Chartwells Higher Ed has transformed a retail location at San Jose State University (SJSU) in San Jose, Calif., into a fully automated market.
Students, faculty and staff purchasing items from The SJSU Ginger Market will no longer have to physically check out. Instead, the market uses a mobile app and cameras located throughout the store to track which items customers pick up and leave with.
"We pride ourselves on creating unique dining experiences beyond the walls of our dining halls, and automating the retail checkout experience is another way we’re bringing that to life at SJSU," Paul Cingolani, resident district manager at Chartwells Higher Ed, said in a statement. "This technology removes some historical pain points—like waiting in long lines—and creates new opportunities for our associates to focus on more important and demanding in-store tasks.”
Chartwells partnered with Standard AI, an artificial intelligence retail supplier, to convert the market. In the past, the two companies worked together to transform a retail unit at the University of Houston into an automated concept.
Compass Digital Labs, a division of Compass Group, says that it will continue to work with Standard AI and other companies to introduce automated retail locations at universities and in other noncommercial segments.