What Will the Grocery Stores of the Near Future Look Like?

Shopping is one of my most hated activities. Especially grocery shopping. 

I look around me in the market, everyone has a grocery cart in their hands, there is a racket going on. Especially in the fruit and vegetable sections. Gentlemen are on one side, ladies are always choosing something. Occasionally there are gentlemen choosing fruits, and one of them even examines each one he picks up, and then puts it in a bag if he likes it. 

In the supermarket near our house, you weigh whatever you buy yourself, there is a product code on each shelf next to the price information, you can either use that code on the scales or you can choose from the picture list, print the price tag of the product you bought and stick it on the bag yourself.

You know that usually grocery stores don't let you choose, but in grocery stores, I think ladies like shopping in big grocery stores the most because they can examine and choose the products they buy as they wish. You can buy whatever you want, whatever you see on the shelves and whatever you think of at that moment, throw it in the basket, and when you come home, you may even wonder why you bought half of what you bought. 

There is now a science called shopping psychology and marketing, they develop sales strategies according to people's behavior during shopping. What sells more when you put it where and next to what, all of them have been studied, and experts know how to make people shop more at that moment with the smells of freshly baked bread coming from the bread aisle, and the smells of fried chicken coming from the ready-to-eat foods section.

However, we have also become accustomed to ordering products delivered to our homes and doors, which has become more popular, especially during the pandemic. Young people, in particular, have started to use shopping by ordering over the internet, like "getir" in our country.

But now there is a slow debate on this issue. When you order remotely, with the possibilities of the digital world, you are deprived of the pleasure of shopping one by one in the market. Okay, it is a convenience when you order online, but sometimes the products delivered to the door may not be of the desired quality. Moreover, in these internet orders, the various methods of marketers that appeal to people's shopping psychology are also in vain in this case. People order only the products they really need. All the junk food placed near the cash registers is no longer sold as before.

In other words, both groups feel some dissatisfaction with this situation. People are deprived of the pleasure of shopping, they don't get the products they want, and grocery stores are in trouble in terms of shopping turnover.

Is there a middle ground, what solutions can be developed in the near future?

First of all, instead of these grocery carts, I think there could be automated grocery carts that can help people coming to the market gradually. In fact, there are already some similar applications as prototypes. A grocery cart that follows you and follows you wherever you go. You say wait here, it waits. You say come, it comes. Whatever you buy, you put it in the basket, it even has a special container for frozen foods. Maybe it can also pack automatically, and since it will automatically write the price of the product in the basket to the account, there will be no need for a cashier. What do you think? Sounds like it could happen in the near future.

Let's develop this idea a little further. Let the grocery cart also have robotic arms. For example, you can see it from home through its camera and choose what you want from the shelves. In this case, especially the ladies would not be deprived of the pleasure of shopping. Although for someone like my wife, who smells and reads everything, there needs to be a special connection that can transmit odors. But I already believe that in the near future, cell phones will be able to transmit information about smell and taste, even cold and temperature. If this can be done, then there will be no problem. 

In short, in the near future, we may have the chance to shop without going to the grocery stores, but as if we did. 

You can say that this has already started, you can say that some experts came out and made so many programs on television called metaverse, you can say that big big companies started to make so many investments in this virtual world. You can even say that some of our wise investors have even started to close down land.

I have no objection, but the near future I envision is a little different, I am not talking about the virtual world. I'm talking about the real world and the virtual world intertwined. When you pick an apple and put it in the basket with the arms of the robot grocery cart in the market, the apple in the basket will be the apple you personally choose. The metaverse world and the real world are intertwined. If you want, a virtual world shopping with a three-dimensional image that makes you feel as if the robotic arms are your arms can also be realized one day. This is another method, why not.

However, it is a bit difficult to make the robot arms feel like your arms. How can they do that? Is it even possible to transfer feelings remotely? 

I will digress a bit, but there are actually some studies on this subject. 

Scientists are seriously working on conjoined twins. In particular, it was not possible to surgically separate a conjoined twin born with their heads conjoined because their brains were also conjoined. One can control one arm and one foot of the other, while the other can see with the other's eyes. How they can do this is not yet very well understood, because they are still preschoolers and still very playful. They are waiting until they are old enough for more serious experiments. But they have already been able to make some observations about the transfer of sensation between these two brains. It is thought that in the future, in the near future, it will be possible to get more detailed information. Perhaps, one day, remote sensory transfer can actually be done with some chips.

With possible developments in this field, perhaps one day the sensations obtained from the arms of the robot grocery cart can be transferred to our brains at home and we may have the chance to understand whether the peach is hard or soft from a distance. 

If they can also accurately transmit the smell, why should I have to go to the market with my wife, let her sit at home and buy whatever she wants by examining it as much as she wants, reading those tiny writings as much as she wants, and even smelling it as much as she wants.

I really hate shopping!

Of course, maybe this will happen in the near future, but for now, we can't trust these home delivery services, so for now, we have to shop at the grocery store by selecting things one by one. 

While the lady is reading the details of the products on the shelves, I look around. I notice young people dressed in a sample running from place to place. All of them have a cell phone in their hands, and they are running around putting things in the carts as if they are shopping. I don't know if the delivery service works like this in our country, but it seems they have found a new profession for young people in Russia. They talk to the customer on the other end of the phone, explain the product details one by one, and according to the customer's instructions, they do the shopping on behalf of the customer. I'm eavesdropping, one of them says, I don't think this tomato is very fresh, this one looks fresher, I'll buy that one if you want. I think the customer on the phone agrees, and he starts filling the bag with the tomato he suggested. And he checks the smell. Then he looks at his phone and rushes to another place with the cart for the other product ordered. Interesting, I think it's good service. In the distance, a young boy in the same clothes and glasses is inspecting the meat, he doesn't have his phone to his ear, but nowadays everyone communicates with bluetooth headsets. He says something to the customer and even takes a photo of the meat and sends it to him. 

At least they seem to have set up a system similar to the future grocery shopping I had hoped for. On the other hand, a new job opportunity has been created for young people. How nice. 

I think the future is full of hope, new ideas can be generated when you want. 

Anyway, the lady calls out and asks if we want to eat fish today. We go to the fish section. The sea bass looks good, and it's on sale. Every day there is a discount on some products in the market, today seems to be the day for sea bass. 

We bought a lot of things again, now it's up to me to carry them home and my wife to prepare dinner. 

Love and regards to everyone from Moscow.