The Age of the Supermarket Interface
From a tiny town’s grocer to a multiple floored self-checkout
Back in the day, you would go to the grocer on the corner, the butcher and the baker to do your weekly groceries. You would buy your goods by the gram and you would trust on the quality of the man that would be behind the counter of that shop for years and years. The grocer would be your ‘interface’, you would chat a little and be advised on the latest products by him, establishing a relationship that would last a lifetime.
Through the years this phenomenon has slowly changed into a ‘self-service’ concept where we now independently decide which product to take from plenty of choices. The packaging of the product became the ‘interface’. Through this change the producer needed to put more and more information on the product to make their item unique against the rising competition. “How much fat is in this biscuit?”, “Which serving suggestions could we have with this cracker?”, etc.
This can be overwhelming to the customer and create lots of frustrations. So what happens next?
Wheel of Retail
What happened is, we went back in history. In the old days (at least in the Netherlands), there was a supermarket bus riding through the streets, delivering your ordered groceries right into your kitchen cabinets, with the eggs straight into the fridge. More people prefer this kind of service again and with Dutch supermarket branch Albert Heijn at the top of this trend, you can have the groceries standing in your kitchen on the same day.
The big difference with the old ways of delivering groceries, is the interface. Back then, ordering groceries and getting it delivered, was a hustle. Now all you need is a working internet connection on your smartphone and by clicking a button of your already saved preferred grocery list, you can have it delivered the same hour you ordered it.
Paying is not a problem anymore as well, often already being taken care off in the app. If you do need to pay, you can do so by just tapping your phone on their paying device with services as Apple Pay and CurrentC building up in the coming months.
And with Blue Apron and Forage you can get your weekly groceries easily delivered with the matching recipes and the right amount of ingredients, so no more overspending on things you don’t need or needing to throw away leftovers because you cooked too much. And if you then also have a smart fridge that automatically updates your grocery list with the items you desperately need, what is there more to worry about?
Shopping Experience
Many things have changed about the in-store experience of supermarkets as well. What you see if that people want to have more clarity and a pure product. There are questions emerging like:
“Where does the product come from?”
“Is it good for me, are there any harming ingredients in this?”
“I’m allergic, can I eat this?”
“Why is this product more expensive than the other?”
A supermarket like Marqt realised this quite early. By putting products on display with a clear description on what it is and where it comes from, they win a lot of popularity. They also offer many different choices of the same product with a clear description. For example the salmon; you can buy the premium version, cultivated in big rivers or bassins, or pick the cheaper version salmon that comes from a smaller sized bassin. This way the customer knows what they’re really buying.
Whole Foods understands the customer as well, less packaging and other unnecessary plastic wrappings, as long as the customer knows where it comes from and if it’s healthy what they are eating. They became famous for promoting buying local and seasonal, something you can find back in their store as well.
Something we will see more in the future, is that there won’t be any packaging at all. People will use more recycled jars from home, paper bags and other natural products to do their groceries and create less garbage. In Germany they got a head start, by starting the first supermarket in Berlin with absolutely no packaging at all.
Jumbo has jumped in as well, they understand that their customers want to experience being closer to the origin of their produce and to be given inspiration on food and cooking combinations. In a collaboration with VBAT the first Jumbo Foodmarkt was realised in Breda last year. With the recent expansion in Amsterdam, people from all over the world are visiting this new concept of food experience stores.
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