Japan suffers from ``human resources shortage''... Attempts to make convenience stores ``unmanned'' spread - South Korean report

"Seven-Eleven, Japan's No. 1 convenience store, plans to fully open small convenience stores with no capacity on the sales floor starting this spring," Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 3rd.
. Seven-Eleven is currently negotiating with more than 20 locations with the aim of opening unmanned stores in apartments, factories, and research institutes in central Tokyo and Osaka.
The unmanned store is over 160 square meters, one-fourth the size of a regular store, and allows consumers to enter the store by swiping a QR code using a dedicated app and then entering the store using a smartphone.
The system allows customers to scan the product's barcode at the counter and pay automatically without the need for a cashier. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun says, ``If 7-Eleven, the number one company in the industry, starts unmanning its stores,
This will be a turning point for full-fledged unmanned operations for the retail industry, which continues to experience material shortages." Prior to this, FamilyMart, the second-largest company in the industry, had already opened stores equipped with an unmanned payment system.
It has expanded to 30 locations.