Naraffar Bay Unstaffed Store in Sweden — Swedish inventor Robert Ilias recently opened the new supermarket Naraffar Viken, which is controlled by a smart phone in the Swedish city Viken that no employees. Supermarket in the literal sense of the word! That’s the reality in one Swedish community after a local entrepreneur devised a solution — a unstaffed convenience store open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Robert Illijason lives in the town of Viken, which has only 4,200 residents, according to Reuters. Few stores in the small community are open late.
We are open when you need them. All hours, all year. Times that suit you whatever your daily habits. With Näraffär you know that what you need is never far away.
Store customers download an app, which links to their banking ID. Entrance doors of the supermarket to “unlock” virtual. Once inside, you can scan the products you wish to buy through your smart phone. Payment is made with a monthly bill which can be paid with the application.
The property comprises commodities like milk, bread, sugar, canned food, diapers and more products that can be found in the shops. At the end of the month the application generates an invoice for the user who is charged to your account.
The store is completely autonomous, Robert handles only restock the shelves and is especially designed for night . In that sense, security is very important and 6 cameras are installed. The security system is very accurate and even warns if the front door is open for more than 8 seconds or if someone tries to force the lock. Moreover, to identify customers with a bank ID (BankID) is used using the Swedish branches and can enter only people who have no history of money problems.
“My ambition is to spread this idea to other villages and small towns,” he said. “It is incredible that no one has thought of this before.” The shop currently stocks basics like milk, bread, diapers and canned food.
While this is the first we’ve heard of a fully unmanned store, other companies have tried similar strategies to enhance convenience. As he suggests, its goal is to bring small shops to communities in Sweden , which in recent years have been absorbed by the big chains, getting more competitive , especially in a time slot in which there is less supply.
Another success of the business is serving the demand from users, since they may indicate in the app which products they miss on site.
We do not know how far will this concept of establishment, but it seems an interesting idea as a way to compete against the always available e-commerce and differentiate complementing the service to meet the needs of customers in low supply slots . We will be watching its evolution.
