Do You Think This New Amazon Product is Really Smart or Really Stupid?

By Jenna | Staff Writer

Jan 07, 2021 @ 1:22 PM MST

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Amazon has an interesting new way of automating your shopping!

Amazon is kicking off the new year by offering its customers a futuristic new way of keeping their shelves stocked. The onlinepany’s new Dash Smart Shelf promises to help you focus on your life, not your shopping list, by automatically ordering your essentials whenever you’re running low!

The Dash Smart Shelf is an auto-replenishment scale that helps you keep stock of your everyday items by their weight. When the Smart Shelf senses you’re running out of an item, it can either place an order for you or send you a notification to let you know it’s time to reorder. Plus, you’ll also be notified if an item’s price goes up by more than 10% at the time of purchase with 24 hours to cancel.

Although the Dash Smart Shelf doesn’t work with everything Amazon sells, there’s an “ever-growing” list of onlinepatible products from popular brands to choose from. onlinemon uses include snack bars, baby wipes, pet food, water bottles, toilet paper, and more. You can browse the onlineplete list of onlinepatible products here.

The new Dash Smart Shelf is available in three sizes and currently priced at $11.99 regardless of which size you order:

Small (7” x 7”) – perfect for small items up to 30 pounds like snack bars, coffee, or Post-Its
Medium (12” x 10”) – ideal for items like pet food, drinks, and garbage bags (up to 60 pounds)
Large (18” x 13”) – meant for large or very heavy items (up to 200 pounds) like reams of paper, toilet paper, and diapers

For a limited time, save up to 25% on your first Dash Smart Shelf reorder from select partners. Head on over here for all the details!

Setting up a new Dash Smart Shelf is designed to be quick and simple. The included batteries last more than two years, but you can add a power adapter (sold separately) and plug it in if you prefer. The Amazon Shopping app makes it easy to check your inventory, change your reorder threshold and quantity, or choose a new product.

Just moving things around in your pantry shouldn’t trigger auto-replenishment, because the Smart Shelf isn’t programmed to reorder until the weight of the product remains below the reorder threshold for 12 consecutive hours. You can even use your own container on the Smart Shelf to hold smaller items like coffee pods, and the Shelf will take that into account when calculating the weight of your items.

Is it just us, or does the new Dash Smart Shelf remind you a lot of Amazon’s Dash Wand and Dash Buttons? Interestingly, both of those automated shopping tools have been discontinued. So, what do you think – Does Amazon’s new Dash Smart Shelf look more like a helpful gadget or an unnecessary gimmick?

Save big with these Subscribe & Save grocery deals from Amazon!

Join The Discussion

onlinements 54

tipaye January 7, 2021 at 11:19 am MST

I think folks are paying an awful lot for convenience (which benefits Amazon). It’s a hard pass for me (I could just buy more product for $12) but to each their own, items like this will always be useful to some. Thanks for sharing!

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Mia January 7, 2021 at 11:30 am MST

I’m not sure why anyone would need this item unless the person lacked eyesight.

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M January 7, 2021 at 11:35 am MST

I think it would be helpful for large families such as my own. With five kids it is very onlinemon for me go to do laundry and the Tide pods be empty or other various items around the house. Teenagers never tell me when things are empty for some reason.

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Cassie Sue January 7, 2021 at 4:10 pm MST

I was thinking the same things, it’s helpful for working parents that have teenagers that are not always the best at telling you something is low. This goes “oh, you need tide pods” and orders it for you which saves a lot of headaches. Or if you have an elderly parent that may be more “forgetful” about keeping things replenished. I can see the market, though I don’t think I would use it.

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Mary January 7, 2021 at 12:15 pm MST

Mia, I was thinking the exact same thing. I mean, you can see when it’s low so just spend the $ on the item itself and not this gadget.

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[email protected] January 7, 2021 at 9:07 pm MST

U nailed it 😂😂😍🤩

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kema January 7, 2021 at 11:31 am MST

Seems dumb to spend 12 bucks to order something …

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Rachel Pearson January 7, 2021 at 11:33 am MST

It’s worse than the button. I was somewhat tempted a time or two with the button but this is a hard pass for me.

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M January 7, 2021 at 11:33 am MST

Surprisingly, I think this is smart. We have a large family with five children and I cannot tell you how many times I have gone into the pantry or cupboards to find empty containers. This would eliminate that for sure.

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Kimberly January 7, 2021 at 11:52 am MST

but if any of your five kids put something on top of the container, it wouldn’t detect the shortage. I could see my family members stacking multiple items on top of the scale.

