Automated Convenience

This is cool.  Gizmag takes a look at the fully automated convenience store, which, from our perspective, is really just an oversized vending machine.  That doesn't make them any less cool, in fact from our limited experience with them (at a Geneva train station), they're pretty awesome (bread, cereal, milk, soda, fruit, soap, toothpaste, tampons, magazines, DVDs, pasta, everything).   And from a business standpoint they're great, no security, no healthcare costs, no osha, etc. so it would make sense if more of these were strategically located around cities.  Most of them are still in Europe.  Here's some more:

The world’s first convenience  store opened in 1927 serving customers 16 hours a day (from 7am to 11pm), eventually evolving into the 7-Eleven Corporation and a retailing revolution had begun, though it did not really begin to gather momentum until the automobile became popular and available post WW2. The world’s first 24 hour 7-Eleven opened in 1963 and since then society has become accustomed to demanding and getting instant everything, with the logical imperatives such as 24 hour chemists first, followed by supermarkets and shopping malls. Now robotics and computers can offer an automated shopping experience that lacks little and costs less, we can expect to see many new 24 hour services evolving with the ever-entrepreneurial SingPost recently launching the World’s first 24-Hour Automated Post Office and the recent growth in Europe of 24 hour automated convenience stores. All Seasons Services recently unveiled its first Shop24 automated convenience store unit in the United States, expanding its operations from a successful European base of 160 stores across seven countries. Shop24 offers 24-hour access to as many as 200 items, including anything from milk to a six-pack of soda, batteries, iPod download cards, and health and beauty aids, in a freestanding, self-service, outdoor unit. It’s a new concept and one which can be expected to change convenience retailing on college and business campuses initially, with an inevitable impact on main street as time goes by.

We're looking forward to it.  Here's a little more about the company behind them:

All Seasons Services, Inc. is one of the nation's largest independent providers of vending and office refreshment services with annual sales reaching $200 million. In December of 2004, Auckland, New Zealand-based VTL Group Ltd., developers of the Shop24 technology, acquired a substantial long- term interest in All Seasons Holdings, Inc. and in so doing entered into a partnership with All Seasons Services, Inc. to bring Shop24 to the United States. All Seasons is a private company which provides its services to more than 10,000 accounts in 16 states. Business markets served include professional offices, health care, education, manufacturing, retail and corrections, as well as the governmental and public sectors.

Comments

[Scott Peterson]

It's been a while since I've been to New York City, but there used to be something called the Automat where you would go into the store and see various foods inside sealed slots. You put your money in and the window to the slot you wanted would pop open and you would have your burger or cheesecake or whatever.

[meep]

Ok, but the Automat wasn't fully automated (and it's been years since it was around). There were people behind those little slots refilling them with food as people took stuff out. So it really was just a way to cut out the customer/server interaction.