by Peggy Robin
It was way back at the dawn of the Millennium (July, 2001 to
be precise) that a plan was first announced to tear down the little Giant food
store at Wisconsin and Newark and rebuild a big, new modern store on the spot. Now
fast forward thirteen years…uh, no, I mean, creep-forward verrrry slowly the
next thirteen years, through all kinds of setbacks and obstacles, protracted
negotiations, court filings, financing snafus, traffic troubles, construction
delays, and everything else that could get in the way, and we have finally
arrived at Thursday’s Grand Opening, when everything at last seemed to come
together in an event that was festive and fun. There was an in-store jazz band
playing food-themed favorite songs. There were colored balloons, and free reusable
grocery bags. Lots of tasty free food samples. Friendly Giant greeters and
helpers in every aisle. We had the Mayor on hand, plus other notables, and lots
of Giant executives looking justly proud. Everyone was smiling, everyone was
shopping. There were aisles and aisles of things to buy, all enticingly laid
out. What more could we ask for?
Actually, there is something. Not to sound ungrateful, but when
I was thinking back over all the years that we waited for this store to become
a reality, and all that went into making it happen, I have to say that I had
come to believe, by the time the store opened, that it would be a lot more futuristic
than it has turned out to be. I was struck, on opening day, at just how, well,
standard-big-grocery-store this new Giant has turned out to be. How….Twentieth
Century. The thing it most closely resembles is the big Westbard Giant in
Bethesda. A nice store, to be sure, but something that’s been around forever.
True, this new Giant has a wine & beer bar, and a Starbucks, and a fancy
produce department with many types of exotic fruits I have not seen in other
stores. But it in many more ways, it’s still basically the same old Giant, only
a whole lot bigger, with wider aisles.
What was I expecting? I don’t know….but something, somehow
high-tech-y, with some amazing,
innovative way to shop. Something better than the same age-old method of navigating
the aisles with an unwieldy shopping cart, hunting for items, putting them in
the basket, and then going through a long, slow check-out line. Here’s what I
would really love to see in the store of the future (not that I have a sense of
whether any of what follows is technologically feasible!): The shopping cart
should be built along the lines of a Roomba, and controlled by a Smartphone
app. First, you would use the Giant Shopping Cart app on your phone or computer
to download your grocery shopping list, choosing your selections from what
Giant shows to be in stock and on the shelves at that particular store. When
you arrive at the store, you would transmit your list to the cart’s
navigational system, which would then use its self-propelled motor to roam
around the store, going to each shelf in the most efficient transit pattern, to
retrieve each item on your list, using its automated grabber-arm to reel in the
exact brand, size, and quantity you specified, at the same time keeping a running
tally of the cost of the items so far. While your cart was on its mission, you
would be relaxing at the wine bar, listening to the jazz quartet, sipping your Chardonnay. When everything on
the list has been checked off, the cart would return to you for inspection. Any
items you did not want, you would simply remove from the cart for reshelving. If
there were any items on the list that the cart failed to obtain, you would have
the ability to walk over to that department or aisle and manually add a
substitute product to the cart -- that is to say, you can still shop the old-fashioned
way.
When you are ready to approve the whole cart-ful of items,
you go to the pay app on your phone, hit “pay,” your credit card is charged, and
that’s it – you’re done. No check-out line. You go straight to your car with
your cart, put your groceries in the back, and drive off. And the cart, once it
senses it’s empty, finds its own way back to the cart-bay for the next customer
to use.
At some point in the above narrative, I’m sure some of you
have wanted to interrupt: Why not just call PeaPod? The technology already
exists to submit your shopping list online to the Giant’s popular delivery
service, and you can get your groceries brought right to your door. Ah, but it’s
not the same. It’s not a real-time shop, and there are just too many problems
that you can’t correct until after the grocery delivery person has already left
your house. First, you may not be able to schedule a delivery for the date and
time you want. Then there’s that troublesome two-hour delivery window: whenever
the truck arrives, you are going to have to drop whatever you are doing to let
the person in and unload the groceries. You won’t see any mistakes in your
order until you start putting your groceries away. Even if you are able to catch
the drivers before he departs and send back any unwanted items, you still need
to make a phone call to Giant to get your money back. All of these problems
disappear when you have a programmable, self-driving shopping cart that you can
control on-site.
That’s what I would call a suitable cart for a true 21st
Century shopping experience. Will I have to wait another thirteen years for the
pleasure? Giant, the ball is in your court.
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Still Life With Robin is published on the Cleveland ParkListserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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