China''s convenience stores no longer need people
中國的便利店不再需要店員
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.
去年亞馬遜發布無收銀臺零售店的時候承諾零售世界將會發生一些令人驚異的事情。然而，在“萬物商店”仍然沒有向更多的公眾開放的時候，中國的初創企業并沒有固步自封。
“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.
“無人”或者自動售貨商店都不是新鮮玩意兒，但互聯網公司已經設法用最新的技術使它恢復活力，就像最近的共享單車。它們最早出現在自動售貨機上，這種機器在世界各地都能找到。在日本，自動化已經提高到幾乎極致的水平，每23人就有大約一臺自動售貨機，每年的總銷售額超過600億美元。較高的勞動力成本，昂貴的房地產等等幾個原因促成了日本自動化商店的巨大普及。
Why China? Why now?
為什么是中國？為什么是現在？
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.
不像它的鄰居，自動售貨機還沒有在中國全面開花。但類似自動售貨機在日本大受歡迎，這些機器也開始在中國扎根。
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.
經過幾十年人口紅利推動的經濟增長，中國現在在一個類似于日本老齡化社會的位置，即勞動更加稀缺和昂貴。在城市地區，人口密度高，土地和人工價格昂貴，與租用昂貴的空間相比，自動售店和商店更受歡迎。
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.
除了人口結構的變化，中國的新崛起的癡迷的技術創新使得這個國家很容易適應“新的東西”。此外，無處不在的移動支付和O2O服務的結合力量使中央王國為技術支持的零售解決方案做好了準備。
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.
事實上，在過去幾年里，中國的幾家公司在亞馬遜去年十二月推出亞馬遜GO網站之前，一直在迅速增長。像Ubox和Gump Come等自動售貨機廠商知道他們在操作交互式自動售貨機開拓O2O的努力，這使得客戶可以通過他們的移動應用程序在自動售貨機進行購買。
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.
當然，自動化趨勢不僅影響到食品雜貨店的購物，也包括全自動咖啡機的“新零售”行業，甚至是新鮮果汁機，迷你卡拉OK和迷你健身亭。
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