Just 40 or so days ago, I wrote on the dying brick and mortar experience in the United States. Not just for fashion or gear retail, for all retail. In the past three months, I’ve visited my neighborhood grocery store 62 times. The average wait time for a line was 8m21s. Companies like Kroger, Inc. employ a practice of lean management where a 20,000 sq. ft. store will staff 10 total employees, only one of which is manning a checkout line.
The average checkout process from ‘first product scan to cashing out’ took 7m12s on average. So far, that’s 15m32s. The next problem with grocery retail is that the jobs are so undesirable that a basic understanding of technology and efficiency isn’t consistent among the ranks. Example, purchasing 17 small to medium products and having them delivered to you in 11 plastic bags. This user experience will drive a human insane. I cannot be the only person that feels this way (and yes, I track this data).
So I wrote this
