Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.

Kroger Goes All Robotic with C-Store

January 13, 2012

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Kroger has opened a fully automated convenience store on the campus of Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. The store, a 10x13-foot unit that stands nine-feet tall, carries up to 200 standard convenience items. Are robotic convenience stores one of the retailing waves of the future?      [more...]

So it's a small version of Horn & Hardart's Automat? In any event, nothing wrong with the idea at all -- it's another way to get closer to the customer. Add it to the mix of Amazon making local deliveries through C-stores. The point is that the only reason this might not work is poor execution, and shoppers won't care whether the trade gives it the right name.