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For the customer, it means a drive-through shopping experience that offers any typical “c-store” item, such as beer, cigarettes, milk, bread or candy. For the c-store owner, it means about 60% savings in labor, utilities and insurance costs, and nearly eliminates the possibility of lost inventory.

SmartMart has been testing its first unit at the corner of White Station Road and Park Avenue in East Memphis since May 2003. And while some complain the units cut out the human touch in doing business, SmartMart President Mike Rivalto designed the concept to solve a very specific need.

When his wife had a child in the 1980s, Rivalto says she wondered why there couldn’t be a way to do your shopping from the car without disturbing a sleeping baby or carting the kids around the store.

“These days, everyone is overscheduled,” says Rivalto, who also owns four Thermo King refrigerated truck dealerships, a truck and trailer parts dealership, and an optical company. “If there’s anything that you can do to make somebody’s life a little simpler, keep the kids buckled in and pick up eight or ten items for dinner without leaving the car, people will love it.”

After 12 years of planning and designing and nearly $10 million of Rivalto’s own money, SmartMart began an earnest push in August to sell the units. At $750,000 apiece for delivery and installation, the units are attracting interest from Kroger, Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Circle K, among others. In fact, SmartMart is in talks with a company that wants to put two units in Memphis and follow with more in Nashville and beyond.

After buying a unit, storeowners will pay an annual fee for SmartMart to maintain the age verification system for beer and cigarette sales and provide some maintenance and any needed security monitoring. This charge could be around $50,000 if you assume a fee of 5% of annual sales, which is about $1 million for an average c-store, says SmartMart’s Trip Thornton.

Ages are verified through a teleconference link via high speed Internet that allows customers to talk to live call center employees. A picture of the customer’s ID can be quickly sent for verification if just looking at the customer won’t do, Rivalto says. The call center also can be alerted and respond to problems with purchases or security issues.

The store is a combination of vending machine and warehouse technology that is operated by a touch screen kiosk. The 53-foot-long chilled building has four shopping bays, white walls and no win- dows. Customers can use cash or debit/ credit cards.

On the inside are stacks of slanted racks that deliver products to a conveyor belt. The belt then delivers the products to a drawer below the kiosk screen. Items are categorized into 20 levels of fragility, and the heaviest items go in first.

With bar code scanners keeping track of every move, inventory is always updated, making it easy for the storeowner to spot trends, Thornton says. At SmartMart, the biggest sellers are 12-packs of Bud Light and Marlboro Lights Kings in a box. That’s data that can help a storeowner make buying decisions.

Also on-site are gas pumps, a drive-up coffee machine and an automated car wash. Coming soon: customers can buy a soft drink and have it delivered at the gas pump.

“We got you for a minute and a half,” Rivalto says. “We might as well sell you something.”

One drawback to the concept, arguably, is its high upfront cost. But another is the loss of human interaction, says Marylee Booth, executive director of the Tennessee Oil Marketers Association.

“I’m older, and I like the personal touch. I’m not a techie. If anything, I think it will really appeal to younger people,” Booth says.

Several times a week, Molly Dean, 18, a freshman at the University of Memphis, and her friends prove Booth’s point. She and her friends love the convenience and the prices, she says.

“Cigarettes are way cheaper, and water is way cheaper,” Dean says. “And my friend can get her favorite candy here—Junior Mints.”

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