The idea buffet at RandyKolb.com » 2008» August
Shopping carts—that everyday fixture for every online store—has its origins in overcoming failure.
1934—the pitch of the depression. An entrepreneur named Sylvan Goldman bought several bankrupt Southern grocery stores. It was a risk. How to mitigate?
The new owner studied his customers shopping habits and observed: women (yep, back then men didn’t do
it) shopped until their hand carried baskets were full. Then they checked out. Not folding in to frustration, inspiration struck. He built a solution (from 2 baskets, a folding chair, and several wheels). If you’re thinking of something reminiscent of a contemporary Japanese shopping cart, you’re there.
Testing, he placed several in the store. Nothing happened. Shoppers continued to carry the hand baskets. Creatures of habit, don’t you know?
Sylvan didn’t give up. He hired people to go in to the store, play the part of shoppers, and push around the carts full of groceries. Adding to this, he had employees offer in-coming shoppers the carts. He struck gold. Not just in incremental sales, though. Goldman garnered a fortune as he established the first shopping cart manufacturer: the Folding Basket Carrier Corporation. Personally, I’m glad the common name shifted to shopping cart; folding basket carrier would be a terrible online metaphor.
Not only did Goldman’s ingenuity make him a millionaire a number of times over, it also made possible retail business models not previously possible, such as super markets and big-box retailers. Hard to picture those as successful with clientele restricted to totting their purchases in hand held baskets.
Okay, it has been quite a while since my last blog post. I’ve got valid excu … eh… re
asons. Number one on the list is a new gig which I started in May (as you can imagine, shifting focus there in the early going has afforded a little less time for blogging). After many years in captive, in-house IT and internal ecom/ebusiness shops I’ve moved into full time consulting. Contrary to past suspicions, I’ve found that I’ve not moved over to the “dark side”. Far from it; it’s actually been rather enlightening and liberating.
Not too long ago I was at a very large client (who shall remain nameless; hmm…to avoid inferences, let’s consider them fictional. Yeah, that’s the ticket—let’s consider them fictional!). I found them to be in actuality a very innovative organization. However, due to their sheer size more than anything, they don’t have the integral agility of a more svelte operation. Herein lays the beauty. Without reorg or disruption, in my new role I can step in as a consultant and operate without attachment to their organizational weight. I can do what they cannot.
Empowered to provide optimal solutions without the constraints of internal political agendas—I’m lovin’ it!