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A major South Korean retailer
has opened what it appears to be the world's first virtual store geared
to smartphone users, with shoppers scanning barcodes of products
displayed in a Seoul subway station. Homeplus, the nation’s second
largest discount chain, is offering 500 items including food,
electronics, office supplies and toiletries at its "store" at Seolleung
station in the south of the city of 10 million.
Seven pillars and six platform screen doors have been plastered with
images of life-size store shelves filled with goods -- such as milk,
apples, a bag of rice or school backpacks -- which each carry a small
barcode. Shoppers download a related application on their smartphone
and make purchases by taking photos of the barcodes. [FULL]
In
this model the items are home delivered. I looked into doing this
ten
years ago with local businesses. My plan was to photograph the
entire
store, mapping images with price and item info, which allowed
peeps to
shop on line. I would charge the store for the service and
monthly
maintenance . Where the plan went awry was the execution. I
didn't.
But there was a reason. It was an overwhelming task, and one that
had
to be updated quite regularly. Yes, I could have mortgaged the
house,
sold a few of the kids and hired people, but I couldn't be
bothered.
I'm an idea man, not a long term worker bee.
Anyway, this is an idea that is here to stay. The local Giant
Food
stores toyed with some deal where the shopper carried around a device
that recorded items as they were carted. The checkout (but not
the
bagging) was instantaneous. As much as I like gadgets, I never
tried
it, nor did I ever see anyone else using the little price gun
thing, but they will not stop trying. This looks like it would work for them nicely in some areas.
The biggest boon, I think, is for the small business
entrepreneur.
With no need for brick and mortar (rent), almost anyone can sell
anything they have in stock and can deliver- even pizza. All this
of
course would require giving government the right to access everything
about your every electronic transaction so they can tax it.
Wait. Obama is already doing that.
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