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Mass production has defined economic progress for two centuries. Persistent sourcing, repeatable processes, and large volumes have reduced per unit costs, provided consistent employment, and delivered dependable quantity with minimum quality.

In most grocery stores, mass production still claims the most floor-space: Dry, bottled, and canned goods fill the middle of the store. Frozen foods are prepared and packaged in millions of units . So, sadly, are most tomatoes.  Minimum quality can be... well, minimum.

Precisely because these are commodity products, price and convenience become the crucial competitive attributes.  Home delivery?  "Free" home delivery?  Amazon Prime?  What Sears pioneered and Sam Walton improved, Jeff Bezos is perfecting. 

In response many are shifting to a very different game. Rather than mass production: mass customization.  

Whole Foods  has flipped the floor. Mass produced is restricted to a few narrow aisles, while a peripheral promenade features in-store prepared foods (or in-store finished foods) such as those pictured above.  Demand for prepared food is growing at twice the rate of other groceries. (See: War on Big Food)

This trend obviously has implications beyond food (and profound implications for supply chains). July 1858 is often marked as the beginning of mass produced shoes.  Have you visited NIKEiD?  Or Shoes of Prey?

Soon: Is product curation a form of mass customization?