How Autonomous Checkout Retail Can Help Businesses Save on Canteen Costs

Having an employee canteen for your business is an amazing perk. It relieves your staff from the trouble of finding a food joint regularly to get nutritious meals.

At the same time, running such a canteen comes at higher costs, more hiring and complexity of operations.

Worry not— for autonomous checkout retail is the solution for all such challenges. From overhead expenses to food spoilage and wastage expenses, it can save a lot of money. How? Let’s find out

1. Faster, Frictionless Service with Streamlined Operations

Traditional canteens are notorious for long queues and inefficient and slow services. Employees have to wait for a long time to get their food and check out, wasting precious hours that could be used to relax (during break) and work (at other times).

It’s not just about employees losing productivity but also about the need to hire more laborers (more expenses) just to deal with the major rush.

Long queues also discourage employees from buying meals in the canteen. Even if the canteen has prepared enough food, employees won’t bother to go there to eat. It is a waste of money, effort, and precious food!

However, the right automated checkout solution can dramatically change canteen scenes. These setups offer frictionless checkout, integrated with sensor fusion, high-quality computerized cameras, and AI.

Employees can enter with an access card, grab whatever they like, and leave. They’re billed directly to their wallet or account without needing a cashier, preventing additional expenses for hires.

This reduces unnecessary long queues and speeds up service. Moreover, more and more employees will prefer eating from the canteen, boosting positive culture and reducing unnecessary wastage.

2. Low Effort Maintenance and Operation

Running a traditional canteen requires a lot of work and brain. From managing cashiers, billing every item, to maintaining a cash register, POS systems, and receipt printers. Each of these also needs regular maintenance and upgrades, which is an additional cost.

By switching to autonomous checkout systems with cloud-tech, canteens can save a lot of their time and effort by simplification through automation.

Plus, since the canteen can eliminate the use of multiple traditional systems, there are lesser chances of breakdowns which can stop sales altogether.

3. Lower Operational Costs

With automated checkout solutions, canteens can become completely cashier-free. This helps them save more money at the checkout counter and eliminates overhead expenses for the position, including wages, hiring, and training.

They can instead transfer the existing cashiers to work in the kitchen, refill empty shelves, or clean the kitchen and canteen etc.

4. No Losses from Human Errors

Human cashiers are susceptible to blunders and mistakes, but a quality automated system won’t be!

For instance, a human cashier may bill an employee more, damaging the canteen’s reputation and significantly impacting sales. On the other hand, they may mistakenly bill them less, making the canteen lose money.

By embracing an automated checkout system, canteens won’t have to depend on human cashiers, saving money through accuracy!

5. Reduce Food Waste

Food waste is a major concern, with around 60 million tons wasted annually in the US. It is also one of the greatest reasons behind excessive canteen costs due to over-ordering of ingredients, preparing more food than required every day, and spoilage of raw ingredients or prepared food.

However, this scenario can be changed if canteens switch to autonomous checkout retail integrated with inventory and order management systems.

The system shows which food/meal options are the most and least popular among employees and how demand varies with weekdays, seasons, and festivities.

This will help them understand how much of a single food product should be made. With a rough idea about demand, they can plan accordingly.

The system can even alert canteen employees in real time whenever stocks run low for a specific food. They can refill the shelves and prevent employees from returning without buying anything.

6. No Theft

One of the greatest issues in canteens and business spaces is employee theft, which can be intentional or accidental, such as forgetting to scan items. This is another significant reason behind canteen losses.

With autonomous checkout retail, say goodbye to this trouble because there’s no need to scan any item.

The canteen can be accessed with specific modes of access (QR code scanning, credit or debit cards, or access cards). This ensures the system already has access to their respective accounts. The sensors will read it whenever employees pick an item and bill it once they leave.

Conclusion

Autonomous checkout retail is a game-changer for canteens. It saves costs and helps them drive more sales by offering futuristic convenience and peak efficiency. So, if you want to save money and earn revenues from your canteen, seek a service provider for autonomous checkout retail now!