Future Timeline

Here's a thread focusing on advances in the field of retail, shopping, and marketplaces (think Amazon's redesign of Whole Foods or payless supermarkets).

Alibaba has invented the supermarket of the future

The sight of shopping bags being whipped above your head on conveyor belts is the first clue that Freshippo isn’t your average supermarket.
Shopping bag conveyer belts, personalised food recommendations and facial recognition payments aren’t so futuristic anymore
Pickers in pale blue polo shirts scour shelves, scanning barcodes with smartphones to locate the precise brand of apples, sesame oil or spice mix that match online orders. Once found, items are dropped into a bag, hooked onto the automated conveyor system and whisked up and off to the back of the shop, where delivery bikes await.

There are now more than 200 Freshippo supermarkets like this up and running in China, all serving as both ultra-high-tech supermarkets and state-of-the-art fulfillment centres (within a three kilometre radius, all online orders arrive within 30 minutes of when a shopper clicks “buy”). They are all owned and operated by e-commerce behemoth Alibaba as part of its plan to take the lead on what it calls “New Retail”. And as supermarkets in the west emerge from the effects of the pandemic, Freshippo may well provide a blueprint for how they’ll reimagine their own stores too.

I've debated about such things in the past, and while it has some potential I think it can't currently do all it needs to do in order to be a better option than going to a store.

currently if I want a butternut squash I look for one that looks good and check the to make sure it's not too young or too old, doesn't have too much damage ect. Then there are things like two brand varryig in price or the only option that day at that store being an organic local grown for 3 times the price.

If I simply order butternut squash from an app like the ones some used during the pandemic, it's like a grab bag and I get what I get.

Likewise clothing has more to consider than price and a good picture that effect the choice to buy at the point of sale.

I can't tell you the number of times I went to get a pair of shoes in my size only to find they are made in such a way that my big toe would have to be in the middle of my foot for them to fit right, or they are designed for my foot size but a 5 year olds ankle size. or the toe curls like they've tried to recreate curled toe elf slippers in no slip work shoe design.

I see this sort of thing as possible more for things that are reordered and don't have natural variation in the product. Say home contractors ordering hundreds of nail strips for their nail gun. crafters ordering needles and thread or acrylic paints and glues they've used before.