In future supermarkets, consumers will shop without having to pay cash or sign credit-card receipts. An infrared or microwave “interrogator” could register each customer as soon as he or she enters a store and be ready with account information when the time comes to pay … Carts might even be programmed to organize the customer’s shopping expedition through the store by scanning a hand-written list and sorting out the fastest route through the aisles.
Predictor: Lind, Gary
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Time, reporter Barrett Seaman writes about future technologies. He quotes Gary Lind. He writes: ”In future supermarkets, consumers will shop without having to pay cash or sign credit-card receipts. An infrared or microwave ‘interrogator’ could register each customer as soon as he or she enters a store and be ready with account information when the time comes to pay. Supermarket futurist Gary Lind a partner at Arnold Ward Studios/Lind Design in Hempstead, N.Y., envisions ‘intelligent carts’ that will use optical lasers to scan bar codes automatically as items are moved in or out of a shopping cart, thus enabling customers to keep a running tab. These carts might even be programmed to organize the customer’s shopping expedition through the store by scanning a hand-written list and sorting out the fastest route through the aisles.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Shopping
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: The Future is Already Here
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000001899061&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney