How was the future of stores made?

"The difference between the past, present and future is only a persistent illusion." Albert Einstein

By Moisés Galindo, Published by Grupo Reforma March 11, 2019

It is necessary to connect the future with the present. When we presented The Store of the Future, few establishments of "modern commerce" used the new product barcode (Global Trade Item Number, GTIN). How was the future built?

Operating a store with cash registers prevented knowing sales by product and correctly managing their inventories. The GTIN transformed commercial efficiency and productivity. Creating this mega commercial ecosystem was a great transformation that involved thousands of companies and the participation of millions of people. The captain of this adventure is Henry Davis.

While the vision of Henry, CEO of Cifra/Aurrerá, was driving the creation of the Mexican Product Code Association (Amecop, now GS1 Mexico), established on August 21, 1986, I also discovered the importance of having a product catalog. We met for the first time on January 30, 1991, at the IBM Educational Center in Cuernavaca. There we took the first steps thanks to Phil Woodworth, our first mentor. After many adversities and learnings, today we know all the physical and nutritional characteristics of a product, its images, etc.

In June 1991, the enthusiasm of José Antonio Chedraui Eguía drove the opening of the first department store scanning the GTIN codes of all its sales: Las Galas Plaza Crystal (acquired in 1997 by Fábricas de Francia/Liverpool). This was a new achievement of what we had previously achieved at Fábricas de Francia on August 3, 1987, when we recorded 98 percent of sales in the point-of-sale system by entering product codes.

Playing with technology is hard for retailers. The amount of investment inhibits its use, slowly adopting innovations.

After five years of Amecop, Henry "friendly invited" suppliers to place the GTIN code on each product. September 1, 1991 marks a milestone in commerce. From this date, Aurrerá (today Walmart) only received products that had the same printed on them.

Operating without a bar code was no longer an option. To convince them, I investigated what the investment was to open a supermarket considering land, construction, store equipment, inventories and the technology to operate. The GTIN system represented about 5 percent.

I defiantly asked, how much are you willing to pay to know sales product by product? This triggered its implementation.

Recognizing challenges allows for learning. One Friday in September 1992, Raúl León, Gigante's Finance Director, unusually invited me to have a whiskey in his office. After toasting, he said: "Boy, you won the tiger raffle. Your last test: Don Ángel Lozada and the board want to see the prototype of everything you offer next Wednesday at 5:00 pm. You have two challenges: our organizational culture and the large volume of transactions we have in 200 stores."

On Monday, after a few calls, I had all the necessary human and technological equipment, managing to demonstrate how to operate quickly, something very similar to what we presented 18 months later in VER2000. Weeks later we would open the first fully automated Bodega Gigante (stores acquired from Blanco).

Following that path of learning, experiences and iterations, VER2000 was consolidated to share it with the community.

Delighting the Smart Consumer requires your commitment, dedication, experimentation and continuous innovation. IIIy. "Carpe diem." How was the future of stores made?