxic work culture, they’re thinking of ending their Amazon relationship. As I tried to consider my own ethics position on all of this, my conscience was quickly interrupted by the ‘hunting and gathering’ part of my brain…

“Where else is there to shop?!”

First off, I’ve got to admit the irony of my own question, because it was only a few short years ago when I was still dipping my toes into the water of online shopping. I remember calling it,
“The Joy of Shopping at Midnight in your Underwear.”

Now, I simply can’t do without online shopping… day or night. I’ve long ago applied those former brick and mortar shopping hours to other aspects of my busy life.

Married to Amazon
So yes, Amazon has firmly become my go-to online shopping site for quite some time now.

It’s simple.
There’s always a huge selection.
Amazon Prime’s free shipping seems like such a deal even at $99/year.
(Not to mention the load of other benefits Amazon is piling onto Prime)
And Amazon’s pricing usually beats the pants off of brick and mortar stores.

But even without all of the bad press Jeff Bezos has received, I’ve grown a tad uncomfortable with the idea of shopping at only one URL.
(How do you know if the pricing has remained competitive?)

To be fair, I do go to a few other online destinations…

Cheating on Amazon

If I’m looking to buy some tech, I usually log on to B&H Photo. The best price is usually there…
When my son was still in diapers, I frequented Diapers.com and eventually dropped some coin on its affiliated websites- Wag.com, Soap.com and Yoyo.com. The pricing was sometimes competitive, but the free shipping (if you spent more than $49) always seemed to beat out Amazon’s 2-day Prime delivery.
(The huge irony here is Amazon has owned Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com since 2011. I didn’t know this until I started writing this post.)

I also spend my money with a few specialty online merchants, such as…

Epson
…When its photo printing paper goes on sale
Counter Culture Coffee
…When I’m looking to splurge on my cup of Joe

…But for the vast majority of my home staples…

Paper towels
Toilet paper
Kleenex
Cat food
Ziploc sandwich bags
Cree LED light bulbs
My favorite crackers
Toothpaste
Batteries
Dish Soap
Vitamins
(As well as an assortment of other items)

…I’ve been hitting up Amazon.

And while the convenience can’t be beat, I really don’t know how good the deals are anymore.
(No, I haven’t yet taken the obvious step of price comparisons at my local supermarket.)

I think it would be nice (and appropriate) if Amazon had a little competition… right?

Well, guess what?…. Hello, Jet.com!

Jet has Landed
Jet launched a couple months back, and it’s clearly looking to undercut Amazon’s pricing.

Co-founded by Marc Lore, who used to run Diapers.com (note the irony), Jet is structured somewhat like an online Costco with a $49.99 annual membership fee. (The first three ‘trial’ months are free, before you have pay up.)

And then you get ‘club-price’ discounts in several ways:

The more you spend, the greater the discount.
If you waive your right to a free return, you get a little more off.
You also get additional discounts for certain payment methods. (like debit cards)

Jet claims its profit model is focused entirely on its membership club fee, which allows it to sell items at the lowest prices.

Taking a Ride on Jet.com
So I signed up for my free trial and took Jet out for a spin…

First off, it’s base pricing usually just seemed to match Amazon’s.
(Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Shampoo and Wash was a price match.)
Sometimes the pricing hovered a few cents either way.
(Brown Rice Snaps were slightly more expensive.)
Jet gives you an Amazon comparison tool right there on the page.
But then, Jet applies an immediate discount, which grows if you order multiples of the same item. And as you put more things in your cart, your overall discount keeps growing.
When you’re ready to check out, there’s indeed a significant savings. On my first order I saved $17.54 off the $72.54 subtotal. Plus free shipping. And no tax.
I don’t pretend to understand how all the discounting is applied.
(‘Smart Items’ are supposed to save you more.)
But at the end of the day, it’s less than shopping on Amazon.
And Jet even has a guarantee that if you don’t save at least $49.99 with your membership, they’ll refund the difference.
Just like Amazon, Jet sometimes finds your item through another retailer.

So what’s the downside?

Selection
Jet doesn’t have (yet) the same massive selection as Amazon. I couldn’t find everything I wanted… No bags of Caribou Coffee… and Ziploc sandwich bags only in quantities of 500.
Delivery speed
Every order doesn’t get to you in two days. Sometimes the free shipping takes 2-5 days.
(And that’s fine, as long as you’re not in a huge rush.)

