Luis Muñoz Marín Airport to get 1st checkout-free store — Quick Bites
MGI Caribe is partnering with technology firm Zippin’, which has deployed checkout-free technology across airports and venues nationwide.
The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) will soon become home to the first of three checkout-free food shops that MGI Caribe — operators of the Airport Shoppes concession affiliate at the hub — will open with a combined investment of $2 million, News is my Business confirmed.
The first location, called Quick Bites, will open later this month at Terminal A, where it will occupy 600 square feet, replacing a former food concession, said Claritza Toledo, project manager at MGI.
To launch the concept, MGI has partnered with Zippin, which provides the technology platform to offer “frictionless and fast shopping so travelers won’t have to worry about standing in line.”
“With Zippin’s technology, guests can simply enter with a credit card, pick their items and be on their way. There are no checkout lines, no scanning and no hassles,” the tech firm stated. Passengers pay for their purchases using a credit or debit card, which they run through a point-of-sale terminal.
Toledo said the new location will have an inventory of “to-go” items such as sandwiches and snacks, beverages, and some warm snacks like hot dogs and “empanadillas” available in two refrigerators to be stocked and available 24/7. The store will also offer a variety of sushi and other food options under the Udon brand.
“Passengers will have this accessibility to products, to buy a bottle of water, a soft drink, a snack, a sandwich, to have this type of offer,” she said, “We’re moving toward this concept, so that, independently of the flow of passengers that we have at a given time, they can always have an offer available to them.”
A second check-out free location, which will operate as a Gustos coffee concept, is already in the works at Terminal D, set to open in September or October. The third location at Terminal C is slated to open in late 2024 or early 2025, Toledo confirmed.
MGI is motivated to open these contactless operations by the surge in passenger traffic that airports, including Muñoz Marín Airport, have experienced following the COVID-19 pandemic, said Toledo.
“The customers’ need for speed and flexibility is growing, and since we’re seeing gates that are saturated with passengers, we’re going to focus on what to do to satisfy that need for customers to be able to buy food, but to be able to do so in an environment where they decide everything, that is, without a cashier, they don’t have lines and we’re responding to what the need is,” Toledo said.
Isis Betancourt, CEO of Airport Shoppes, said, “The future of retail is basically check-out free. This is what we’re seeing. One of the things that’s important to mention is that this technology works with artificial intelligence, which I believe is the latest technology that makes it easier for us to offer a fully interactive experience.”
As for the potential risk of shoplifting, Betancourt acknowledged it will “be a challenge.”
“Initially, the system is supposed to be quite secure. It’s a system in which [customers] need or require a credit card to be able to access the premises. But we will see how it goes, but we believe it hasn’t been a problem at other airports,” she said.
The stores will have three employees to provide round-the-clock service to the check-out free locations. Needing fewer employees is the company’s way to respond to the worker shortage at the airport and Puerto Rico, said Betancourt.
“I think this is a win-win because it gives passengers the opportunity for service when they need it, and for us, it’s an opportunity to have a store open 24 hours a day, without depending on whether an employee is there,” Betancourt said. “We’re putting the airport at a global level of doing business.”
Becareful with this “win-win” biz, $15 a Dassani bottle of water is an abuse and no prices shown.