Do future trips to the supermarket involve no lines, no human interaction and no endlessly searching the aisles to check items off your list? They might, and residents of Iowa could be the first to test out what is essentially an ATM-like grocery store.
KCCI News reports that the city of Des Moines could be home to a first-of-its-kind automated store where residents can pick up fresh food items.
The group Eat Greater Des Moines is working to bring the Oasis24Seven automated store kiosk to the Des Moines metro area in order to provide healthy food options in a convenient and affordable manner to residents.
The completely automated system – which only accepts electronic payments – appears to be a cross between an ATM and a very large vending machine, complete with a touch screen ordering system and robotic vending.
To use the standalone store, people would simply walk to the ordering area of the system (the part that looks like an ATM) and scroll through about 200 fresh products like milk, bread and eggs, KCCI reports.
“It can dispense anything from one ounce to 10 pounds,” Dave Maurer of Oasis24seven, the company behind the machine, says. “The robotics are belt driven, there’s an extractor that takes the item off of the shelf, puts it on a belt and delivers it.”
The unit will be bulletproof and have the ability to translate product options into different languages for use by all residents.
Before the grocery store-of-the-future can be start vending its heart out, backers must secure another $70,000 and the city must give its stamp of approval.
New robotic grocery store coming to Des Moines [KCCI News]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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