Nolan Bushnell Reflects on the State of Retail Technology and What’s Next

StoreTech 2012 Keynote Speaker Chats with Producer Amber Oldfield
By Amber Oldfield

In June of 2012 we will be launching a new event for senior retail technology executives called StoreTech. We are excited to announce that Nolan Bushnell, founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese Restaurants will be joining us as a keynote speaker at this inaugural event. Throughout the past 30 years, Bushnell has created a name for himself as an innovator in retail technology. Bushnell has seen ideas flop and new technologies soar. It’s with this insight that Bushnell sat down with Amber Oldfield, producer of StoreTech, to weigh in on the future of the retail experience.

Amber Oldfield: Given the buzz around technologies in the retail industry such as RFID and mobile payments; what do you think brick and mortar stores will look like in the next 10 years?

Nolan Bushnell: The brick and mortar stores needs to focus on the elements of shopping … I believe that shopping and purchasing is an entertainment form and it is no longer really about the acquisition of goods. If you want to do that, the internet does it well.  Right now providing a customer service experience is really where it is. We can talk about secure payments and a lot of the boring stuff but I don’t think the real power comes from the marketing idea… the stores that provide the most enjoyable experience will continue to prosper and the ones that don’t won’t.

AO: With more and more communication occurring through the use of technology; what benefits do you believe can still be gained from shopping “brick and mortar”?

NB: Like I say, the big space gives “try before you buy”, gives texture and gives things that you cannot transmit through online medium… I think [online] browsing is not the same as shopping. Shopping is an enjoyable experience when you are looking for the right gift. Online shopping can be a muted experience. The initial bandwidth that you have in a physical location is about 1000x times higher than what you would have in an online window and until we have complete immersive virtual reality gear that limitation will still be there.

AO: Outside the retail world, even meeting with colleagues, do you believe there are still tangible benefits to these face-to-face meetings over doing business via email?

NB: Absolutely, I think that we see this all the time… people get real cabin fever! They talk about nesting and all that, but at the same time most people that work at home do not like it. They do it but they don’t like it. There are exceptions all over the place but they want to hang out with the guys in the office. You see that both on the TV show and in physical life.

AO: You took some risks at Atari - one of which was hiring a described “hippie” named Steve Jobs. Given his recent passing, what kind of legacy and impression do you think he will leave on the world of technology?

NB: I think that Steve had a world dominant sense of style… a single minded vision of a simple computing environment in which he controlled everything and therefore made sure that it fit a very, very narrow demographic of usability and simplicity… What he did was make computing simple and I felt that one of the biggest mistakes that the board of directors made was when they let him go. I think Apple would have been a very different company; but who knows back to the future is a scary game to play.

AO: Do you believe this simplicity in design is something that clearly started with Apple?

NB: I would hate to think what the state of computing would be without the Macintosh [computer]. The Macintosh was such a dynamic move, even Microsoft was so dominant at the time nobody paid attention until it was Windows 3.0. What happened to Windows 1, 2, 2.5 and 2.4 - they were God awful! … totally unusable.

It’s clear from this conversation that there has been a shift in recent years regarding retail technology in both consumer product offerings and the presentation of these products to the public. But the driving force behind both product and presentation is the rapidly evolving consumer expectation.

“One of the things that retailers of all sizes need to understand is that nobody is staying in their box anymore,” says Bushnell, “ We are going to be dealing more and more with this concept of trans-media and increasingly retailers will be woven into the fabric of the media landscape. And the retailers need to understand how they play a part in the evolving media landscape. Books now are integrated with movies and television, video games, and Twitter & Facebook. Retail establishments need to really start to understand the social dynamic of how people consume information today… I really think increasingly, retail is going to be about how you package those little bits in new ways and build them into the brand.”

Nolan Bushnell presents on this topic and more as Keynote Speaker of the first annual StoreTech, June 10-12 in Henderson, NV.  For more information on this event, please visit www.storetechsummit.com. To learn more about other CraigMichaels events, visit www.craigmichaelsinc.com.