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Stop and Shop now has big, goofy-looking robots patrolling its aisles

34 points by scott_s 7y ago

I_am_neo 7y ago
Marty sounds like a big waste of money to me. At the very least they should have made it able to sweep or vacuum up what it finds on the floor.
- blcknight 7y ago
  Slip & fall claims are a big liability for stores like Stop & Shop. One avoided per year pays for Marty.
  - onemoresoop 7y ago
    Marty seems to be unreliable and produce a lot of false alarms. At some point crying wolf won't be taken seriously anymore and Marty's warnings will be ignored. An alternative to this is to hire a person to babysit Marty, follow him around the store and whenever there's a real spill to clean it up for him. /s
ineedasername 7y ago
I have one near me. It's intrusive & annoying, often blocking aisles and getting in a customer's way in a more dangerous fashion than the situations it's supposed to detect.
- anoonmoose 7y ago
  I also have one near me. I don't find it intrusive or annoying, and while it may get in a customer's way now and then I do not consider it dangerous in the least. I often find it sitting in front of a spill of some sort in produce trying to page a worker to come clean whatever it is.
  - jfk13 7y ago
    Are spills so common in grocery stores that this is really worthwhile? Sure, I've seen spills, and staff cleaning them up; I've even reported a spill to staff when it didn't seem to have been noticed yet. But it's hardly an everyday occurrence, in my experience.
    - mdorazio 7y ago
      Not sure where you shop, but I can't remember the last time I went to a "normal" (i.e. not Whole Foods level overpriced) grocery store near me and didn't see some kind of spill, mess, or hazard on the floor.
      - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
        Granted I specifically avoid shopping on weekends but I go to two grocery stores of a chain known for being value priced in a city known for being the opposite of upscale. I can't remember the last time I saw a spill or something on the floor that was actually worth avoiding, a green bean someone dropped, sure but nothing worthy of being called a "spill".
    - jadell 7y ago
      It sounds like you've never worked in a grocery store. I did for 6 years (all of high school and 2 summers during college.) When we weren't on the register, we were almost constantly mopping from spills and broken jars. In a store with older equipment, even the coolers in the produce and frozen department will cause minor condensation on the floors (most grocery stores have rubber mats in those areas specifically because it would be a full-time job keeping up with it otherwise.) It was certainly a t least a 2-3 times a day occurrence. The reason is pretty clear: grocery stores work on such slim margins that even a minor lawsuit from someone slipping or being cut on broken glass might be the end of the store.
    - mustacheemperor 7y ago
      When this robot was added to my hometown's grocery store my family was similarly mystified discussing it, but my father is an insurance professional and said it's a really serious liability expense for grocery stores to manage spills. People who slip and fall on legitimate accidental spills that weren't attended to promptly will sue the grocery, and there are people who will create spills to self inflict injuries for the same reason. His opinion was this kind of oversight is a no brainer for a grocery to reduce the liability overhead, but we also couldn't determine why that's better accomplished with a robot than cameras in the ceiling. Maybe to reduce perceived "big brother" vibes? Edit: I don't think your comment should be downvoted below the fold, because I think it's pretty natural for people unfamiliar with the operation of a grocery store to have a knee-jerk skeptical reaction to putting a robot in one
dougk16 7y ago
We have one in our local Stop and Shop. It has a creepy smiley face plastered on it. It's easy to say that it's super weird and suspicious, gets in your way, likely not cost-effective (at least for its ostensible purposes, who knows what slimey face tracking or whatever it might be doing), which is all true. But on a slightly positive note, my kids 5 and 7 love it. They pretend like it's a killer robot chasing us, which it oddly does seem to do. No matter where we go in the store it's always popping up around the corner. They play hide and seek with it, try to surprise it, hunt it down. Good training for Judgement Day. ;)
- harshreality 7y ago
  2020's turing test: a robot/drone is intelligent when you can no longer distinguish it from a murderous stalker / killer clown.
- spookware 7y ago
  Does it have an e-stop? Can you hit the e-stop?
  - dougk16 7y ago
    Not sure what you mean. Emergency Stop? I know it's bumped/tripped my kids on a few occasions, but they were asking for it. :)
    - spookware 7y ago
      It should have a big e-stop on the robot. This is to insure that if it runs over kids or malfunctions then you can shut it down.
onemoresoop 7y ago
