Breaking news: We’ve taken the era of customer-centricity one step too far. Anderson Seafoods launched an e-commerce site on February 14, which, according to a company press release, will allow consumers to have “premium hand-selected fresh and frozen seafood products [delivered] right to your door, overnight.”
If your stomach just folded over, consider yourself my intended reader.
Perhaps I’m too conservative when it comes to my purchasing habits, or maybe my shellfish allergy is getting in the way of my seafood e-commerce shopping enthusiasm, but isn’t there something kinda sorta icky about buying your Mahi Mahi over the Internet?
What happened to the days when you trudged down to the market, looked Sebastian in the eye, and fried him up the very same night?
Do we really want someone on the back-end of an electronic order determining what is and isn’t a good-looking piece of fish? And are we comfortable knowing tomorrow’s dinner will sit in 40 hours of traffic before we serve it to our family members?
Alberto Andrade, CFO of Anderson Seafoods, said he thinks America is ready.
“We’ve always sold fish to the most discerning restaurants nationwide,” Andrade pronounced. “We want to make sure consumers have the same access and service to the fish they enjoy at their favorite restaurants.”
Andrade informed me that most seafood purchased at local grocery stores is “likely a week old,” whereas his company’s product is “as fresh as it gets from the dock.”
“I don’t even look at the fish when I go to the grocery store,” he lectured.
Who am I to argue?
Andrade’s company has a 30-year-old tradition (that’s longer than I’ve been alive), and it’s US Department of Commerce inspected and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point-approved. Andrade even offered to send me a sample so that I could try the product for myself.
(I declined).
Let’s be serious here for a second: I wholeheartedly believe Anderson Seafoods will deliver fresh and delicious fish with every order. I also believe Americans will flock to the site despite my skepticism. But does that make it right?
What’s next? Buying your deceased husband’s coffin online? Seeing your doctor via Skype? Adopting a child?
Yes, yes and unfortunately, yes.
“Want to adopt a child. No need now to go for a frantic search at different places. You can look for a suitable child for adoption by clicking the mouse of a computer. The Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) under the Ministry of Women and Child Development is soon going to launch an online facility to enable the child adoption a hassle-free affair.”
Great.
I’m all for faster and more convenient shopping experiences. I’m even an advocate of a more digitalized world. But shouldn’t there come a time when we as customers realize it’s more important to get off our you-know-what than it is to have door-to-door service? Maybe I’m just narrow-minded and behind the times. Full disclosure: the more I researched this topic the less off-putting I found e-commerce seafood. I still, however, refuse to order my fish online. How about you?
