A restaurant’s kitchen is effectively an on-site production unit, right? Could other retail spaces have on-site production in the future? And how would developers and investors have to change the way we design and shape our retail spaces to accomodate this?
Vivo Barefoot are looking to do this with the launch of their AI-enabled on-site custom scan-to-print concept: Vivo Biome. They’re compostable to boot! If this becomes a reality, and spreads to other products, it could profoundly change the way our retail units are designed (again ). More on-site production units, more ultra urban warehouses required.
Bespoke production could become the (affordable) norm. More Savile Row, less “stack em high, sell em cheap”.
It’s not a panacea: 3D printing does not work well for many materials; what if you want to return it?; it’s unlikely to produce the variety we’ve become used to with traditional models; unlikely to be cheaper than mass-production for a long time and so on.
However, it’s a step forward (ehem) in the right direction. Many organisations are working on similar things. However, as Vivo are a mostly vertically integrated company (more like Apple than Dell), I think they have the level of control which makes it more likely to happen.
Resources: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/13/vivo-barefoot-ethical-trainers
https://www.vivobarefoot.com/uk/vivobiome
https://balena.science/products/vivobiome
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