The first smart convenience store, without employees, launched in 2017 in Dixville, Estrie, which aimed to keep this type of business in small municipalities, did not fulfill the promises.
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After several relaunch attempts, the Dixville Solidarity Cooperative’s smart convenience store closed its doors two years ago and the assets went into liquidation in July 2021.
The innovative concept that members of the convenience store have an electronic key and can help themselves and pay for their purchases 24 hours a day has failed.
“The civic force, in Dixville, is not sufficient to maintain the rate of inflow of money necessary to repay our loans as provided for in the agreements, within 5 years”, declared the president, Cynthia Corbeil, when she had to put the key under the door.
Yet it was a promising solution for this village of approximately 730 inhabitants where starting a traditional convenience store was not financially viable.
INTEREST HAS DECREASED
Initially, 150 members contributed $100 to set up the convenience store. “We had great support from the population,” comments Ms. Corbeil, who admits that interest has waned. We have had failures […] There was always a disaster.” The new technology for making computerized payments has been slow to be functional. The supply of stocks became cumbersome for the volunteers to manage when it was not the fridge that was breaking.
“People had in mind that it didn’t work and they were hard to convince to come back afterwards, especially since the products were sold a little more expensive than elsewhere,” says Dixville’s general manager, Sylvain Benoit.
The municipality, which provided recurring funding of $10,000 during the first years, finally turned off the tap.
Unable to honor its financial commitments, the co-op sold its assets to pay off its impatient creditors. Citizens have acquired the building that serves as their home.
TREND IN URBAN CENTERS
Despite this failure in this village, small 100% self-service markets are now emerging in urban centers where there is no shortage of customers.
This is particularly the case of the few Aisle 24 markets – found in Montreal and Toronto, among others – where a mobile application allows you to unlock the door of the convenience store, scan its items and pay with a card.