top | item 34538156

GE Answer Center, 1989 Commercial [video]

40 points| 1970-01-01 | 3 years ago |youtube.com | reply

24 comments

order
[+] kube-system|3 years ago|reply
Looking back, it's really amazing how the 24/7 economy has slowly taken over. Could you imagine someone running a grocery store today that wasn't open on the weekend?
[+] jdblair|3 years ago|reply
A new experience for me since I moved from California to Amsterdam: A local shop where we often buy vegetables closed for the entire month of August, with a hand written note on the window. In September they were open again.
[+] thaumasiotes|3 years ago|reply
> Could you imagine someone running a grocery store today that wasn't open on the weekend?

Something I learned as a result of covid was that normal Chinese practice is to go to the grocery store every day so that you can prepare a meal from fresh ingredients.

Obviously under such circumstances it wouldn't be possible for grocery stores to be regularly closed over the weekends. That idea has to result from the mass individual storage of large quantities of food, which is interesting in its own right.

[+] 404mm|3 years ago|reply
Lot of lines became pretty blurry in the recent few decades. Lots of business target the “off time”. Lots of companies offer or run non-traditional schedules where employees are off on “work days”. And finally, saying “we’re closed for the holidays” - which ones? It’s becoming less clear with so many cultures in the mix.

So yes, 24/7 became the norm. And it’s ok if people get paid fairly and are willing to do it. On a side note, I do miss the old simpler days.

[+] pan69|3 years ago|reply
When I was young, 70's early 80's, in the country I grew up in stores were closed on Sunday. Impossible to imagine now.
[+] Animats|3 years ago|reply
The GE Answer Center is still available, at the 800 number in the ad.
[+] schoen|3 years ago|reply
Do they still answer somewhat arbitrary questions like they do in the ad? Do they charge for the service somehow?
[+] sgerenser|3 years ago|reply
Anyone know who was the voiceover actor? Reminds me of the one on contemporaneous Apple commercials.
[+] ugh123|3 years ago|reply
So, is ChatGPT supposed to be the modern "GE Answer Center"? Seems plausible
[+] toast0|3 years ago|reply
I think the GE Answer Center is just support for their appliances? Not a general question line.

Hard to tell from the ad though.

[+] kube-system|3 years ago|reply
Or is ChatGPT the modern answering machine? Depends on how empowered it will be to actually solve problems, which given the failure of other automated customer service systems, I suspect it won't.
[+] ashleyn|3 years ago|reply
AIUI this is less like ChaCha/kgb (which were services that would have a human answer any text question at a premium rate) and more like "24/7 support for GE products".