Second coming of peddlers
I've entertained this idea that all of the good things we abandoned in the industrial revolution, is coming back. Tall ships, bicycles, slow food, local produce, passive housing, living partly in caves, water and wind energy etc. It's becoming like Spinning-Jenny never existed. One addition to the list is peddlers.
When I was a kid, our summer house was visited twice a week by a shopping bus. It was a bus sent from the shopkeeper in the city, carrying most everyday necessities. You only needed to go into the city when you needed something extra. This is still used today in remote areas, like Lapland where the picture is from.
Now a Finnish economist Mika Pantzar suggest that we all should go back to this era. According to him, the logistics model where people travel to shops is much more harmful to the environment, than a logistics model where the goods are distributed to people by the shops. It would also make economical sense. He estimates that the Finnish consumers spend 12 billion euros in logistics every year. The container shipping industry completely transferred logistics several decades ago, but the chain still ends at the store. Why couldn't the logistic chain reach all the way to one's home.
Id est, second coming of the shopping bus.
Image source
The modern version of this is of course linked to technology. People can either actively pre-order what they need, or allow the shopkeeper to track their normal usage and contents of their fridge, and staff shelves accordingly. The route of the bus would be predefined. A real peddler could of course plan his/her route on a mobile map, either based on pre-orders, or based on data generated by cross-examining geographical, social and demographical data. Pack either diapers, sausage, music, alcohol or construction equipment, depending on the area.
When this becomes the norm way of getting food and other goods to your house, it's bound to create competition. Individual peddlers will be able to create online accounts for people with zero cost, so also special items can be distributed this way.
All this is of course speeded up with the aging population, people will not only want to go food shopping every day, they also can't.
Image from Laos
When I was a kid, our summer house was visited twice a week by a shopping bus. It was a bus sent from the shopkeeper in the city, carrying most everyday necessities. You only needed to go into the city when you needed something extra. This is still used today in remote areas, like Lapland where the picture is from.
Now a Finnish economist Mika Pantzar suggest that we all should go back to this era. According to him, the logistics model where people travel to shops is much more harmful to the environment, than a logistics model where the goods are distributed to people by the shops. It would also make economical sense. He estimates that the Finnish consumers spend 12 billion euros in logistics every year. The container shipping industry completely transferred logistics several decades ago, but the chain still ends at the store. Why couldn't the logistic chain reach all the way to one's home.
Id est, second coming of the shopping bus.
Image source
The modern version of this is of course linked to technology. People can either actively pre-order what they need, or allow the shopkeeper to track their normal usage and contents of their fridge, and staff shelves accordingly. The route of the bus would be predefined. A real peddler could of course plan his/her route on a mobile map, either based on pre-orders, or based on data generated by cross-examining geographical, social and demographical data. Pack either diapers, sausage, music, alcohol or construction equipment, depending on the area.
When this becomes the norm way of getting food and other goods to your house, it's bound to create competition. Individual peddlers will be able to create online accounts for people with zero cost, so also special items can be distributed this way.
All this is of course speeded up with the aging population, people will not only want to go food shopping every day, they also can't.
Image from Laos
Posted by Petra S at 2/7/2010 12:09 PM 
Categories: Innovation stuff
Tags: Environment Innovation Human
Categories: Innovation stuff
Tags: Environment Innovation Human
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Seems like a good idea to me, keeps low skilled people in a job and saves on transport. I hate doing the weekly shop but I would want to pay too much to get someone else to do it for me.
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In the States, we have grocery delivery available, but it is not widely used. I don't know if this is due to the fees charged bye the stores, or if it because customers don't trust that the store will be as selective quality-wise as the customer would be in person.
It seems to me that shopping online would also cut down on impulse buys since it involves ordering from a website, so there is less temptation to choose items not on on the list.
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Awesome. That's a nice combination of Technology, science and nature. Technology has changed the way we do everyday. Now we can shop even online. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article.
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You can write about that more?
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your article is so informative and interesting. nice shared.
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your article is so informative and interesting. nice shared.
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Nice post and we will look forward for future updates.
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