The emergence of an unmanned supermarket at Huoshenshan Hospital seems to have given unmanned supermarkets a new mission and found new living space. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has put the whole country into a state of 'universal isolation.' In this context, the unmanned state seems to be the safest, and a series of unmanned facilities such as 'contactless' delivery have become the focus. With the official delivery of Huoshenshan Hospital, which represents 'China Speed,' the 'unmanned supermarket' that was rarely mentioned has been brought back into people's sight. On February 2, Huoshenshan Hospital was officially delivered. On the morning of that day, a special supermarket in the epidemic area also officially opened: no shop assistants, no cashiers, just scan and go after buying. A reporter from National Business Daily learned that the unmanned supermarket was mainly built by Hubei Zhongbai Warehouse and Alibaba's Taoxianda team, and the whole process took less than 5 hours. The emergence of the unmanned supermarket at Huoshenshan Hospital seems to have given unmanned supermarkets a new mission and found new living space. But it is worth noting that after a brief boom three years ago, unmanned retail seems to have entered a downward channel. By 2019, this term was rarely heard from investors and entrepreneurs. Now, does its appearance in this special period mean that the unmanned supermarket format has a chance to be reborn? **-01-**The Special Supermarket at Huoshenshan Hospital Like Huoshenshan Hospital, the unmanned supermarket can also be described as 'rapid' launch. It is understood that from receiving the construction order to successful completion, it took only 24 hours in total. The reporter learned that in order to quickly launch this special supermarket, all materials and equipment were carried by Zhongbai Warehouse employees on their shoulders, transported to the supermarket site within one day. During this period, the Caidian store urgently dispatched eight categories and more than 200 single items, including disinfection, sterilization, hand sanitizer, leisure food, beverages, paper products, hygiene cleaning products, and groceries, delivered to Huoshenshan by cart and manpower. The construction of the 'contactless checkout' system was completed jointly by Zhongbai Warehouse and Taoxianda, and the whole process took less than 5 hours. Opening such a store at this special time and place will inevitably be different from other supermarket stores. It is understood that in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus, this special supermarket is not equipped with cashiers. Customers can complete the entire purchase process by scanning codes with their mobile phones to pay after picking items. Not only that, after self-checkout, no receipt is generated, minimizing contact between people, and it also achieves 24-hour uninterrupted service. After previous market education, consumers now have a certain understanding of this special supermarket. Therefore, on the first day of operation, the supermarket successfully received more than 200 customers. In addition, the reporter learned from Taoxianda that in the upcoming Leishenshan Hospital, Taoxianda will also add this contactless checkout method to the 24-hour supermarket there. **-02-**Can Unmanned Supermarkets Gain 'New Life'? On the second day after the 'contactless checkout' supermarket at Huoshenshan officially opened, the reporter also noticed that Luckin Coffee also said it would accelerate the layout of unmanned retail smart terminals nationwide, encouraging 'contactless delivery.' At the beginning of January this year, Luckin high-profile announced its entry into unmanned retail, launching two types of terminals: the unmanned coffee machine 'Luckin Instant Purchase' and the unmanned vending machine 'Luckin Good Deal,' which will cover offices, campuses, airports, stations, gas stations, highway service areas, and communities, and complement and supplement the existing Luckin store network. Regarding the number of unmanned retail machines to be deployed, Luckin Coffee CEO Qian Zhiya said, 'The more, the better.' In fact, since Ma Yun proposed the concept of 'new retail' in October 2016, 'unmanned retail,' as a sub-concept under 'new retail,' was quickly sought after by the industry and beyond. With Amazon opening the world's first unmanned store, Amazon Go, at its Seattle headquarters, this new format quickly blossomed in the Chinese market. One day in May 2017, at the entrance of Auchan's Shanghai headquarters, a convenience store shaped like a container was quietly set up, named Bingo Box. Compared with traditional convenience stores, Bingo Box mainly sells standard products, such as beverages, daily FMCG, instant food, and other items that meet immediate needs, with no staff or cashiers. Unattended, 'scan and go,' big data to predict consumption habits, intelligent anti-theft identification systems... With many new technologies and the stories of 'low cost, high replicability' told by entrepreneurs, all unmanned retail formats were sought after by capital and giants for a time. According to statistics, in 2017 alone, more than 200 unmanned supermarkets were launched nationwide, and 25,000 unmanned retail shelves were installed. According to IT Juzi data, by the end of 2017, there were nearly 130 financings in the unmanned retail field, with a total financing scale exceeding 4 billion yuan, making it the undisputed 'money magnet' in the new retail track. However, in just a year or two, the once-glorious unmanned retail now seems to be ignored. When the industry entered a bottleneck, many analyses and summaries were made about formats such as unmanned supermarkets. The mainstream voice attributed the failure of unmanned supermarkets to: high cost and heavy model. Obviously, it seems meaningless to go back and discuss the technical reasons why the unmanned retail format did not succeed. It is worth mentioning that after the outbreak of the new pneumonia, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, people began to minimize direct or indirect physical contact as much as possible, but going to the supermarket to buy is still a rigid need, and it is difficult to avoid communication with cashiers. The launch of the contactless checkout supermarket at Huoshenshan Hospital has also made consumers, entrepreneurs, and investors re-recognize unmanned supermarkets. So, can unmanned supermarkets gain new life in this epidemic? Many voices believe it is difficult. However, in the view of Zhang Shule, an internet industry observer, although shortcomings such as the inability to effectively reduce costs in unmanned retail are still obvious, because of the previous large-scale layout and market education, it is not impossible for unmanned supermarkets to complete their true incubation in this crisis. In addition, Zhang Shule said in his column that the SARS in 2003 created a large number of e-commerce companies such as JD.com and Alibaba, and a large number of game companies, ultimately forming the two strongest money-making camps in the internet field: games and e-commerce, and giving Baidu two opponents, Tencent and Alibaba. This battle against the epidemic in 2020 can reshape the internet, and perhaps it will be a case of seeing the big from the small. Source: National Business Daily