My Amazon GO Store Experience

(This post started as a LinkedIn.com update, but I quickly ran out of character space, so here's my full review).

UPDATE for 2/13/2018:

• I stopped by GO on my way into work and picked up a Blazing Bagels breakfast sandwich and protein fruit drink. Total time in-store: 1:10 min. 

ORIGINAL POST:
On Friday (2/9), I stepped out of my new Belltown office for lunch and an experiment: my goal was to successfully navigate the new Amazon GO store in Seattle and emerge with a meal.

Before going any further, I need to recognize the amount of work that obviously went into getting the venture up and running. Creating the world's first cashier-less store for a non-membership store was clearly no easy feat. All of the Amazon engineers, product managers, and user experience experts should be commended for their great work.

I tackled this experiment wearing my user experience hat, which is a blend of a decade of writing for broadcast news, another 2 decades working in digital, and insights gleaned from various experience experts, not to mention Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things."

The first requirement of using the store is to download the Amazon GO app, for which you need an Amazon account. I subscribe to Prime so all my account information; name, address, purchase history, debit card, etc, is on file with Amazon. The app has a really good primer on what to expect with the experience: launch the app and scan your phone upon entry in the store, take what you want, return what you don't want, don't take objects off the shelves for others, and walk out when you are done. Easy enough.

Amazon stations employees at the entrance to hand out shopping bags. Having not experienced it before, I wondered if the bags were somehow required for the experience. Were they tagged with sensors? No, as it turns out. Just a convenience. Right outside the store was a line of stanchions--not in use that day--which is kind of funny; you may have to wait in line to enter the store that doesn't have checkout lines. This was my first indicator that Seattle has a new tourist destination.

So upon entering the store, I was immediately struck by the number of people who were shooting video and taking pictures, rather than shopping. It reminded me of Times Square in NYC with people spending more time getting a photo than watching where they are walking. The amateur photographers were the second indicator that this is a new tourism "must do" in Seattle.

So, with my phone in one hand and shopping bag in the other, I conducted tour of the store perimeter. This didn't take long because it isn't a big store. But it is new and clean and nice. Think of it as a high-end convenience store. A Better Bodega. A Super 7-11. Or a Half-sized Whole Foods. The offerings include a wide-selection of pre-made sandwiches and meals, alcohol, sides, and various other foods. I went with an Italian Grinder and bag of Half-pops. Along the way, I experimented with removing items from the shelves and returning them to see if the app would show the changes, but nothing ever appeared on the app to indicate that I have made any selections, which led me to wonder if I was doing it correctly. I was, in fact, and had to rely on my memory of the app demo and my own sense of right and wrong to get through this first time. I would recommend an improvement to the app in a future release that displayed customer selections in real-time.

A ceiling of sensors

After wandering the store a little more, I decided to test my comfort with walking out the door without the cash register experience. It was... weird. No alarms went off, expect for what was programmed into my mind through a half-decade of commerce. It was when the French TV news crew approached me outside the store that I suddenly felt like that this was a big Candid Camera joke.

But no joke, they were interviewing all sorts of customers. They did have to show me where to find the record of my transaction in the app. Again, this is a natural opportunity for the app to give me a "transaction complete" alert once I'm free and clear of the store. As it was, the receipt was emailed an hour after my visit. Immediate gratification for acknowledgement of the transaction will be needed for this to really take off.

So if there's a word I would use to describe this experience, it would be "novelty." This is not to denigrate in any way all the work that went into the store, but it introduces a new way to shop that is one-of-a-kind, and it feels very much like a pilot of what could be a larger and more immersive experience.

So how was the lunch? It was OK. I don't think the grinder was made by someone who ever had a real East Coast grinder; a few slices of salami does not a grinder make. But I'm going back again, you can be sure. I'll try other foods and bring friends and family.

What else would you do with a tourist attraction?

The Left and Right News Spectrum

In 1993, I was working as a writer at WCIX in Miami. South Florida was still recovering from Hurricane Andrew's destruction the previous August and there was never a shortage of post-storm stories. South Florida news stations loved any kind of sensational story back then--flash-n-trash always ran at the top of the newscast--but it was a real surprise when the 6pm producer ran a wire story about Stephen Cook accusing Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of sexual molestation.

This was the time of repressed memories. Patients would undergo hypnosis and suddenly remember events from their past. Even if that event never happened. This was the case with Cook, who claimed to have a repressed memory uncovered through hypnosis of being molested by Bernardin. Only it never happened.

