Tomorrow, a Seattle-based startup, wanted to make food last longer by putting mini high-tech refrigerators in grocery stores. Now it is closing its online platform for good. Founder Andrew Kinzer announced the closure on the company’s blog yesterday, detailing the challenges they faced as insurmountable within the consumer hardware space. Kinzer spoke candidly of his frustration and clung to his optimism based on the underlying idea. He really drove home the pain that consumers are being forced to experience in today’s economic environment. The shutdown is a powerful signal of the substantial competition and cynicism currently directed toward new consumer hardware startups.

Andrew Kinzer stated that his cause and Tomorrow Photo were "too challenging to compete with at this point in time." He said what’s most difficult is convincing consumers to embrace new technologies, especially right now with the economy.

The company originally intended to produce the first high-tech home refrigerator. This revolutionary design seeks to prolong food freshness and address the all-too-common issue of food waste. Tomorrow Photo certainly sparked an interesting idea, but it struggled to get off the ground. In a market largely controlled by legacy brands, consumers were understandably reluctant to embrace new technologies.

From the very beginning, Tomorrow Photo encountered major difficulties when it came to building trust. This past consumer skepticism towards marketing and negative word-of-mouth from sales, as delivered in detail by Kareem Ali half a decade ago, created a challenging proposition for convincing consumers of their value prop. Kinzer discussed consumer/vendor relationships and how consumers have to be careful with a vendor’s deep pockets.

In a prepared statement, Pawn co-founder Tim Smarten on Dimensions’ closure said that the shutdown reflects Trimor’s dependence on storage solutions. Kinzer further doubled down on his attack of the market environment.