Do Consumers Understand the Difference Between Personal Insurance and Groceries?
Develop a robust website that offers customers the self-selection they inherently crave.
Consumers across the U.S. found themselves in grocery s last week picking out items for the Memorial Day holiday. While shoppers may take the convenience of self-selection for granted, the modern grocery store was a uniquely American idea invented by entrepreneur Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly stores. His first store opened in Memphis, Tenn., in 1916. In fact, Saunders was awarded a number of patents for the ideas he incorporated into his stores. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was another successful early grocery store chain operating in Canada and the U.S. In terms of the first true supermarket, it was opened by Michael Cullen in 1930 in Queens, N.Y., and was named King Kullen, inspired by the fictional character King Kong.
In England, the first “self-service” store was started in 1949, when the British government announced that it would license 100 companies to try out self-service shops. Until these innovations, shoppers would wait in line until the clerk waited on them and selected the items the shopper asked for, which took longer and became impractical as more food items were added. With the advent of technology, “direct” selling insurance companies like GEICO have spent billions convincing consumers that personal insurance is analogous to a supermarket; the consumer’s needs are fairly narrow and the product, once sold, does not require an ongoing relationship with an advocate to help the customer as their needs evolve.
Aside from the obvious difference that insurance is more complicated than buying pickles, there is another important distinction:
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