Unmanned stores are rapidly increasing.
Self-employed people who have been hit hard by COVID-19 and the minimum wage increase are feeling the attraction of 'unmanned'.
Even in the world, it is an irresistible trend, and the industry predicts that the global unmanned checkout counter market will reach 4 trillion won.
However, unmanned stores are largely divided into two directions.
It's the same as having no shop staff, but one is to reduce customer time by eliminating the checkout counter, and the other is to install an unmanned checkout counter and allow customers to pay for themselves.
A typical example of the former is 'Amazon Go', a futuristic store that we often dream of.
Since AI watches your shopping with various cameras and sensors, you can pay for everything even if you hide things in your clothes and go out.
On the other hand, most of the unmanned stores in Korea, which have been rapidly increasing in recent years, require consumers to pay directly at the checkout counter.
Amazon-style facilities, which cost a lot of money for small business owners who are struggling with the double burden of declining sales and labor costs, are a distant country.
As a result, I have to monitor the inside of the store while looking at the CCTV screen all day, and sometimes complain that 'unmanned is not unmanned'.
This is why we should not be optimistic about unmanned stores as a 'trend of technological development'.
The secret circumstances of the small business owners hidden behind the craze were covered by SBS issue exploration content studio Black.
A little more detail can be found in the video.