Cheers at NTU: With automatic payment you can just get what you want and leave
A part of the new Cheers store at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) stays open 24 hours a day and has no one manning it.
Students and others can walk in, pick up what they want and walk out, as a system that uses artificial intelligence automatically processes payments.
It works with a combination of cameras, image recognition technology and shelf-weight sensors to track what customers have picked up.
The facility was launched in partnership with Visa, which has found in a Consumer Payment Attitude Study that nearly 60 per cent of Singaporeans prefer to pay automatically, without stopping at a checkout counter.
The hybrid store stocks a wide range of products, including trendy snacks from Japan and Korea, frozen and ready-to-eat meals, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
The hot food counter offers convenient meals such as teriyaki salmon don, smoked duck with rice and unagi don.
You can also get truffle fries, hotdogs with chilli con carne and desserts such as peanut butter & nutella waffle, kaya waffle and blueberry cheese crepes.
To celebrate the launch of the hybrid store, Cheers has an exclusive promotion with Visa till June 21, 2022. Shoppers can scan a QR code with the Cheers app and get a $1 gift card on their next purchase at the unmanned section.
The gift card will be automatically utilised when payment is made with Visa. It is limited to the first 2,000 customers and to one gift card per customer. Terms and conditions apply.
The new store is “another step forward in line with Singapore's digitalisation efforts towards a Smart Nation", said Ms Elaine Heng, FairPrice Group’s CEO of retail business.
"FairPrice is constantly innovating to develop new concepts to enhance the shopping journey for our customers,” she said.
“Our collaboration with Visa enables us to offer consumers even greater convenience and ease through a seamless shopping and payment experience."
Visa said it had earlier worked with Cheers to create such a store in Tampines. The company was "glad to roll this out in NTU so youths are able to shop and pay seamlessly and conveniently," said Mr Kunal Chatterjee, its country manager for Singapore and Brunei.
The store is at Nanyang Avenue, South Spine, SS3-B3-04, S639798, next to Nanyang Business School.
The manned Cheers main store is open 8am to 10pm Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 9pm on Saturdays, and 10am to 6pm on Sundays and public holidays.
The food counter is open only Mondays to Fridays, 11am to 7pm.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now