My Surreal Experience: Shopping at an AI-Run Store After Riding in a Driverless Car

In San Francisco, a groundbreaking experiment may offer a glimpse into a future where artificial intelligence (AI) significantly influences everyday life. This intriguing scenario is unfolding as AI technology takes a prominent role in both transportation and retail experiences in the city.

On April 25, Sharilyn Neidhardt, a Picture Editor from New York City, experienced this AI-driven reality firsthand. She opted for a ride in a Waymo, the popular driverless car service in California, to visit Andon Market—a cutting-edge retail store powered by AI, located in the bustling center of San Francisco.

For the next three years, the operations of this quaint novelty shop on Union Street will be overseen by an AI known as Luna. This digital manager curates a unique assortment of gifts, ranging from candles to books about science and the internet, offering patrons a distinctive shopping experience.

Many, like Neidhardt, have been drawn to Andon Market by curiosity. She remarked, “I had heard about the shop and wanted to see it for myself.” During her visit, she noted that other customers seemed similarly intrigued, primarily by the AI aspect of the store.

This experiment hints at a future where AI could increasingly become a fixture in our daily routines, shaping how we move and shop in a rapidly evolving world.

She was greeted by the store’s only human counterpart, Felix Johnson, who was overseeing the boutique, cheerfully welcoming shoppers, and correcting any mistakes Luna made – like charging Neidhardt twice for the same $14 Dandelion Chocolate bar. 

In order to purchase anything, one had to pick up a device that looked like an ‘old-fashioned Bakelite telephone’ to talk with Luna about what they wanted so she could add it to a digital shopping cart for checkout. 

After making her purchase, Neidhardt left the store with her chocolate bar. 

Andon Market, an AI-powered boutique, opened in San Francisco in April. It is run by an AI bot called Luna and has a few human workers, like Felix Johnson, to help her out 

The store’s selection is handpicked by Luna and has an odd selection of candles and books 

This time, however, Neidhardt opted to call a Lyft rather than a Waymo. 

‘The Waymo freaked me out and was more expensive,’ she told the Daily Mail. 

The Waymo cost the New Yorker $30.26 with no tip for a 1.62-mile trip, while the Lyft cost her $18.59 for a 2.9-mile journey, including a tip for the human driver. 

At Andon Market, Luna does more than just take your order and check you out, she also handles inventory, Felix told Neidhardt, but it seems the AI bot has some learning to do. 

‘Like one-third of the inventory seemed to be candles,’ Neidhardt told the Daily Mail. 

‘Felix told me they were blending in more products with a human touch, including human-made art and fancy branded granola.’ 

But when Neidhardt visited, her options were endless candles, a book called What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, and expensive pizza oil, among other items. 

‘It was difficult for me to picture the ideal customer,’ Neidhardt said of the selection. 

 In order to make a purchase, customers had to talk into a phone to tell Luna what items they wanted added to a digital checkout 

Sharilyn Neidhardt, of New York City, visited the store on her recent trip to California and wanted to stop by the market to ‘see it for myself.’ She was surprised by the amount of candles the store sold 

The exterior of the California store does not appear to give any hints that it is run by AI

Andon Market is ultimately an experiment to see how AI would handle running a store, its creators, Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund of Andon Labs, which is known for its AI vending machines, have said. 

‘Our company is a research company that is trying to spread awareness that AIs are way more than just chatbots,’ Petersson told the Daily Mail. ‘And how big the implications for society will be, if the models continue to improve at this point.’ 

Luna is powered by Claude Sonnet 4.6, and she decides what products are stocked, and even decided what the logo and color of the walls would be, its creators said. 

Petersson and Backlund pay $7,500 a month in rent for the space and gave Luna a $100,000 budget in a bank account.

After that, Luna built the store: Finding contractors and painters and even did the hiring for the human position. The store opened in April.

There has been some kinks in the experiment, such has Luna’s immense love for candles and that she purchased 1,000 toilet seat covers for the employee bathroom, Petersson told the Daily Mail. 

When asked the inspiration behind the bizarre stock available, Petersson laughed as he told the Daily Mail: ‘You’ll have to ask Luna.’ 

The AI wasn’t given any instructions and was left to be completely autonomous. 

Felix was hired by Luna, who also decided the marketing, the wall colors, the logo, and the items available for purchase 

Neidhardt also took a Waymo, a driverless vehicle popular in California, to get to the store – an experience she wouldn’t opt for again

‘We didn’t force it to buy some specific items, we just let it do whatever it wanted, and this turned out to be the thing that it went for,’ Petersson told the Daily Mail.  

Luna also botched the schedule, causing the store to be closed for three days. 

And Luna isn’t the greatest entrepreneur by any stretch of the means either, as she’s currently in the red and is expected to continue to bleed money, Petersson told the Daily Mail. 

However, the co-founder believes Luna will be profitable by end of the three-year lease, as AI continues to involve and improve, and therefore, Luna will too. 

‘We’ll switch it out as soon as new models are released,’ Petersson said of Luna’s Claude model. 

The Andon Market creators said they aren’t doing this to make it the future, but to see how it works, as they believe the AI boom will continue and the future will be shaped by it. 

For Neidhardt, she doesn’t see it being implemented across retail stores nationwide, or at least not in its current state. 

‘From my perspective, it seemed to barely work in San Francisco,’ she told the Daily Mail. 

Andon Market is ultimately an experiment to see how AI would handle running a store, its creators, Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund of Andon Labs, said 

‘I can see it working better for a bookstore or something with a broader selection of products and a specific clientele that would seek it out. Luna seemed superfluous for a generic boutique.

‘Maybe one day this will seem as normal as ordering from Amazon does to me today. But I was pretty freaked out by the driverless car ride I took to Andon Market, and I would much rather chat with Felix than interact with Luna.

‘But I’m a person who collects vinyl records and makes oil paintings so I may be old-fashioned.’ 

The experiment, however, isn’t meant to convinced anyone that this is future, but to have customers pause and reflect on how much they want AI in their life. 

Petersson recognizes AI is moving swiftly and humans don’t fully understand it quite yet. 

‘I think there’s a strong argument to be had about having a pause for a while, while we figure out why they behave in a certain way and try to understand them, so that we can control them better.

‘I think that’s quite reasonable.’ 

Luna, whom Petersson described to be similar to a ‘child,’ is still learning the ways around its first big job and working out the kinks. And like all AI models, its rapidly improving and changing.