Tag Archives: technology based grocery store

World’s first unstaffed grocery store opens in Sweden. Here’s how it works.

Can you imagine a grocery store which is always open 24/7 and has no employees at all, not even on cash counters? Yes, it’s a reality in Viken town of Sweden. It’s the first of it’s kind, where there are no employees, and it works normal just like any other grocery store. You just need a smartphone and membership to make purchases in this convenience store.

Image Credit: springwise.com


The store which is membership based, relies on trust and a credit check on it’s customers. You need to install the app which is then linked to your bank account to unlock the store’s door which opens for only 8 seconds and cameras are installed all over to ensure the security. Customers enter the store, scan the barcodes of the products they want, and they receive the invoice a month later. Customers are required to become the members by passing a credit check.


Robert Ilijason, the only employee and store owner said, the idea of the store came from a broken jar of baby food. When that jar was the last one in the store at owner’s village and there was no open store in his village he had to rush to the big city to  get a new one. The idea clinched his mind and he wanted to open a 24/7 store. He further said having employees 24/7 is so expensive that he used technology to manage his store and his idea worked.

The store currently sells dairy products, dried and frozen foods, and is based on the concept that demand will dictate what the store stocks.

He is planning further to open few more stores to make sure this concept works. He hopes to make this concept work in whole Sweden and plans to further expand his idea to the world at large.