"We are partnering on technologies that are not only helping us make the customer experience even more personal and relevant but also operate more efficiently and manage labor shortages in our markets" That's laughable. I wonder what's the top management's perception of working on the floor. From the article it seems that this robot is practically useless (glorified Roomba that doesn't vacuum) and am sure the management has a different plan in mind.
- HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
  I walked into my local bank branch last week and couldn't find a withdrawal slip. One of my vendors only accepts cash or check. I haven't used paper checks in years and the ATM only dispenses $20's: I hate carrying a thick stack of bills. All the slips had been removed from their usual place so I walked up to a teller to explain the situation. He said, "oh, we implemented a new paperless system." And then pulled out a withdrawal slip and filled it out for me. Me: "soooo, your new paperless system is paperless only for me I guess?" Him: "yeah, I guess they figured we needed something to keep us busy." So yeah, I can totally believe that management's perception is completely disconnected from reality.
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    I just use a local credit union but it hasn't occurred to me to even bother filling out a withdrawal slip for a long long time.
  - teilo 7y ago
    I forgot this was even a thing. Whenever I need large bills to buy something on Craigslist, I just walk up to the teller, give her my ID and Debit card, and ask for what I want. And that's just a normal bank, not a credit union.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  It seems pretty likely they are going to use it to keep track of stock (the article notes that the manufacturer intends the robot to have this capability).
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
noonespecial 7y ago
Wouldn't a few HD cameras on the ceiling and OpenCV be as effective at 10x less cost without getting in everyone's way?
- icebraining 7y ago
  That's what I was thinking. Seems like they will want to expand the capabilities, though, and that may be hard to do from ceiling cameras.
  - noonespecial 7y ago
    Unless its going to physically stock the shelves, motion is so expensive and difficult to maintain and cameras and other sensors are so cheap, I can't ever see a mobile robot being more cost effective than a sensor blanket.
  - VectorLock 7y ago
    It makes natural sense for the robot to move from identifying spills to cleaning them up. Lots of people say "well somebody just sees a spill and sends a human to clean them up" which doesn't work when the first person to detect the spill is the old lady who slips in it and breaks her hip.
    - jfk13 7y ago
      If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance that the first "person" to detect any given spill is the elderly person with the fragile hip, while Marty ambles around the other side of the store. So how many robots are needed per store if they're to have more effective coverage than asking the employees who roam the aisles tidying and re-stocking shelves, helping customers find things, fulfilling click-and-collect orders, etc., to also report spills? Or perhaps these stores don't have any such employees on the floor -- they're just an array of unserviced aisles, with some staff at the checkouts?
      - 7y ago
mikepurvis 7y ago
The long game is probably a litany of other vision-based tasks including things like stock management. Not knowing what is even on their shelves is a huge issue for retail— having oversupply is wasteful and can result in spoilage, and undersupply means lost business and unhappy customers. Note that there are other companies getting into this space: http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/stockbot/ http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/stockbot/ https://shelfierobot.com/ https://shelfierobot.com/
- sureaboutthis 7y ago
  In fact, that's exactly the purpose of the one in our local grocery chain's stores (Schnuck's in St. Louis). It scans the shelves for inventory. It's not as big as the one shown in the article and I don't see it all day, every day, though I wonder if I've just gotten used to seeing it and now am blind to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZBeV4hHAak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZBeV4hHAak
  - mikepurvis 7y ago
    Thanks, Tally was the one I was missing. Too late to edit the post, but yeah: https://www.simberobotics.com/ https://www.simberobotics.com/
mdorazio 7y ago
