Before leisure time was invented, the hours between work and sleep were divided in approximately equal proportion between church, childbearing/the pub (delete as applicable) and staring at the wall. Not always comfortable, but it was nevertheless a routine.
Now we like to spend as much of our time as possible in supermarkets, pushing a trolley the size of a shipping container while trying to remember what we came in for and where the stock cubes are.
Retailers such as Marks & Spencer are sensitive to customers' desire to maximise their time in the store, and obligingly move the stock around regularly so that it's harder for customers to find what they want. After all, spending hours seeking the coleslaw is far more satisfying than going straight to it.
Most of the major supermarkets have launched online operations that speed this up, with even Amazon getting in on the groceries act. But such websites account for less than 5% of the market's value, leaving 95% in the hands of the cart-pushers.
Aislefinder.com is a US start-up that is looking to create a business out of all that angst. Consumers upload their shopping list to the website, which then uses a database of store layouts to locate the items in the real world, with aisle numbers helpfully detailed.
This saves time for shoppers, while the supermarkets get to promote their product range. The potential here is interesting: tie-ins with recipe sites, allowing users to import shopping lists based on recipes; in-store promotions from the retailers; barcode-scanning coupons from manufacturers; tie-ins with review sites; directions for vegan, kosher, gluten-free diets.
It is an area that is attracting interest from several quarters. GroceryIQ, a subsidiary of Coupons.com, does much the same thing as Aislefinder. Fastmall, meanwhile, runs a similar service covering shopping centres in 25 countries, including the UK, giving GPS directions to stores, restaurants and, of course, promotions.
All these services are mashing up product data, location mapping and user information with commercial propositions to solve a problem that was previously seen as just a fact of life - something so inherently normal that the question simply wasn't asked.
A more interesting question is answered by Assisted Serendipity, and the better-named wheretheladies.at.
Assisted Serendipity wins on functionality and its appeal to both sexes. It takes a feed from location-based social network Foursquare and reveals the gender mix at bars near the user. As soon as the male:female ratio reaches the threshold set by the user, Assisted Serendipity lets them know.
It's simple, and addresses a question as old as dating itself.
Simpler still - and winning on the minimalism of its interface - the wheretheladies.at iPhone app uses a similar Foursquare feed to power a compass-style pointer, which indicates in which direction the, er, ladies are at.
These web and mobile services meet fundamental human needs, from seeking out Mrs Right (at least Mrs Right Now) to finding the balsamic vinegar without having to dedicate the rest of your life to the quest. The reason I have highlighted them here is this: there is no area of human endeavour where someone isn't trying to come up with a way of using the internet to help do it better.
The point? The value chain that drives a business used to be pretty much set in stone. Now, though, whether that business is a supermarket or a nightclub, it has an unprecedented, rich opportunity to create new sources of value, both for the company and its customers.
Trouble is, the opportunity is also available to thousands of hackers, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Andrew Walmsley is a digital pluralist
30 SECONDS ON ... wheretheladies.at
- The wheretheladies.at app currently works only in San Francisco, so potential lotharios in other cities will have to wait before they can 'look for dem ladies'.
- The app, which is free to download from Apple's iTunes, is based on the website of the same name. Mercifully for males on the pull everywhere, the website is not restricted to San Francisco.
- The website tells users where women are gathering by receiving a feed from location-based social network Foursquare. When a certain number of women inform Foursquare that they are in the same place, wheretheladies.at sends an alert to its users, displaying the location of the women, their mugshots and other personal information (as uploaded to their Foursquare profile). Users can then decide whether it is worth gracing the said bar or cafe with their presence.
- The site also sends out updates, such as 'Found them! They are at Blue Bottle Cafe!', via Twitter.