I’m a retail manager. I’ve managed a lot of places.

One thing I’ve always said is “we could probably leave a bucket here for everyone to pay as they left. 9 out of ten people would be honest, the tenth tho would take the whole bucket.”

I don’t think it would work in America. Also with current events I no longer feel 9 of the ten would be trustworthy anymore.

Depends on what's being sold and where its at.

People set up honor systems like these for plant seeds, books, wood logs, etc and they all seem to work alright.

I couldn't see it working well for anything easily resellable (with decent profit) as someone would likely exploit it.

Won't work in most cities.

This is common enough in very small towns not on main highways, though, where everyone knows everyone, and many of them are relatives.

I imagine in mob-controlled neighborhoods, in cities, where everyone knows who owns the store and no one would dare steal from it, it would work. But, that might be fiction.

I suppose statistically it would work - the lowest rank in the Honest Tea trial was 80% honest in DC… but then they stole his bike too.

https://wtop.com/news/2013/07/dc-proves-its-dishonesty-to-honest-tea/

In many ways a vending machine is precisely that.

If there are desperate unhappy people it will probably not go well. Our society produces a lot of desperate, unhappy, people.

I don't think there is any legal issue with it. Go take a drive out in the country and you will find farmers with a little stand outside where they put produce out for people to buy every day, and they leave a box got people to put cash into. (And just today, I saw one that took Venmo ...)

The real issue might be that it would be impossible to get insurance in some places without an employee minding the store.

some people with farms near a road will have an unmanned produce stand with an honor box and they have been around for awhile. I think the higher the density the populace the more likely loss by theft gets to high. Likely there is some no matter where but it can be so low as to be virutally non existent. Even manned stores have loss from theft so it makes sense to do as long as the loss is below a point making it worth while. I actually wanted to get a multiflat in the city when I was younger that had a first floor storefront and do something like this.

In my area there are people with farms who have a kiosk at the end of their road where they stock what they have available — eggs, flowers, cheese, pottery, etc. and a suggested price list, plus a secure drop box.

Seems to work out OK for them. Not sure I’d want to try that in a more populated area, but I HAVE also seen neighborhood libraries in urban areas that seem to survive (box at the end of the walk containing books to share; you can take a book and return it to any of the boxes in the area, and are encouraged to add new ones).

Amazon tried and they're all closed now I believe.

Vending machines.

You’re looking for a vending machine.

This worked pretty well with farms/co-ops in Vermont. Everyone had a stand. You could also leave a IOU if you didn't bring enough coin. Then again this was a town of like 600-700 people. When I phrase it like that, I mean people would pull over and give you a ride to where you're going. Everybody knew everyone. 🙃

Yes. You’re likely to see one at a busy airport.

You get in by presenting a form of payment. You take what you want and walk out. You get charged for it.

I've seen this in airports behind security. It may work in a small, everyone literally knows everyone else, town but I don't think it would work anywhere else.

You're putting a lot of trust in people having an honor system

No, people would use it as a toilet and not one of those clean ones.

Doubtful, IME Americans lack honor and respect at a significantly higher rate than other countries.

I've seen similar in Canada (though not fully public), but never saw anything like that in ~25yrs in the US. I think US culture is too greedy for it.

I saw one in China almost a decade ago. QR code in at the door and grab whatever you need, your account gets charged with whatever you take. Wasn't very big, maybe 4m X 4m. Had cold drinks and snacks. Was more a gimmick for me than something I would search out to actively use.

No.

you would have to put them in a vending machine style setup, so it cant be stolen right off the bat.

I've seen some unattended stores in the US, kinda. There's a person there, but they don't ring people up full time. Usually they're cleaning or stocking. There's no honor system, a machine visually scans and weighs your items and rings you up that way. The person only gets involved if they need to check your ID for alcohol sales or if there's an error with the machine.