"Tony, there's a new self-service store on Baoli Street, it's said to be fun, let's go check it out, shall we?" On this day, after Monet lingered with Lisa in the office, Lisa coquettishly said to him.

"Self-service store? Was it that Sanders from Tennessee? Monet asked.

Lisa nodded and replied, "That's right, he drove it, but it's said to be more creative than the one in Tennessee, and most people can't figure it out!" ”

As early as 1916, he founded a company called Piggly Wiggly, and in Memphis, Tennessee, he created the world's first truly self-serving grocery store, which is the open-door self-service supermarket we see today.

Previously, the customer needs to inform the salesperson of the shopping list, and the salesperson will collect the goods, calculate the price, wait for the customer to pay, and then hand the goods to the customer. Customers don't have access to the product they want to buy until they pay. Saunders' supermarket has completely changed that.

In Sanders' store, merchandise is displayed on open shelves. For customers, they can freely navigate the aisles, find and pick up items at will. Not only has it become more convenient, but it has also become a very fun thing to do. For the store, it virtually reduces labor costs and improves sales efficiency, which allows the store to reduce the price of goods, thereby improving its competitiveness in the same industry.

In 1917, Saunders patented a "self-service store" for his shop. Until the early 30s of the 20th century, the self-service supermarket business flourished with its innovative model.

Recently, Monet also heard that this Sanders had a new idea, and he wanted to go further on the road of supermarket shopping revolution. In the newly founded supermarket, a new self-service shopping system called Keedoozle was applied.

Literally, it means "master key", but Monet has never been there, and since Lisa wants to go today, Monet agreed.

When he arrived at the store, Monet learned that when customers entered the store to shop, they would indeed receive a "key" first—in fact, a device wrapped in a blank paper tape.

In the supermarket, the goods are displayed behind small display cases made up of rows of glass boxes. The customer places the "key" in the labeled "keyhole" in the product display and selects the quantity they want to purchase. The system then automatically punches holes in the paper tape attached to the surface of the key. The customer then takes the printed paper to the cashier and hands it over to the cashier for processing.

The cashier will insert the paper tape into an e-reading device. At this time, the system will automatically trigger the product sorting and conveyor system, and the goods that the customer wants to buy will slide off the conveyor belt and deliver them to the checkout counter, and at the same time, the system will automatically calculate the total price of the goods.

However, the system is not fully automated. Fresh food is stored on the walls of the pantry or in the refrigerator. Inventory managers need to place the items selected by customers on a conveyor belt before passing them to the checkout counter for checkout.

Although the original intention of this shopping method is to further simplify the shopping process and improve shopping efficiency on the basis of commodity sorting and delivery, there are still many problems in the process of practical application.

First of all, due to the limitation of technical level, the system often does not recognize the goods that customers want to buy, or identifies them incorrectly, resulting in shoppers getting what they are not looking for. Secondly, during peak shopping periods, the conveyor system cannot cope with such a high load.

Thirdly, and most importantly, this set of shopping concepts and operating methods has gone far beyond the shopping habits of consumers at that time, and people dislike it as too complicated.

Even Lisa muttered dissatisfiedly, "It's not as good as the way before, I feel more complicated!" ”

Monet replied while starting the car: "It's not your fault, Saunders's model is indeed problematic, if he doesn't rectify it, I estimate that he won't be able to open this store for long!" ”

Monet's guess proved to be correct, and this great experiment in supermarket automation revolution ended in failure.

Sanders has built a total of three Keedoozle stores. The first was in the home base of Memphis, Tennessee, but closed after a few months, mainly because mechanical technology could not handle the transportation load of the shopping rush. The following year, the store reopened in the same location, but failed again for the same reason. The third store was built in 1948 and is located on the border of Poplar and Union Street in Memphis. It was open for a little over a year and also failed for the same reasons as the first two attempts.

Then Monet said: "In fact, Saunders's idea is good, but the customer concept and technology are not yet supported, I believe that in a few decades, this model will be accepted by the public in another form of expression, such as customers can calculate the price themselves." ”

In fact, what Monet wants to say is that now we use our mobile phones to scan the QR code to identify goods and calculate prices, which is the same as the original Saunders system to identify goods and calculate prices by reading the holes in the key paper tape. The biggest difference with his system is that we have customers who take the goods to the checkout counter to settle the bill.

In the end, Monet said: "But in any case, the progress of this world is driven by these people who are not satisfied with the status quo and have the courage to innovate, so I still admire Saunders's innovation very much!" ”

But then he changed the conversation and said, "But I definitely won't come back in the future, because it's really too troublesome!" ”

"You person, I was almost touched by you just now, but in the end, you didn't support it!" Lisa sneered.

Monet retorted: "I said it, what I admire is his innovative spirit, not his model, unreasonable things naturally can't be supported, otherwise Saunders will go further and further down the wrong path!" ”

"Then you can't go further down the wrong path?" Lisa suddenly asked meaningfully.

"Me? What wrong path am I on? Monet asked puzzled.

But Lisa suddenly turned her head and replied coldly, "I just said it casually!" ”

PS: When is this epidemic a head, now it feels like it's back to the beginning of 2020, tomorrow night even I have to go to the passenger station to work the night shift to record the identity information of the passengers who get off the train to do the accounting, hurry up and end it, I'm going to collapse......