Urban Value Corner Store has partnered with JUXTA, a North Carolina-based technology company, to open up to five new autonomous micro-convenience kit-assembled stores, coined “Nest” stores, throughout Texas by the end of this year. The first of these new Nest stores is expected to debut by this summer. Urban Value Corner Store currently operates seven street-facing convenience stores on the ground floors of luxury apartment buildings throughout the Dallas metro, with two additional street-facing stores expected to open within the next two months.
These Nest stores — unlike the current Urban Value Corner Stores — will not have any human employees working at the site and will also not be street-facing. The micro-market Nest shops will instead be fully situated inside of the ground floor of an apartment building. The Nest shops will also be considerably smaller, at 300 s.f. The standard street-facing Urban Value Corner Store units are between 1,000 and 1,500 s.f. Most of the same items found in a typical Urban Value Corner Store will also be sold in these Nest markets, such as sodas, beer, wine, pastries, snacks, pet-related gear, over-the-counter medications and essential household products.
Urban Value Corner Store reached out to JUXTA as a solution to its difficulties with opening stores in certain apartment buildings, as the landlords and owners were unable to afford the high cost of employee retainment for its shops. The JUXTA process does not require a human employee to be on-site. The technology instead utilizes an AI computer vision system with advanced shelf sensors that can ultimately automatically tally up items that a customer picks up, and then present the final bill on a checkout screen upon exit. Payment can be done through a credit card, a debit card, or a mobile wallet payment, such as Apple Pay.
As for future expansion of its traditional street-facing units, Urban Value Corner Store expects to open more of its shops outside of Texas, and anticipates opening a store in the Charlotte, N.C., metro sometime this year. The convenience store brand is also eyeing future upscale apartment sites in Phoenix, Denver and throughout Florida.
The contactless Nest convenience store, built inside of high-end apartment buildings, should see a thriving future, not only because it can offset the ever-increasing minimum wage costs, but also because it provides peace of mind to apartment renters who may not want to exit their building to make a quick purchase. The concept is sure to be an attractive amenity in any apartment development.
If the name JUXTA sounds familiar, it’s because the company had been experimenting last year with standalone AI-assisted portable modular “Nomad” stores that are also employee-less. The 264-s.f. Nomad format is still being tested out by convenience store brands such as Golden Pantry Food Stores at its headquarters at Watkinsville, Ga., and the Colorado-based Choice Market at a Denver location. Choice Market also utilized the modular Nomad shop at a music festival last September in Buena Vista, Colo. JUXTA has indicated that it would like to expand its portable Nomad shop concept into such non-traditional sites as alongside EV charging stations, as well as car parks, colleges and campsites.
Urban Value Corner Store also has a history of utilizing new technology. Back in 2021, the brand partnered with Tortoise, the robot delivery service, and Vroom Delivery, the e-commerce company, to deliver its goods in actual large cooler-shaped robots. The robots, operated remotely by a human, traveled along a sidewalk at a speed of three miles per hour to transfer up to 100 pounds of produce to its final delivery destination. As of 2022, Tortoise no longer engages in last mile-robot delivery services.
