Peer into the Futurezone and plan the future of your business

At the launch party for Pro-retail 2012 held in London this January most of the independent retailers there told me they were inspired by Palmer and Harvey’s taster event for the Futurezone. The Futurezone is a multi site feature of this year’s Pro-Retail trade exhibition to be held at Telford on 24 and 25 April.

So when I saw the pre-publicity for Michio Kaku’s new book, Physics of the Future, and its promise to show what the world would be like in the year 2100, I was inspired to have a read and to report back to local retailers on what the future holds.

The book delivers on this promise but on so much more as well. If you are a business person who likes new ideas and to think about what may work this is a book for you

This paragraph from his introduction hooked me. If you like it you will love the book.

“Later, when I was in high school, I decided to follow in the footsteps of these great scientists and put some of my learning to the test. I wanted to be part of this great revolution that I knew would change the world. I decided to build an atom smasher. I asked my mother for permission to build a 2.3 million electron volt particle accelerator in the garage. She was a bit startled but gave me the okay. Then, I went to Westinghouse and Varian Associates, got 400 pounds of transformer steel, 22 miles of copper wire, and assembled a betatron accelerator in my mom’s garage.”

When he turned on the machine, he frequently blew out all of the fuses in the house. Similarly, Mr Kaku will blow your mind with his explanation of the science that underpins the world today and how the future will look.

He lists 12 Nobel laureates and more than 200 other leading scientists in the start of his book as sources for the ideas that he explores. In one version of the future, on page 198 in my book, he talks about smart materials that can be programed to reshape. So for Christmas instead of buying a new toy all you do is download new software which reshapes last year’s hottest toy into this year’s hottest toy.

More importantly, he says that computer chips are going to be so small and so cheap that they will be everywhere, replacing bar codes and putting shoppers in control about finding what they want. From about 2070 he says: “Going through a grocery store…you will scan the various products on display and, via the internet in your contact lens, immediately evaluate if the product is a bargain or not. The advantage shifts to the consumers, because they will instantly know everything about a product – its history, its performance record, its price relative to others, and its strengths and liabilities.”

However, he also says that computers will not take over the universe because they are no good at two things – pattern recognition and common sense. If any job needs these two skills, it will not be made redundant by technology. For local retailers this is hugely encouraging as they are two skills that you bring to bear on the assortment that you present to shoppers.

The best thing about Mr Kaku’s book is that it is filled with optimism. It tells you about the huge challenge we face to replace fossil fuel energy but he is an optimist. So too are shopkeepers. If I don’t see you in Telford, enjoy the book.

Digital disruption in the UK wholesale space

“Twenty years ago I was driving boxes to the post office in my Chevy Blazer and dreaming of a forklift,” says Jeff Bezos in his most recent letter to shareholders. A blink later and he points out that the company has grown from 30,000 employees in 2010 to 230,000 now. But his ambition is the same. “We want to be a large company that’s also an invention machine. We want to combine the extraordinary customer-serving capabilities that are enabled by size with the speed of movement, nimbleness and risk-acceptance mentality that is normally associated with entrepreneurial start-ups.” Amazon is great at disruption because of its customers focus and the fact that the internet means it needs none (or very few) people between its warehouses and the shopper. The threat of Prime, its membership service, is the biggest challenge facing the UK retail market and the wholesale market by extension. It is both a direct threat and an indirect threat in that is inspiring countless numbers of othe...

Traffic lights: a fuss about nothing

I am sure that FT columnist Michael Skapinker has written about traffic lights food labelling before and his latest article is provocatively called: The food companies that make people fat. He criticises Coca-Cola and Unilever for sticking with guideline daily amounts (GDAs) when traffic lights work much better. Former Walmart Europe public affairs head Bernard Hughes wrote in to support Skapinker. He said: "There isn't ever a perfect information system flowing with beautiful logic. But traffic lights give powerful direction to the busy consumer." But in this age of smart phones surely this debate over the labelling on the packaging is easily overcome. The government can simply issue an app that when held over a bar code provides shoppers with a traffic light system. The supermarkets could do this on their websites. Surely the whole point about the future is that the internet and limitless data storage means that the shopper is being empowered with the informatio...

Sunday trading consultation: fair or fixed? You decide.

My local council, South Oxfordshire, asked me to complete a survey on Sunday trading as a local resident. The deadline is next week. The first question was about the current arrangements and what I thought. There were five options: large shops shouldn’t open six hours is already too long current restrictions are about right large shops should be allowed open for longer no restrictions. My answer was the current restrictions are about right. The next question was about what would happen if the council allowed large stores to open for longer. The menu included 10 options and a space for other. The options were that it would: encourage me to shop more in my local town give me more flexibility impact on my religious or cultural beliefs have a positive impact on my business have a negative impact on my business increase footfall to my business reduce footfall to my business provide more employment opportunities open to me in the local area mean that I need to...

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