During the last century, technological innovations and societal changes were among the main forces changing how people obtained, prepared, and consumed food, and caused grocery stores to constantly evolve.
Until the early 20th century, most American food stores carried only basic products, like sugar, tea, and flour. In this era, most households grew and made all their food at home. Things began to change in the 1910s when more people moved to cities and began shopping for fruit, vegetables, and meat, causing more food stores to open. Developments like refrigeration, cardboard boxes, a national railroad network, and the assembly-line, made it feasible for the first time to produce and distribute fresh food on a larger scale. These advances also led to lower consumer prices and a larger variety of foods.
By the 1920s, it became more common to see more kinds of products in the same place, especially when the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, began opening “economy stores” with all types of food, eventually becoming the well-known A&P brand of grocery stores. Around this time, stores also began letting customers pick out some of their own goods, rather than relying on ordering everything from a clerk behind a counter or stall; this was a key change that enabled stores to cut costs and increase sales volumes. It also led to uniform prices for all shoppers and would continue to drive the development of grocery stores and their focus on a convenient experience for the customer.
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I was interested in this article to see if there was any interesting information about developing technology to help with informing a design for our project.
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Source: Shohet, L. (2022, November 2). The evolution of Grocery Retail Technology. Trigo. https://www.trigoretail.com/the-evolution-of-grocery-retail-technology/?utm_term=&utm_campaign=DSA%2B-%2BBlogs&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=2994027580&hsa_cam=20294241547&hsa_grp=150290657213&hsa_ad=664059472552&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=dsa-2088307223022&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwusunBhCYARIsAFBsUP9lCzlnBILNHlEaqfIH0a5ruqYjkn4XzqOWwbfcCNLQ7jjazv5xH4MaAllsEALw_wcB
