Viken, Sweden, is home to a convenience store where shoppers can use an app on their smartphones to complete purchases — it’s a completely staff-free convenience store . If you need to buy some food in the middle of the night, you can drive over to this staffless convenience store and scan your purchases with your phone, according to reports. If you don’t like dealing with staff and cashiers ringing you up and trying to make small talk, and you would much rather be on your phone, this sounds like the perfect alternative.
“My ambition is to spread this idea to other villages and small towns,” said Viken resident Robert Ilijason, who came up with the idea for the store. “It is incredible that no one has thought of his before.”
In Sweden’s 1st unmanned food store, all you need is a phone: https://t.co/JrOI9QG4cs
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 29, 2016
This staff-free store, open 24 hours a day, is located in southern Sweden in the small town of Viken. It holds everything you would find in a regular convenience store: milk, bread, sugar, canned food, toilet paper, and other essential items and products, and you don’t even need to bring your wallet with you when you go. All you need is your smartphone. Download the app for the store and you’re good to go — you’ll definitely need it to even be able to get into the store. It’s not like someone is going to check it for you and kick you out like a bouncer like a club. But the doors to the store are securely locked, and the only way they will open is if you use your smartphone, like a keycard. It certainly makes this establishment pretty exclusive, though anybody in Sweden can get the app.
First unstaffed food store opens in #Sweden – all you need is your #smartphone https://t.co/RCLEEZV2Kf
— Evanridge Properties (@SwedishProps) March 2, 2016
A patron simply has to register for the service and download an app, and they will be charged for their purchases via a monthly invoice. The store doesn’t sell any tobacco or medical drugs, due to the risk of theft. Alcohol also cannot be sold in any convenience stores located in Sweden. But Ilijason has taken precautions to help prevent theft.
Ilijason has installed six surveillance cameras to keep people from shoplifting. The front door also holds a pretty reliable security system. Ilijason will receive a text on his phone whenever the door stays open longer than eight seconds, which should help keep people who do not have the app out of the store. He will also receive a text if anybody attempts to break the door open.
“I live nearby and can always run down here with a crowbar,” Ilijason said with a laugh. He went on to say added that, thankfully, since the store only opened in January, he hasn’t experienced any burglary. Of course, all of this new technology may not be all that easy to comprehend for the older folks who live in Sweden.
Sweden has a completely unmanned convenience store. #FWx https://t.co/5eHbS8UwTQ pic.twitter.com/bkv6WIGX00
— Food & Wine (@foodandwine) March 1, 2016
“But if they can manage this (technology), I don’t know,” Tuve Nilsson, 75-years-old, said. “Sometimes I don’t understand it.” He says the store is a convenient choice for elderly people who live by themselves. He also noted that the amount of shops that exist in the town have steadily declined ever since he moved there in the ’70s. So it looks as if this is one of the more reliable stores in the area.
Ilijason has thought about other ways to open the door to the store that wouldn’t require access to the app. Much like some banks use, he’s thought about using a credit card reader, or hire one person to be in the store for a few hours and help people understand the technology. Now, having staff would certainly help with his. However, having no staff has saved him money, and Ilijason hopes this could inspire more small stores to come back to the town.
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
