Meanwhile Amazon actually operates by people walking to pickup and deliver most packages by hand to be boxed up.
People can actually get a lot of work done in an hour to the point where many things that don’t seem like they should scale end up being trivial expenses.
They have been increasing automation, but over the lifetime of the company it’s a reasonable description for how the majority of all packages where handled.
What’s eye opening is the kiva robots only increase the items picked per worker per hour from ~100 to ~300 even though they drastically reduce the amount of walking.
"only"? You just pointed out that they result in 300% increased worker productivity and that's "only"??? Especially when this discussion is based around someone saying they won't use technological productivity enhancers because they want to go the "bespoke" route.
How much support staff for that hardware + how large an investment + how large are ongoing costs like electricity + how much risk if that hardware fails vs offsetting 30$/hour/worker. So yes “only” as it’s a win but not nearly as large as a win than it seems like.
PS: “300% increased worker productivity” a 300% increased productivity for pickers would be 4x as many packages picked not 3x. But, again actual productivity didn’t increase that much because some people need to maintain these systems and most of them expect more than 15$/hour.
The problem is your plan hinges on you being the one and only company in your neighborhood with the "human touch". But you won't be. You'll be competing with every other human with a family who refuses to use modern technology. Even if it's possible, it's unlikely you'll win that fight. And even if you do, how many others did you have to beat out to make it work?
It's just not a scalable plan. It reminds me of a middle schooler whose plan for their future involves getting famous or winning the lottery.
I don't have to beat others completely out. I just have to convince enough people that my software and support are better for them.
Yes, I will be competing with every human. But my market will be "every" human, and I don't need to capture all of that market; I only need to capture enough.
I mean, yea, in places it would succeed as a boutique business, but you're not building the next Amazon that way either.