Yahoo News Londoner's Diary: Amazon chief, Doug Gurr must Dash
Amazon’s new Dash buttons — which you attach to household products such as washing powders — have proved a big hit for those who don’t like writing up shopping lists. But even Doug Gurr, the chief executive of Amazon UK, admits that you don’t want to let them fall into the wrong hands — those of your children.
Gurr says his own kids love pressing the buttons on the household loo roll supply, sending an automatic message to get Amazon to deliver. The only problem is they press them all the time.
“Toilet roll turns up in my house every day,” he told The Londoner last night at The Ned for the launch of the new Kindle Storyteller award. “I have to hide the buttons from my kids.”
But doesn’t his CEO discount soften the blow of all these superfluous groceries. Surely he’s not charged, The Londoner asked. “Not at all, I pay the same as everyone — I don’t get a discount.”
Dash launched in 2015 as a way of seamlessly ordering when your basic goods ran out. Brands that use it include Gillette, Ariel, Doritos and Durex.
As those who have tested it have noted, it is quite easy to order an item by accidentally pressing the buttons. In theory you get a notification from Amazon on your mobile phone when an order is placed but, as CEO, maybe Gurr is too busy to check his messages.
Gurr, who used to be chief executive of Asda, might however be hoping for a better quality of product being Dash button-ordered by his kids soon. Amazon is in the process of acquiring the Whole Foods supermarket chain, so if that deal goes through it may be truck-loads of quinoa and acai berries that start arriving at his house.
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“Everyone was panicking,” she says. “I felt really cool because I’d written ‘In’ on my hands and I was going to shout ‘Remain’ in the speeches. Then I realised they were all pro-Remain too, so it was less punk than I thought. I’m basically Cameron’s bitch at this point.”
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