Where young shoppers belong.(Brief article)

Younger consumers are comfortable in convenience stores, and have had lots of convenience store experience by the time they are ready to change formats to supermarkets. It's no surprise that consumers with convenience-store experience are a lot more comfortable in Trader Joe's, Fresh & Easy, or Aldi's than they are in a sprawling supermarket.

Building on younger shoppers' experience with the Internet for ordering almost anything, and touch terminals for ordering sandwiches and salads, supermarkets should be providing terminals that would make shopping easier for supermarket newbies. The terminals should give shoppers the chance to click through a list of products and categories to generate a this-trip shopping list and a path through the store that makes filling it a lot easier. Some would like the list organized by aisle, with frozen foods last. Others would like reminders of specials, or the chance to pick up prepared foods last.

One of the inauguration news items that triggered a lot of emotional reaction was the relief that now-President Obama would be allowed to keep his BlackBerry. Those who expressed relief know that technology becomes part of who we are, how we think, and what makes us comfortable. Food marketers who want to make new generations of consumers comfortable need to offer the kind of technology that allows them to be themselves, and to shape the store to their needs and perceptions.

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