Aramark Launches its First Cashierless Convenience Store

Need to Know 

• Joining the likes of Amazon and 7-Eleven, Aramark is launching its first cashierless convenience store.
• Using only an app, customers can access the store and pay for products without interacting with anyone.
• The technology was developed using deep learning algorithms and cameras tracking store and product movement and is the first to go in a apartment complex.
• Aramark has over 5,400 business dining locations, provides food services for 37 major league teams, and serves nearly two billion meals and one billion cups of coffee each year.

Analysis

Aramark has announced it will be using AWM Smart Shelf technology to open a new cashierless, fully autonomous convenience store—launching for the first time ever in a luxury apartment community. 

With the help of a mobile app, members of the Nineteen01 apartment complex in Santa Ana, CA, as well as the general public, will be able to access The QuickEats Close Convenience store in the apartment complex. 

The contactless shop—an added convenience during the days of social distancing—will sell food and personal care items such as sodas, bottled water, sandwiches, fruit, cleaning products, and pet food. 

“When we planned the launch of QuickEats many months ago, we never could have imagined the circumstances our community now faces, as Orange County practices social distancing due to coronavirus,” said AWM Chief Executive Officer Kevin Howard. “We made the decision to open our doors because QuickEats can provide vital food, drink, and personal care items to Nineteen01’s residents in a completely frictionless environment.”

Here’s how it works: customers download the QuickEats app, available across iOS and Android devices, to access a QR code that allows them to enter the store. Customers are assigned a random, anonymous ID when they begin shopping and cameras track store traffic. Using deep learning algorithms, the system detects how customers interact with a product and whether or not they place it in their shopping cart. After leaving the store, customers are then charged to their digital wallet for the items they take, and will receive a receipt via email. 

Aramark is a U.S. food service provider serving nearly two billion meals per year. They are known globally for their many food service locations in universities and colleges, sporting arenas, and conference centres, but this apartment complex will be a first for Aramark. If this launches smoothly, there’s a chance Aramark extends the technology to other locations such as the 37 major league teams and stadiums it provides services for.

The launch of QuickEats may be a first for Aramark but is not a first for contactless payments. Earlier this year, Amazon launched its “Just Walk Out” technology, separate from its Amazon Go locations, and 7-Eleven has been piloting its own cashierless convenience stores.