It’s a symbol of America, and it’s a concept that’s spreading across the world – the out of town shopping centre. Built on cheap land on the edge of a city, these retail metropolises offer almost every product under the sun at low, low prices. Ample free parking is provided and there’s enough retail therapy within its confines to keep even the most addicted spendaholic happy.
The disadvantage, of course, is that you really have to drive there. Perhaps it’s technically possible to get there on public transport somehow, but it’s hardly convenient. And then when you got there, you could only buy as much as you can carry, making the journey hardly worth the effort. Most people will drive and then fill up with enough food and supplies to last them several weeks. Of course, if your food has to last for such a long time, frozen or tinned is really the only option. As well as being less tasty and lacking in micronutrients compared to fresh alternatives, a significant amount of energy is invested in keeping food frozen from farm to plate.
The biggest advantage of traveling to a big store or retail park is that you can be fairly confident that they’ll have what you want. In a couple of hours, you’ll have filled your freezer and can merrily tick “shopping” off your to-do list. But present-day technology has the power to change that process, giving you fresher food and reducing your carbon footprint.
Imagine that instead of anticipating your needs weeks in advance, you were instead able to browse through a selection of recipes selected by a combination of your tastes, your culinary experience, the contents of your fridge and what’s currently available in your local shops. On your way home, you stop by a couple of smaller stores (guided by your mobile phone), where you pick up your pre-bagged shopping. By ordering in advance, you help the store manage their stock more efficiently. Easy access to real-time information has allowed you to change the way you shop – in a way that’s better for you and for the environment.
In my next post, I’ll talk about how more efficient and flexible logistics can reduce the cost of deliveries of your more exotic culinary requirements and other items, and how better information can make shared transport an attractive choice.
Pre-ordering in local shops could also help to avoid buying all these things that you don’t actually need. You’d decide what to put on a shopping list without being subjected to all the advertising techniques.
On the other hand, I guess that those who are actually addicted to this shopping fever would find the idea very unattractive. A big social role of shopping malls is also some kind of entertainment, and it’s another reason why they’re so successful.
Good start! Distributed social intelligence for more choice with less work…
I’m not sure quite what you’re on about Si, but yes, distributed is definitely the flavour of this blog series. Computer Science is coming to figure out that having many decentralised, autonomous units are often the best way to organise things in a networked system. The “real world” has yet to realise the full potential of modern communications technologies to allow fundamental, structural reform. In this blog series, that’s what I’ll be discussing, whilst focussing on how this re-invention of established systems can bring environmental benefits as well.