It's Time For Virtual Reality Grocery Shopping
I received my first ever Hello Fresh delivery yesterday. The entire process was easy as hell, from sign up to delivery to cooking, and my immediate thought was that it sure beats going to the grocery store. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy walking through a grocery store, but I don’t always want to get off my couch, especially during the insane Sunday night food shopping mayhem. I challenge you to try and hold off your Sunday Scaries on a Sunday night at a grocery store that's full of anxious energy, bickering couples and mind-blowingly long lines.
So how do I experience the little things that make grocery shopping awesome, without having to venture out of my home? Hello Fresh is more of a meal prep service, but there are several companies that already provide the ability to order groceries from your home or phone, like Fresh Direct, Amazon Fresh, Instacart, GrubMarket and several grocery store chains. All of these services make it easy to order food, but they all miss the boat big time on replicating the supermarket experience. South Korean grocery store chain Tesco has taken it a step further, experimenting with the idea of a virtual grocery store, lining subway platform walls with wallpaper that resembles grocery store shelves. People can use an app to scan the QR codes of products on the wallpaper for delivery, kind of like how Crate & Barrel, Bed, Bath & Beyond, or The Container Store lets you create a wedding registry. Confession: I fucking love The Container Store. I am SO basic.
These advancements in grocery shopping are great and all, but let's skip the bullshit and create a full on virtual reality grocery store already where you can shop and interact with other people. I want to be able to put on a VR headset while I'm laying in bed and live out the adventure of food shopping, from pulling into the parking lot to checking out and loading the bags into my car. And then I want to actually receive my groceries an hour later.
I put the ball in your court, virtual reality developers. Below is a list of things I want to see in the VR GroSto (trademark pending), so get to work and don't cut any corners on any of these:
Pulling into what you think is an open parking spot to find two shopping carts in the way
A shopping cart with one really squeaky wheel that makes you think everyone wants to kill you, when in reality everyone just feels bad for you
Old ladies who block the aisle and are completely oblivious to everything around them
The ability to squeeze avocados or peaches for 10 minutes until you find the perfect one
People who are way too specific about how thin their cold cuts should be sliced
Difficulty finding herbs
Limited and disappointing beer selections
Sales on things you don't want
The ability to grab more than you can fit in your basket, so you have to put the basket down and rearrange everything
A pharmacy you will never use
Integration with Tinder and Bumble so you can view someone's profile before you flirt with them
The uncertainty of how much people really have in their shopping carts, causing you to play Russian roulette with which cashier line you choose
Cashiers that use their bare hands to pull out your zucchini or cucumber to figure out if it's a zucchini or cucumber before they ask you "is this a zucchini or a cucumber?"
And finally, the feeling of shame that comes when you realize that you're probably only going to end up eating half of the food you just bought
