project

1.
Senior Shopping Technology
2019 / 10 / 14
─
Catherine Zeng, Jaimie Jin, John Wang, Louise Tang, Vincent Li, Murray Kang
INFO 200, Fall 2019
University of Washington, Seattle

2. 1
Goals
1. Target user​: senior grocery shoppers in supermarkets.
2. Problem area​: How can we make the grocery shopping experience more efficient for our
users?
Introduction
The invention of advanced shopping technology like Amazon Go provides people a new
shopping experience; however, does it necessarily make the shopping experience for the
majority of people more efficient or simply better? According to the advertisement video for
Amazon Go [1], the target population for this advanced shopping mode seems not including
people over 50, which is about 34% of the whole U.S. population [2]. Also, one of the invisible
requirements for shopping at Amazon Go is that you don’t use cash for check-out. More
specifically, without physical check-out counters, you cannot use cash, which might marginalize
the group of people somehow relying on cash like the elders. Besides the newly invented
shopping mode, even though online grocery-shopping becomes really popular and easily
accessible, the percent of Americans over 50 who ever ordered groceries to be picked up from a
store is still only 17%, and only about 16% ever ordered groceries to be delivered [3]. Therefore,
how to make advanced technology really beneficial for the elder people still remains a
controversial problem. Beyond the technological aspects, there are also real issues in the
traditional shopping as well.
Grocery stores offer some of the most popular senior discounts and discounts can go
up to 10% in many places. However, behind the motivation of this incentive offer, many senior
shoppers encounter many problems and much inconvenience during their physical shopping
experiences. According to a recent grocery shopping statistics, the average age of shoppers in
the U.S. is 47 for females and 44 for males, along with the age limit for most of the senior
discounts starts from age 50 to 55 accordingly [4], it is reasonable to predict that the average
age of shoppers in the U.S. will fall into the range of senior age group in the near future. In other
words, the problems senior shoppers facing right now might become the concerns of the
majority of regular shoppers in the U.S. someday not too far away.
After talking to senior shoppers at QFC, Safeway, and TraderJoe’s, half of the senior
shoppers (4 out of 8 senior interviewees) mentioned that they had difficulties finding some
particular items during shopping even though all of them have been visited the store or
supermarket before. ​This shows that unlike most younger shoppers, senior shoppers face
many problems like having to spend more time in a shop just to find certain items and having
to find store employees to ask for assistance.

3. 2
Market Analysis
QFC (In-store with emphasized research analysis)
First of all, QFC has general signs indicating different categories hanging on the ceilings
that denote the types of items are in each aisle. Although it does not help much when a
customer is looking for a specific item, it does give customers a general sense of where to look
for things.
Secondly, QFC also offers a service called “Scan, Bag, Go”, that customers can use through
an app on their smartphones or a scanner that can be picked up in a station near each entrance
or exit of QFC. The complete process is as follows:
➢ Scan As You Shop: download the “Scan, Bag, Go” app on your smartphone and scan
items as you place them in your cart at the store.
➢ Bag Your Items: bag your items just the way you like.
➢ Pay For Your Items: pay using your smartphone or the “Scan, Bag, Go” barcode at
self-checkout [5].
Although this service sounds simple and easy, it is not used by many customers, because the
prerequisite is to have a Kroger Plus Shopper's Card, and the instructions at QFC on how to set
up this specific card are not clear. Furthermore, because many people have not heard of this
specific card, they might not want to spend time trying to set it up and keep it afterward.
Additionally, users have to own smartphones so to download the app. It might be unfriendly and
discouraging to senior shoppers who do not have such technology at hand or find it difficult to
figure out the whole process by themselves.
Amazon GO
Although the targeted users of AmazonGo are not the elderly, most of the technology used in it
can be seen as a way to enhance the elderly’s shopping experience. The system of AmazonGo
records users’ account information at the entrance. Then, it uses the technology: computer
vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning, to recognize the customers’ faces and track their
selected items. When the customers walk out, the system will automatically debit from their
amazon account. Compare to the most commonly-used automation: self-checkout machine, it
is definitely more friendly to the elderly. The elders may feel pressure "if they don't respond
quickly enough” through the automated checkouts [6], but the system used by AmazonGo could
avoid it. However, this system still has the same problem as the self-checkout machine. The
British Retail Consortium shares the concern that “Without someone to talk to at the tills,
shopping can be a ‘miserable experience’” [6]; moreover, without assistance, it is a lot harder for
the elders to find the items they need.

4. 3
Personal Grocery Helpers
There are several online websites providing real personal services to help senior grocery
shoppers. Examples include Joinpapa.com, which is an independent service provider [7], and
Care.com [8], which includes grocery assistance along with other senior care services. While
Joinpapa.com includes an additional pick-up and drop-off benefit which adds accessibility to its
service, Care.com lists the profile and customers’ comments of all their grocery helpers who
can be filtered and selected based on availability, price, distance, and other criterias. The
downside of these online services, however, is that they are pricey and can make users (as well
as families of the users) worry about the safety and transparency of such services.
Online Grocery Delivery
Searching “same day delivery” online, you will find many grocery delivery services from
companies like Target, Amazon, etc. Instacart is one of them. On their websites, you can see the
big captions, “Groceries delivered in as little as 1 hour.” An hour is an acceptable time for most
of the common goods, and fast enough for fresh fruits and vegetables, which can not be waited
for too long. Also, on instacart, you can shop for items at many big stores altogether. For
example, in Seattle, seniors are able to shop CVS pharmacy and Costco on Instacart, which
enables them to compare prices and browse and purchase more products in one time. What’s
more, there are different coupons available and easy to find on the website [9]. This service is
great for seniors who may not like to go out or unable to travel far, but it may not be a good way
to save money on food, considering the delivery fee.

5. 4
Sources of Reference
[1] “Amazon.com: : Amazon Go,” Amazon.com: : Amazon Go, 05-Dec-2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16008589011. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[2] “Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100,” Population of United States of
America, 04-Aug-2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2019/. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[3] F. Insight, “Survey Finds That Few Older Americans Grocery-Shop Online, But...,” IFIC
Foundation, 14-Feb-2019. [Online]. Available:
https://foodinsight.org/survey-finds-that-few-older-americans-grocery-shop-online-but-lowering-
hurdles-could-sway-many/. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[4] R. Lake, “Grocery Shopping Statistics: 23 Fun Size Facts to Know,” CreditDonkey,
23-May-2019. [Online]. Available:
https://www.creditdonkey.com/grocery-shopping-statistics.html. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[5] “Kroger 'Scan, Bag, Go' review: 11 things to know before trying it out,” Clark Howard,
17-Jun-2019. [Online]. Available: https://clark.com/shopping-retail/kroger-scan-bag-go-review/.
[Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[6] S. Coughlan, “Automated checkouts 'miserable' for elderly shoppers,” BBC News,
21-Nov-2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-42052234. [Accessed:
13-Oct-2019].
[7] “Grandkids On-Demand - Assistance and Socialization for Seniors,” Papa, 17-Jul-2013.
[Online]. Available: https://www.joinpapa.com/. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[8] “Care for all you love.,” Care.com: Find Child Care, Senior Care, Pet Care and Housekeeping,
17-Jan-1998. [Online]. Available: https://www.care.com/. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].
[9] “Instacart: Groceries Delivered From Local Stores,” Instacart, 25-May-2002. [Online].
Available: https://www.instacart.com/. [Accessed: 13-Oct-2019].