Moving Shelves Pass Customers in New Self-service Store (Dec, 1933)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1933
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Moving Shelves Pass Customers in New Self-service Store
CUSTOMERS sit at ease as shelves move past them in a new self-service market opened in Los Angeles. The shelves are attached to an endless chain. The customers sit on stools before a counter and pick the groceries they want as the shelves move by. The moving shelf is 157 feet long and makes a complete revolution every eight minutes.
A great number of customers can be served simultaneously without the need of clerks to wait on them. As they leave the store the goods are checked by a cashier. The endless shelf passes around the rear of the store where the shelves are restocked.The units of the endless shelf are neatly arranged, the various types of food, such as jams or canned vegetables being grouped together for easy selection. The shelf is driven by an electric motor.
Its a good thing this didn’t catch on. We Americans would be twice as fat as we are now if we didn’t have to move to get our groceries.
Comment by John M. Hanna — November 5, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
“Yeah, I’m waitin’ for another 153 feet to go by…I just missed the peas.”
This looks like the baggage-claim carousel from Hell.
Comment by Rick Auricchio — November 5, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
That’s silly,
sillydumb.Comment by Al Bear — November 6, 2008 @ 10:59 am
Looks like it could be kind of fun. Rather impractical for the store, though, since it probably cuts down on impulse buys.
Comment by Anne — November 7, 2008 @ 1:33 am
I wonder what it must’ve sounded like.
Comment by nlpnt — November 9, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
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Comment by Carmen Klein — November 12, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
this actually makes quite a bit of sense considering at the grocery stores before it, people had a clerk wait on them and assemble their whole order for them.
Comment by MD — January 28, 2009 @ 6:43 pm