Sometimes I fear for the future.

OK… I frequently fear for the future. Big Data will rule our lives. There’s no hiding place.

I can claim that I eat healthily and champion lots of healthy-sounding recipes, but, Amazon always knows the truth. I Love Pies.

I was confronted with a sober reality the other day. I think I was going to buy something minimal which would turn up next day in a massive box surrounded by bubble wrap. 99% of the package would end up in the alleged recycling. Surely this has to stop. Already five years ago when I was living in China, where they are far further ahead than us in big data, logistic delivery and shared economy, they had already realised that the mountain of carboard being generated had to be tackled. It’s unsustainable now and it’s about to get a whole lot worse. (They didn’t find a solution while I was there.).

In China I saw the future, where it was the norm to use your smart phone to shop, order food deliveries, takeaways, furniture, cosmetic items, anything in fact, which would appear within hours, delivered by a little man or woman on a scooter with boxes piled high on the back.

Every street corner was a jumble of boxes as the poorly paid delivery drivers re-ordered the boxes according to their delivery route.

The office I worked in lived by food deliveries. Little huddles of colleagues would peruse menus online, make an order and then wait with excitement for the phone call or message to say that their delivery was now outside, ready to be collected. It was all carried out, as you might expect from the Chinese, with military precision.

This will become the norm. When I came back from China I was, and remain, frustrated by how slow the pace of change is. How so many opportunities are lost by lackadaisical entrepreneurs who still believe customers will always go to them. The Covid crisis forced many to change. Customers needed things in a different way. Shopkeepers had to find a way to sell their wares without footfall.

Don’t get me wrong. I love shopping. I love mooching about street food markets and farmers’ markets. How else will you be tempted, see something new and unusual, take a risk, be cajoled into trying something you’ve never tried before.

But practicality often dictates that it would be great to simply order using your phone and then it appears like magic within hours.

It will happen.

RJ