Shopping without getting out of your car, a quantum leap for automobility?

Published: 02.17.2005, http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/61782.php
Stay-in-car shopping
A new kid on the block wants to change the way America shops, with a one-stop supercenter for groceries, videos and dry cleaning.
By Lynda Edwards
ARIZONA DAILY STAR


MEET AUTOCART

AutoCart sounds as if it were created in George Jetson's world of flying bubble cars, robot football players and weekends on Neptune's moon. But AutoCart LLC, a Las Cruces, N.M., company, wants to break ground on a $10 million, computerized, drive-through supercenter in Tucson or Albuquerque by the end of the year. AutoCart's creators are comparing land prices and locales in both cities. Wherever they build first, they believe AutoCart can help customers reduce two week's worth of grocery shopping and errands to a 12-minute snap.

Here's how it works. Customers drive to AutoCart, a 130,000-square-foot complex with a warehouse subdivided for tenants offering a plethora of goods and services, including groceries, hardware and office supplies. They will see a kiosk and what looks like a bank drive-through next to the AutoCart warehouse.

At the kiosk, customers will get a wireless, computer touch screen to clip to their steering wheels. The screens depict the aisles of a grocery store. If the customer punches the cereal aisle, he can see whether Special K or Count Chocula is on the shelf, and how much it costs.

After the customer punches in the order, a team of pickers scurries through the warehouse grabbing the items and loading them onto conveyor belts. The bagged groceries and bill await the customer at the end of the drive-through lane. Customers can also e-mail or fax orders and their orders will be waiting for them.

AutoCart CEO Michael Saigh believes the concept will be a blessing for working parents who don't wish to drag tired, hungry children through a store. "We've already patented AutoCart," Saigh said. "We wanted to test AutoCart in a medium-size city like Tucson rather than have more traffic than we could handle in a major metropolis."

Saigh was a University of Missouri business professor when he began selling patents for items like self-destructing CDs and videos. But this is Saigh's first construction project. He's relieved that he didn't have to risk any "Beam me up, Scotty" glances from potential investors. Instead, his family set up a trust to finance AutoCart. "My family used to own the St. Louis Cardinals," Saigh said. "We don't need to court investors."

Unconventional careers threw Saigh and AutoCart President Steve Beardsley together. Beardsley ran his family's office supply store for 11 years before becoming a pastor in Illinois. His congregation included miners. Beardsley said he helped the miners negotiate a financial settlement when their employer closed the mine where they worked. Saigh was then an Illinois Commerce Department consultant who advised Beardsley.

Their AutoCart idea so impressed FKI Logistex that the British designer of warehouse computer systems donated one of its engineers. FKI makes automated systems ranging from airport bomb detectors to sorting systems for postal services. FKI systems sales manager Al Jervinsky said FKI signed a contract with Beardsley to be AutoCart's sole provider of warehouse management software in exchange for free consultations. Jervinsky estimates he has donated about 100 hours to AutoCart to create a system that can pinpoint 25,000 items for AutoCart workers filling orders. "At FKI, we think my time is a smart investment because we believe Tucson consumers will embrace AutoCart and the company will be all over the U.S. in a few years," Jervinsky said.

Not every grocery industry analyst has faith in AutoCart. "It's a novelty but there are some items, like produce and prepared deli dinners, shoppers want to handle themselves before they make a choice," said Phil Lempert, food editor for NBC's Today Show. "In-store delis earn grocery stores a 50 percent profit margin. Items shoppers would be willing to buy without grabbing them off shelves with their own hands - cornflakes, Coke - have a low profit margin."
"I can see a drive-through convenience-store kiosk working well but not this mammoth thing," he said.

But the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, Calif., think tank devoted to technology, praised AutoCart for following the path of Clarence Saunders, the visionary who introduced Americans to self-service groceries by founding Piggly-Wiggly in 1916. Saunders wanted to go high-tech in 1937 with Keedoozle. Keedoozle grocery items were to be displayed in glass boxes with keyholes with a stockroom and iceboxes hidden behind the glass wall. The customer would insert a key by items he needed while stock boys put items onto belts that rolled to the cashier. But the sole technology available to Keedoozle was a bell that jangled when a key was stuck in a box. That dream remained a dream. Saigh is convinced this dream will become reality: "The technology exists, and the mood in America is ripe for this concept."

How concept would work

● AutoCart officials hope harried parents will find their new concept convenient and relatively low-cost. Drive to AutoCart and stop at a kiosk. The supercenter will have room for 600 cars per hour, the company says. Take a wireless touch screen into the car and clip it to the steering wheel. Maneuver through the virtual "aisles" of the warehouse, selecting groceries and other products and services. A team of workers picks out your selections, packs them and sends them via conveyor to a checkout point. Drive to the checkout where the bill and the packed order are waiting. The company says this process will take 12 minutes. Customers will also be able to order via e-mail or fax. In that case, they will simply drive to the AutoCart to pick up their order.

● Contact reporter Lynda Edwards at 573-4179 or at ledwards@azstarnet.com.