Newsroom
Greece has just welcomed its first fully automated supermarket, where shoppers grab what they need and walk out without interacting with a single cashier.
The store, branded Smartshop, opened in Nea Smyrni, southern Athens, and marks a big shift in how groceries may be sold in the country. Unlike traditional supermarket giants, this project comes from Core Innovations, a subsidiary of the Motor Oil group.
Here’s how it works: customers use their phones or special kiosks to enter, scan, and pay for goods, with no staff in sight. The company believes this cashless, cashier-less model will appeal to busy urban residents looking for speed and convenience.
Core Innovations isn’t stopping at one store. The company plans to gradually roll out the model across all 25 stores it gained after acquiring the Twenty 4 Shopen chain, along with two other Smartshops already operating outside gas stations.
Industry watchers say the idea could catch on for three key reasons:
- Convenience: no checkout lines and 24/7 availability make it attractive to city dwellers on tight schedules.
- Lower operating costs: without staff, stores can run leaner and potentially offer better prices.
- Tech-savvy customers: with more Greeks using digital payments and apps daily, the timing is right.
If successful, Greece could soon see a new wave of staff-free convenience stores popping up across the country—reshaping the shopping experience as we know it.
