Forget Amazon Go. This Humanless Store Costs 100 Times Less To Set Up
Ever wonder how much it costs to open an Amazon Go store? Forbes reported that it costs on average $1 million dollars to open that human-less AI store, and that it only for the hardware cost alone! It will take Amazon approximately 2 years to break even from each store that they set up. That’s a walk in the park for Amazon but not for an average store owner who wants their ROI like yesterday.
One thing that surprises me all the time is how innovative Koreans are. So, here I’m taking the full libery to write about the new unmanned store concept that is popping-up around Seoul with 10+ million population.
Forget AI, expensive sensors or downloading any app. All you need is just a retail store filled with goodies, an automated cashier and lots of CCTV cameras. But one extra thing that you might need is a trustworthy society.
You see, South Korea is one of the safest countries to live in. The biggest threat to your survival is probably a mild typhoon each year and maybe some floods. Crime is usually ultra low, especially petty crime. It’s almost impossible to find street robbers in Korea, let alone shoplifters. But why?
Koreans pride themselves in working hard
It’s incredibly hard to find Koreans who beg for money in South Korea. I was completely stunned when I was a young Korean guy begging for change in K-town in L.A. It’s a rare sight not to behold. This could happen in the U.S because its system and society allow it to. But not in Korea.
South Koreans are taught that human resource is the best resource that their country has because there’re virtually zero natural resources in this south side of the Korean peninsula. The only way to survive and thrive is by working hard.
Poverty may be the mother of crime but in today’s developed countries, sloth may have fathered most criminals. Financially poor people turn to crime because it’s easier than to work your way up. Koreans rather choose this hard way up because its society demands it.
A homogeneous society requires everyone to be homologous
Similar to Japan, Korea is relatively a very homogeneous country in this modern era with 96% of its people are Koreans (the Han people). Due to this similarity in culture and custom, the Korean society demands its people to do the same as others for the benefit of the collective group. Most of them are taught to follow when they were a child instead of to be different — unlike the more individualistic upbringing you often see in Western civilizations.
Thus, in the spirit of being in unison with the others, being a criminal would make one to stand out negatively against the rest and the ramification can be destructive beyond repair. But what drove the creation of Korean homogeneous society at the first place?
Confucianism is the backbone of Korean society
In the West, you have Jesus and Christianity. In the middle east, you have Prophet Muhammad and Islam. In Korea, you have Confucius and Confucianism. Unlike a religion, Confucianism is civic system created in 479 BC with a pragmatic concept of creating a harmonious society for all to live peacefully together. There’s no involvement of salvation and relation to live after death. Practicians embody the system for their sake of their survival in this world not in heaven or hell. It has since been carried into this 21st century by the Korean people.
Confucianism values promote politeness, respect, moral action and arts of peace. Confucius's famous quote of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is the cornerstone of his teaching.
Why Korean human-less stores do not necessitate a million-dollar investment
The very reason why Korean unmanned retail stores do not necessitate a million-dollar investment is due to Korean themselves. Like what people always say, “They are at the right place at the right time and with the right mindset”.
I do hope this new store concept will flourish around Korea and eventually the world. One last impression that I want to leave you with is that the recent hikes in minimum wage could have prompted savvy Korean entrepreneurs to circumvent the system by choosing to open this salary-less store instead. Besides, the goodies in the store are cheaper than average. So, that’s good for the consumer, right?
