I recently moved to Canada from the US, and there's stores here that do the coin-deposit for shopping carts--and have folks bag their own groceries. I know the latter would save money, but the former makes sense, too--labor costs are higher, there's liability, and honestly, having wayward carts about the parking lot makes it look a bit unkempt. I bet there's folks who'd gladly pay a quarter--or more--just to have a decent cart that hasn't been beaten by cars and rain.
One other curiosity for the future is if companies will screen DNA for genetic abnormalities, disease probabilities, or other genetic information, what impact will that have on a society as a whole? And what is more, that's more private data--how will companies protect, or exploit, that?
As someone going through the Canadian immigration process right now, it sure seems easier and faster to immigrate to Quebec, either on a work visa or investment. That no doubt will be a huge factor in any explosive growth, truly being the fuel for the fire.
Remember, they're a data company. They have data on you, and they want more. The best thing for us to do is to just stop giving it to them. Just as open source was the shadow of licensed software, I'm hoping there'll be a competitor to the data-hungry regime of current internet companies. Not sure how they can replace the revenue stream, but, that's the beauty of the marketplace. There's the demand. The supply will find a way.
I think inflation had something to do with it, the only time in the history of the universe something faster than the speed of light was possible--but only because space and time itself was expanding so quickly.