Cook was encouraged to make accusations against Bernardin by a third party as way to get money from the Church. Only 2 people knew this when the story came out; Cook and the third party.

When the story broke, the WCIX news producer declared that she "hated the Catholic Church" and led the newscast with it: lead story with an edited video segment. Her comment has stayed with me for three decades.

About six weeks later, Cook announced the truth; that he'd lied and Bernardin was innocent. I looked to the producer for her response. It was this: the story would run as a 20-second reader leading into sports and weather. And no regrets for having run the original story.

It was at this point that I lost interest in my news career. It was clear that any sense of objectivity was dead. And being objective was a goal of the highest ideals that we were taught in our college journalism classes.

Funny thing about the idea of journalistic objectivity--it was a marketing ploy publishers in the early 20th century used to sell newspapers. Before this time, newspapers were roundly viewed as subjective publications. You read a newspaper, or pamphlet, because it reinforced your viewpoints on the world. Yellow journalism was the norm and two of the biggest players were Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.

An example of New York Journal's famous yellow journalism. 

Seems like we are living through a second coming of yellow journalism. Biases lead news judgement and no one is willing to admit they are skewed.

CNN is overwhelmingly liberal and has a justifiable axe to grind against Trump. Fox News is overwhelmingly Trump friendly and ignores 99% of the stories critical to our current Administration. InfoWars isn't news and MSNBC breathlessly delivers every story as melodrama. And I haven't even touched on fake news.

I find its best to keep news sources in rotation, moving among the outlets and compiling truth from various sources. But which ones to trust?

There are a few efforts on the interwebs for scoring the major news outlets on their political biases, but even those evaluations are skewed. What I find most interesting is that NPR is now considered to be fairly mainstream. It used to be far left.

If you want to have your opinions reinforced, then by all means, rely on the sources with whom you agree. If you want to be challenged, read material from the neutral zone of news. Or even the opposing views.

Here are a few sources who have categorized the various news outlets. Not all agree, but they have plenty of similarities.

• Quora: Is there really any non-partisan news sources that don't have such a liberal or conservative "twist"? If so what are they?
• University of Michigan Research: "Fake News," Lies and Propaganda: How to Sort Fact from Fiction
• MarketWatch: How does your favorite news source rate on the ‘truthiness’ scale? Consult this chart

1,250+ of you

More than 1,250 of you took the time to read my blog posting endorsing Byron Shutz, Tanika Padhye, and Jeralee Anderson for Redmond City Council. For those of you who have still yet to vote, I urge you to fill in your ballot and vote today.

Thank you for participating in our community elections!

City Council Candidates for Redmond's Future

(Note: the seat numbers have been updated).

It's time for you to fill out that voter ballot that recently arrived in the mail. The current races for City Council are as exciting and contentious as they've been in the nearly 10 years I've lived in Redmond. Also in that nearly 10 years, I've seen tremendous change in our City, most of which I really like.

It's my observation, from conversations with neighbors and friends, that this election is as much about Redmond's past as it is about the future. So, I'm offering my recommendations for City Council for each of the contested seats. The recommendations are based on talking with you, attending the Education Hill Neighborhood Association Candidate Forum on Oct 5th, reviewing the candidate websites, and reviewing campaign contributions as recorded by the State.

If you have yet to vote and are on the fence, please consider these candidates on your ballots.

Before the recommendations, let me first share a thought with you. There's a poster in my house with a quote I've always loved. It was put to press as part of a change management campaign I ran for a Fortune 100. It's a reminder that no matter how much we want things to stay the same... they never do. The best we can do is be a part of the future.

To the candidates who have committed personal time and money running for City Council, "thank you for getting involved." This is a tough gig. For the challengers inspired by wanting to make a change, I hope--should you win--that the endless hours of time that you will be committing to the City don't weigh you down. And I hope that you are able to stand up to the criticism that is going to be lobbed your way. You know, glass houses and all.

Here are the candidates I am supporting for City Council, and I encourage you to vote the same.

Seat #6: Jerlaee Anderson
Jeralee brings a fresh slate of ideas to the campaign. She wants to improve transportation for Redmond, and do it in a progressive, technology-smart fashion. She supports a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math learning, especially for girls, in private and nonprofit collaboration with the City. She is also an advocate for small business.

