HD Hyundai Oilbank gas station welcomes fully unmanned convenience store

A view of 'The Muin Kiosk Shop,' a fully unmanned convenience store at the Seongbok Hyundai Gas Station [HD HYUNDAI OILBANK]

On Oct. 26, “The Muin Kiosk Shop,” a fully unmanned convenience store developed by Urban Sharing Economy, began operations at the Seongbok Hyundai Gas Station in Yongin, Gyeonggi.

This is the first fully unmanned gas station convenience store in Korea.

In this 30-square-meter (323-square-foot) convenience store, over 200 popular items from various categories have been compactly displayed in a 7-square-meter space.

They plan to not only sell items commonly found in regular convenience stores, but they also aim to promote a business model that features products from startups and small businesses.

Urban Sharing Economy, a social venture company, has been advancing the development of a Korean-style unmanned sales system through support programs for small business owners and research and redevelopment programs by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Science and ICT.

HD Hyundai Oilbank, which ranked first in the gas station brand reputation index by the Korean Brand Reputation Index in October 2023, operates over 2,500 gas stations nationwide.

Notably, they have 352 directly managed stations, which is the largest number among domestic oil companies.

Leveraging their network of directly managed gas stations, HD Hyundai Oilbank is preparing for changes through various businesses related to gas stations, including electric vehicle charging, installing campervan dump stations, mediating of mini excavators and small electric vehicle sales, the opening of game-themed gas stations Parts Oilbank, and the broadcasting of public service advertisements in the gas station.

BY KIM SU-HYEON [kim.suhyeon4@joongang.co.kr]