A recent survey into online grocery shopping by Kingston University’s Faculty of Business and Law stated that shoppers are rejecting the medium and returning to physical shopping.  The research cites a range of reasons, from the quality of the end product received to the issues of packing and delivery.  Digital specialists may start to look for different ways to improve the process through better user experiences, more intuitive CRM and interface personalisation, but is there a more fundamental human truth hidden in these findings?

To uncover this truth we need to take a moment to unpick the grocery shopping process.  We can have all of our favourites listed for ease of use on the online engine, then set the delivery time that fits into our day and also find goods we are looking for (providing we know what they are of course), and then press the pay or buy now button.  But herein lies the insight…  We now wait.  In waiting, we alter our shopping conditions from being active to becoming passive, we wait.  Unlike any other shopping experience, in this instance there is no emotive reward, only a rational reward of a task completed.

Online grocery makes sense, and will always ...

I grew up in a little village called Pill, just outside Bristol. The story goes that it was the last place John Cabot set foot before his epic voyage to discover America in 1497.  It was home to the pilots who used to guide the big ships up the Avon to the thriving Port of Bristol before everything transferred to the dreary industrial zones of Avonmouth and Portbury.  And John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, wrote in his 1755 journal that “I rode over to Pill, a place famous from generation to generation for stupid, brutal, abandoned wickedness”…… possibly something to do with the fact that the village once boasted 21 pubs.

Anyway, nowadays there’s nothing overtly remarkable about Pill.  So on a recent visit I was intrigued to encounter a brightly coloured, life-sized statue of a gorilla on a surfboard overlooking the muddy banks of Pill Creek.  Incongruous to say the least.

The plaque on the base explained that he was part of a project to celebrate 175 years of Bristol Zoo, a particular favourite treat from my childhood.  So it wasn’t hard to find this http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/wow-gorillas

Now I know similar projects have been done before (I remember elephants in London) ...

Is it just me? (probably), but with James Murdoch’s announcement that this Sunday (10th of July) will see the last issue of the News of the World, only hours old, there is much speculation amongst my colleagues about what News International will do to fill the void.  The highest circulating newspaper in the UK and one of the most influential in terms of reputation and profile across sport, celebrity and politics not to mention one of the most profitable – can anyone see the Murdoch’s simply walking away from that?

Most people’s money is on the ‘Sun on Sunday’ or some such – after all, what are ‘sisters’ for?  But I have always personally found the concept of a separate Sunday edition rather anachronistic, quaint even.

Wikipedia’s NOTW entry states the paper has “a fondness for sex scandals” and “a reputation  for exposing celebrities as drug users or criminals, setting up insiders and journalists in disguise to provide either video or photographic evidence”.

So completely different from the Sun then?  Or simply “same shit different day”?

The concept of the Sunday papers was one that was established before the media delivery that we have today.  When working abroad, I always felt the Sydney Morning ...

Like millions of others, I took part in the Olympic sport of ‘applying for tickets’ last month.  My Dad had also called me up, asking for help navigating the Mensa-esque digital maze that was the application process, and I duly popped over to assist.

I explained there was going to be insane levels of interest in certain events, and that he’d never have a hope in hell of getting anything involving Usain Bolt or a bicycle.  Avoid those both like the plague, I said.  If you want to experience the Olympics, go for something left field, was the advice.

Two tickets for the synchronised swimming heats were bid for – still in shock on the choice, Dad – and the wait began.  In the meantime, I went against my own advice and bid for a pair of tickets for my wife and I to go to the 200m final – expecting zilch in return.

The deadline passes and it’s clear that Dad has failed in his bid to watch the worst Olympic sport that there is (apologies to all you coordinated swimmers out there, but it’s not a sport).  He’s understandably a little disappointed, and I explain there was just so much interest ...