I don't know Jeralee, but she has my vote. Please vote for Jeralee Anderson for Seat #2.

Here is Jeralee's website: https://www.jeraleeanderson.com/

Seat #4: Tanika Padhye
Tanika recognizes and promotes what Redmond residents have come to experience: Redmond is the #1 City in Washington. It didn't happen overnight--it occurred because of the families who have lived here for years and the families who are still coming to live here. Tanika is the candidate for all of us, not just some of us.

Tanika was appointed earlier this year to this position as the former member of Council stepped down from duties. She was chosen from a broad slate of candidates. Tanika brings diversity to our Council, in perspective and background. She recognizes that our City has changed significantly, and must hold onto its roots.

On a personal level, I have known the Padhye family for years. They are committed to our community. Please vote for Tanike Padhye for Seat #4.

Here is her website: http://www.tanika4council.com/

Seat #2: Byron Shutz
Byron is a levelheaded and responsible member of City Council. He speaks to the facts and has developed a sound track record of leadership in government, education, and human services.

Byron has given his time to our City and our schools for years, having served on the Lake Washington Schools Foundation before joining City Council. He is deeply involved in our community, serving on the Board of Hopelink, the Redmond Kiwanis, among others. Byron's list of volunteer positions is much longer than I could list here, but visit his website if you want to see all of his community activism.

Byron and I met when he was elected to the City Council and I was with the Redmond Arts and Culture Commission, and I've always enjoyed talking with him at City events. It's my hope that Redmond residents make the right choice and vote for Byron Shutz for Seat #6.

Here is Byron's website: http://www.shutzforcouncil.com/

A final word... about the campaigns running up to this election: I've not been a fan of the tone some campaigns are taking; there have been accusations and claims made without basis. The City Council never debates issues? Baloney. The City won't listen to residents? Nonsense. Candidates are vilifying City Hall and thereby attacking the people who work and volunteer there. These are our friends and neighbors who drive the same streets and shop in the same stores and send their children to the same schools. They deserve more respect than they've been afforded. I urge you to carefully consider rewarding a campaign that engages in this type of behavior.

All of us want a better Redmond. I encourage you to vote for these three candidates to build on the success of our community and move us forward together.

Rob Leavitt is a private citizen and was not compensated for these endorsements. He is former Co-Chair of Cub Scout Pack 591, former President of the Redmond Lacrosse Club, and two-time Chair of the Redmond Arts and Culture Commission. He and his family live on Education Hill in Redmond.

Moments in the Sun

This morning I was rushing out the door with a little more than an hour to run a set of errands before my next call for work started. With the front door of the house no more than 6 feet behind me, I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment.

The late Fall sunlight was streaming through the trees, casting long shadows across the yards and catching the morning dew on the front lawn grass, creating a field of morning stars. The temperature was in the mid-forties and steam rose from the peaks of my next door neighbor's house. It was quiet, apart from distant traffic that created a steady rushing sound; more like a low ocean shore or the sound wind makes when blowing through the evergreens on a mountaintop. It was a Moment.

I wrestled on what to do--keep going to the car and get my errands wrapped up or stay on the front porch to absorb the Moment for all it was worth?

Instead I ran back inside the house and called my wife and daughter to join me. "Just come out front!," I urged them.

My wife joined me back on the porch. The daughter unit made it as far as the point where the house heat stops and the cool air started before voting with her feet back inside. Not even the dog would venture outside. Don't get me started on the cat.

So my wife and I stood there in the morning Moment. No talking, all sensing. After a few seconds, I decided it to be photo-worthy.

Within two photos the Moment was gone. We were still there, as was the cool air, trees, houses, morning dew-laden grass, but the sunshine had faded behind thickening clouds. And with that, I bade the wife goodbye and sprinted out to the car, Moment behind, but still in my memory.

One Person's Difference

(This is an excerpt from my weekly newsletter to the Redmond Lacrosse Club.)

What kind of impact can one person have on someone's life? How impacting 10, or 100, or 1,000? It's possible and happens everyday.

This last weekend I attended a memorial service for a Horace Mann teacher who recently passed of cancer. David Wobker was what we hope all educators aspire to be. He was passionate about teaching and possessed a sharp intellect that often left you questioning the deeper meaning of his comments. By the turnout of the service, it was clear that David has impacted the lives of hundreds of families on Education Hill. He was special.

