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Comment by qaq | Hacker News Reader

So the whole walmart labs thing doesn't count?

As someone who has tried to work with them, I'd say no it doesn't. They are not responsive, very slow to do anything and frankly are more of a product API than a real innovation team. I'd love to see more from this group, I'd love to see them engage with the people in the labs forum more!

I'm curious to know what you were trying to reach out about. That team is massive (they have their own floor).

Plus offices in two other countries. The Bangalore office has at least a floor in a large shared building.

I cannot be specific in the open, but if you look at my profile you might be able to take a guess.

Frankly my experiences are limited to the Walmart Open API that came out of labs, so likely I'm just looking at a very small portion of what they're really doing (I'd guess most of which is for in house audiences).

Labs has many good people but also lots of legacy from Sterling world. This affects culture. For example, their execution (especially speed) is not as good as Amazon's. Their use cases are more complex than Amazon's because customers expect store pickup and/or store delivery. They are trying to leverage their stores but it adds is more work. Marc and team has been brought to change how execution happens.

Sometimes that knowledge doesn't trickle out due to a variety of political reasons. A fresh face, with the blessing of senior management, can make a solid impact.

Not saying this is what happened, and I greatly respect Walmart labs, especially the electrode project.

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