The first automatic Coop (the most important Italian retailer) store called Coop Qui (here) is situated in the car park of a large electrical component and semiconductor company in Catania, STMicroelectronics. Objective: allow the 4000 workers, average age 40 years, many of whom work in research and development, to do their shopping and collect it on site before going home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Coop Qui is a kind of vending machine enabled for e-commerce and with a wider range of goods. Employees, in fact, have two options: they can make their purchases directly on site or online via a PC, tablet or smartphone, “selecting” from a virtual catalogue that offers food, personal hygiene and household products. The store was created by WIB, acronym for for Warehouse In a Box, a Sicilian start-up which developed the innovative concept. The multiple withdrawal technology patented by WIB allows an entire automated shopping list to be managed with a single withdrawal of several items, regardless of their shape, weight or fragility.
An experiment for Coop Sicily, certainly, but if it “works” it could be replicated elsewhere. “We adopted the initiative of WIB, a young start-up which, starting from Sicily, has managed to receive worldwide recognition, with conviction. A company that demonstrates that the skills and creativity of this region can also be expressed in a sector of great innovation. With this initiative, Coop intends to make a concrete contribution to the entrepreneurial growth of Sicily and to offer to an extraordinary company the experience and the name of the largest Italian distributor – said Lucio Rossetto, CEO of Coop Sicily -. We are grateful to STMicroelectronics for having been the first to provide space for this experimental project. Coop hopes that this model will meet with the approval of consumers and that it can be replicated in various locations in Catania, Italy and worldwide”.
WIB Machines in fact make it possible to set up a real store with limited investment and low operating costs. “We are proud – said Nino Lo Iacono, CEO and founder of WIB – to have reached the market with a very innovative, high-tech solution. The feedback from ST employees has already provided us with -suggestions for improving the quality of the service”.
