My Second Week in London

Has it been two weeks? Has it been two months? I feel like I've been here forever when I look around and savor the comfort and normality of my surroundings. However, when I attend class, I realize I've only been here two weeks. It's a perception conundrum.

I've taken a boat cruise down the Thames, explored Greenwich, saw In the Heights at King's Cross Theater, joined the trampoline team, and feasted my eyes upon the grandness of Kensington Palace. I also finished my first week of Project Management and People and Organizations, the two business classes I'm taking while expanding my university horizons. I loved these classes. It was refreshing to sit in a room full of people from all over the globe and discuss business. While there are differences in the way different countries consume products and services and market those products and services, the daily grind of business is essentially the same. I look forward to delving into these classes further throughout the semester.

I'd like to turn your attention to the local superstore, Asda. Peter and Fred Asquith, and a group of Yorkshire farmers formed Hindell's Dairies in the 1920s. In 1965, Asquith and Dairies joined forces to become Asda. In 1999, Asda was acquired by Walmart, and in recent years, has grown to become Britain's second largest supermarket. One of the best things about Asda is they DELIVER! Yes, that's right folks, deliver! I can go to their website, put items in my shopping cart, chose my delivery date and time, and check out. On the date and time selected, I walk to the gate just around the corner and collect my goods. Food, toiletries, homewares, clothing, school supplies, whatever. If it's on the Asda shelves, it will be delivered.

This whole process makes me wonder why Walmart in the US doesn't offer this service. I'm positive, with my busy schedule full of school and children, I would use this service. I organized a small group of students on campus, some local, some international, and had a short tete-a-tete on the subject. The two biggest theories as to why Walmart in the US doesn't offer this service were agreed upon. First, logistics. London is a fairly large city compartmentalized into zones. In the US, Walmart in larger cities would have an easier time coordinating delivery, but the ease of organizing a delivery service in more rural areas would be a challenge. The second speculation, and the one with the most enthusiastic assent was based on the subject of marketing. There is intense study and highly educated theories about consumerism in department stores. Everything from item placement to lighting to the smell of the store. These procedures are put in place to maximize the spending by the consumer. The question I posed to the group after hearing their theories about marketing was, if consumers had the opportunity to shop online and receive their product without stepping foot in the store, would the amount of sales drop or would they rise due to the ease of shopping from home? Most decided sales would drop. I brought up Amazon.com and the fact that it is strictly an online store worth nearly $60 billion. The discussion then turned to the Amazon website and how it presents itself to consumers. Clearly, the web has as many marketing tricks as brick and mortar stores.

There was no concrete reason as to why Walmart in the US doesn't deliver, only these two theories. We all agreed it is a service we would most definitely take advantage of. I think this is a subject worth exploring and maybe some day, when the madness of classes, quizzes, homework and exams withers away, I'll reconnoitre.