vendredi 9 août 2013

Time machine: Visit the FIRST automated supermarket

The invention of the self-service supermarket in 1916 was a major innovation in food retailing, and John Lert’s automated supermarket concept could be a game-changer that's just as big. Discussion about it has been hot and heavy here for the past two weeks. John offers this video about the first attempt to create such a store 70 years ago as part of his response to the comments.

A bit of history

It turns out that the inventor of the supermarket, Clarence Saunders, who created Piggly Wiggly in 1916, also worked in the '30s and '40s to create a viable version of the automated supermarket. He called it the "Keedoozle," because shoppers accessed the products they wanted with a personalized key.
Lert is currently pursuing development of the "each-picking" technology that could enable the modern automated supermarket concept to be realized.

Revisiting the first draft of the automated supermarket.

For me, the entertaining and informative description of Saunders work in the 20th century really puts our current conversation around recent the blogs: The Automated Supermarket Part 1and Part 2 in context.
Check out the video, and feel free to offer any additional comments on what it tells you about when, where, or how we’ll see the next iteration of the automated supermarket come to life.

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