Where did everyone go?
Experiencing the sharing economy from the outside
I have noticed a trend over the last few months at my local Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store. More and more of the customers in-store are Prime Now shoppers. This become very apparent to me the other day. The Prime Now to regular shopper ratio was nearing 100%. There is a real possibility that I may have been the only non-Amazon shopper in the store.
Last fall, Amazon announced their partnership with Sprouts for 2-hour delivery in San Diego. I noticed the stickers in the Sprouts windows, but honestly it took a few trips before the ads connected with my brain. Free 2-hour delivery of grocery items? Cool. I am already a Prime member, so I looked into the service and tried it out.
The Amazon Now shopping service is relatively simple. There is a dedicated Prime Now site (or the Prime Now app on device) that allows you to select the items you want. You submit your order to the system and your shopper is dispatched.
I placed my order and a few minutes later I got a text informing me that the salsa I wanted was out of stock. My shopper provided me some other options and I texted back my choice.
At the time, I was under the assumption that I was dealing with a dedicated Amazon employee. It wasn’t until my shopper arrived, in his clearly personal car wearing his clearly everyday clothes, that I began to understand how it works.
Prime Now follows in the footsteps of the overused & abused term: the sharing economy or also known as the “Uberfication of everything”.
The sharing economy — supported by mobile phone applications, ratings systems and instant, digital payments …
- The Uberfication of everything: sharing economy is here to stay
In this new trend, an independent contractor is managed via device to perform the requested service. This service could be as simple as picking up a package and delivering it, dispatching on-demand lawn care or even managing a shopping list at a grocery store.
For Prime Now, their shopper/delivery model is called Amazon Flex. Flex offers hourly pay for running errands delivering items for Prime Now. Another brick in the sharing economy.
For the past decade I have been a consultant/contractor working out of my home office. One of the perks (or chores depending on how you look at it) is that I get to run errands during the typical workday. Over the years, I have spent many a weekday afternoon picking out meats, squeezing avocados and checking for broken eggs.
Over time you start to see the regulars in-store. Typically, the mid-afternoon crowd is moms, retirees and maybe a smattering of fellow workers on a break. Post Amazon Now launch, I started to see a change. Every few days I would see a Prime shopper, with their phone out and their special logo bags. It was kind of a novelty.
As with all exponential change, the shift is slow until *bam* the hockey stick kicks in. That finally happened. I looked around the store and noticed the change in the crowd. Instead of moms and retirees, it was suddenly all millennials. Each one, focused on their phone. Occasionally looking up trying to figure out where to go next.
Everywhere I turned, there was another Amazon shopper. I was the odd man out. I was alone.
This experience nicely ties into my current obsession with self-driving cars, AI and how on-demand services are going to affect the future. As I was leaving I looked back at Sprouts. I had a vision, albeit humorous, of being denied entry into the store because I was not a licensed ‘shopper’. Similar to how some beauty stores require a beautician license to shop there.
I don’t truly see that particular fantasy as a possible future, but I can see how automation of delivery will radically change how we shop. With the launch of UberEATS (Uber’s food delivery service), how long before UberGROCERS or maybe UberZON?
Grocery stores of the future will eventually need specialized pickup stations for automated delivery and drone services. Does this mean shopping in-person will become a novelty? Maybe like the current tend for locally sourced, hand-crafted products, will we see a movement for a “traditional in-person grocery stores”. Instead of 50’s diners or retro-cool soda bars you too can pick out your own avocados!
These are the technology changes that are currently on my mind. The more I look into where we are going, I teeter between joy and fearful concern. The futurologist and technophile in me can’t wait for these new technologies. Yet, I and many others, are starting to see the massive impact they will have on society. Impacts we can’t foresee and will have to deal with after the radical shifts are made. Will these changes bring good or destruction upon us? I don’t know … but I am fascinated by it, no matter what the outcome.
