South Koreans can expect to forgo fresh groceries for takeaways and order-ins, if this supermarket gets its wish.

Tesco, an international grocery and general merchandising retail chain, has launched a virtual supermarket on subway platforms to make grocery shopping less of a hassle.

Subway commuters can now shop for dinner while waiting for the train, and have the groceries delivered to their homes. Stations were plastered with life-sized photos of regular shop displays, which customers could buy by scanning a QR code attached to each product.

Instead of setting up new outlets to make shopping more convenient, the idea was to “let the store come to the people”, Tesco said in a statement.

This innovative way of using mobile devices in retail has increased online sales of 130% at Home Plus, Tesco’s South Korean supermarket chain. More than 10,000 customers have virtually grocery-shopped.

Shopping while waiting instead of on weekends or after-work hours at the supermarket—it sounds too good to be true. But whether or not this would catch on elsewhere, and whether virtual stalls will take over brick-and-mortar grocery shops is still uncertain.

[via Technology Review]


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