Dive Brief:
- Choice Market opened its newest location today — a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year Mini-Mart on The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, according to an emailed press release.
- In addition, a Choice’s Central Latin-fusion restaurant will offer fresh-made meals like burritos, salads or tacos from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.
- Like Choice Market’s other three locations, the new Mini-Mart features its frictionless checkout system Choice Now, but it will be the first without a cashier in-store.
Dive Insight:
The growth of frictionless checkout systems is putting a heavier emphasis on the “convenience” part of convenience stores. While Choice Market’s other locations — all in its home town of Denver — keep long hours, this is its first 24-hour store. And in a medical setting, the around-the-clock availability and speed of access for consumers could be particularly beneficial in getting customers to stop in.
Mike Fogarty, Choice Market’s Founder and CEO, said in a statement the company was targeting the medical community specifically to “provide these time-strapped first responders, students, patients and their families with high quality groceries and fresh meals 24x7x365.”
In addition to its in-store foodservice, the Mini-Mart sells an assortment of fresh food, groceries from local companies and other day-to-day necessities.
Choice Now first hit the market in 2021 at the company’s flagship location. The technology was developed together with AiFi. Users sign up initially with the Choice app and input their preferred payment method. They then scan their QR code when they enter, and from there the store’s sensors record what they pick up, charge their account when they walk out and send the receipt to their phone.
The company plans to include the technology in all future stores. In addition to the University of Colorado location, two additional stores opening later this year or early in 2023 will feature the frictionless checkout platform.
Choice Market is among the leaders in pioneering this technology. Amazon Go may be the most well-known, but companies like Circle K, Mapco, BP and QuikTrip are also testing the waters. Gary Hawkins, CEO of the Center for Advancing Retail and Technology, believes these automated and cashierless solutions are the future of retail.