Ok, this article is kind of all over the place and seems to miss several things worth mentioning. 1) It's pretty obvious that the responsibilities of the robots right now are just in a proof of concept phase. I can pretty much guarantee they will be used for additional tasks once the test period ends and some software bugs get worked out. Tasks like (as the article mentions) price checking, stock checking, misplaced item identification, etc. that take up a lot of employee time. 2) Customers concerned about privacy because the robots have cameras seem kind of out of touch. Ever been to Walmart and looked up? There are cameras everywhere, recording all the time and I haven't seen anyone complain that it's creepy they're being watched (and recorded) by people in a security office. The only difference with the robots is that they're more noticeable, so people are suddenly aware that they're being recorded. 3) The article mentions organized labor, employee opposition to the robots, and profits, but doesn't actually connect the dots. Here's the thing about capitalism and automation: the more you raise salaries and improve working conditions, the more incentive there is for companies to automate jobs. That's basic cost-benefit analysis and margin-based thinking. If automating a job costs X and human workers currently make Y, but want Y to be greater than X, guess what? Those jobs aren't going to last very long.
- Timpy 7y ago
  I think your second point is interesting, in completely practical terms I have to agree with you, you're already being recorded. Still, passive surveillance from a security camera feels very different from a robot with perceived agency actively following you around.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
    I dunno. In some aisles at Walmart, they make it really obvious that you're being recorded. The camera detects you and a ring of lights around it turns on. Greater theft deterrent, I guess.
    - jstarfish 7y ago
      > Greater theft deterrent, I guess. The goal is to get you to look towards the source of the noise...which happens to be a lens aimed at your face. Now they have a clear photo of potential shoplifters.
crispyambulance 7y ago
It's like a giant "Clippy" following you around and doing nothing other than being annoying and intrusive. I don't need these in my life!
jasonjayr 7y ago
It's mentioned in the article Direct link to the company behind it: https://www.badger-technologies.com/ https://www.badger-technologies.com/ It seems like the primary focus of this device is inventory + planogram management. That it can also scan for spills + messes seems like an afterthought.
fatnoah 7y ago
You know what would be better? 2 more checkout aisles open. The ridiculous amount of time it takes to check out is the #1 reason I avoid that chain. It's not unusual to have to wait 10+ minutes to checkout because only 1 or 2 of the 15 checkout lanes are open.
- smacktoward 7y ago
  But that would mean having to hire more checkers, and no ambitious mid-level executive is going to get a promotion from doing something as mundane as hiring more checkers. (It may actually be the opposite of a career enhancer. "Hey, our expenses went up .37% last month! Find me the person who's responsible so I can fire him!") "Deployed and managed a fleet of autonomous robots", on the other hand, looks much sexier on the résumé. That executive is on the fast track to the C-suite.
  - stevenhubertron 7y ago
    OpEx vs CapEx
rishabhsagar 7y ago
Am I missing the point somehow? Why is this not implemented as a series of super high def camera disguised as surveillance cctvs? They could spot spills just as effectively, no?
Mizza 7y ago
> “It’s really not doing much of anything besides getting in the way,” said Kristen. She complained that the robot pages the store nearly constantly, over the smallest things—like a stem from a bunch of grapes—and it will go around in circles until an employee comes to clean the “hazard” up. “Right now he’s a glorified Roomba and he doesn’t even vacuum.” Market opportunity spotted - are there industrial Roombas for retail spaces? Even better if they can do outdoor sidewalks.
- cr0sh 7y ago
  > Market opportunity spotted - are there industrial Roombas for retail spaces? Even better if they can do outdoor sidewalks. It would have to work much better than a Roomba. Random cleaning won't cut it, it would have to be done in a methodical fashion. Could such robots be built, and be made safe and effective. Probably. But the price point is going to probably kill it. Think about it - this thing costs $35K USD - now you want to make it sweep things up and do it in practical manner, etc - that price is going to rise significantly. But - if you can do it, and keep the price low - then you might have a chance. It's definitely a space I'd love to explore, but I'm not a businessperson or a real entrepreneur (I definitely probably have all the parts needed to build such a robot in my shop, though - including more than a few old Roombas to boot).
zaroth 7y ago
I can’t for the life of me understand how vision related tasks should be done by roving versus fixed cameras. Even if you need higher resolution than you can get from a wide field of view, a fixed camera that can pan and zoom then? The only thing I can think of is there’s zero upfront installation cost, no need for a crew to wire anything. Ship the robot, plug in the charging station, and it’s off? Maybe the ancillary reduction in shoplifting, even if it’s not actually designed to monitor that, pays for the robot.
- StrangeDoctor 7y ago
  Here, it’s probably the shelves and isles. Cameras mounted high have trouble down low, front can’t see the back, etc. They probably don’t need down to the second data, and a dorky robot gets people talking about an otherwise forgettable store.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  They have the backend hooked into the PA system for announcements when it finds a spill.
