Are Salespeople Irrelevant?
Fascinating article in New York Times about the New Touch Face of Vending Machines.
No longer the domain of candy bars and potato chips, vending machines are gaining popularity around the world as purveyor’s of higher ticket items like beauty products and small electronics from Apple.
The machines themselves have also gone hi-tech with touch pad screens that blunt vending machine rage through sensors that ensure that a customer’s credit card is not charged unless the chosen item has dropped.
They even have eye scans that can tell by looking at skin and wrinkles if customers are old enough to buy tobacco.
The economics of these new “automated retail stores” are quite compelling. No overhead, ability to quickly change out merchandise, and even to relocate the machine (for example, to another part of the airport) after analysis of foot traffic.
Sound like the perfect retail solution. So what’s missing?
In a word…People.
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