Our lacrosse club continues to build on a tradition that has influenced the lives of hundreds of families in and around Redmond. Our goal is provide your sons with a rich athletic experience, and have fun while they do it. We need volunteers to do it. Whether it's field prep, helping at club events, fundraising, or being a member of the Board, your contributions go a long way.

Can't Talk Now--I've Got an Orca to Catch!

"Whendlegltchby."

 "What?"

"When do the orcas come by?"

This was the start to my brief exchange with a fellow camper recently at the San Juan Island County Campground. It was not going to end well. Before I continue that story, let me set the stage...

It's Wednesday afternoon of my weeklong vacation from work. I had ridden the Tiger to Anacortes and hopped the ferry to San Juan Island for a quick, overnight getaway.

Seven years ago, I had taken the family to the SJI County Campground for our first Pacific Northwest camping trip. We have wonderful memories from that trip. It's location on a bluff above the Haro Strait--the strip of water that separates the US from Vancouver Island, Canada. You can see VI on any clear day. And during one magical moment on the first trip, we were awoken to a pod of orcas swimming by. It's a memory that will stay with us forever.

I wasn't expecting magic this trip, just peace and quiet. And it started exactly as planned. I rolled up to the camping spot on my bike with no one around. There were two reserved spots between mine and the patch of grass that leads out to the bluff. The one closest to the grass (#20) was empty, while the one right next to me (#19) had a medium-sized tent already pitched. The occupants weren't there, but I figured that it probably belonged to a couple who was out exploring the island.

After unpacking and setting up camp, I explored the area (no orcas to be seen) and then retreated to my tent for a nap before dinner. Naps are very important when camping.

"WAAAAAIIIIIGGGHHHH!!!"

What in dear Lord?

"WAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!"

OK, so it seems my next door neighbors included a combination of air raid siren, harpy, and a set of long nails scratching on a portable chalkboard. In other words, a toddler. A very, very unhappy toddler.

Waking up from camping naps is tricky business. You know you've been sleeping and you know that you probably could have been productive by wandering the area and picking up random trash or identifying poisonous mushrooms. If you do not execute your sleep state evacuation correctly, as in gradually and peacefully, you are likely to emerge as an enraged yeti who has not been able to remove hair balls from his nether regions and to which said hair is being pulled out with each movement.

That was me; enraged yeti. 

Once I gathered my senses I realized what was happening and calmed down. I've been that dad before; the one faced with the crying child with no way of understanding how to quiet the child or remove their batteries so the neighbors don't call the cops or protective services. Now I was just a grumpy yeti who has to leave his cave in order to pick up berries for dinner at the local Very Berry store.

Exiting the tent, I gave the dad holding the harpy siren a look that suggested "I've been there--hang in there--it gets better," but I probably just looked pissed off. Regardless, he later apologized for disrupting my yeti nap and we established ourselves on good terms. I kept reminding myself of this each time the harpy siren went into public service announcement mode to let everyone know she was unhappy. This occurred every 90 minutes.

It also turns out that my neighbor did not understand how children are made, because by my count he had accumulated 4 of them and they were all very young. That probably means that he and his wife are probably going to have more. Maybe they have a plan to replace their harpy siren every 18 months with a new harpy siren, and the one on duty was just the latest model. I didn't think of this at the time as I was mostly curious how they all fit into that small tent. They weren't a large-sized type of people, but six human-sized organisms occupying a tent of that size was like watching clowns emerging from a tiny clown car. But without all the creepy clown-stuff that comes with clowns.

Still, my desire for peace and quiet would not be denied. At sunset, I wrote the following in my notebook:

The Sun is a handbreadth above the horizon. Skies are mostly blue and wisped with clouds. I feel the Sun's heat while a gentle wind from across Vancouver Island cools me. Seabirds sit on the rock 100 yards from shore. Silent now, having ceased their dinnertime chatter. Below me and to the north 50 yards, two couples rest in their kayaks. I have sole and temporary use of this park bench, though not the point; another man occupies the other bench while a book occupies his attention.

As the Sun dipped over the horizon and the campground quieted down--quiet hours are 10:30pm to 7:30am--all the campers settled into their nighttime routines, consisting of later dinners and campfires.

