Seven-Eleven Japan Co. on Monday opened its first manpower-saving convenience store in Minato Ward, Tokyo, with unmanned checkout counters equipped with a facial recognition system, company officials said.
The company requires only one employee to operate the branch, which is inside a building that houses companies affiliated with NEC Corp. About 4,000 employees of the NEC group companies working in the building mainly have access to the store.
With floor space of about 26 square meters and selling about 400 items, the store is about 10 percent the size of an average convenience store.
To enter the store premises, customers must show their company ID card at the door or have their face scanned by a camera so that it can be checked against a preregistered photo.
When a customer scans the bar code of an item at the unmanned checkout counter, the system identifies who is making the purchase by recognizing their face. For the NEC group employees, the payment can then be deducted from their monthly salary, so there is no need for cash.
The system and other features of the store use NEC Corp.'s information technology.
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