The people behind a new type of convenience store in Co Wexford say it is the first of its kind in this country - a 24-hour, fully-automated vending machine-only outlet which has several staff but nobody behind a traditional counter or cash register.
The E-Kiosk has just opened its doors in New Ross and the owners say it has already had a positive response, with the many machines being restocked on a regular basis.
Located in the town's Irishtown area, the shop sells drinks, both familiar and exotic, sweets, chocolate, convenience foods like noodles and crisps, and milk which is bottled on demand and comes from a specialist dairy farm in Co Waterford.
The milk, incidentally, costs €1.70 per litre which is roughly comparable to branded milks in this country while the owners say their prices generally match up to what is on offer at traditional grocery shops.
"I was on my travels in the south of France about six years ago and saw a similar concept in a very rural setting," explained Tomás Young of Proserve Solutions, the technology company with New Ross roots who set up the shop.
"I just thought that kind of technology could work in Ireland in time, so we came back and developed our own proprietary technology to try and create a new retail experience," he said.
Shoppers use a machine to choose their products and pay, either using cash or cards, and then go to a different machine to receive their shopping.
The big change is that there are no counter staff.
Mr Young said: "I think people have been intrigued with it actually, because it's new technology and a new way of doing things.
"I think people have seen us all here over the last number of weeks so they know it's not a human-less experience and we're still here to help people, but it's just a quicker, more convenient way of doing a sale."
So they do not miss counter staff?
"Actually they've found the technology really interesting and the experience really interesting and it's become nearly a meeting place for people just coming in of an evening, getting a couple of items and having the chats. It's doing it a different way," he added.
About 15 people are employed to deal with E-Kiosk's technology and stock, as part of a wider amount of 80 employees who are involved with the Proserve company and its technology projects around the country.
"The town has really come in behind us. They've been fantastic and we're very appreciative of that, both in terms of coming in and supporting us but also because also a lot of our people are employed locally.
"There's a real kind of pulling together so to speak to get everyone to come in and experience this," he said.
While some may be wary of a shop with no counter, the local business community and the community at large is behind the concept, according to Seán Connick of the New Ross branch of County Wexford Chamber of Commerce.
He said: "It's a vote of confidence really from a commercial perspective, in the town.
"It's certainly innovative, it's creative, it's different which I think is what businesses have to be nowadays. We're looking at a whole new reality in terms of the challenges that businesses face."
The retail environment is changing at the moment, he pointed out.
Mr Connick said: "I think people are adapting and changing and that's an innovation that's happened.
"We've seen it with, I suppose to a more negative extent, in the rural communities with the closure of the local post offices and shops and that but I think there's still an element of, you know, service that people enjoy and people do like the one-on-one contact but there is always an individual and a person up there in the kiosk to help if there is a difficulty.
"I think they've identified an opportunity, it's different and we have to embrace that and I think going forward there will be lots of changes in commercial businesses and changes that we'll have to adapt to and changes that we'll go with."
