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China''s convenience stores no longer need people 中国的便利店不再需要店员 Amazon has promised the retailing world something amazing when it released its cashierless store last year. However, the “everything store” still has yet to make it available to the greater public, but Chinese startups aren’t sitting on their laurels. Already, a few have ready-to-go products with comparable features. 去年亚马逊发布无收银台零售店的时候承诺零售世界将会发生一些令人惊异的事情。然而，在“万物商店”仍然没有向更多的公众开放的时候，中国的初创企业并没有固步自封。 “Staffless,” or automated stores, are nothing new, but internet companies have managed to reinvigorate it with the latest technology, like bike-rental have done recently. They appeared in the earliest form of vending machines, which can be found across the globe. In Japan, where automation has been raised to almost sacred levels, there’s approximately one vending machine for every 23 people, booking annual sales that total more than $60 billion. Several reasons contributed to the huge popularity of automated stores in Japan from a lower cost of labor, expensive real estate, and more. “无人”或者自动售货商店都不是新鲜玩意儿，但互联网公司已经设法用最新的技术使它恢复活力，就像最近的共享单车。它们最早出现在自动售货机上，这种机器在世界各地都能找到。在日本，自动化已经提高到几乎极致的水平，每23人就有大约一台自动售货机，每年的总销售额超过600亿美元。较高的劳动力成本，昂贵的房地产等等几个原因促成了日本自动化商店的巨大普及。 Why China? Why now? 为什么是中国？为什么是现在？ Unlike its neighbor, vending machines have yet to fully blossom in China. But the factors that propelled vending machine’s huge popularity in Japan have begun to take root in China. 不像它的邻居，自动售货机还没有在中国全面开花。但类似自动售货机在日本大受欢迎，这些机器也开始在中国扎根。 After decades-long economic growth fueled by the demographic dividend, China is now in a position very similar to Japan where an aging society has made labor scarcer and more costly. High population density and expensive property in urban areas also make automated sellers and stores a more favorable choice when compared with renting pricey spaces. 经过几十年人口红利推动的经济增长，中国现在在一个类似于日本老龄化社会的位置，即劳动更加稀缺和昂贵。在城市地区，人口密度高，土地和人工价格昂贵，与租用昂贵的空间相比，自动售店和商店更受欢迎。 Apart from demographic changes, China’s newly-minted obsession with tech innovations is making it a whole lot easier for the country to adapt to “something new.” Also, the combined forces of ubiquitous mobile payment and O2O services have made the Middle Kingdom ready for tech-enabled retailing solutions. 除了人口结构的变化，中国的新崛起的痴迷的技术创新使得这个国家很容易适应“新的东西”。此外，无处不在的移动支付和O2O服务的结合力量使中央王国为技术支持的零售解决方案做好了准备。 In fact, several Chinese companies in the sector have been growing rapidly in the past few years, even before Amazon launched Amazon Go in last December. Vending machine vendors like Ubox and Gump Come are known for their pioneering O2O efforts in operating interactive vending machines, which enables customers to make purchases through their mobile app. 事实上，在过去几年里，中国的几家公司在亚马逊去年十二月推出亚马逊GO网站之前，一直在迅速增长。像Ubox和Gump Come等自动售货机厂商知道他们在操作交互式自动售货机开拓O2O的努力，这使得客户可以通过他们的移动应用程序在自动售货机进行购买。 And of course, the automated trend not only affects grocery shopping, but also the whole“New Retail” industry which covers automated coffee machines, fresh juice machines, and even mini karaoke and mini fitness kiosks. 当然，自动化趋势不仅影响到食品杂货店的购物，也包括全自动咖啡机的“新零售”行业，甚至是新鲜果汁机，迷你卡拉OK和迷你健身亭。 …… |
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