Sadder Childhoods (and Happier Moms)

Who doesn't remember wanting to push the shopping cart in the supermarket for the first time? And sitting on the special seats they had at the back of the cart?

I think a lot of us could relate to running down supermarket hallways pushing shopping carts, but if this fad catches on, we might all say goodbye to shopping carts. Not that the idea of walking around unburdened in a supermarket isn't attractive, of course.

Welcome to the future, ladies and gentlemen, where ladies (and the occasional men) can shop simply by pressing pictures of products while they commute to work and have the desired products packed and shipped to their homes the next day.

Tesco homeplus supermarket had this display, resembling fully-stocked supermarket shelves, installed in a subway station in Korea, allowing customers to shop via their smartphone on their way to work/school/whatever and having the products shipped to their customer's address.

I have to say, amazing doesn't even begin to cut it. Imagine how much time it would save, especially since we all spend a couple minutes waiting for the subway anyway. What if we get rid of physical supermarkets altogether and just shop semi-online like this? Then we won't entirely violate the Cave Man Principle where we need to be physically able to touch things because technically we'll still be using our kinesthetics to shop, but it's just a lot easier without putting them in a cart and carrying them home.

I'm sure a lot of husbands/boyfriends would be relieved knowing that they won't have to accompany their respective ladies grocery shopping anymore. Ha.

I think I'd certainly miss being able to check off things from my shopping list by seeing what's in my cart, but what if we can sync our list with the online shopping list and have the system remind us if we're missing anything?

Well of course, this is practically online shopping, but the display and the feeling of actually shopping and picking things out probably gives much more satisfaction. For one, we don't sit around our computer and get fat, though we miss out on the chance to weight training by not carrying the items home ourselves.

Makes me wish I live in Korea just so I can try this out! No chances it will be set up in the NY/Philly/DC subway system?

Of course, it can always come to Indonesia...in a couple decades. We're suckers for trends though, it'd be a lovely change. I don't know if it'd impact the job market if we replace physical supermarkets with this though, I don't think the cashiers will be too pleased to be replaced by a computerized system altogether. I suppose the packing/shipping/customer service/personal shopper industry created by the new system could make up for it. Thoughts?

Via designboom