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  Dense shelving can have a lot of blindspots, that's one of the reason those Amazon stores are absolutely plastered in ceiling cameras; that being said 700 CCTV cameras would probably still end up cheaper than the proprietary robotics system it seems they are using now
- sieabahlpark 7y ago
  Well for one they're easily replaceable, infinitely configurable, and don't necessarily require someone to watch them
function_seven 7y ago
If you work for a public company, you have the ability to get the Real Deal on their plans. From TFA: > Although Jennifer Brogan, Stop & Shop’s director of external communications, assured New Food Economy that the robot is not meant to replace workers, Ahold Delieze has explicitly told shareholders that the company is investing in automation and artificial intelligence to supplement or even replace human labor. Management lies to employees all the time about future plans, staffing levels, job roles, etc. But they can't lie to their investors. (Or, they usually share the worker-hostile plans more easily) So if you're curious about your company, dial into the earnings calls, read the investor relations press releases, etc. That's where you'll get the better info.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  I don’t think one needs to do all of that to understand that people prefer to spend less money than more money for the same thing. If you’re not expecting your employer to be looking into ways to reduce costs, just like everyone tries to reduce costs in their personal life, then I would say you’re intentionally oblivious to reality.
  - simongr3dal 7y ago
    Depends. A business can be focused on creating value for its shareholders and owners, or it can be focused on creating value for its employees and owners. If you don't view the purpose of a business as needing to extract and funnel wealth upwards it doesn't need to come down to spending more vs spending less, spending more might even further the goal of the business if you view its purpose as creating jobs for people. Essentially, it is possible to consider employees as an asset instead of a fungible commodity.
    - sokoloff 7y ago
      > A business can be focused on creating value for its shareholders and owners, What is the difference between shareholder and owner here?
    - lotsofpulp 7y ago
flexer2 7y ago
This seems like a waste of money on the surface. The concerns over privacy seem a little silly given the hundreds of CCTV cameras that monitor the stores already, though.
nvrspyx 7y ago
I was in BevMo a few weeks back and there was a similar robot. It had a screen on the front to look up what you’re searching for and it would bring you to it. I decided to give it a try since I was trying to find watermelon flavored liquor for the SO. I found some pre-mixed watermelon margarita on the screen and then it proceeded to bring me to the right spot....or at least it tried. On the way to the aisle and shelf, it clipped the corner of a chest-height shelf rack knocking over a ton of whiskey on the top shelf shattering on the ground. It was seemingly unphased by hitting the shelf, but right after ran straight into a ceiling height rack of shelves knocking over bottles of tequila. It just stayed there with its face buried in the shelves and simply said, “Can I help you find anything else?”, despite not being where the pre-mixed margaritas were. There was a single employee there working the register. When the whiskey crashed, everyone in the store just watched and then when it crashed into the tequila, the employee looked at the mess from behind the register, sighed, and then just continued ringing people up. This clearly wasn’t the first time she’s witnessed this thing make absolute chaos. I’ve yet to go back to BevMo since then, but I imagine they’ve gotten rid of it.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
cr0sh 7y ago
I'd like to know how the company behind the robot manages to get away with charging the cost of a small car for this glorified Roomba with a stick. I must be in the wrong line of work or something...
squarefoot 7y ago
Shoplifting aside, I am pretty sure those big funny eyes came after a meeting where they discussed how to keep the robot appearance on the right side of the uncanny valley.
smashd 7y ago
I work for a company that's in a partnership with Ahold Delhaize. While we were doing some in-store tests of our software product with them over a year ago, the topic of the robots came up. As they say in the article, the main purpose really is just to scan for spills and obstructions. That being said, I believe the primary driver is insurance-related. The stores are required (or perhaps given a discount as incentive) by liability insurance providers to regularly check the aisles for fall hazards, and the required sweep frequency is pretty high. In a big enough store you'd probably need to dedicate someone to it full-time--I guess in this case they opted for a googly-eyed robot.

