2 Comments

Amazon Mobile 1.2.8
Amazon has recently unveiled a new version of their iPhone app, Amazon Mobile 1.2.8. Like previous iterations of the Amazon app, this allows users to access their site while on the go; handy for that "I have enough time in my schedule to read, but not enough to do my online shopping from home" demographic.

What really sets this new version apart is the inclusion of bar code scanning. Essentially, you take a picture of the bar code with your iPhone, and the app searches through Amazon for a match and sets you up to buy a copy.

This is great for Amazon. This is even pretty great for you. This is less great for bookstore clerks.

When I apprised a number of my fellow bookstore employees of this new development, one threatened these hypothetical psuedo-customers with physical violence, and another just offered a sad, glassy stare and mused, "Oh. I wondered why that woman was taking photographs in the kids section."

Allow me to welcome you ... to the Bookstore of Tomorrow.

Clerk: Hi, what can I do for you today?
Customer: I need that new Fresh book.

(Ten minutes later, after the clerk has determined that the customer was in fact looking for Bill O'Reilly's 2008 outing, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity.)

Clerk: All right, here you go!
Customer: Thanks. (pulls out iPhone, takes picture, and returns the book to the clerk)
Clerk: Did... did you not want the book?
Customer: Oh yeah, I needed you to find it for me. I just bought it from Amazon.
Clerk: (head explodes)

So thanks, Amazon. Thanks a million.