Stay-in-car shopping A new kid on the block wants to change the way America shops, with a one-stop
supercenter for groceries, videos and dry cleaning.
By Lynda Edwards
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
MEET AUTOCART
AutoCart sounds as if it were created in George Jetson's world of flying
bubble cars, robot football players and weekends on Neptune's moon.
But AutoCart LLC, a Las Cruces, N.M., company, wants to break ground on
a $10 million, computerized, drive-through supercenter in Tucson or Albuquerque
by the end of the year.
AutoCart's creators are comparing land prices and locales in both cities.
Wherever they build first, they believe AutoCart can help customers reduce
two week's worth of grocery shopping and errands to a 12-minute snap.
Here's how it works. Customers drive to AutoCart, a 130,000-square-foot
complex with a warehouse subdivided for tenants offering a plethora of goods
and services, including groceries, hardware and office supplies. They will
see a kiosk and what looks like a bank drive-through next to the AutoCart
warehouse.
At the kiosk, customers will get a wireless, computer touch screen to clip
to their steering wheels. The screens depict the aisles of a grocery store.
If the customer punches the cereal aisle, he can see whether Special K or
Count Chocula is on the shelf, and how much it costs.
After the customer punches in the order, a team of pickers scurries through
the warehouse grabbing the items and loading them onto conveyor belts. The
bagged groceries and bill await the customer at the end of the drive-through
lane.
Customers can also e-mail or fax orders and their orders will be waiting
for them.
AutoCart CEO Michael Saigh believes the concept will be a blessing for working
parents who don't wish to drag tired, hungry children through a store.
"We've already patented AutoCart," Saigh said. "We wanted
to test AutoCart in a medium-size city like Tucson rather than have more
traffic than we could handle in a major metropolis."
Saigh was a University of Missouri business professor when he began selling
patents for items like self-destructing CDs and videos. But this is Saigh's
first construction project.
He's relieved that he didn't have to risk any "Beam me up, Scotty" glances from potential investors. Instead, his family set up a trust to
finance AutoCart.
"My family used to own the St. Louis Cardinals,"
Saigh said. "We don't need to court investors."
Unconventional careers threw Saigh and AutoCart President Steve Beardsley
together. Beardsley ran his family's office supply store for 11 years before
becoming a pastor in Illinois. His congregation included miners. Beardsley
said he helped the miners negotiate a financial settlement when their employer
closed the mine where they worked. Saigh was then an Illinois Commerce Department
consultant who advised Beardsley.
Their AutoCart idea so impressed FKI Logistex that the British designer
of warehouse computer systems donated one of its engineers. FKI makes automated
systems ranging from airport bomb detectors to sorting systems for postal
services.
FKI systems sales manager Al Jervinsky said FKI signed a contract with Beardsley
to be AutoCart's sole provider of warehouse management software in exchange
for free consultations. Jervinsky estimates he has donated about 100 hours
to AutoCart to create a system that can pinpoint 25,000 items for AutoCart
workers filling orders.
"At FKI, we think my time is a smart
investment because we believe Tucson consumers will embrace AutoCart and
the company will be all over the U.S. in a few years," Jervinsky said.
Not every grocery industry analyst has faith in AutoCart.
"It's
a novelty but there are some items, like produce and prepared deli dinners,
shoppers want to handle themselves before they make a choice," said
Phil Lempert, food editor for NBC's Today Show. "In-store delis earn
grocery stores a 50 percent profit margin. Items shoppers would be willing
to buy without grabbing them off shelves with their own hands - cornflakes,
Coke - have a low profit margin."
"I can see a drive-through
convenience-store kiosk working well but not this mammoth thing," he
said.
But the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, Calif., think tank devoted
to technology, praised AutoCart for following the path of Clarence Saunders,
the visionary who introduced Americans to self-service groceries by founding
Piggly-Wiggly in 1916. Saunders wanted to go high-tech in 1937 with Keedoozle.
Keedoozle grocery items were to be displayed in glass boxes with keyholes
with a stockroom and iceboxes hidden behind the glass wall. The customer
would insert a key by items he needed while stock boys put items onto belts
that rolled to the cashier. But the sole technology available to Keedoozle
was a bell that jangled when a key was stuck in a box. That dream remained
a dream.
Saigh is convinced this dream will become reality: "The technology
exists, and the mood in America is ripe for this concept."
Home
Site Map
Contact