Supermarket Opens in Second Life

I attended the opening of Phil's Supermarket in Second Life (138,93,29) today. The ribbon cutting was held as part of the Food Marketing Institute's Marketechnics meeting. The supermarket is a joint effort between IBM, Kraft and supermarket technology writer Phil Lempert. IBM was showing it as part of their exposition, and several hundred people attended in all. It includes dozens of new Kraft products, which can be manipulated in 3D. Particularly surprising was the very high graphics quality of the Kraft product packaging shown, better than I have seen in SL before. More details. SLNN article on the opening. The site

" ... creates real world benefits through this unique new frontier of a virtual world experience. Shoppers can browse the store as they wish - or they can pre-shop for the real world. Consumers can personalize product lists, recipes, nutritional profiles and soon even be able to avoid specific ingredients or allergens. Although products are not actually for purchase with US Dollars, shoppers can participate in a variety of programs and frequent shopper incentives where they can obtain a combination of cyber and real life "stuff" such as product coupons, tote bags, t-shirts and more ..."

Also, Chicago Tribune article on Kraft's presence.

Interesting here is that the store does not seem to be mimicking the architecture of real-life stores, but trying some things that are more appropriate to the granularity of Second Life.