Tesco: 3D Printing Will Come To Supermarkets 'Within a Few Years' 81
TinTops writes "The IT chief of supermarket giant Tesco has said he believes there is a market for 3D printing in large supermarkets, and that it will be 'good for customers.' Mike McNamara told V3: 'I think it will help Tesco as a company, I don't think it will be a bad thing. It'll be a great thing for customers, we'll have 3D printing in our stores. As retailers you'll always adapt. So new things come along — the internet came along, we adapted to that one. We kind of have the internet version two with smartphones now, which has been a bigger impact than the wired internet, we'll adapt to that, we'll adapt to 3D printing, we'll adapt to RFID. You live, you change.' McNamara thinks 3D printers will be commonplace in stores before they start showing up in significant numbers at people's homes. This could 'give shoppers a new reason to visit shops for quick access to niche items.'"
Re:The perfect apple! (Score:4, Insightful)
It'll be akin to existing photo printing at supermarkets. Send your design from home, it'll be ready in a number of hours. It'll appeal to the same people who don't want to buy a decent quality colour printer, and photo paper, and ink, etc to print their own photos.
People will print things that aren't already mass-produced and available at the dollar store next door. Vacuum cleaner part broke? I'll get one 3D printed in 2 hours rather than send $50 to the manufacturer and wait for it to ship, if it still exists.
Re:The Cake: Not A Lie (Score:2, Insightful)
Just so we are clear here...
Much of the rest of the world thinks it's odd that in the U.S. you can go to a single store and buy a shotgun with ammo, oil for your car, and a loaf of bread. Walmart.
Much of the rest of the world has modeled their supermarkets on the U.S. model. Where you can buy that loaf of bread, a prepaid cellphone, an HDTV, and a paperback book. Oh, and a gift card for iTunes. Fry's, etc.
This is undoubtedly explored further on in this discussion, but I can foresee getting coupons for trinkets or even useful swag that I can present when I buy something, and come back to pick up my freshly-printed object. After snarfing up some Pringles speakers, this doesn't seem very far-fetched at all.
Hardware stores had better get on that 3FD printing thing pretty quick though, cause when Walmart and Staples own it, Home depot will be right there and Ace Hardware will be left out. Mostly.
Speaking of Ace, my local Ace is next door to an R/C hobby shop. THAT is a place that should be printing out custom gears and stuff, and a Prusa is mechanically similar to an R/C car in more ways than one. those guys should grok that stuff immediately and start cranking out parts people didn't know they wanted. Like tomorrow.
Re:The Cake: Not A Lie (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, no, the rest of the world does not think it is odd to find Walmart, Kmart, Fred Meyer, or similar types of stores. Or shoppers centers, or malls.
They have them too. Sometimes the same brands, sometimes homegrown brands.
You should have listened to Putin when he bitch slapped Obama : the US is not an exceptional country.