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Like all machines, even the best brains can prove faulty, especially during grocery shopping, when failing to purchase a needed item can send someone back to a site in disgust.
Since Nov. 15, residents of The Enclaves, 3900 Gateway Drive, and The Gateway Towers, 3600-3800 Sheaff Lane, have countered their imperfect organs and any hesitancy to mingle among the masses in supermarkets by using Shop24, a robotic convenience store capable of holding 200 items.
“I use it an average of three times per week,” Beth Schabacker, an inhabitant of the Buckingham Building, 3700 Sheaff Lane, said Monday morning. “It’s especially good when you’ve realized you forgot something and don’t want to run back out.”
She and fiancé Aaron Avalos call on the 6,000-pound, nine-foot-high, 13-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep device mostly for energy drinks but also could indulge in an abundance of other beverages, foods and cleaning and hygiene products ranging from $1 to $8. The couple and any other dwellers or visitors can make as many as seven selections per transaction, with cash, credit, debit or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards accepted. Situated only a few places from the living quarters, themselves a short distance from the intersection of Passyunk and Pattison avenues, the gadget gives overseer Ken Kaplan a second opportunity to interact with a residential community.
“We’re not trying to be a supermarket,” the director of development for Shop24 of Pennsylvania, a division of the Ohio-headquartered Shop24 Global, said. “We’re a convenience store and make consumer input a chief component of our outreach.”
The Bucks County resident, who opened Montgomery County’s Hatfield Village the day before christening South Philly with the automated and refrigerated repository, received contact from Jenkintown’s Lindy Property Management Co., with the local locations appealing to him because of their 616 apartments.
“Such a large number offers a chance to ensure that community members have a say in what we provide,” Kaplan, who is resetting the machine with an abundance of healthier options based on tenants’ feedback, said.
Supplying savory edibles stands to benefit the businessman and renters in obvious and not so apparent ways. Kaplan, who places 20 gift cards in each Pennsylvania location weekly, tends to the spots’ finances aside from the utility bills. Along with the endowments, which come attached to one’s choices, buyers gain a share of the revenue. As he inked a 10-year agreement with Lindy, Kaplan hopes to be able to help the company to spruce up an already welcoming expanse.
“I still do most of my shopping at traditional stores, and the stuff here is a little pricier than normal, but for the convenience and the quality, a few more cents is worth it,” Schabacker said while inspecting the mostly tax-included goods. “I can definitely see this becoming a big benefit to our little neighborhood.”
Opening a Shop24 in South Philly allowed Kaplan to make history, as Shop24 Global’s vice president of sales Jason Santoro said the unit is among the first American-made creations. The latter man’s entity gained ownership of operations in August 2010, modifying machinery and shifting the manufacturing from Belgium to Plano, Texas, where workers constructed the local two-month-old shopping option.
Though Belgium no longer holds proprietorship, it remains a popular place for expansion. Santoro stated that the nation and France will become hotbeds for production, solidifying his company’s European presence, which amounts to nearly 250 machines. European lands account for 12 of the 15 countries containing the mechanisms, with Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, the holder of 17 apparatuses, rounding out the list.
“We’re really turning our attention to America,” Santoro said, with California, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah as Shop24 locations. “We think we could do 40 to 50 units this year, with 20 likely to debut in February.”
The employee added the success of the devices, which, according to Shop24 Global’s website, have generated more than 150 million transactions, depends on location. Therefore, apartment complexes, college campuses and transportation hubs have made and figure to continue to make for ideal spots, with Lindy already counting The Enclaves and The Gateway Towers among its eight destinations for collegiate pupils.
“We want to help people to fulfill their needs, especially impulsive ones,” Santoro said. “College students typically require last-minute or even unforeseen items, so we want to be there for them.”
Admittedly far beyond her postsecondary days, Mildred Morehead believes young adults will benefit from the local machine’s offerings but does not see what will continue to draw people to what she dubbed “a glorified vending machine.”
“I give the creators the benefit of the doubt because it’s all still early, but I just think the prices are a bit steep,” the resident of the Canterbury Building, 3800 Sheaff Lane, said. “However, I see name brands, so I know that at least people aren’t being cheated. I’ve used it and know it’s supposed to be part of the wave of technological advances, so more power to those behind the scenes.”
Santoro said the items, ranging in size from one ounce to eight pounds, vary by location, with two planes of heavy glass providing protection from weather and seven cameras monitoring action. Any interested party could reach out to an affiliate for a machine, with Kaplan, who said operating one costs a six-figure total, noting demographics often sway decisions.
“It could seem as if we have a limited audience in residential spots such as the South Philadelphia location because only the inhabitants are likely to use them,” Kaplan, who aims to have five more locations by the end of the year, said. “This is why we communicate to residents through surveys and e-mails containing weekly specials. In theory, we all are hoping to further neighborhood convenience and are using practices to ensure that.”
“It’s neat to know we have one of the two Pennsylvania machines,” Morehead added. “The modern world strikes again.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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