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An epiphany at NACS

General editor Rick Redding went to the National Association of Convenience Stores exhibition skeptical about the kiosk industry's future. All it took was a kiosk that combined self-service and fast food to turn him into a believer.

October 7, 2002

ORLANDO, Fla. -- For a year and a half or so, I've followed this whole kiosk thing, trying to figure out where this so-called industry was going. The dominant theme for companies involved in kiosks seemed to be failure.

Oh, I knew about the tried and true success stories, starting with Kodak's PictureMaker, a device I actually used to make portraits of my three sons for their mom and grandma last Mother's Day. I have used self-checkout technology at my local grocery, but no one really calls those kiosks.

Rick Redding

So as I planned to join 20,000 convenience store executives at the National Association of Convenience Stores exhibition in Orlando, my expectations for the kiosk industry were low. The list of exhibitors included few Kiosks.org Association members, and my interest was chasing down some exciting ATM stories.

In order to get to Orlando, Fla., for the opening of the exhibit floor at noon Oct. 6, I scheduled a 6:15 a.m. flight out of Louisville. That's normally a bad move, given the anticipated security roadblocks at the airport coupled with a habit of enjoying a slow wakeup on Sunday mornings.

At 5:42, I entered the surprisingly crowded ticketing area, where a queue of about a hundred folks were doing the pick-up-bags, move-two-feet, set-bags-down routine. Panic set in. Now it was just 34 minutes until my flight left, and I estimated at least 37 before I'd be anywhere close to the front of the line.

A Delta Air Lines employee happened by, asked for anyone on the 6:15, and directed me to a quad of kiosks. Like magic, I pulled out a credit card (for I.D. purposes), inserted it in the slot, answered three questions, and took my boarding passes. It took about 30 seconds. Suddenly there was time to get to my gate, grab some juice and go over my NACS notes. Saved by the kiosk.

Becoming a believer

On the NACS show floor, there are plenty of temptations, none having to do with ATMs, kiosks or self-service. I skipped past the girls in the Hustler, Playboy and Penthouse booths, said to self it was too early for brews at Budweiser, but settled in for an entertainment spectacle at the Miller booth. Denny Dent, who creates amazing portraits before an audience with paint and fingers, threw up a realistic image of Bob Marley in about 15 minutes, or the time it took to play four of Marley's reggae tunes.

One digression later, it was time to get back to this self-service idea. And this was how I became a believer in the future of the kiosk industry.

David Henry of Intermedia Kiosks

A mere 10-by-20 booth in the technology section didn't look like much, but Intermedia Kiosks, of Owings Mill, Md., was the only exhibitor that actually had "kiosk" in its company name.

David Henry, vice president of business development, showed me a kiosk display he said was in the pilot stage at 17 Burger Kings. He showed me the company's vision, how you might walk into a Burger King, place your order at a kiosk, pay for it, and simply pick up your food. For the Burger King owner, that means at least one less employee to hire. And this one asks, in a polite way, if you want fries with that EVERY time.

The software seems to consider everything. Ordering extra onions is one simple step. Hold the mayo, just press the touchscreen. Cash or credit? It has a cash acceptor and credit card swipe.

As Henry told me, there's real value in it for the customer. You might say it's priceless. Imagine skipping the awkward ordering exchange with a minimum-wage teen in a process sure to save time.

"In four or five years, I think these will be everywhere," said Henry, whose company is privately owned. It provides the custom software, while NCR provides the hardware.

Intermedia has been around for a decade, starting with simple systems designed for grocery delis. The company has customers in convenience stores and hospitals, but this next prize is vast. When you think about the number of fast-food restaurants in America, and see how much simpler and better a self-service system is for both employers and customers, well, look out.

So that's my kiosk epiphany. I found some other kiosk applications that impressed me. At NCR, Mike Zwebber showed a bag of tricks, hinting that a significant-sized retailer is launching a kiosk deployment of magnificent size. Another retailer, Home Depot, is taking self-checkout to a new level.

Kiosk deployments are famous for failure. But that's about to change. When the average American consumer gets the opportunity to take over the ordering process, it's a change that makes the list of all-time technology advances that work.

Stay tuned.