From China Daily:
Self-service start-ups have become the new fad for Chinese investors after the arrival of lots of successful players – big and small. Alibaba launched its Tao Cafe in late August, 2017, two months after JD Daojia rolled out something similar. There are also many smaller companies doing similar things like Xingbianli and Easyhome.
However, unmanned stores are not quite the novelty they once were. There are an increasingly large amount of them springing up around the country every week – from supermarkets and noodle-shops to bookstores. An unmanned bookstore opened in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in January this year.
. . . .
Scan the QR code on the glass door and wait until a mini-program appears. As soon as the door flashes, you are in the bookstore. On the back of each book, you will find a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) circuit, which uses electro-magnetic fields to track the book on your way out. Stand in the payment area and scan the QR code once more and you have successfully made a purchase.
“It can save some labor costs. Also, we collect information, like the customers’ shopping habits and their book preferences. Then, in the future, we know what books we should provide,” said Fang Hao, Chief Operating Officer, IFANX Bookshop.
. . . .
“Risk control is probably the first word that comes to mind when talking about unmanned stores. But with the support of technology, the rate of stolen or damaged goods in our automatic stores is far lower than in traditional retailers,” said Chen Zilin, founder and CEO of BingoBox, at TechCrunch Shanghai.
Link to the rest at China Daily
Isn’t it easier to sit at home and order it online? What’s the benefit to going to the stores? The smell of books? Without human interaction, it’s just more inconvenient than ordering online.
I’m not a fan of technology taking some jobs.
Back in 1895 they called it an “Automat.” Diners would look at food in small display windows, drop coins in the appropriate slot, and withdraw their purchase. All cooking and food handling was done in the back.
They mostly died out by the 1970s, but it’s an interesting halfway point between “staffed” and “automated.”
Another ‘what was old is new again’. Just another oversized vending machine from the sounds of it, dispensing books instead of food (hmm, food for thought?)