Last Saturday I walked into the Apple Store in Southampton’s West Quay shopping centre to pick up my iPad Pro. Said iPad Pro had been ordered online the day before, and courtesy of a Black Friday deal I had been emailed an £80 gift card which I was going to use to buy an accompanying Apple Pencil.
Upon entering the store, I approached a staff member with an iPhone, who simply entered my order number and within minutes another staff member appeared from a back room with my iPad (pre-paid) and an Apple pencil. He scanned the barcode for my gift card straight from my email using his phone, and I paid the remainder by putting my card into a device attached to said phone. I entered my email address on the screen, my receipt was sent to that email address, and I was free to leave the store.
During my entire time in the store I did not have to go to a single desk. There was no collection point or checkout, no lines or waiting areas, but also no chaos, and I couldn’t help but think, is this the future of retail? Will shopping become as simple as walking up to someone with a handheld device and getting an email confirmation of payment before I’ve even walked away?
Naturally, my brain went to all sorts of extremes, and I started to think about all the other things that have changed in my relatively short lifetime. As a young child I had cassette tapes and experienced the struggle of going to watch a movie only to find that no one had re-wound it back to the start after the last time it was watched. Now, I have DVDs and Blurays that I’ll often ignore if I can watch the same movie on Netflix.
We spend our childhoods listening to our parents and grandparents telling us to be grateful for x, y and z because they didn’t have that back in their day, yet already we’re saying the same thing to those who are as little as 5-10 years our junior.
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s always going to be things that don’t translate across age groups. There will always be TV shows that only aired for a few years, or crazes and fashions that died out as quickly as they appeared, but think of the enormous lifestyle changes that technology has brought us – I’m talking going from brick-phones to flip-phones to smart-phones, from the days where you could probably only pay by cash or cheque to now not even having to carry your purse because you’ve got ApplePay..
Things are moving so quickly that I can’t even fathom how things will work in even just another 10 years time. Will we even have to consciously pay for things or will technology become so advanced that you can just pick something up from a shelf and walk out and be charged automatically? We’re moving so far past what we’ve known so far, I don’t think we can even try to predict the future anymore..
Sorry for the ramble but does anyone else ever think about these things?
Lottie Does 
Lottie this post is brilliant!!!! My family talk about this all the time! And what amazes me is that every time something new comes out you always think “it can’t get any better than this” and then it does! Like when I first got a Sky+ box I thought that was amazing! Now Sky Q is even better but I never imagined it would be better than Sky+ lol.
I’ll never forget when I watch the first promo video online of the first iPhone. I knew it was the beginning of the future but I never i my wildest dreams thought it advance so much and so quickly in just 10 years! Xxx
I often think about these things – usually late at night when I’m trying to sleep. The world has changed so much in such a short space of time, it’s scary and exciting to wonder where things might go in the future!
I had exactly the same experience in Schuh last year – I managed to walk not three foot into the store, choose my trainers, pay and get said item and a bag without having to move. It was absolutely brilliant and so efficient. I completely get where you’re coming from with this! X
Hollie | ItsHollieAnn.com