Grab your purchases and go at 1st cashier-free Lawson store

A customer enters the Lawson shop at Fujitsu's Kawasaki office by holding her smartphone over a card reader at the gate. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Lawson Inc. opened to the press Tuesday an experimental store where customers can pay without waiting in line.

The shop is located at Fujitsu Ltd.'s office in Kawasaki, which has approximately 3,000 employees.

The trial will be conducted for three months from Feb. 26. Lawson plans to open a store without a cash register for regular customers as early as this summer.

Twenty-eight cameras on the ceiling and weight sensors on the shelves identify the item a customer has picked up. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Users of the experimental store register their credit card information in advance with a smartphone app and enter the store by displaying a QR code generated by the app.

Twenty-eight cameras mounted on the ceiling and weight sensors fixed on the shelves identify which item a customer has picked up. There is no cashier in the store, but staff are always present.

When a customer leaves the store with the merchandise they have selected, payment is automatically completed with the pre-registered credit card, and an electronic receipt is displayed on the customer's smartphone app.

The payment is made with a pre-registered credit card, and an electronic receipt is displayed on the customer's smartphone app. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

From March, users will be able to enter the store simply with biometric data, if they pre-register facial images and palm vein data.

Convenience store operators, which are suffering from a serious labor shortage, are focusing on labor-saving investments.

FamilyMart Co. is experimenting with facial recognition, and Seven-Eleven Japan Co. is also experimenting with stores without cash registers.

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