Jet Vs. Amazon
Is Jet an Amazon killer? No, not really.
(Not yet)

But I can’t tell you how happy I am that finally there’s some good, old-fashioned competition to Amazon out there.

And it doesn’t hurt that Jet gives you $10 off your first order (over $35) with a ‘TENBUCKSNOW” discount code.
(That’s on top of the other savings.)

So all this said, will I still continue to use Amazon?

Yep.
(Even though it may be a terrible place to work.)

But now, Jet has immediately become a cost-savings alternative for much of my general online shopping needs…

Am I rooting for the little guy?
Absolutely.

Can Jet beat Amazon at its own game?

We’ll have to wait and see…

August 30, 2015

More Vacation with Less Tech

For once, the rusted nut I found wasn’t the one in my head. Although my noggin did slide into vacation mode about six hours earlier than I would have preferred…

I’m just back from a ‘relaxing’ family beach vacation at a cottage in the North Fork of Long Island… And let me just quickly admit that along with my favorite pair of flip-flops, I accidentally left most of my tech smarts at home.
(It doesn’t help when you pack your tech at the last minute, and you’ve got a ferry to catch!)

Not to pass the buck, but some bad Tech Karma also played a role in what was to come next…

Movie Night Cancelled
I brought along our brand new Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter to conveniently stream videos from my iPhone onto the cottage’s resident HDTV. But it ended up being an older TV without an HDMI output. So my plan to project videos onto a big screen for a larger crowd was foiled…

No Rocking the House
Then, I realized I had forgotten to bring my portable Bluetooth speaker (Logitech UE Mobile Boombox) to stream Pandora tunes off of my iPhone.
(D’oh!)

That said, the house did have one of those formerly-cool clock radios with an iPhone dock, but again, it was an older model with the old 30-pin connector…not the current Lightning connection my iPhone 6 Plus uses.
(Foiled again!)

Dangerous Beach Exposure
I also forgot to bring my son’s cheap, but waterproof ‘family’ COOLPIX S32 Nikon camera to use on the beach.
(When a typical pocket camera with a motor-driven zoom lens gets exposed to a sandy environment, it can get destroyed by a single grain of sand jamming into the wrong spot.)

Instead, I threw caution to the wind and brought along my aging Canon S100 advanced point and shoot.
(On the upside, it survived and took much better pics than the tough but mediocre Nikon ever could.)

I should also admit my iPhone 6 Plus satisfactorily handled its share of beach-time photo taking… The camera functionality was amazingly zippy, which was useful when my five year old brought over the latest hermit crab he just caught!
(But I was careful not to go too close to the water with my iPhone… An accidental drop in the drink would have really ruined the day!)

Home Alone
Even though my limited vacation brain and a touch of bad luck sidelined a bit of fun, all of my smart-home gear thankfully remained fully on duty. Back at the homestead, this tech did a stellar job keeping me informed that our home was indeed comfortable without any resident humans.

Nest Thermostat Keeps Its Cool
I’m always conflicted about whether to leave the windows open or closed before leaving on a late August vacation. Warm days and cool nights can be a perfect combination for a few open windows to successfully ventilate your house. But if a thunderstorm rolls through, those open windows will welcome in some damaging moisture you’re not around to wipe up…

And if you decide to batten down the hatches, you have to choose between letting your house get all hot and humid without air conditioning or running your AC and feel like you’re throwing money out the (closed) window…

Unless…

With my smart Nest Learning Thermostat, I was able to monitor my house’s internal temperature on my iPhone and remotely turn on the AC at night for a couple of hours if I felt my home needed it.
Sure, any programmable ‘dumb’ thermostat can handle that directive, but I’ve got to admit that having the flexibility to manually control the AC from the Nest app on my iPhone felt amazing.

Nest Connect Glows Green
My Nest app also showed me the happy ‘green circle’ status of my Nest Connect smoke detector. So I was pretty sure my house wasn’t burning down in my absence…

Foscam Camera Keeps Track
And while we’re talking about managing a few ‘irrational’ fears while vacationing…
Remember that Foscam Wi-Fi BabyCam I installed when my now kindergarten-bound boy was just a wee lad in his crib? Well, I’ve given my Foscam a new mission…

Now, the BabyCam just serves as a resident pair of digital eyes (well, just one) when nobody’s home. The FoscamPro app on my iPhone allows me to quickly take a look about whenever I want.

