Oligopolistic retailer Walmart has requested permission to use drone technology in pursuit of eventually delivering groceries to homes. Amazon has already begun this type of experimentation, and now Walmart is jumping on board.
With this new method, I see a troubling future for small businesses and families that will now have yet another excuse to stay home, glued to their couches with one hand in a bag of potato chips and the other on the remote.
For years, grocery shopping has been looked upon as a family event in which the parents do their shopping while the kids speed off on carts and pick their favorite treats for lunch snacks. As kids mature, grocery shopping can be used as a fantastic teaching tool. Independent grocery shopping for teens cultivates their skills in responsibility, maturity and independence.
Grocery shopping forces teens, young adults and seasoned shoppers to use their own problem solving skills and places them in a foreign arena with several different resources to use to their advantage. Independence, maturity and responsibility are crucial qualities teenagers will undoubtedly need later on in life.
All that home-delivered groceries would do is encourage younger generations to stay inside sheltered from the outside world while remaining transfixed on the television, computer and cellphone. We need to continue the positive U.S. traditions that have influenced generations throughout our country's history.
Families ordering groceries to be home-delivered hampers our future generation and robs them of crucial learning activities. As our future generations become lazier, we will be more susceptible to manipulation so long as our basic needs are met and meals can be ordered up by the click of a button.
Just because we have the technology to make our lives easier does not mean it is inherently better for our society to utilize it. Not to mention the crushing effect this technology would have on smaller companies that compete for Walmart and Amazon's customers.
Imagine a small local grocery or retailer attempting to compete with Walmart by providing better service. Walmart already has lower prices than most companies in the country, and if they are able to drop it off right at your door for little cost, why would anyone go anywhere else? Smaller competing businesses would quickly crumble and the results would be detrimental to our society. With little to no competition for Walmart, they would have almost total control of prices.
In conclusion, drone technology would have adverse effects in both the social aspect of our society by inhibiting growth in important social skills. At the same time, it would effectively strengthen oligopolistic companies such as Walmart and would be destructive to the economic aspect of our society.
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Brace yourself, robots are coming
Reach the columnist at Graham.Paul@asu.edu or follow @GrahamASUpress on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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