Many of you are definitely familiar with a Polish chain of convenience stores called “Żabka”. The owner, has opened up their first 7 stores in 1998, and has quite literally spread around the whole map of Poland (and even slightly outside of it! You can find a few “Žabka” stores in Chech Republic! as well) . It is easily one of the most popular stores in Poland today, and recently, in 2021 a brand-new concept of Żabka has been introduced- Żabka Nano.
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Żabka Nano is not only the most innovative store in Poland but also the largest autonomous chain store in Europe. The overall idea of autonomous stores already exists in Australia, Japan or South Korea (and probably somewhere in the US), but Poland’s Żabka still overtook all other potential European competitors.
The main difference between the two stores (the original and the autonomous one) are the employees. More precisely, the lack of them. The idea of Żabka Nano is that it can be open 24/7 and accessed using a credit card or żappka- the stores app that allows you to collect points for your purchases. However, if you wish to enter with the app, you need to make sure you have funds in your account. Moving on, once you’ve put your credit card near the reader at the entrance of the store, the doors to Żabka Nano open. The easy accessibility to enter by card has been implemented by the Żabka’s collaboration with AiFi, in all of the Nano stores.
It is a great way of saving your time since you don’t have to stand in a queue to buy your necessities. The store itself is usually a lot smaller than the normal Żabka stores (to no one’s surprise), mostly because it offers less goods than the basic stores. For instance, you will find yourself not being able to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but you can buy 0% beer (what’s the point in that though). You will also find basic products, such as; water, snacks, juices and refreshments, ice cream and frozen food.
For the Żabka customers, you all probably know about the famous Żabka hot-dogs. In case that’s you and the nearest Żabka near you happens to be Nano, fear not. You can still get your hot-dogs. The store offers an interesting service for the hot-dog lovers, where you have a robot that grills and assembles the whole hot-dog right in front of you. Keep in mind though that it may not always succeed as it’s assembled by a robot and not a person, so it has its failures at times. The robot is called Robbie and its software has over 15000 lines of code. The order of your snack takes less than a minute (unless you’re indecisive) and the display next to the hot-dog stand shows you the ordering options where you choose the size, type of the sausage and the sauces you wish to have in your hot-dog. After that, you just wait and watch Robbie prepare your meal.
Onto the security stuff, how does the store know what you take, and how does it not charge you extra? The store doesn’t actually use any shelf-sensors. It does have cameras inside the store, just like all the other stores, but this time, they’re used for camera-vision technology provided by AiFi. To respect the customer’s privacy, customers are identified by the system without the use of biometrics or facial recognition. The cameras only track the movement of the client’s, while the product recognition is performed by AI computer vision. Using key point tracking technology, the system creates a stickman from each customer who enters the store, to which the system supports three sessions running simultaneously, each with a small number of participants.
All in all, Żabka Nano is a great innovation and it does help those who crave a snack anytime after 11PM- after all the normal Żabka stores close. It’s interesting to see how the technology improves everyday and how the world easily adapts to it. Do you think Żabka Nano is a good innovation? Or maybe a beginning to something bigger in the future?
Pierwsza Żabka Nano otwarta w Decathlonie
I see how practical and comfortable it can be but from my own perspective i do not like this idea that much. It seems kind of odd to me to go into a store with no one in it as an employee. First impression was very confusing and it will take a lot of time for people to get used to such shops. About those hot dogs I am also not so sure. This robot is very inefficient. I’ve seen lots of videos of it literally destroying the bun or missing to put the sausage, maybe it got better over time but still they have to work on it.
I think that this kind of shops without employees are going to win in the future with the classical ones with cashiers. The biggest advantage is that there’s no need to hire an employee and spend money on his salary. Btw great point on 0% beer.
Thank you for the interesting and informative article. I have heard about such autonomous shops and even visited one in Moscow. But I did not know that there are some in Poland. I think that it is very innovative idea that potentially can be profitable for company, and will make it easier to buy products at any time. But it seems like unfortunately now this concept is too fresh and expensive, so I hope that it will develop in next years.
Progress made by zabka in recent years is outstanding, it went from a small chain shop to literally being around every corner. I think that the direction they are heading is a very good one and I will eagerly watch how they develop.
I think that development of żabka nano is a huge step for autonomous stores in Poland. I tried it myself and the experience was very satisfying. It would be great if they added option to buy an alcohol after presenting id in the future.
The most impressive for me is that now there are more than 50 locations of Żabka Nano. To compare it for instance there are only 48 AmazonGo locations over the world.
We can discuss Żabka’s business model and many more, but what requires admiration is that Żabka is one of the most innovative companies in our region.
But also shame on Żabka cause lack of cigarettes and alcohol in Nano.
I think Zabka Nano is a great idea especially how effective it is and people already knwo more or less how to use self checkout as its been popularised for quite some time now.
Big concern of this type of stores is shoplifting, speaking from my own expirience there are situations where somebody waits for you to leave the store and enters before the doors close with his face covered and in this situation there is noting you can do unfortunetly. Also this hot-dog making robot is only in one żabka nano near Library of warsaw university.
Żabka has a huge market share on small grocery shops in Poland and with such innovations it can gain even more competitive advantage. Nano shop is a modern technology and definitely raised some interest of the public. I think it is the first step for autonomous shopping without human work. Personally, I tried Żabka Nano and I find it interesting and good experience. I am looking forward for new Żabka innovations. Interesting article.
Żabka’s use of technology and innovation to enhance the shopping experience is really outstanding. I also had a personal experience with Żabka in Czech Republic and it was nothing like our polish one.
The author did a really good job on describing thoroughly żabka’s latest tech.
I am very grateful for that.
Żabko Nano is definitely a great addition to the already existing stores. One of the main benefits is that it’s open 24/7 meaning that you can always just buy the products you need, even if all the other stores are closed. Żabka Nano is much more convenient than the other stores, as you can just walk in, take the products you need and leave. Everything is done automatically and you don’t even have to interact with anyone.
I think it is really innovative but still in the early stage era. I believe it is not the quickest service on the market and compared to non-autonomousmous one I think it might be even slower when I want to buy one item. Good thing about its low popularity in Poland is that there are no queues. The only thing that wonders me is the security and the probability of getting locked inside. What if a homeless person sneaks inside and stays there for a long time?
Żabka Nano is a great innovation. At least in Poland. Having been there myself, I can say that it is overall less time consuming, due to the lack of the queues, and even the process of getting in was surprisingly fast- I thought I would have to put all my credit card info, but it only requires you to put your card near the reader. I have to also add, that while I cannot buy beer, i do like the thrill of taking random products and just leaving the store (It feels so strange).