I came across this story about , a Swedish chain of small supermarkets in mainly rural areas that had been progressively closing stores because it was not profitable to run them.
Lifvs are unstaffed small, 24-hour stores or mini-supermarkets. Customers enter using an app and identifying themselves through the Swedish electronic identification system , which has a 94% penetration — and then buy their groceries by scanning them with their smartphone and using a digital payment system. The app also enables the distribution of Brand discount coupons.
The store is permanently monitored by cameras, which, coupled with the fact that we’re in highly civilized Sweden, tends to prevent shoplifting and alerts a supervisor if there is a problem, such as an item falling off a shelf or an unauthorized entry. This person, usually responsible for several stores in a given area, pops in to each shop from time to time depending on the needs of each store, restocks the shelves and cleans up.
A maximum of two customers can be in the store at any time, reflecting the pandemic times we live in, and perhaps makes it more attractive, bearing in mind stereotypes of Swedish sociability. The founders, who have already set up 20 stores since over the last year, noticed that an increasing number of areas in the…
