Shopping By Design

By Henry Petroski

Supermarkets, like other inventions, didn't just happen; they were designed, developed—and patented.

This Article From Issue

November-December 2005

Volume 93, Number 6

Page 491

DOI: 10.1511/2005.56.491

In the early fall of 1999, four Seattle inventors were awarded a U.S. patent (No. 5,960,411) for a "Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order via a Communications Network," better know as Amazon.com's trademarked "1-Click" shopping. By this scheme, a customer previously registered can order a book or anything else offered on Amazon's Web site by a single mouse click. Amazon.com's arch World Wide Web rival, Barnesandnoble.com, had a similar feature, designated Express Lane, and within weeks of the patent's issuance, Amazon sued Barnes & Noble for infringement. An injunction was granted by a Seattle court in early December, and Barnes & Noble immediately appealed. Within a week, the Court of Appeals upheld the judgment in favor of Amazon, and Express Lane had to be closed. Just before Christmas, Barnesandnoble.com customers had no choice but to use the Web merchant's metaphorical shopping cart and input credit card and shipping data as if they were at the checkout counter of a conventional store.

Clarence Saunders patented the concept of the supermarket in 1917. The first actual store, shown here, was built in 1916 in Memphis. Saunders eventually named this and his other chain stores Piggly Wiggly.

Photograph from the Library of Congress

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