Around 1936, Sylvan Goldman headed up a supermarket chain – he noticed that when people shopped with baskets, there was a point at which they couldn’t carry any more.
From here, they stopped shopping – there was a constraint on how much they could buy.
The first step was that he instructed staff in the stores to help the clientele carry their baskets. Of course, there was a constraint here as well, and minimal payoff.
Goldman devised a plan to create something that looked kind of like a chair, that held baskets on it, and also had wheels and could be pushed backwards. This would allow shoppers to carry a lot more groceries.
When Goldman launched the trolley, the result was unexpected:
Nobody wanted to use them! He says “The women didn’t want to push them around, and the men didn’t either, they wanted still to carry.”
The innovation was logical, yet there was resistance to “becoming” the person who would push the trolley.
Goldman’s response was to hire some models – men, women, young and old, to push trolleys around the store. When customers could “see” others doing it, they realised that the change was acceptable and the transformation was desirable.
The trolleys took off.
Most of the time, logic isn’t the key driver in what we decide to do. Rather, we are looking for clues. We are looking for signs as to whether this choice we make will help us become the person we wish to be.
Through affiliation and social referencing, we make decisions on the fly.
How we address our environmental footprint, our ways of being or speaking to each other, and even what we choose to eat is largely driven by this referencing – what is everyone else doing?
The question is, if we find we are in a position to make a change that is positive, will we do it even if the people around us are standing still?
*This shopping trolley example is referenced from Michael Schrage’s Book – “Who do you want your customers to become?”
