Shopping trolley innovation never stops

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee has prompted some understandable looking back over previous decades. The BBC has been involved too, with its series The New Elizabethans on Radio 4.

Here, James Naughtie examines the lives and impact of the men and women that gave the second Elizabethan age its character. The episode on Alan Sainsbury is well worth a listen.

While we may look back with warm nostalgia at the high street full of independent stores, it was Alan Sainsbury who helped to pioneer a shopping evolution with supermarket chains. ‘Counter service’ was replaced by ‘self-service’. It cost less to staff the stores. And, as it turned out, many people didn’t mind shopping for themselves. It saved them time too.

It many ways, a similar thing is happening with electronic procurement at the corporate level. Self-service is the norm online of course – and always has been. But instead of hopping from one kind of web site to the next in a clunky fashion, today’s corporate shopper can use one basket for everything – from multiple suppliers.    

Back in the early days for Alan Sainsbury, putting frozen chickens, apples and bread in the same basket must have seemed incredible.

But with the right corporate e-procurement system, there’s much more you can buy at the same time from the screen. Not just day-to-day products but complex services too. One company is breaking new ground in this area. Watch the EGS web site for more details in due course.