No cashier, no problems? What’s behind the rise of S’pore’s unmanned stores

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Unmanned shops in Singapore also have limited product variety, as checks by The Straits Times have found. Most stores sell only packaged food items like snacks and bottled drinks with typically short shelf lives, and never fresh food products or clothes, for instance.

They also require customers to behave in a predictable manner. Customers are urged through notices pasted around the shop not to pass items around to others and to return items to their original spots, in order not to confuse the tracking system.

The concept probably cannot be applied to sell goods like clothes or luxury items where customer service is needed. At the moment, it is more suitable for consumables that have a lower chance of being returned.