Ordering kiosks and self-checkout options could be coming to one of rural Iowa's most prominent retail businesses.

Casey's General Stores, the Ankeny-based convenience store chain, is exploring the addition of automated services to address a labor shortage in rural Iowa and other Midwest states where the company operates.

That could result in customers ordering pizzas and tenderloin sandwiches on touch-pad screens.

“In those rural markets, we have high volume locations,” Casey’s outgoing president and CEO Terry Handley said in an interview with the Des Moines Register earlier this year.

Automation can be an asset for the company and customers, Handley said. Self-order kiosks can improve accuracy and keep lines moving along. They also create opportunities to "up-sell" items.

"The one thing we’re not going to sacrifice is the quality of the product, so we have to balance that as well,” Handley said.

Automation also may help the company sustain its rural stores where finding workers can be difficult, he said.

Casey's has more than 2,000 stores in 16 states, but rural locations in the Midwest are the company's bread and butter. In 2016, the company said its biggest expansion opportunities were in communities with less than 5,000 people and surrounding metropolitan communities.

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A full-time store manager position at Casey’s in a rural community can be a competitive position, Handley said. But when it comes to part-time positions, retaining labor becomes much harder.

“There’s just not that many people to choose from, quite frankly,” Handley said.

Two-thirds of Iowa counties lost population between 2010 and 2017: 71 counties lost residents, while 28 saw gains. Nearly 700 Iowa communities lost residents.

Meanwhile, Iowa's unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the country at 2.4% in May.

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 2.4% in May. The state’s jobless rate was 2.6% one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% in May.

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“We have increased the number of Iowans in the workforce by 3,200 in May alone and by over 31,000 since last May," Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said in a news release. “Employers continue to face the challenge of finding a skilled workforce."

The cost of labor and low unemployment across the country is driving the push for automation in the convenience store industry, said Amanda Topper, associate director of food service research at Mintel, a London-based market research firm.

Self-order kiosks, cashless stores and self check-out are on the rise across the industry with no signs of stopping, Topper said.

Dave Swenson, an economist at Iowa State University, said he doesn’t see automation at Casey’s causing job losses in Iowa. Purchasing popular items like alcohol or tobacco will still require a person at the store, he said.

“Labor is only going to be a bigger problem over time. Technology is going to be one of the solutions,” Swenson said.

Casey's does not have a set date to begin implementing automation technology within its stores, Handley said, but it's just one of several innovations the company is exploring.

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It's also researching the possibility of adding larger stores that could offer expanded grocery options for rural community as well as grocery delivery services.

This summer it will launch a new loyalty program that tracks consumers preferred items and offers targeted deals for users.

After unveiling the rewards program, the company will examine self-order kiosks for its stores, Handley said.

Though Handley said the company understands not all consumers may be on board with using technology like a kiosk, innovation is an important component for convenience stories, which are often called "c-stores" in the industry.

"What I like about the c-store space is that it’s entrepreneurial," Handley said. "It’s a challenging business. C-store leaders, c-store companies, whether they’re independent, they still have an entrepreneurial attitude."