Japan deploys robot workforce in 7-Eleven to counter labour crisis

Facing a severe labour shortage, Japan has turned to automation in convenience stores by launching a revolutionary trial of robot workers in 7-Eleven.

The world’s largest convenience retailer is conducting trials for autonomous machines that are specialised in handling essential tasks such as restocking shelves, cleaning floors and windows.

This initiative is a direct action towards the Japanese demographic crisis.

As a third of its population is above 65 years old and the working-age population is currently in decline since the 1990s, the country is expected to face a shortage of 3.4 million labourers by 2030.

This has compelled businesses to innovative in order to stay operational.

The AI-based robots at the trial store will also be capable of reviewing sales data to determine which bottled beverages and canned alcohol need restocking. To do this manually, employees usually take approximately 10 hours a week.

In addition to restocking, robots have also been introduced to do cleaning work.

The store also features a self-checkout register with a monitor linking the customers to remote support staff, making the workload of in-store employees lighter.

7-Eleven Japan believes that with this automation, 20-30 percent of the day-to-day in-store operations may be reduced, enabling human employees to attend to customers and perform other duties.

In the future, the company plans to introduce robots on a full-scale. This follows another experiment of sidewalk delivery robots, to overcome a parallel truck driver shortage and to serve an ageing client base.

These trials will define whether robots will become a reality in Japanese retail.