A kiosk without cashier to buy a pack of pasta, organic apples, a pair of tights or a deodorant. In the container of 18 square meters, which has just landed on the parking lot of the headquarters of Auchan, Villeneuve-d’ascq, the offer focuses on the little troubleshooting. Badge to support the employees of the sign can come and do their necessities among 400 references. Only staff, vending machine XXL uses the badge as a key to access, means of payment and to validate the output. Each individual is responsible to scan its products on the terminal to edit its receipt.
At the headquarters of Carrefour in Massy, a similar project is in gestation. The group should open in the coming weeks an automated warehouse reserved for its employees. Located on the ground floor of the building, he learnt of the gym and the nursery business, as one more service offered to the teams.
Auchan prefers to speak of “store immersive”, in order to avoid the down to a “store without a staff”
While Amazon has opened the United States the format Amazon Gb, a concept not just a cashier, but also without the fund, these experiments at Auchan and Carrefour are facing. They appear as laboratories to test new models of distribution and trade at any time of the day and night, and ideally with the least amount of staff possible. Franprix tests, for its part, the store is a standalone, open 24/24 h, with the ticket machines used under the supervision of a night guard.
But the topic is sensitive in a sector that is big provider of jobs. Auchan also prefer to speak of the “store immersive”, in order to avoid the down to a “store without a staff”. In China, the brand already operates 325 containers in its joint venture with Alibaba. In France, “any deployment of such containers on roads or public spaces is considered,” insisted the group. But the shopping centers are they public spaces?
