Choice Market is going from small to mini, says Mike Fogarty, founder and CEO of the Denver chain with five 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot stores open in the city.
He’s developing a new Mini-Mart concept. The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, fully autonomous Mini-Marts are about the size of a shipping container, and they can be moved from a downtown neighborhood in Denver to a concert venue, hospital, train station or other locations, Fogarty says.
Choice Market has one cashierless c-store which launched in 2022 on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. It plans to open three to four more automated, Mini-Mart stores this year, Fogarty says.
The company in March announced it had raised nearly $10 million to support the expansion.
The Mini-Mart concept will help with the challenge of finding labor and is expected to prevent theft, which he says is getting worse. Choice Market’s stores have a couple incidents of theft per day, he says.
Leveraging technology, where customers scan a QR code or credit card before entering the market, also can decrease the persons’ anonymity, he says. Turnstiles and gates at the stores can also decrease the potential for theft, he says.
“If you’re not investing in innovation and leaning into the burgeoning technologies, it’s going to be tough to make it work long term in retail,” Fogarty says.
Technology and a fresh, curated food offer are the components that Fogarty uses to make downtown c-stores without fuel successful.