Virtual house calls and a cry for retailers' attention

Store Equipment & Design, Nov, 2000 by Kevin Coupe

For the first time, women account for half the people surfing the Web. And now, a Connecticut company has developed a site that is targeted to health-minded women under 65.

GoToMyDoc.com has reportedly enlisted 1,000 doctors with a total of about two million patients and is providing a forum in which these primarily female patients can ask questions about OB/GYN issues.

The goal, within a year, is to have 10,000 doctors signed on with access to some 20 million patients.

This is the kind of intelligent use of the Internet that makes sense. Let's face it--the Internet essentially can be used for commerce and information. These doctors are providing information and using it to cement relationships with paying customers.

GoToMyDoc.com is funded mainly by subscription fees-- $500 annually for a practice of five physicians. Patients get "basic" service for free or can pay $25 a year for more personalized service.

Think of it as the next best thing to a house call...

It's also a wakeup call to retailers, who ought to be using the Internet to cement relationships with their paying customers.

Retailers: Are you paying attention?

A PAMPERED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

A story that ran on the wires a few weeks ago went like this:

"Here's a grocery shopper's fantasy: While you're getting a massage or a facial, someone else is schlepping a cart through the food aisles with your shopping list."

The story was about a new Kowalski's supermarket in fast-growing and prosperous Woodhury, Minn. Among the services being offered are "exotic food offerings, a plush interior and, most of all, service. No bagging your own groceries at Kowalski's, and there should be a few people around to ask for advice or simply help you find things, as well."

I chuckled reading this story. Not because it doesn't sound like a great store that I'd love to visit next time I'm in the Twin Cities. It does.

Rather, it's because more than a few times over the past couple of decades, I've written rhapsodic sentences just like the ones I was reading about Kowalski's.

Sometimes it's carpets and chandeliers, and sometimes it's mood lighting, cooking schools and a jazz pianist. Hell, there was a supermarket in Northern California that was lending out cell phones to consumers who pushed brass shopping carts around the store. I remember being particularly impressed by that.

But that particular store is out of business. So much time and energy was spent on mood that management forgot about the food.

(Calvin Trim, the wonderful New Yorker writer, has said that generally speaking, the better the view, the worse the food, and therefore one should make it a point to stay away from restaurants that rotate on top of buildings.)

Kowalski's maybe a terrific store. I hope so.

I also hope the food is good.

And to all you retailers thinking about decor wore than food: Are you paying attention?

CHANGES IN ATTITUDES

While I have written often of the advantages of online food shopping, and have even tested a few of the systems to see how they work, I have an admission to make: I'm not a big e-shopper when it comes to groceries. Part of this is because I enjoy going to the store, especially the Stew Leonard's near my house. Part of it is because, well, quite frankly, I'm never quite that organized.

I suspect this is a condition shared by a number of consumers. It is most certainly a condition a lot of retailers are counting on in order to save their brick-and-mortar operations.

But in my case, at least, this may be changing.

There was a story recently on AOL about how autumn can be a stressful time for a lot of parents. It gave specific examples of stress-inducing occurrences: a child starting high school, a child starting middle school or a child starting first grade.

Just my luck--I hit the trifecta!

And, to top it off, my wife went back to work.

Now, I'm very lucky, luckier than most. Because my job starts very early in the morning and ends late at night and because I work just a couple of blocks from my house, it isn't a big deal to get home to greet the bus as my 6-year-old daughter gets off it. I just cart along the laptop and cell phone, and the change in venue is practically invisible. (Except that now if you call me in the late afternoon, you'll know where I am. Maybe.)

My point here is that I didn't know what being a time-constrained consumer was like until recently. I find myself doing laundry at 5:30 in the morning before I go jogging, just to keep up!

So I'm going to start really investigating the online shopping possibilities available to me--NetGrocer, Peapod, ShopLink--not only because I have a professional interest, but because I, like so many other consumers, am absolutely desperate for any solution that makes my life easier.

Retailers: Are you paying attention?

Kevin Coupe is the "content guy" for www.IdeaBeat.com, a virtual community established for the exchange of strategic concepts in food retailing.