Within a year of opening its laboratory store in the McGill University Pavilion, which offers the technology to buy chips, coffee and pastries without any introduction, Couche-Tard students have been benefiting for months to return to campus. The company currently estimates the level of adherence to this new method at around 5% to 10%. It has been growing steadily since the beginning of the session, we guarantee.
Recently, the Laval-based company also introduced its “non-collision model” in one of the Circle K stores in Arizona. Are there any plans to expand the concept anywhere in the Couche-Tard network? In an interview on the occasion of the opening of the Benzdowne School of Retail Store-Laboratory, Sophie Proventure, Vice President of Operations, Quebec West, for Alimentation Couche-Tard, said, “We are currently looking into it.” , Monday.
“It should continue. We do not have a specific date. We are trying to understand how consumers will respond to this type of technology.”
Photo by Catherine Lefebvre, special contribution
For Sophie Adventure, Vice-President, Operations, Quebec West, Alimentation Couche-Tard
Although the store in Sherbrook Street West began welcoming its first customers last January, the company was only able to better analyze customer behavior from the start of the fall session. In addition to the membership rate, it has been observed that the number of transactions conducted using this technology is increasing and coffee is a very popular product.
In this way, it is possible to make contactless purchases only within the specific perimeter of the store – 340 square feet out of a total area of 1670 square feet. You need to download the application using your smartphone, scan at the entrance and the barriers will open. In this delimited perimeter called the Connected Lab, customers can buy coffee, pastries, soft drinks and chips. Nearly 400 products will be offered. You come out with your terms without scanning your items. The technology makes it possible to determine what the customer has chosen. Payment is handled directly with a previously downloaded user credit card.
At the rest of the store, customers can use a self-service checkout, where they can place their goods on a tray and then pay. It is also possible to go directly to the counter with the attendant and pay for your chocolate bar or bag of nuts.
Sushi and prepared meal
In addition to the new payment technologies that researchers at the Benzoun School have studied – Couche-Tard seeks to diversify its offer, especially by selling sushi – on demand from customers – or even frozen meals made by the Quebec company. Clement Le Gormond.
“We put it up to see if students living in the neighborhood would be interested in taking these dishes, reaching home and reheating them,” explains MMe Proventure adds in the process that the items offered in this store are mostly in personal design.
“These students come back to see us later in the day. It is important to develop the offer, maintain interest and appreciation. ”
Currently, the downtown store has about fifteen employees. According to Sophie Proventure, although labor shortages have hit many businesses, the idea of buying contactless is not about reducing staff. “Our in-store teams are heartfelt and will continue to contribute to the success of our customer experience,” she said in her inaugural address. She gave an example of all the tasks employees need to receive items, fill shelves and prepare food for sale on site.
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