The Future of Supermarkets: What to Expect?
This September, the very first plastic-free supermarket in Madrid – Unpacked Shop – opened up. In January, the global retail company Amazon shifted the shopping paradigm by opening Amazon Go – the first supermarket without lines, nor checkouts. In this news, the future of supermarkets is bright.
Originated after World War II, plastic – synthetic alternative to a shortage of natural resources, is posing one of the fundamental challenges of modernity. According to the National Geographic estimate, over 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste had never been recycled, while affecting millions of marine animals in what had been called as the ‘ocean Armageddon’ by the head of the UN Environment Programme.
The creators of Unpacked Shop see their entrepreneurial project as an opportunity to remind the population about the threat of plastic pollution.
“The idea originated from the urgent need to alert the population about the vast amount of single-use plastic disposed on the daily basis. We want to promote a new, more sustainable, conscious, and healthy way of shopping”, - told the founder of the shop in an interview to Condé Nast Traveler.
Photo by Unpacked Shop
What defines the philosophy of the Unpacked Shop, is their conception. In this zero-waste supermarket, all the packaging is biodegradable, while the product is sold in bulk. Apart from food, the supermarket sells environmentally friendly alternatives for short-term consumable goods including bamboo toothbrushes and other natural bathroom accessories.
In the Unpacked Shop, the hope for the bright future, where humans collaborate for the healthy, waste-less environment still exists:
“We need an urgent change in mentality, as well as a great sacrifice on the part of large companies, to make the planet cleaner together”, - cites Condé Nast Traveler.
A scarcity of time is another matter affecting the modern world. From robot-run production lines to self-driving cars and internet – roughly all the up-to-date inventions somehow revolve around to the idea of faster, more user- and consumer-friendly experience. Back in 2012, The New York Times estimated that Americans burn daylight in queuing about 37 billion hours per year, while affected by stress, boredom, and large opportunity costs of doing something else.
Well, Amazon had an answer to the problem: Amazon Go – first supermarket without checkouts nor lines. The technology used to create time-saving consumer experience is somewhat close to that used in self-driving cars – computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep machine learning. Technology is optimized on a level that the AI detects the products taken or returned from the shelf, while automatically allocating them in the virtual cart. Amazon Go shopping experience is well adapted since all you need to have is a modern smartphone, free app, and the Amazon account.
Photo by Quartz
Upon seeing the waste of time in the lines, developers at Amazon came up with a challenge: “Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go?” Well, the challenge had been solved successfully enough. In January, the ambitious innovation was piloted in Seattle, Washington. Today, Amazon Go has six stores in three American states (Washington, Illinois and California) with three more branches coming to Chicago and San Francisco in the near future.
More and more entrepreneurs, representing not only local start-ups and small companies but also large corporations are aware of the importance of the social responsibility of the business world. With Unpacked Shop tackling the problem of plastic waste and Amazon Go reducing opportunity costs and saving time, the social impact became a global entrepreneurial trend that is expected to rise in the near future. At least, hope is still alive.
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