Remember that part of about quiet hours? Yeah, well, it figures in pretty soon, so pay attention. Because when you check in to the campground, the park ranger goes through a list of rules. The first one is that quiet hours are between 10:30pm and 7:30am. The second rule is to pack your food away for night. The raccoons are pretty common on the island and pretty bold, so pack your food away in something they can't rip into. When you show up to check in to your spot, the ranger explains this very clearly. Unless, you are late and miss his speech. It's not a problem if you've camped before and understand a basic tenet of camping, which is, animals will eat food if you leave it out. It may be a problem if you are a member of the Black Lung Family.

The Black Lung Family showed up after the park ranger's office closed. I don't know what time exactly, but it was like one of those moments in movies when darkness suddenly falls. Like when the plague of locusts descends on Egypt, Christ dies on the cross, or vampires attack. The Black Lung Family (BLF from now on) arrived in their early 90s model Jeep Cherokee and took the spot on the other side of the harpy siren manufacturing family. There were two elders and two idiots. The idiots live in Olympia, while the elders recently moved from Oklahoma. They seemed to have suffered some sort of horrible disfiguring accident because each only had only arm. The other arm was a cigarette holder. They'd apparently been living like this a long time because they were constantly experiencing prolonged bouts of coughing. I almost named them the Emphysema Family, but this would have given them an unnecessary sense that they deserved compassion. Anytime you light up cigarettes in the company of others, you lose that compassion. Anytime you light up in the presence of children, you lose it, too.

Wait, lighting up in front of children? Yes, our new neighbors. The ones who took the coveted spot right next to the grass that leads out to the bluff were coughing and smoking in the presence of young children. And everyone got to smell the smoke.

And they were loud. Not loud as in, "I want to make sure you hear my voice from 25 yards away," but loud as in "I think we're currently at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert and standing 5 feet from the speakers and I know you can't hear me but I'm going to shout anyway because I've been drinking for 8 hours." They were loud and up past the quiet hour mark. What time was that? That's right: 10:30pm.

Anyway, I was soon off to sleep. It's said that I can sleep through anything. Or so I've been told. Dunno, I'm usually asleep when people say it. My sleep lasted until 4:47am. Why so exact, you ask? That's because it was at that time the following morning in which the BLF was visited by a family of raccoons. I know they were raccoons because I heard the BLF shout this several times and I know it was 4:47am because I hard them shout this several times. Absconded hoy dog buns fit in, as well. The excitement from their campsite lasted about 10 minutes before I uttered and admittedly weak, "Be Quiet!" I was afraid of waking the harpy siren. Just my lucky, she would sleep through the Great Raccoon Invasion of 2016 but my request for quiet would have kept her up for hours.

Sleep, once again, won me over. But by 6:30am I was awake. Early mornings are special times when camping. The nocturnal animals can still be active, everything is still and quiet, and you are aware of being among people still asleep. It's a great time to have coffee and chill. Which brings us back to...

"Whendlegltchby."

 "What?"

"When do the orcas come by?"

It was BLF elder. There she was. In my campsite, lit cigarette stinking up my morning.

It was disappointing that BLF moved into our neighborhood last night. Even more so that they smoked and shouted the whole time. But with the early morning wake-up I had reached my limit. You know that little red guy from "Inside Out?" Anger? Well, he made an appearance that morning--from my brain, past the filters, and directly out my mouth.

"It's quiet hours. Everyone here is quiet. You people were up making noise at 4:47 this morning."

This was not a shouted statement. My sister taught me years ago that it is much more intimidating to speak in a low voice when mad than it is to shout. So I said it low. And I emphasized. Every. Word. It had the desired effect. As soon as I said the word "morning," she spun 90 degrees away from me, dropped her head, and walked back to camp. No one from that camp said anything until I left an hour later.

If I had been in a better mood, I would have toyed with the idea that wild orca pods are on a Seaworld-like schedule. Heck, I would have given her a specific time and place to be on the island. I thought of this missed opportunity while retrieving the water bucket from the campground water spigot. Right there, on the campground bulletin board, was this gem:

Apparently, a lot of people at this campground ask this question. So many that the forest ranger had to put up a sign. I feel for that man.

After dousing the flames of the fire, my adrenalin also diminished and I started second-guessing my response to BLF elder. I resumed packing up camp. A few minutes later, a couple walked by to talk. Gloria and Mark. An older couple traveling with their dog, Zoe. They were in the site on the other side of me and disappointed I was leaving. Seems that they approved of my presence, and they realized that once I was gone, the good behavior would leave as well.

With my final moment of vindication, I saddled up on the Tiger and headed home.

I don't think I'll ever camp here again.