Can going robotic ease convenience stores’ profitability blues?

With Japanese convenience stores reaching critical mass in terms of expansion and available labor, all while in an environment of constantly rising prices, they’ve been looking far and wide for ways to keep their business models intact. And what better way to get cheap, inexhaustible labor than with robots?

On 9 September, 7-Eleven Japan became the latest chain to unveil robotic solutions for modern convenience stores. The first is a team of autonomous bots, one of which can cling to windows and clean them as it scoots around. Then, there’s a floor cleaner robot that patrols the floor for dust and other debris that may inhibit customers’ enjoyment of the shop. Meanwhile, in the back is a robotic arm that autonomously monitors the beverage rack and refills any sections that are getting low.

This reduces the times human staff have to go into the back room and allows them to focus more on customer service. However, if 7-Eleven stores can’t even find people for that, there’s an avatar screen that can assist shoppers in multiple languages. It’s unclear who or what is on the other end, but the description alludes to a human working several stores from a central location, although the multi-language support makes me feel like it might be AI.

According to the head of 7-Eleven operations, all of these various robots together can lower the demand for labor by 30 percent in each of their franchised stores. This will likely result in a significant reduction in the number of overworked 7-Elevens going rogue and other 7-Elevens being built in their parking lot.

They’re not the only chain turning to robots in this highly competitive market either. Lawson has dabbled in the avatar clerk game before too, and also employs cooking robots for foods like its famous Karaage-kun chicken. Meanwhile, Family Mart has long been testing robot drink stockers, first through a cool-looking robot piloted remotely by a human, and later with a system similar to what 7-Eleven is working with.

▼ Lawson’s Karaage-kun robotic cooker.

Nevertheless, online comments seemed to largely feel convenience stores would be better off taking it easy on their existing human staff, with all the duties they are tasked with in a given shift. We’ve long covered the many additional services major convenience stores in Japan offer, which means your average part-time clerk is responsible for: handling money, food preparation, security, banking, postal services, copy machine maintenance, coffee machine maintenance, inventory, occasional weapons management, and more.

“Guess who has to clean the robots?”
“Maybe convenience stores should ease up on the constantly increasing number of services they offer to help the staff.”
“Accepting parcels for delivery and handling shipping orders is not something a convenience store clerk should be doing.”
“There’s no way a robot could handle the crazy number of duties a convenience store worker needs to do.”
“Just put a bunch of vending machines in a room.”
“Add robot maintenance to the growing list of things convenience store clerks need to do.”
“How about they find some robots to take on executive positions and save a bunch of money?”
“The cleaning robot at a drugstore near my house always gets stuck in corners.”
“Instead of making robots that adapt to the store, why not make the whole store robotic and more efficient?”
“Empty stores are creepy. Please keep people there.”

There are quite a few unmanned stores here and there in Japan, and while I do enjoy the convenience of them, I have to agree they’re kind of creepy. There just seems to be something inherently wrong about a store devoid of life. After the unsettling feeling that something terrible happened, I still feel a little on-edge, assuming that someone is constantly watching me remotely as I shop.

The one comment was probably on the right track in that if humans were to be removed from convenience stores, it would probably require the entire concept of a convenience store to be completely reinvented. Otherwise, something will always feel off about it.

Sources: Mainichi Shimbun, Golden Times, TBS News Dig
Photos ©SoraNews24
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