By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
On Monday Clarence Taylor wanted a sports drink as he headed to class, and after seeing a sign the day before, he decided to try out the newest BGSU campus shopping option, the Market at Carillon Place.
It’s a convenience store with a difference. A store that using artificial intelligence and sensors to take convenience to another level.
When Taylor, or any other customer, steps in, they swipe their preferred method of payment, be it a credit or debit or meal plan card, and they enter.
The technology in the store has not only registered the card’s information but has created a detailed electronic image of the customer. It creates a virtual shopping cart, and as the customer shops it registers each item they pick up.
Once Butler has purchased his drink and another food item, he simply exited, and his bill has been charged. No check out, no lines.
All this is made possible by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. “Amazon magic,” quipped Jon Zachrich, marketing communications & technology for BGSU Dining by Chartwells. Not magic really, he added, but proprietary technology.
It does not use biometrics, he sad. No personal data is stored. It creates a detailed form for the shopper, not using personal data.
BGSU dining was on a list to be a pilot project for expansion of the technology onto campus, he said. Planning for the shop began in February, and it took until just before opening to get it all squared away and ready for customers.
It is being tried at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Dayton. It is used at airports and arenas.
Employing the Just Walk Out technology, Zachrich said, addresses students’ requests to have more food options at all hours of the day or night. The Market at Carillon will be open 24-7, except for a period once a week from late Friday night until Saturday early morning when it will closed for maintenance. One dining employee will also be staffing the shop.
The market carries a variety of snack foods as well as quick to fix meal options. There are also toiletries and other personal care items.
Though geared to the needs of students, it is open to anyone as long as they have a payment method. Using an app, the students can charge purchases to their meal plans.
That he could swing through and get out without a line certainly was a big part of the appeal for Taylor, a first-year digital arts major.
The prices are on par with other convenience stores on campus, which means higher than area supermarkets. Dining services does not buy in the quantities that a Kroger store does, and that means it has to charge more, Zachrich said.
Dining Services was interested in the technology given the success of the fleet of Starship delivery robots that have been in use since early 2020.
The technology is useful, Zachrich said, and it’s also fun.
