In a bid to use modern technology to recreate a dream of the 1970s, Whole Food has developed a shopping cart which uses Kinect and a tablet to follow you round the store and monitor what you buy. But who really cares?
Sure, it’s neat that the cart can detect what you put into it, and even check it off against your shopping list and dietary preferences. Yeah, it’s great you don’t have to go to the check-out. It’s even kinda nice that you don’t have to push the thing anywhere.
But can’t you achieve even better results by just shopping online? Won’t it be too noisy in a store to work properly? And how ludicrously expensive would it be to roll out?
I’m not saying change is bad. What I’m suggesting is that this isn’t the correct focus for change. If you shop at Whole Foods—and I’m not judging you, I promise—this is where some of the premium they charge is going. Just saying. [YouTube]
