SINGAPORE — You won’t find anyone manning this provision shop at Block 242 Hougang Street 22. What’s inside instead is a simple experiment in workplace automation and unmanned services — trends hotly pursued these days by tech firms and multinationals.

Customers pick up the items they want from the shelves and “scan” them by placing them in front of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera installed in a cash register machine created by shop owner Alex Song. After calculating the total price, they make payment at the same cash register machine. If change is needed, customers press buttons on the machine to dispense change in S$1 or 10-cent coins.

Mr Song, 54, came up with this idea after poor footfall at his new shop in the quiet neighbourhood put him at his wit’s end. Last September, after three days of tinkering with circuits, the former Air Force technician of 12 years came up with this cash register machine, made mostly of wood. Since then, Mr Song has saved more than S$20,000 in manpower costs by doing away with the need for a shopkeeper.

From his “panicky” first day of unmanned sales of cheap provisions like drinks and snacks, his confidence has grown over the past year to include carrying a S$79 bicycle, S$20 prepaid top-up cards and S$20 ironing boards.

To prevent theft while the shop is open from 11am to 9pm daily, the machine has two CCTV cameras as its eyes, and two other cameras embedded on its body. Four other cameras are situated around the shop for added surveillance.

Mr Song says 98 per cent of his patrons are honest, and just 2 per cent cheat. So far, he has lost around S$50 a month to petty theft.

He said: “I have caught people of all ages. A lady who dressed up very nicely… A student with a look fitting of a scholar… An old man who looked innocent and helpful.”

When the sums collected and the items “scanned” don’t add up at the end of the day, he checks his CCTV footage, prints out pictures of the culprits and posts the pictures in his shop. Often, the guilty parties approach him to confess.

In one instance, a man who had helped himself to an additional S$1 returned the money. In another instance, Mr Song made a schoolgirl write “Sorry, next time I will not steal things” on a sheet of paper after she begged him not to report her theft of toys, sweets and coins — amounting to S$34, the largest amount lost in a theft incident at the shop so far — to her parents or the authorities.

He had, however, reported a case involving a group of teenagers to the police in June because the situation was beyond his “capability to educate”, he said. “I didn’t want to come across as a paper tiger to them. If they get away scot-free, it encourages the behaviour… It bothers me that there are people who don’t care, even after seeing the posters of other people I caught.”

Explaining why he does not open the shop 24/7 yet, he said: “I am still afraid that I will come back to an empty shop by morning. I am only half-confident (of people doing the right things) now, but that confidence is growing.”

Even though he is still making a loss, Mr Song believes in the potential of his concept. He is on the lookout for a shop with better location. “My dream is for the model to become a franchise,” said Mr Song. He has plans to improve his machine by giving it a voice to greet customers, and a hand to shake customers’ hands.

Ms Goh Siew Yee, 55, who tends a provision shop nearby said it will be some time before such a model can take off. She said pickpockets are a monthly occurrence at her own shop.

On Mr Song’s shop, she said: “It’d be a different story if the kiosk is more well-stocked, and the stakes are higher. Currently it would not attract many people because there aren’t many items on sale.”

For Hougang resident Lim Swee Lee, such a “weird development” in her neighbourhood is a reminder of the “hard times” in the economy. Said the 63-year-old retiree: “He is smart to come up with the idea so he can dramatically cut the cost of setting up a shop.”

Resident at Block 242, Mr Koh Wei Li, 43, who has been getting used to buying ice cream, drinks and crackers for his son at the self-service shop said such technology is “maybe inevitable in time to come”.