Tesco started the first virtual store in South Korea in 2011 and then England. At very first glance, it seems silly, but then after watching the video, it makes sense for people who take subway station daily. This way they can shop on their way to work and after work.
It may not work well in much of US, since we heavily relied on individual cars instead of subway, but it can still work in places like New York City.
What do you think?
I think it’s brilliant! As you say, certainly not for every city but NYC and SF come to mind immediately!
Also nice to have someone else carry your groceries… But I still don’t like it. I’m not so wild about technology taking away the real experience of things, for example, touching/inspecting your food before you buy it. We’re all doomed.
Our daughters and their husbands all work very hard and also each have two small children. Shopping is a must-do at this point in their lives. I think the SF kids, who take public transpo would think this was fantastic.
I suppose something is still nice to shop in person like vegetables and meat (just to see how fresh they are), but there are many things which we usually don’t inspect anyway, like cereal, milk, canned food, frozen dinner, dishwasher liquid. This can be nice. You are in the middle of the subway station waiting for your next ride, and you get to scan in a few products.
How is this different from grocery delivery services that are already up and running in many cities? Not asking in a snarky way, but genuinely curious.
It isn’t a different service, it is a different implementation.
I think the most clever part is that it is more interactive and capitalizes on changing what is normally a bad experience (commuting) and converting it to a more productive (enjoyable) experience.
I agree with Thimes. The delivery service part is pretty much the same. The customer interaction interface is different. I suppose if you know exactly what you want, then it could just go to website and order it. However, a real store or a virtual store like this is much easier to browse.
What about this kind of virtual 3-D supermarket then? 
Plus yiu could do the weekly shop a few minutes at a time each day…
I don’t ride public transport and am just 5 minutes from work, and there are still nights I’d rather take a whipping than stop at the grocery.
The thing I miss most about China are the wet markets. There is truly something to be said about feeling and seeing the food you are buying. It’s also nice to be able to get your meat sliced on demand from the hog/cow hanging in front of you. Sadly butcher shops are a dying art here and to make ends meet they have to go more of a commercial/bulk route. This is also one of the reasons I have yet to pull the trigger on Amazon Fresh etc.
Though I STILL like to do this, I have some chronic health problems that sometimes limit my ability to shop on my own. I have used a local supermarket’s (Roche Brothers) home delivery service. Their website allows you to be very specific about what you want in the area of fresh food, and they followed my descriptions exactly - e.g., small Granny Smith apples that are deep green, with white freckles and shiny skin, as opposed to yellower, duller skin. After all, the store wants you to be happy with your order, so you’ll continue to shop with them. It would be bad for business to foist poorer-quality fresh items onto their digital shoppers.
