Charles Crane/MDN Montanna Raynne, store manager for the Enerbase C-Store at the South Broadway Cenex, scans a section of products on Monday to demonstrate how the new automated self-serve system tracks items.

It’s hard to believe that convenience store shopping could be any more convenient, but state-of -the-art technology at the Enerbase C-Store on South Broadway has redefined the concept of “grab and go.”

The first of its kind in the state of North Dakota, the new store uses an automated self-serve system that requires a single card swipe after you walk through the door. From there, 233 cameras arrayed above the shelves and coolers actively track shoppers and their purchases, who are then charged after they head out the door with their items.

Montanna Raynne, one of the store managers for the store, said she was initially a little intimidated when she asked to run the unique location, but that the ease of use for the staff and the customers quickly dispelled whatever qualms she may have had.

“Once I got here and started learning about the software, I realized how user friendly it actually is. It’s a lot less complicated than I was thinking,” Raynne said. “This is a regular terminal. You always have to stop and swipe or tap your chip anyway. In this case it’s just like prepaying for gas.”

The technology behind the cameras is supplied by Amazon, but a dual firewall separates the tracking from Enerbases’s point of service system. Once a shopper has swiped their card, the cameras track them as a “blob” that is connected to the card, and no other data is collected and tracked other than their purchases and Enerbase rewards. One quirk of the system which Raynne said indecisive shoppers should be mindful of is items need to be returned to their place on the shelves or they will be charged for them.

“Really it does depend on people, just less people. Usually people are having to hire more help when there’s more cleaning or organizing to do. People have to put everything back where they took it from. If you pick it and put it back somewhere else, you still paid for it. It’s sort of self cleaning, which is really nice. It’s convenient for us, it’s really convenient for the consumer,” Raynne said.

A touch screen kiosk allows shoppers to tie an email account to their card to receive receipts and settle returns which further streamlines the experience.

“People are really on the go right now. It’s hard. I know some people are down to only 15 minutes or a half an hour for their lunch breaks so they need to come in here, run and run out, and not really talk to anybody. We all have those employers to talk to people more than others. I might be one of those, sometimes they need to bypass that person,” Raynne said.

Raynne said Enerbase wasn’t planning a wide rollout of similar stores throughout the state anytime soon, as it was important for the public to acclimate to the significant changes it brings to the shopping experience.

“I think it is such a change already. I’m thinking the Fargo, Grand Forks area might pick one up. As far as the Minot area, I think we want to stick to a little bit of change at a time. Really let people get acclimated – see who is going to be using this story and benefiting from it,” Raynne said. “But we have had a lot of people have a really positive experience with it.”