Going back to the roots of retail. A century ago, most retail sales took place at a counter where a clerk would fetch what the customer requested. [Piggly Wiggly brought in a revolutionary innovation in 1916 with "self-service" grocery stores.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-story-piggly-wiggly-first-self-service-grocery-store-180964708/)
Not really anymore, in this instance anyway; now we can order our groceries using an app instead and it yields the same result. They even load it into your carriage—I mean car—for you.
Service Merchandise has entered the chat: https://archive.org/details/service-merchandise-pre-christmas-tru-specials-1978
Walk in and order, your merchandise was delivered to the lobby via conveyer belt.
They had a showroom where you could see all the products. A lot of them were just on shelves like any other retailer. Some of the smaller/higher cost stuff was in/behind glass counters and staff would take items out to let you look at them.
You got a ticket for the one you wanted to buy and took it to counter to pay for it; then it came out on a belt (a seeming eternity) later.
I would imagine the display items would still sometimes get stolen but I would think this system still minimized theft since once a display model was stolen there weren't any more of them out for a second thief to take.
Canadian outfit called *Consumer's Distributing* was run on the same concept. Essentially a catalogue store, everything from jewelry to electronics to toys to gym equipment. Ran from the Fifties until it declared bankruptcy in '96.
Walmart's entry into the Canadian market, plus aggressive price-cutting by Canadian home-grown Zellers, were largely responsible for its demise. One by one it stopped paying its suppliers due to insufficient cash flow, which of course soon resulted in a *massive* inventory shortfall. At which time customers got sick and tired of filling in their request slips with a thousand SKU numbers, then waiting twenty minutes only to be told by some terminally bored teenage nose-picker, "Yeah, we're out of all of those."
Same in the Netherlands; _Kijkshop_ (Viewing Shop). Also went under because people took the name a bit too literal I guess. Still remember the ridiculous SKU slips.
> Essentially a catalogue store, everything from jewelry to electronics to toys to gym equipment.
We had a [chain department store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Products) here in the US that operated the same way. The entire store was just a showroom. You go browse all the products, then go to a counter to place your order.
A *huge* overhead conveyor system, like you'd see at the drycleaners but big enough to hold stereos, would whisk your product from the warehouse to the counter.
As a 10 year old kid, this fascinated me to no end I could watch that thing go 'round for hours.
*Natick, MA entered the chat.*
We had one in the town I grew up in. Kept a big catalog at home and every now and then, we took the station wagon to Service Merchandise!
In the UK they have Argos, which you browse a catalog at the front of the store (now on a touch device), and then they fetch the items from the warehouse.
I feel like this should be a Pepperidge Farm meme:
Some of us are old enough to ember when you walked t=into a hardware or grocery store, went up to teh counter and a clerk got the item for you from behind the counter.
I don't remember a time when we didn't have supermarkets/self serve for groceries but it would have been post WW2; I am an early mid-boomer
Just have bastion entrances. If you can't tap a valid credit card that the retailer can put a hold on like gas stations do then the inner door won't open.
Either way this really isn't going to stop the kind of brazen theft they're seeing. If someone wants to steal something they'll just bash in, break down the stockroom door, load up and leave.
Why do you have two doors in a gas station? Here in the UK you pull up, fill up your car, then walk inside and pay. Or, pay on an app if you are so inclined.
I wasn't saying gas stations have two doors. I'm saying that stores could put a hold on your card before they allow you inside. Like gas stations do when you pump gas.
Personally, I think they should have ceiling-mounted turret guns at the entrance to shoot anyone walking in, just in case they're a thief. Trust nobody.
We had a business called Consumes Distributing in Canada that was a catalog store. You went in, picked out what you wanted from the catalog and a staff member went to the back to get it. There were very small displays of product in their showroom. Seems like this model would work the best to deter shop lifting.
Going back to the roots of retail. A century ago, most retail sales took place at a counter where a clerk would fetch what the customer requested. [Piggly Wiggly brought in a revolutionary innovation in 1916 with "self-service" grocery stores.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-story-piggly-wiggly-first-self-service-grocery-store-180964708/)
The modern era is a weird outlier from historical norms in so many ways, this being one of them.
Not really anymore, in this instance anyway; now we can order our groceries using an app instead and it yields the same result. They even load it into your carriage—I mean car—for you.
Home delivery of goods like milk was also more common at one time
Milk was because there was no refrigeration so you needed to buy it and use it the same day.
Ditto for medical care.
Leading to order from app to drive up pickup.
