Japan’s Daiei to open unmanned supermarket in Tokyo

Japanese supermarket chain Daiei will open an unmanned store in Tokyo in collaboration with Chinese startup Cloudpick.

Daiei, an affiliate of Japanese retailer Aeon, will first open in Tokyo's Koto area before possibly rolling out to other spots.

The shelves in the store will be stocked by staff, but there will be no cashier.

Daiei’s store will employ artificial intelligence to analyze data and improve accuracy. Such data will be stored and analyzed in Japan.

The cost of opening Daiei’s store is expected to be around $271,800 per 100 square meters, roughly on par with a staffed store.

However, Daiei’s is more than 50 percent cheaper compared with similarly sized unmanned stores already in existence, as it plans to equip the store with fewer sensors.

Cloudpick has provided its technology to about 130 unmanned stores in 11 countries.

Japan’s retail industry is over-reliant on human labor, which has kept productivity low compared with other sectors that have moved toward automation.

Risks of COVID-19 infection risks accelerated Japanese retailers’ move toward unmanned stores. A shrinking and aging population is also causing a labor shortage in Japan's retail sector.

Kasumi, another retailer under the Aeon group, Kinokuniya, FamilyMart, and Touch To Go, have teamed up to launch a similar store.