Carrefour is expanding its network of unstaffed retail points. In the Belgian city of Charleroi, the retailer has brought two new BuyBye modules into service inside the local hospital.
Three further units are to follow in Lyon, delivered together with Carrefour France. That takes the company to twelve sites in total.
Two modules, two audiences in one building
The two units in Charleroi are configured differently. At the hospital reception sits a module with four refrigerated doors, open to staff, patients and visitors. A second module with three refrigerated doors stands at the entrance to the operating theatre block. According to Carrefour, it is aimed at the 200 to 300 clinical staff and technicians permanently assigned to that area. The idea: access to food without having to step away from a shift. Both modules are accessible around the clock.
They are run directly by the franchise partner that already operates the Carrefour Express in the same building. The range is built around speed and freshness: ready meals, salads, sandwiches, complete meal solutions and a selection of sweet and savoury snacks. Carrefour says it keeps prices competitive for clinical staff and visiting families alike.
Shift-work locations rather than high-street sites
The BuyBye network has been aimed from the outset at places with heavy footfall, unusual working hours and shift patterns. They include Carrefour Belgium’s head office in Zaventem, a Carrefour Express in Yvoir, the Ibis hotels at Paris-CDG and Brussels-Midi, the NATO SHAPE base in Mons, MontLégia hospital in Liège and the Corda Campus in Hasselt. The two units in Charleroi now join them, along with three sites in Lyon – the city’s railway station and airport – which Carrefour has so far announced.
Carrefour calls the format mature
Arnaud Lesne, innovation director at Carrefour Belgium, describes the twelve-site milestone in the release as evidence that the autonomous retail model has reached maturity and viability. Moving into a hospital, he argues, illustrates what the company is pursuing with the format: using technology to bring fresh food at a fair price to places a conventional store cannot reach.
