At the National Automatic Merchandising Association show this month, moderator Bill Moxey, director of strategy and planning at PepsiCo Inc., made one thing clear at the outset: Thousands of locations will be adding unattended retail concepts and technologies in the near future as the consumer's preference for self-service is stronger than ever.
"Consumers use unattended retail so they can shop at their own pace," said Moxey, who presented findings from a recent PepsiCo consumer study.
McDonald's, as everyone knows, took a pioneering role in food service several years ago when it rolled out its self-order kiosks.
"What they found is consumers really want more control of the transaction," Moxey said.
"Consumers wanted to know exactly what they were getting… and they didn't feel pressure about somebody asking if they wanted a side."
The irony, he said, is that McDonald's customers purchased more from a kiosk than they did from a server.