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Lunafalls January 8, 2021 at 8:52 am MST

Kids or teens probably won’t remember to place a container back on its Smart Shelf when they remove it. I know my teen boys never would have.

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Lisa January 7, 2021 at 11:38 am MST

Umm, hard pass for me. I didn’t even click on it to see, but I’m assuming batteries are required. I use Daylight Savings Time to check my smoke detector batteries, and I certainly don’t need another thing to check the batteries on.

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lisajoyner_1982 January 7, 2021 at 11:39 am MST

Hard pass for my family. My 2021 focus will instead be couponing, stockpiling and cautious bargin shopping. Definitely not buying automatic buttons, and don’t a hard review on all subscriptions, auto-ships and reoccurring costs.

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tipaye January 7, 2021 at 1:15 pm MST

Same here!

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NV2007 January 7, 2021 at 11:44 am MST

I’m sure larger families with lots of people helping themselves to things would find this more useful than, say, my family. But honestly, I just take inventory of items regularly and I wouldn’t even trust that the thing(s) wouldn’t fall off the scale. I wouldn’t put every box of everything on one of those – it’s not practical at all IMO. It’s great Amazon keeps onlineing up with new and innovative ways to keep us buying from them, but this just seems like a lazy way to sort of, almost, maybe keep track of things.

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lindak January 7, 2021 at 11:49 am MST

Stupid. An unnecessary expense.

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Kimberly January 7, 2021 at 11:53 am MST

I wouldn’t use even if I was paid to.

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Observant Mom January 7, 2021 at 11:53 am MST

This is stupid! Paying them for reordering for you?! When you use subscribe and save you set how often you want to reorder, why not just do that? Like everything else, there are stupid people that will buy into it.

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coreymcauley January 7, 2021 at 11:54 am MST

Not something I would find useful but I could see this working great for an elderly family member and some of their essentials.

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Rebecca January 7, 2021 at 12:48 pm MST

Yes! I was thinking if someone ordered items for an elderly relative, this might help them stay on top of it. Obviously you wouldn’t want a ton of these, but for a few essential items they could definitely be helpful.

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SUSAN January 7, 2021 at 11:55 am MST

We have beonlinee a society that is so lazy. Not only physically, but now apparentlly mentally as well. As if you can’t order on your own, you need Amazon to automatically order for you. Sounds like another way for them to make a buck!

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Dani January 7, 2021 at 11:56 am MST

While it’s not something I’d personally buy, I think it could be useful to lots of people. Perhaps because of family size, busy lifestyle , disability, etc. Something not being valuable in your life does not mean it’s stupid. As a congenital amputee there are many products that make my life easier that most people do not deem necessary in their lives. I think it’s unnecessary (and in many cases perpetuates ableism) to put down products that can make life easier for someone else.

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Rebecca January 7, 2021 at 12:47 pm MST

I think this is a great point! Many people wouldn’t find this helpful, but to some it definitely could be!

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Evie January 7, 2021 at 11:58 am MST

Just spend your $12 and buy an extra container of Tide pods and put it away. When you need to reach for that last container of pods, then you just tell Alexa to order you some more. You also can just do subscribe and save.

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Emily January 7, 2021 at 12:08 pm MST

I see the appeal, but also it’s not something I’d use.

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Amy January 7, 2021 at 12:18 pm MST

Reminds me a bit of the dash buttons, which I did get a few when it worked out to be free for the button just as joke gifts and were never used ha

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Steph January 7, 2021 at 12:20 pm MST

STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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jules371 January 7, 2021 at 12:30 pm MST

With my luck I would remove the laundry detergent from the scale to clean drips from it and get interrupted and forget to put it back for days and next thing I know more detergent would be at my door. No thanks. lol

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tipaye January 7, 2021 at 1:16 pm MST

Lol

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IB January 7, 2021 at 12:31 pm MST

Auto ordering on Amazon is not always a good idea. They track what you paid previously and can manipulate the price on future orders without you knowing you’re paying more.

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tipaye January 7, 2021 at 1:16 pm MST

Yup

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77_purity January 7, 2021 at 12:34 pm MST

that’s a no for me. The only time I purchased the buttons before was when they had a promotion where I would get the same or more back for each of the buttons I purchased. Amazon did away with the buttons. I don’t see how a scale would be any different plus this takes up more space

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nancypantcy January 7, 2021 at 12:42 pm MST

Oh thank god for this creation. I don’t know how I lived without it thus far.

