DENVER -- Choice Market is developing a grocery and convenience-store hybrid with online ordering and frictionless checkout options on the site of a former restaurant in Denver. Choice is open 24 hours and combines the store size of a traditional c-store with the product selection of a natural grocer and fast-casual restaurant.
The new format will open during the second half of 2019 and will include a 2,700-square-foot Choice Market, as well as fuel pumps, electric vehicle (EV) supercharging, a bike-share terminal, electric-scooter charging stations and solar collection on the canopy. Customers will have the option to skip the checkout process, order and pay ahead through the store’s mobile app, or checkout as they normally do.
Choice has partnered with Redmond, Wash.-based Ava Retail to enable frictionless checkout, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and the internet of things (IoT) to track customer purchases within the store.
“There's nothing more valuable than our customers’ time, and we are really excited to offer this new format, which allows them to combine several different shopping occasions in one stop, while providing them the option to skip the checkout process altogether,” said Mike Fogarty, founder and CEO of Choice Market. “If customers cannot make it to the store, we will deliver any of our products to their doorstep within 45 minutes. That is true convenience.”
Choice’s upcoming frictionless location follows an ever-increasing collection of similar mobile-based concepts, in which customers either check in to the store or scan items as they shop with their mobile devices.
The announcement of the Choice opening follows closely on the heels of the second Amazon Go smart c-store to open in Chicago.
One Choice location is currently open in downtown Denver, with a second store under construction and slated to open in south Denver in second-quarter 2019. Choice will offer delivery of prepared foods, groceries and full-strength beer upon the loosening of Colorado’s 3.2% alcohol level laws.
Choice has brought on John Varsames as COO, who previously worked with Wild Oats, Whole Foods and Alfalfas. Design firm Chute Gerdman, based in Columbus, Ohio, is leading design efforts for the new store, and Choice is working with developer St. Charles Town Co., which specializes in reused urban spaces in the Denver area.
Photograph, rendering courtesy of Choice Market
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