Future of Grocery stores and Employees

How terrifying is the future of working in a grocery store?

Future? "Grocery stores belong to the 20th century"

It's widely known that Robots are taking over jobs previously occupied by humans. Many discussions are held regarding this interesting topic. People are often scared to become unemployed.

Gartner has conducted a lot of research into this topic. It was already predicted years ago that AI would create more jobs than it would take away; Gartner Article.

Having a background in software design and retail business sparked the following question; How will a future grocery store look like? Moreover, will grocery stores even continue to exist?

Note: some innovative ideas may already be quite normal in some countries across the world.

Check out without scanning

The most tedious part of doing groceries is of course the payment. Why would you need to take a product from the shelf, keep it safe for a few minutes in your basket, put it on the counter, and eventually (after payment) in your plastic bags?

The world of doing groceries would be much better off if you could take a product from the shelf directly into your own (non-plastic) bag. All bar codes are scanned upon exiting the store by walking through a body scanner (just like getting on an airplane).

Overall, a lot of time and plastic are saved.

In-store farms

Photo by Rafael Rex Felisilda on UnsplashMost fruits and vegetables will travel more kilometers than the average human being does in a year. It's hard (probably impossible) to grow pineapples in Iceland. However, growing fresh herbs within a tiny greenhouse should be possible in every grocery store around the globe. An in-store farm will drastically reduce travel costs and thus co2 emissions!

Who doesn't like fresh fruits and vegetables?

Odd one out

A cucumber that's curved? Bananas that aren't curved enough? Why bother? The taste will remain the same as their straight and curved family members.

Lot's of products found in a grocery store are supposed to have a specific shape. In case the specific requirements are not met, customers will just walk by the product. A lot of food is wasted every year by this phenomenon. It's very likely that a curved cucumber will never even see the inside of a store.

The Dutch retail company Albert Heijn launched an idea to fight this type of food waste in 2014 called 'Buitenbeentjes' (= misfits). Dutch customers can buy a (discounted) box full of fruit and vegetables wrongly shaped.

Full shelves but no employees around

This one is more lucrative for the store manager. Employees of a grocery store are taught to stock the shelves standing in front of them. However, the new product needs to be put at the very back of the shelf. Simple solution: stocking the shelves from the back instead of the front.

This provides several advantages:

• Never worry about the FIFO method again. New products are easily put behind the others.
• More space for customers since fewer employees are required on the floor.
• The distance that a product will travel within the grocery store is reduced significantly.

There's more to the job of a grocery store employee than just making sure shelves are stocked. But it's very likely that the number of employees in a store will be reduced drastically in the future.

grocery stores belong to the 20th century

Maybe the idea of a physical store is outdated. All problems can be easily resolved by getting rid of actual stores. With current technology, it's fairly easy to have all groceries delivered to your doorstep with just the click of a button.