With Amazon making headlines with its automated store, Japanese company Panasonic toughens the race as it rolled out a smart basket that automatically calculates bill and bags purchased items.

The concept differs in a way as Panasonic's system includes a specialized tag that is recognized by the basket to tally the bill. Then, when the smart basket is placed on the counter, its bottom automatically slides out and drops the items into a bag. The only thing customer is left to do is to manually pay for the bill.

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In a report by Pymnts, Panasonic has conducted test runs on the system at Lawson, a convenient store in Osaka, Japan, near Panasonic’s headquarter. Such platform, according to Lawson, allows stores to save more on labor costs.

However, the system is not completely automatic because customers still need to scan the products first before putting it inside their baskets. Yasuyuki Fukui, Panasonic business-development executive, said that although Panasonic wants to offer more convience to its consumers, it does not aim to completely digitize stores and eliminate employees, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Although the newly automated store Amazon Go is being dubbed as the store of the future, it still has a disadvantage as the system will remove cashiers as prime employees of a store, resulting to job loss for millions of people.

Fukui also stated that stores are places in the community wherein removing the human touch is not the best idea. 

"Our store is also a point of communication for neighbors, where customers can enjoy chatting with clerks," Sadanobu Takemasu, chief operating officer of convenience-store chain Lawson, said.

Lawson and Panasonic are expecting that smart basket system will be fully functioning in February 2017. 

TagsPanasonic, amazon go, Smart Basket, Lawson, Japan