Covid-19 changed checkout lines, and they may change again soon.
Thanks to Covid, lines got longer as many workers were sick or left to find other jobs. They were fraught with anxiety, too, as exposure to others worried those hoping to avoid the virus. In short, Americans grew even more tired of waiting in line. However, lines could be on the way out.
Checkout-free stores would allow customers to walk in, get what they want, and walk out, without ever scanning an item or making small talk with a cashier.
The idea for these kinds of stores is not new. Companies have tested technology to make them a reality for years. Amazon worked on the idea beginning in 2015 before launching its first Amazon Go store to employees in 2016 and to the general public in 2018. However, those stores are certainly not common, with only 42 locations spread across Seattle, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and London.
But checkout-free stores are expected to open in Tennessee later this year. Mapco, the convenience store chain, announced earlier this week it has teamed up with Grabango, a checkout-free tech company based in Berkeley, California. Together, they plan to open two checkout-free Mapco locations in Nashville by this fall.
Tennessee is the starting point for Mapco’s checkout-free launch into the Southeast. Though detailed rollout plans for the launch were not shared, Mapco will use the Grabango tech to “add checkout-free operation to its locations,” and notes that the store has 330 locations across the Southeast.
The customer experience would be smooth and will give shoppers a “store of the future” experience, Grabango said. According to a video from the company, shoppers would enter a store, pick up the items they want, open the Mapco app on their phone, scan their phone on a digital reader in the store, and walk out the door.
Memphis is no stranger to shopping innovation.
Memphis is no stranger to shopping innovation. The modern grocery store was born here in 1916, when Clarence Saunders revealed self-service shopping in his Piggly Wiggly stores. Mike Rivalto challenged the traditional walk-in convenience store model when he opened the first proof-of-concept Smartmart location on Park in 2003.
To shop at Smartmart, customers never leave their cars. Instead, they use a touch screen to order up to 2,800 products. Those are delivered to the customer’s car window on a series of belts.
The Smartmart location has stood alone for years and gained ground as a bit of a local curiosity. However, Ashlee Rivalto Hendry, Smartmart’s Chief Operating Officer, said business interest has always been high. Requests to open stores like the one here have come from all over the world. But mass-producing the stores has not been feasible, until now.
“It’s our time,” said Rivalto Hendry.
A second Smartmart has been built and the company is working to secure a location. After it’s established, Smartmart will begin manufacturing the stores and start a franchise model that could, finally, see Smartmart locations bloom all over the globe.