Time and again, my husband and I share entrepreneurial ideas with each other, critique them, argue a little, refine them, and make a resolution to record them (which is obviously flouted every single time). Next, we research about them, because we know we're not that unique (yet). As suspected, sooner, rather than later, we find someone who has done it already. Exactly one year ago while I was in business school, I read an article about Tesco's virtual aisles in Korea (Tesco's virtual grocery aisles at Korean subway stations) and discussed another idea with him. I said, how about a grocery store that has virtual aisles, where you can touch items to flip and read nutritional facts and ingredients. (Having food allergies myself, I'm too obsessed with ingredients labeling to ignore this - which reminds me of our Allergen Flagger idea, but I'll get to that some other time). But then we thought why come to a store if you can't touch and feel the product, why not just make the store online? Then we thought maybe the virtual aisles should be replaced by stocked aisles with physical products. There can be just 1 each for display, which you could scrutinize before ordering. When your cart is ready, you checkout and walk to the payment kiosk. Meanwhile, automated robot-driven supply systems assemble your articles in package(s). All you need to do is pay with your card, and a window opens where your package awaits to be picked up. One could also keep the entire assembly line behind glass walls, so people could watch their order being assembled as they walk to the payment kiosk. Some people would come just for the experience, while others would come to have the zero human-interaction shopping experience, and yet others would come for the mere convenience factor. These could even be 24X7 grocery stores with motion-sensed lighting - save electricity while offering convenience ;P. Now I do realize that I'm getting carried away, and also that this idea is extremely raw and requires a lot of refinement, but the basic model was interesting enough to keep us engaged for the next few days. We also realized people could be comfortable ordering groceries online, so this store would not really be needed 5 years from now. However, it could work for other articles which buyers need to touch and feel the item being purchased - like clothing.
A few months later, I read about Hointer, and excitedly shared the article with my husband over email (he usually calls this spamming, so I put in a disclaimer saying you better not miss reading this one!). We couldn't help but notice the similarities (Hointer for Men). Since then I've been following Hointer and its blog. They are expanding their customer services (including alterations now), and are also planning to open more stores. I'm glad the retail world is being revolutionized so fast. Don't even get me started on the research going on in the body mapping technologies! I can't wait to visit Hointer during my next visit to Seattle.
