BBC News: “Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free”

We haven’t had any shops here during the time we have been here, and getting this now is perfect, says 31-year-old Emma Lundqvist who moved to Hummelsta with her boyfriend three years ago. You don’t need to get into the city to buy this small stuff, she adds, pointing to the packet of bacon she’s popped in for.

There’s a wide assortment of groceries available, from fresh fruit and vegetables to Swedish household staples like frozen meatballs, crisp breads and wafer bars. But there are no staff or checkouts here.

You open the doors using the company’s app, which works in conjunction with BankID, a secure national identification app operated by Sweden’s banks. Then, you can scan barcodes using your smartphone and the bill is automatically charged to a pre-registered bank card.

The store is part of the Lifvs chain, a Stockholm-based start-up that launched in 2018 with the goal of returning stores to remote rural locations where shops had closed down because they’d struggled to stay profitable.

Maddy Savage

Certainly not an original idea – Amazon has experimented with cashier-free stores since late 2016, and has recently expanded its Just Walk Out technology to London – but it’s good to see it applied in a different area, reintroducing local stores to small rural communities. With basically no round-the-clock staff and sparse customers, these types of stores are very safe during a pandemic, allowing people to keep a safe distance while shopping.

Lifvs has 20 stores in rural neighbourhoods

As some people relocated away from crowded cities over the past year to avoid the pandemic, the adoption of these digital and logistical innovations may allow some to continue living and working in remote areas with the same comforts available in a metropolis.