When you go inside, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find on the shelves: Bolognese sauce, winemaker’s pan, beef broth – everything is made by a butcher’s hand and filled into glass jars. But you can also find the things that forgetful people usually get at the gas station: milk, eggs, pasta, coffee and even small gift baskets, Tartufini Dolce wrapped with bows, a glass of pesto in a gift box. There is also a whole range of juices on the shelves, and then of course the most important thing in summer: sausages and grilled meat of all kinds, seasoned or unseasoned, such as ox hip or chicken.
The Heimstetten butcher Böltl has set up a 24-hour self-service shop in addition to the normal butcher’s shop at Hauptstraße 8. “Actually, the plan was to set up a snack bar with seats,” says Managing Director Bernhard Hermann. But then they thought about the current shortage of skilled workers and what else could be offered as part of the planned conversion. Since many customers wished for longer opening hours, the idea of automated loading came up. An acquaintance recommended the Friedberg company Smart Store 24, which develops the corresponding concepts.
You have to register to use the store.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
You can enter the small self-service paradise at any time of the day or night with a QR code. You can spontaneously scan it with your smartphone on your first visit and register, specifying a payment method. If you then go in, the shop already “knows” who is visiting it. At the same time, a large screen is activated at the checkout. There is a small explanatory video there. The customer places the goods, which all have a kind of small antenna – a sticker with a code – on a shelf. There they are automatically scanned, which can be followed on the screen. “If you then press confirm, it’s already paid,” says Hermann.
The stickers on the goods contain small antennas.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Orders placed in the butcher’s shop right next door for other days or for the weekend can be kept in the self-service shop, which has its own refrigerator. You can also download the Böltl butcher’s app and use it to order; but it only works during the opening hours of the butcher’s shop – after all, the goods have to be procured and placed in the shop. When ordering, customers can specify where they want to pick up the goods: in the store or in the self-service shop. Hermann also ensures that the shelves in the self-service shop are always full in the evenings and at weekends. This guarantees that you will never arrive in vain.
“The customer doesn’t want to cash in on themselves”
Michael Kimmich, Managing Director of Smart Store 24, explains the checkout system that the company has developed: “Every customer has an account, similar to Amazon,” he says. A means of payment is connected to this, so that you no longer have anything to do with money in the shop. In order to be able to enter the shop at any time, customers are given a code that they can save on their cell phone or print out. The scanning of the goods, as is possible for customers in some grocery stores at automatic checkouts, is also no longer necessary. “We don’t have any barcodes,” says Kimmich. “Customers don’t want to cash in themselves,” he is convinced.
A screen at the checkout shows which goods have been recorded.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The technology used instead with the small antennas is called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and enables automatic and contactless identification and localization with radio waves. The company had the idea of using this technology for checkout systems in 2020. With the help of their software, Bernhard Hermann can also keep track of things more easily. “He can see from his desk how many packs of meat salad he still has in the store, how many grams it weighs, what it costs and when it can be kept,” explains Kimmich. In theory, the butcher can simultaneously watch how people shop in their shop, at least based on the goods displayed. A day before a product reaches its expiry date, he gets a warning.
“Autonomous selling will become more and more popular,” Kimmich is certain. His company already has customers from very different industries and all over Germany. The company’s refrigerators are also very popular. A nursery wants to offer fresh bouquets in one, for example, and a hotel offers food at times when the restaurant is closed.
Anyone who fears that the “antenna” will follow the purchased goods home is wrong. The information can only be read directly at the checkout. In addition, the attached notes are easy to remove. The self-service shop even works for people without a smartphone. However, they must first have a customer card issued. “But our older customers in particular are happy to take part in the new technology,” says Hermann and laughs.