34 points by scott_s 7y ago

Marty sounds like a big waste of money to me. At the very least they should have made it able to sweep or vacuum up what it finds on the floor.

blcknight 7y ago
Slip & fall claims are a big liability for stores like Stop & Shop. One avoided per year pays for Marty.
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  Marty seems to be unreliable and produce a lot of false alarms. At some point crying wolf won't be taken seriously anymore and Marty's warnings will be ignored. An alternative to this is to hire a person to babysit Marty, follow him around the store and whenever there's a real spill to clean it up for him. /s

ineedasername 7y ago

I have one near me. It's intrusive & annoying, often blocking aisles and getting in a customer's way in a more dangerous fashion than the situations it's supposed to detect.

anoonmoose 7y ago
I also have one near me. I don't find it intrusive or annoying, and while it may get in a customer's way now and then I do not consider it dangerous in the least. I often find it sitting in front of a spill of some sort in produce trying to page a worker to come clean whatever it is.
- jfk13 7y ago
  Are spills so common in grocery stores that this is really worthwhile? Sure, I've seen spills, and staff cleaning them up; I've even reported a spill to staff when it didn't seem to have been noticed yet. But it's hardly an everyday occurrence, in my experience.
  - mdorazio 7y ago
    Not sure where you shop, but I can't remember the last time I went to a "normal" (i.e. not Whole Foods level overpriced) grocery store near me and didn't see some kind of spill, mess, or hazard on the floor.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Granted I specifically avoid shopping on weekends but I go to two grocery stores of a chain known for being value priced in a city known for being the opposite of upscale. I can't remember the last time I saw a spill or something on the floor that was actually worth avoiding, a green bean someone dropped, sure but nothing worthy of being called a "spill".
  - jadell 7y ago
    It sounds like you've never worked in a grocery store. I did for 6 years (all of high school and 2 summers during college.) When we weren't on the register, we were almost constantly mopping from spills and broken jars. In a store with older equipment, even the coolers in the produce and frozen department will cause minor condensation on the floors (most grocery stores have rubber mats in those areas specifically because it would be a full-time job keeping up with it otherwise.) It was certainly a t least a 2-3 times a day occurrence. The reason is pretty clear: grocery stores work on such slim margins that even a minor lawsuit from someone slipping or being cut on broken glass might be the end of the store.
  - mustacheemperor 7y ago
    When this robot was added to my hometown's grocery store my family was similarly mystified discussing it, but my father is an insurance professional and said it's a really serious liability expense for grocery stores to manage spills. People who slip and fall on legitimate accidental spills that weren't attended to promptly will sue the grocery, and there are people who will create spills to self inflict injuries for the same reason. His opinion was this kind of oversight is a no brainer for a grocery to reduce the liability overhead, but we also couldn't determine why that's better accomplished with a robot than cameras in the ceiling. Maybe to reduce perceived "big brother" vibes? Edit: I don't think your comment should be downvoted below the fold, because I think it's pretty natural for people unfamiliar with the operation of a grocery store to have a knee-jerk skeptical reaction to putting a robot in one

dougk16 7y ago

We have one in our local Stop and Shop. It has a creepy smiley face plastered on it. It's easy to say that it's super weird and suspicious, gets in your way, likely not cost-effective (at least for its ostensible purposes, who knows what slimey face tracking or whatever it might be doing), which is all true. But on a slightly positive note, my kids 5 and 7 love it. They pretend like it's a killer robot chasing us, which it oddly does seem to do. No matter where we go in the store it's always popping up around the corner. They play hide and seek with it, try to surprise it, hunt it down. Good training for Judgement Day. ;)

harshreality 7y ago
2020's turing test: a robot/drone is intelligent when you can no longer distinguish it from a murderous stalker / killer clown.
spookware 7y ago
Does it have an e-stop? Can you hit the e-stop?
- dougk16 7y ago
  Not sure what you mean. Emergency Stop? I know it's bumped/tripped my kids on a few occasions, but they were asking for it. :)
  - spookware 7y ago
    It should have a big e-stop on the robot. This is to insure that if it runs over kids or malfunctions then you can shut it down.

onemoresoop 7y ago

"We are partnering on technologies that are not only helping us make the customer experience even more personal and relevant but also operate more efficiently and manage labor shortages in our markets" That's laughable. I wonder what's the top management's perception of working on the floor. From the article it seems that this robot is practically useless (glorified Roomba that doesn't vacuum) and am sure the management has a different plan in mind.

HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
I walked into my local bank branch last week and couldn't find a withdrawal slip. One of my vendors only accepts cash or check. I haven't used paper checks in years and the ATM only dispenses $20's: I hate carrying a thick stack of bills. All the slips had been removed from their usual place so I walked up to a teller to explain the situation. He said, "oh, we implemented a new paperless system." And then pulled out a withdrawal slip and filled it out for me. Me: "soooo, your new paperless system is paperless only for me I guess?" Him: "yeah, I guess they figured we needed something to keep us busy." So yeah, I can totally believe that management's perception is completely disconnected from reality.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  I just use a local credit union but it hasn't occurred to me to even bother filling out a withdrawal slip for a long long time.
- teilo 7y ago
  I forgot this was even a thing. Whenever I need large bills to buy something on Craigslist, I just walk up to the teller, give her my ID and Debit card, and ask for what I want. And that's just a normal bank, not a credit union.
maxerickson 7y ago
It seems pretty likely they are going to use it to keep track of stock (the article notes that the manufacturer intends the robot to have this capability).

