Some say our modern tech-heavy world is making life more convenient. Others say it's making us just plain lazy. We'll leave it to you to decide what you think about Sweden's new pilot program that lets you purchase groceries online and then have someone enter your home and put them in your refrigerator so that you don't have to.
The initiative, called 'In-Fridge Delivery" is a pilot program between three organizations in Sweden: ICA, the grocery chain that allows online delivery of groceries; PostNord, who handles the delivery of the groceries and the stocking of the refrigerators; and Glue, a smart lock provider.
The execution of the service is pretty straightforward. A customer places an order via the ICA website and is notified of the arrival time. Using the Glue app, the customer can grant access to the delivery service during those hours. When the delivery person arrives at the customer's home, he can use his smartphone to gain entry and stock the refrigerator. To be sure that said delivery person isn't popping open your beer, sitting on your couch and eating some of that freshly delivered salsa and chips, the Glue app lets you know when he comes and – more importantly – when he departs.
Overall the service certainly seems convenient and, if you're going to order your groceries online anyway, eliminating the hassle of having to be at home for an often-long delivery time window is a big benefit. But there's definitely a lazy factor here.
Now you can order your groceries from your chair in your office, head home, sit at a chair at your dining table and eat food someone else stocked in your home without burning a fraction of the calories you would have normally used to get it. Ah progress.
The project is explained in the overview video below.
Source: ICA