Meet the Hougang robot cashier

Published on 4 Nov 2016 2:49:11 PM

The owner of a provision shop with no shopkeeper in Hougang, Singapore, places trust in customers' honesty.
At a void deck below a Housing Board block in Hougang is a provision shop but, unlike many others, no one mans it.
A handmade cash register at the front of the shop displays instructions on how to pay for items: check the price tag, show it to any one of the shop's eight closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and place the money into a slot. To get change, press buttons on the register to either get $1 or $0.10 back in coins.
The "shopkeeper-less" store at Block 242 Hougang Street 22 is owned by Mr Alex Song, 54, who runs a clothing store town and got into the provision shop business in June 2015 "with no experience", he said.