By TAKESHI SUEZAKI/ Staff Writer
October 27, 2023 at 18:46 JST
YOKOHAMA--For customers who dread standing in long checkout lines or scanning their purchases, a new high-tech convenience store here promises to make shopping as stress-free as possible.
The Catch & Go store where customers can grab items off shelves and be automatically charged through an app opened near Yokohama Station on Oct. 27.
This is the first store of its kind available to the general public, as previously this type of establishment was only available to employees of some companies.
The Daiei Inc. supermarket chain and information technology company NTT Data Corp. opened the Catch & Go.
The store was shown to the media the day before its opening.
Customers can enter by scanning a QR code from an app they have installed on their smartphones at the store entrance gate.
The 35 cameras in the store and weight sensors on the shelves detect items that customers pick up, such as bento meal boxes and snacks.
Payments are made automatically through credit cards linked to customers’ smartphones when they leave the store.
The Catch & Go is located within the new Aeon Food Style Yokohama Nishiguchi supermarket, and the supermarket’s staff restock purchased items.
Everything including items cooked in the main store can be bought at the same prices as in the supermarket.
The Catch & Go operates from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., the same hours as the supermarket, and can accommodate up to 12 shoppers at a time.
Daiei and NTT Data said customers can settle their accounts in as little as 10 seconds, hoping to attract those who refuse to wait in checkout lines during busy times.
They expect the store to serve 1,000 customers per day.
Both companies opened the Catch & Go test store for their employees within an NTT Data office in 2021.
Convenience store giant Lawson Inc. has also operated test stores without checkout counters for employees at offices of Fujitsu Ltd. and Mitsubishi Shokuhin Co. since 2020.
According to Daiei, until now, walk-through checkout stores for the public were available only through cafes.
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Customers enter Catch & Go, a store without checkout counters in Yokohama, by scanning a QR code from an app they have installed on their smartphones at the entrance gate. (Takeshi Suezaki)