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celticmommie January 7, 2021 at 3:02 pm MST

🤣

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Tracee January 7, 2021 at 12:55 pm MST

Unnecessary expense! I can reorder with all my Alexa devices and the stuff it keeps track of can be handled by subscription. I have a family of 5 and I know how much I use monthly, give or take a few . Like I have one 96 count pods sent once a month as well as a case of toilet paper, and my garbage bags Every 3 months.( I buy the huge cases)and so on…

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Ames January 7, 2021 at 1:09 pm MST

So sick of the Amazon money machine. I get that it’s convenient.. but watching these big tech onlinepanies essentially rule the world with no consequence to their actions (ie no fine big enough to make a dent in their bottom line) is frightening. Hard pass on this.

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riss January 7, 2021 at 1:18 pm MST

I think this is dumb. One has to buy more than one for laundry detergent, cereal box, coffee, etc. The money you will spend on these gadgets, just use it to stock up on items you would use the scale for. Nope, not for me, or for most of us.

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abbyac January 7, 2021 at 1:21 pm MST

I have 5 children and this is still a hard pass. I am a single mom and work full time and still manage to stay on top of what my family needs. This is counterproductive to being frugal.

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Kathleen January 7, 2021 at 1:37 pm MST

I can see where these could be useful for someone, but I personally would not purchase them. I think fairly soon they will develop even more convenient ways of physically tracking household inventory, maybe with products we already have like a smart phone or other device. Then these extra devices would be a waste of money and create more trash.

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Joy January 7, 2021 at 2:11 pm MST

I have a cat rescue and have volunteers onlineing in and feeding the cats and at times we have more cats which changes the amount we use. This would actually be helpful as our cat food usage varies at different times and I have to check the stock every day to keep on top of it. I would need 4 of the biggest ones to watch the weights. I would probably get them if they offered a discount on your first order.

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Laura T January 7, 2021 at 2:28 pm MST

Hard pass for me. I think it’s silly and stupid. It assumes Amazon always has the best price-which is not true. I think people will end up paying for what they view as convenience, when in reality it’s just another expense, more clutter, and increasing consumerism.

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dealzgurl January 7, 2021 at 2:48 pm MST

I actually know someone with a chronic illness who might find this useful. I don’t think it’s for me personally but I don’t think it’s stupid. I do agree about the Amazon money machine though. It feels like they’re trying to take over the world. Convenience is awesome! But I don’t want Amazon or any onlinepany to have their tentacles that deep into my life.

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David January 7, 2021 at 2:58 pm MST

pass. We have hundreds of consumable items in our house and spending $12 to monitor each of them is crazy. Add to it the additional footprint space needed and requirement to return the product to the exact same spot, and this is even more useless than the dash buttons!

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Mrsyancy January 7, 2021 at 3:18 pm MST

Easy no for me. I probably wouldn’t keep the item on there that’s supposed to be on there. Plus I’m pretty good with keeping up with the things that are needing to be restocked. So this would be an unnecessary expense for me, but I can see how it could potentially benefit someone.

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siena95 January 7, 2021 at 3:46 pm MST

Stupid. Not happening

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susan-5 January 7, 2021 at 4:04 pm MST

We’re really bending over backwards to make Jeff Bezos wealthier. And, he even gets us to buy the product to make the order for us. PT Barnum said “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Really pathetic

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Evelyn January 7, 2021 at 4:35 pm MST

I appreciate Amazon trying new things an innovating even if certain products aren’t popular. Cant find the next biggest thing unless you take changers!

I wouldn’t buy this item though and honestly I think most couponers wouldn’t be the target demographic for this because we want good deals over fast replenishment for a lot of things.

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Sarah January 7, 2021 at 6:29 pm MST

I would only appreciate a “system” like this for my storage room and stockpile. The way the shelf is now is not up to par…but what if you could have a storage room full of these shelves and it can alert you when your canned beans are low and time to shop the case lot sales again. I find trying to keep my stockpile up is difficult. Some automation to that would be magic.

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E January 7, 2021 at 7:08 pm MST

My kid would move the item off the scale, the scale would order more, and I’d be upset at my kid for moving it. Already know how it would turn out! I’d rather keep a stocked pantry I can eyeball and make my own purchases to replenish.

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Darla January 7, 2021 at 7:14 pm MST

Stupid

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Coridg January 7, 2021 at 7:53 pm MST

Just another way for a onlinepany to keep track of what you and your family are buying and using. It likely has some type of microphone and can also listen to your conversations .

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[email protected] January 7, 2021 at 9:08 pm MST

Another money making hack by Amazon

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ann January 8, 2021 at 9:16 am MST

Not to mention the power consumption on this thing whether it be batteries or requires to be plugged in. Just more costs in my opinion.

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sarabuerklevosper January 8, 2021 at 10:50 am MST

I would not order this.

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