Labor shortages will become more serious in the future, particularly for night shifts. A single LAO manages multiple outlets from home, which means more productivity with lower cost.

They'll do anything except pay their employees a decent wage.

More options for socially recluse people to sit at home and use avatar robots to engage with the world. ( surely the robots will become autonomous before this first wave of robot controllers even get trained ) The ridiculous news the other day that the education ministry in Kumamoto approving a project that would kids to use robot avatars to go to school for them in their stead! What gives ? A nation of robots being replaced with actual robots? Turning the actual world into the metaverse? So many young Japanese people already so detached from the world, are these really the droids we are looking for?

Would prefer combinis to stick with their current trends of using young foreign imports trying to get a foot in the J door and make a go of it. When the timings right you can actually have a quick one touch conversation with them too! Always a nice feeling and many are super friendly and happy for the banter, at least here where I live here in rural Japan. Not many foreigners around yet in these parts so you have a chatski. Good ole fashioned human connection!

I wonder how that low paid day or night operator, responsible for many avatar driven stores, will take deliveries and refill shelves, clean toilets and parking lots or manages to clean the floor if some coffee is spilled, a wine bottle falls down or a drunken person enters and makes a mess etc. In theory you can automate and replace anything by virtual figures or robots, but in practice nothing of that will fully or sufficiently work, especially when a bit aside or far away from theoretical standard situations.

Wait until the snatch and leave going on in the US starts here. Hopefully not.

Ricky Kaminski13

More options for socially recluse people to sit at home and use avatar robots to engage with the world. ( surely the robots will become autonomous before this first wave of robot controllers even get trained )

I just used one the other day. There are no robots. It's just a self-checkout station with an LCD screen and video camera. On the screen is an animated avatar. It moves in sync with the attendant's voice. It scared the crap out of me when it started talking to me. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't care for it either.

At first, I thought it seemed like more work than necessary, and that they could just have the clerk there in person. But, then I realized that he could be overseeing multiple locations, which would save the greedy corporations a few yen.

Gary pen sounds dystopian mate. No thanks.

Just came back from a convenience store equipped with self-service check out. Long queues stretch around the shop, as customers struggled with first scanning the goods from their basket, there was no separate space to place successfully scanned goods; then trying to pay for them with different cards or Smart Phones, as cash was not accepted at all.

Not very convenient!

Just grab what you want and walk out. The avatar will not be able to stop you.

wanderlust

Just came back from a convenience store equipped with self-service check out. Long queues stretch around the shop, as customers struggled with first scanning the goods from their basket, there was no separate space to place successfully scanned goods; then trying to pay for them with different cards or Smart Phones, as cash was not accepted at all.

Not very convenient!

We should call the unstaffed ones "inconbinis".

Redemption

Just grab what you want and walk out. The avatar will not be able to stop you.

They can, if they can lock the doors remotely. And, of course there's the lasers and tranq darts.

when your greed is coming to very next level...

Gradually decreasing the quality of service until people stop considering the store convenient enough to use, then bitterly complain that profits are dropping.