Just Askin' | Is Circle K's 'Smart Checkout' the future?
Mar. 6—What is the 'Smart Checkout' station at Circle K and how does it work?
Pull up to the Circle K on Springfield Avenue just east of Pia's Sports Bar and Grill, and you might get to buy your fountain drink and snacks without speaking to a soul.
For a few months, this and several other Champaign-Urbana locations have been using a 'Smart Checkout' machine, now present at thousands of its stores.
Circle K's Canadian-based parent company, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., tested out the artificial-intelligence-powered technology at 500 of its locations in 2020.
After receiving favorable customer surveys about the tech, which often lets users scan their items and pay in seconds, Alimentation Couche-Tard announced in June 2022 that it would roll out the self-checkout systems to 7,000 more stores over the next three years.
"We're committed to investing in and scaling technology that sets a new standard for convenience with our customers and advances our mission to make our customers' lives a little easier every day," said Magnus Tägtström, vice president of global innovation at Couche-Tard.
The checkout machine is built by Mashgin, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech company. Customers lay their products on its countertop mat and the system uses "computer vision" to recognize items and immediately scan them.
A card scanner and cash and coin deposits are attached to the machine, meaning customers can ring up their items without a cashier present. It can usually detect grab-and-go items like pizza or hot dogs, too.
There are more than 14,000 Circle K and Couche-Tard convenience stores across the world, mainly in North America. Circle K is the largest chain of non-franchised convenience stores in in the U.S.