No, I couldn’t see throughout the entire house while simultaneously viewing the beach sunsets.
(I could if I had multiple Foscam cameras set up.)
But it’s still another data point that my house was remaining healthy all by itself.

Vacation Scoop
So I’m pleased to report my house had a wonderful vacation.
And as for me…?

I’m writing this final paragraph on my last full day away…

The sun is rising as I look out over the magical inlet in front of me.
The warmth of the sun joins the crisp morning beach air.
I’ve got my cup of Joe.

Perfection.
(I have found my Vacation Zen.)

And I’m happy to admit there was absolutely no technology connected to the moment above.
…Except for the little detail that I was tapping away on my iPhone…
(D’oh!)

It’s good to know that you can be at home without tech.
(Almost…)

August 23, 2015

Coming Soon… A Movie Trailer You’ve Already Seen

Before this Marvel movie hit the streets, did you know who Ant-Man was? It’s a fundamental question that’s key to any movie’s success. And that’s what movie trailers are for. But the criteria for when and how you’re supposed to consume your movie previews has been upended…

Remember when the movie theater lights would dim, and you’d prepare yourself to get excited over a few movie trailers? Most of the previews you’d probably never seen before, unless you were experiencing the back half of a double feature. (Remember those?)

And what about the thrill you felt when that one amazing movie trailer hit you from out of nowhere? What an experience!

Whenever I bathed in that super glow of movie ‘geekiness,’ I would feel like I didn’t even need to stay for the main feature anymore. How could it get any better than the previous two minutes?

Of course the current availability of online movie trailers has ruined all that. And while I’ve got to admit that the sport of watching and collecting online trailers at home is fun, the experience pales to the purity of in-theater viewing…

No Surprises
Another byproduct of the proliferation of online movie trailers is you don’t need to show up to the movie theater on time.

I used to refuse to walk in even two minutes late…for fear of missing the first preview.
(Often a big one)

Today, I think it’s safe to say I’ve already seen every ‘major’ movie trailer they throw at me. Yes, it can still be more compelling to see it on the big screen, but the crazy urgency I used to feel on the whole matter has gradually evaporated.
(Yes, occasionally, a new movie trailer is first released on ‘day one’ in the theaters and then goes online immediately after… but that’s rare and something of a stunt.)

Movie Roulette
Now, all you’ve really got to do is skip the fifteen minutes of previews and commercials, (yuck) seat yourself just in time for the opening scene, and you’re golden.

Of course, if you play that game, you risk not finding a decent seat….

Plus if you lose, and show up a couple minutes into the flick’s opening sequence, then you become a major pain the butt for all the people sitting behind you.

And that’s really not cool. Nobody wants to miss the first scene of the movie, because you messed up your ‘movie roulette.’

I say it should be more like when you go to a theater to see a play. If you show up late there, you often can’t get to your seat until intermission.
Bravo!

The Rise of the Post-Credit Movie Scene
One type of movie preview experience that thankfully has remained intact (and in fact is becoming ever more popular) is the post-credit ‘surprise’ scene.
Most everybody has already left the theater…
(Who really wants to watch five minutes of credits?)
And then suddenly another scene pops up!

Often it’s something of a throwaway sequence, but sometimes it’s a significant moment that hints at a future film. Occasionally, it is a clip from the next related film!

A perfect example is the credit sequence from the well-reviewed
“Marvel’s Ant-Man.”
(Which I also really enjoyed…. Good talent. Great sense of humor. A story with heart. And a movie that enjoys living in the Marvel super-hero universe, but stands on it’s own. In fact, it was my favorite summer flick!)

“Ant-Man” actually has two separate scenes buried in the credits. The first one points to the evolution of one of the characters. The second appears to be from the next Captain America film- “Captain America: Civil War.”
(There’s no time like the present to begin seeding your future ticket purchase!)

Creating the Cliffhanger Moment
So it’s interesting how the placement of impactful movie-previews has taken something of a 180 and found a new favorite home at the end of the flick you’re watching…. instead of at the beginning.

And in the age of movie blockbusters built on a model of an ongoing story over multiple installments, it’s important to set the stage for the next sequel…

And that’s something of a nod to the cliffhanger model used in the old action and sci-fi movie serials like 1939’s “Buck Rogers”.

Yes…what’s old is new again…

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