7-Eleven Plans 'Unmanned' Stores in Japan
Japan's largest convenience store operator, 7-Eleven, has responded to the country's labor shortage with plans for unmanned shops.
The company hopes to open a number of small stores around the country that customers will be able to shop in using only a smartphone.
Of course, many people already use their phones to pay for things when they shop.
But for 7-Eleven, the good thing about these stores will be that each one will need only one member of staff.
So they won't be completely unmanned, but the employee will just be supervising and doing jobs like restocking shelves.
Customers will be able to enter these stores by scanning a QR code using an app. Everything else will then be done using a smartphone, and there will be no cash registers.
They will be smaller than other 7-Eleven stores, and they may not have quite as many products.
But the company hopes to be able to open them in places like apartment blocks and factories.
7-Eleven opened its first stores in the US almost 100 years ago, but it's now Japanese-owned.
And it's not the only company planning to use unmanned stores in Japan — its competitors are also said to be trying to do the same as the country deals with its labor shortage.
In 2022, 7-Eleven already opened its first unmanned store in Seoul, South Korea. And Amazon has had convenience stores like this in some US cities since 2016.
It's not clear when the Japanese stores will open. But for many of us, this may be the future of shopping.
