AEC’s Consumer Products Monitor
Ride Out, a specialty bike shop located in the Netherlands, has introduced a new VR mountain biking experience based on the death-defying antics of professional Scottish trials cyclist Danny MacAskill. VRScout has a terrific post about this virtual reality experience. We’re hoping this product is as good as it promises!
VR Mountain Bike Simulator Has You Riding Cliffside Across Death-Defying Trails
AEC’s Consumer Product Monitor – Amazon Fresh opens in Irvine, California
Update October 22, 2020
From prior article, August 27, 2020:
Amazon has announced the opening of its Amazon Fresh grocery store, in Woodland Hills, California. The all-new operation includes the Amazon Dash Cart which allows in-store customers to skip the checkout line, and a new Alexa feature to assist customers in managing their shopping lists and in-store navigation.
The new Amazon grocery format is an Amazon brand extension that propels its tech prowess and further casts a bricks-and-mortar net. But the Amazon Fresh format is also testimony to the influence of consumer interest in compelling experiential design and location-based entertainment. The Amazon Fresh experiential design utilizes numerous customer touch-points in the guest experience, each of which reach deep into Amazon’s branded technology.
As well, the stores are a textbook example for establishing a personal relationship of brand to consumer, in this case bringing Alexa and Amazon Prime to out-of-home after first establishing the branded tech and services in-home. For some consumers, finding Alexa and Amazon Prime at their grocery store, may also have even emotional resonance with regard to the brand.
The 35,000 SF store at 6245 Topanga Canyon Boulevard (Woodland Hills) is one of several cashier-less grocery stores the company plans to operate in Southern California. This post is updated to note that the second Amazon Fresh opens in Irvine, California in October.
A recent Los Angeles Daily News article provided an excellent overview of the new Amazon offering.
GO to Amazon’s announcement.
Shown here, the all-new Amazon Fresh store in Woodland Hills, California, the giant retailer’s first unit nationwide.
Project Players & Tracker will be online on September 1. We have retooled our former client newsletter, Global Players Brief, with a larger research team and on-the-ground correspondents in key global regions. Please plan to visit us here soon!
AEC’s Growth Monitor
Transport Topics reports that the ports of Oakland, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, have stayed busy during California’s fires, and in fact have seen busy summer volumes. For the Port of Long Beach, July 2020 activity was an all-time record.
The Port of Oakland saw a 33.4% increase in units processed in July 2020, over the same period in 2019. The Port of Long Beach reported July 2020 was the busiest month in its 109-year history – some 753,081 TEUs, a 21% increase as compared to July 2019. At the nation’s busiest port – the Port of Los Angeles – although units processed for July were not record-breaking the results for July were still the best of 2020 (so far), some 856,389 TEUs processed for the month.
Transport Topics reviewed port operating results for facilities throughout the U.S. California’s three ports mentioned here were among the best reported. The Port of Baltimore was among those ports still showing the largest activity drops since same reporting periods in 2019. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not have July numbers at press time.
The full article at Transport Topics’ website is an interesting read and can be viewed by clicking here: Ports Say Business Beginning to Recover
AEC’s Growth Monitor
Researchers at Northwestern University have just published some interesting research, about “The universal pathway to innovative urban economies.” The researchers analyzed industrial employment and population changes in 350 U.S. cities between 1998 and 2013, including over 100 million workers.
Key conclusions from the research include an observation that innovative economies start to emerge when an urban population reaches about 1.2 million people. Along with this scale inference, the researchers noted that the transition to an innovative economy depends upon a a city’s ability to attract and retain certain “superlinear industries.” Superlinear industries include the arts, entertainment, professional services, science, and information technology, each of which can grow out of proportion to underlying population growth.
As reported in SciTechDaily, one of the researchers wonders if the remote work promulgated by the COVID-19 virus and distancing may slow down the rate of innovation, in general. The thinking is that innovation may require the spontaneous and serendipitous insights that come with incidental human interactions. This insight certainly rings true for those that have managed collaborative and creative teams; sometimes the best ideas emerge even as the linear ideation and problem-solving proceeds.
An excellent review of the research is available at SciTechDaily, HERE. The research as published is available for full review on the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, by clicking here: AAAS Research – The Universal Pathway to Innovative Urban Economies.