Living: Futuremarket

Cartless, wattless shopping

In what could prove to be the greatest advance in grocery merchandising since the supermarket, the Phone In-Drive Thru market has opened in (where else?) Los Angeles. With the aim of eliminating the cart-pushing, checkout-waiting drudgery of conventional stores, Entrepreneur Ron Cameron, 41, has devised a system by which the shopper does not have to set foot in the store. In return for a $20 one-time membership fee, the householder gets a 33-page monthly catalogue listing nearly 4,000 products from which he or she can order. The customer then phones it in to a computer operator, who checks the availability and current price of the products, gives the price of the order and assigns a color-coded pickup zone where the bags will be waiting.

Three hours later, the customer drives through, has the sacks loaded into his car and gives his check (which includes a $1.50 service charge) to an attendant. The store, a 37,000-sq.-ft. former manufacturing plant located near two of Los Angeles' busiest freeways, can handle 300 cars an hour. Doubtless there will still be shoppers who want to sniff a fish or squeeze an avocado, so the old-fashioned neighborhood grocery will be around a while.