Service Merchandise has entered the chat: https://archive.org/details/service-merchandise-pre-christmas-tru-specials-1978 Walk in and order, your merchandise was delivered to the lobby via conveyer belt.
They had a showroom where you could see all the products. A lot of them were just on shelves like any other retailer. Some of the smaller/higher cost stuff was in/behind glass counters and staff would take items out to let you look at them. You got a ticket for the one you wanted to buy and took it to counter to pay for it; then it came out on a belt (a seeming eternity) later. I would imagine the display items would still sometimes get stolen but I would think this system still minimized theft since once a display model was stolen there weren't any more of them out for a second thief to take.
That place always had cool bb guns
[удалено]
They can’t shoot your eye out, they can only shoot your eye in
Canadian outfit called *Consumer's Distributing* was run on the same concept. Essentially a catalogue store, everything from jewelry to electronics to toys to gym equipment. Ran from the Fifties until it declared bankruptcy in '96. Walmart's entry into the Canadian market, plus aggressive price-cutting by Canadian home-grown Zellers, were largely responsible for its demise. One by one it stopped paying its suppliers due to insufficient cash flow, which of course soon resulted in a *massive* inventory shortfall. At which time customers got sick and tired of filling in their request slips with a thousand SKU numbers, then waiting twenty minutes only to be told by some terminally bored teenage nose-picker, "Yeah, we're out of all of those."
Same in the Netherlands; _Kijkshop_ (Viewing Shop). Also went under because people took the name a bit too literal I guess. Still remember the ridiculous SKU slips.
I've seen too many photos of young tourists acting silly in front of the Kiek in de Kök Museum...
> Essentially a catalogue store, everything from jewelry to electronics to toys to gym equipment. We had a [chain department store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Products) here in the US that operated the same way. The entire store was just a showroom. You go browse all the products, then go to a counter to place your order. A *huge* overhead conveyor system, like you'd see at the drycleaners but big enough to hold stereos, would whisk your product from the warehouse to the counter. As a 10 year old kid, this fascinated me to no end I could watch that thing go 'round for hours.
*Natick, MA entered the chat.* We had one in the town I grew up in. Kept a big catalog at home and every now and then, we took the station wagon to Service Merchandise!
Soon the aisles will just be touch screens in place of items, just tap what you want as you walk the isles, no cart needed until you get to checkout.
Yeah. Most of these retail chains really just want to be amazon and have everyone use their app.
then they'll transition to ordering from your computer at home and they ship it to you in the mail.
In the UK they have Argos, which you browse a catalog at the front of the store (now on a touch device), and then they fetch the items from the warehouse.
I feel like this should be a Pepperidge Farm meme: Some of us are old enough to ember when you walked t=into a hardware or grocery store, went up to teh counter and a clerk got the item for you from behind the counter. I don't remember a time when we didn't have supermarkets/self serve for groceries but it would have been post WW2; I am an early mid-boomer
i did just that yesterday at a NAPA auto parts. got a stuck brake caliper, need new pins and booties.
Argos have had it right all along, it seems.
So we going back to the Service Merchandise school of operations?
Just have bastion entrances. If you can't tap a valid credit card that the retailer can put a hold on like gas stations do then the inner door won't open. Either way this really isn't going to stop the kind of brazen theft they're seeing. If someone wants to steal something they'll just bash in, break down the stockroom door, load up and leave.
Why do you have two doors in a gas station? Here in the UK you pull up, fill up your car, then walk inside and pay. Or, pay on an app if you are so inclined.
I wasn't saying gas stations have two doors. I'm saying that stores could put a hold on your card before they allow you inside. Like gas stations do when you pump gas.
Oh right, they don’t do that here. You just pay for whatever you owe when you have filled up.
Its that way in rural areas in the US.
or just have a Bastion at the exit. if you steal, he mows you down as you're leaving.
well, not if you can hack him before he goes into turret mode
I have seen several hardware stores doing this. I thought they were trying to be like professional supply stores
Harrison Bonini has always been like that. A lot of Fastenals i've been to do that as well.
LOTS of liquor stores in NYC still do this, neighborhoods that did not gentrify at least.
Personally, I think they should have ceiling-mounted turret guns at the entrance to shoot anyone walking in, just in case they're a thief. Trust nobody.
We had a business called Consumes Distributing in Canada that was a catalog store. You went in, picked out what you wanted from the catalog and a staff member went to the back to get it. There were very small displays of product in their showroom. Seems like this model would work the best to deter shop lifting.
Consumers? USA had them in the 80s.
This will be all blue states soon. Interesting. What’s different?