Diana here: As you may know, I’m all about anything high tech — what author of spy novels isn’t. Besides, things like this are just plain cool. Here is a great feature from Amusing Planet. Enjoy!
Amusing Planet: “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.” Read more: Source: World’s First Virtual Store Opens in Korea
or watch this terrific video about how a London based grocery store put digital stores into Japan’s metro stations and took over the grocery market.
Categories: Culture, Hi-Tech Wonders
Amazing tech! Next thing ya know, they’ll be delivering it by drone or self-driving car.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Bob. I hope to run some of the other of your finds some time soon.
I think this will be short lived– we’ll just be ordering from home and having it delivered like you said. Still, there is a reason regular grocery delivery hasn’t replaced stores thus far — there is nothing like picking out your own steaks, fruits, and veg