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...