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

noonespecial 7y ago

Wouldn't a few HD cameras on the ceiling and OpenCV be as effective at 10x less cost without getting in everyone's way?

icebraining 7y ago
That's what I was thinking. Seems like they will want to expand the capabilities, though, and that may be hard to do from ceiling cameras.
- noonespecial 7y ago
  Unless its going to physically stock the shelves, motion is so expensive and difficult to maintain and cameras and other sensors are so cheap, I can't ever see a mobile robot being more cost effective than a sensor blanket.
- VectorLock 7y ago
  It makes natural sense for the robot to move from identifying spills to cleaning them up. Lots of people say "well somebody just sees a spill and sends a human to clean them up" which doesn't work when the first person to detect the spill is the old lady who slips in it and breaks her hip.
  - jfk13 7y ago
    If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance that the first "person" to detect any given spill is the elderly person with the fragile hip, while Marty ambles around the other side of the store. So how many robots are needed per store if they're to have more effective coverage than asking the employees who roam the aisles tidying and re-stocking shelves, helping customers find things, fulfilling click-and-collect orders, etc., to also report spills? Or perhaps these stores don't have any such employees on the floor -- they're just an array of unserviced aisles, with some staff at the checkouts?
    - 7y ago

mikepurvis 7y ago

The long game is probably a litany of other vision-based tasks including things like stock management. Not knowing what is even on their shelves is a huge issue for retail— having oversupply is wasteful and can result in spoilage, and undersupply means lost business and unhappy customers. Note that there are other companies getting into this space: http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/stockbot/ http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/stockbot/ https://shelfierobot.com/ https://shelfierobot.com/

sureaboutthis 7y ago
In fact, that's exactly the purpose of the one in our local grocery chain's stores (Schnuck's in St. Louis). It scans the shelves for inventory. It's not as big as the one shown in the article and I don't see it all day, every day, though I wonder if I've just gotten used to seeing it and now am blind to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZBeV4hHAak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZBeV4hHAak
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  Thanks, Tally was the one I was missing. Too late to edit the post, but yeah: https://www.simberobotics.com/ https://www.simberobotics.com/

mdorazio 7y ago

Ok, this article is kind of all over the place and seems to miss several things worth mentioning. 1) It's pretty obvious that the responsibilities of the robots right now are just in a proof of concept phase. I can pretty much guarantee they will be used for additional tasks once the test period ends and some software bugs get worked out. Tasks like (as the article mentions) price checking, stock checking, misplaced item identification, etc. that take up a lot of employee time. 2) Customers concerned about privacy because the robots have cameras seem kind of out of touch. Ever been to Walmart and looked up? There are cameras everywhere, recording all the time and I haven't seen anyone complain that it's creepy they're being watched (and recorded) by people in a security office. The only difference with the robots is that they're more noticeable, so people are suddenly aware that they're being recorded. 3) The article mentions organized labor, employee opposition to the robots, and profits, but doesn't actually connect the dots. Here's the thing about capitalism and automation: the more you raise salaries and improve working conditions, the more incentive there is for companies to automate jobs. That's basic cost-benefit analysis and margin-based thinking. If automating a job costs X and human workers currently make Y, but want Y to be greater than X, guess what? Those jobs aren't going to last very long.

Timpy 7y ago
I think your second point is interesting, in completely practical terms I have to agree with you, you're already being recorded. Still, passive surveillance from a security camera feels very different from a robot with perceived agency actively following you around.
- HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
  I dunno. In some aisles at Walmart, they make it really obvious that you're being recorded. The camera detects you and a ring of lights around it turns on. Greater theft deterrent, I guess.
  - jstarfish 7y ago
    > Greater theft deterrent, I guess. The goal is to get you to look towards the source of the noise...which happens to be a lens aimed at your face. Now they have a clear photo of potential shoplifters.

crispyambulance 7y ago

It's like a giant "Clippy" following you around and doing nothing other than being annoying and intrusive. I don't need these in my life!

jasonjayr 7y ago

It's mentioned in the article Direct link to the company behind it: https://www.badger-technologies.com/ https://www.badger-technologies.com/ It seems like the primary focus of this device is inventory + planogram management. That it can also scan for spills + messes seems like an afterthought.

fatnoah 7y ago

You know what would be better? 2 more checkout aisles open. The ridiculous amount of time it takes to check out is the #1 reason I avoid that chain. It's not unusual to have to wait 10+ minutes to checkout because only 1 or 2 of the 15 checkout lanes are open.

smacktoward 7y ago
But that would mean having to hire more checkers, and no ambitious mid-level executive is going to get a promotion from doing something as mundane as hiring more checkers. (It may actually be the opposite of a career enhancer. "Hey, our expenses went up .37% last month! Find me the person who's responsible so I can fire him!") "Deployed and managed a fleet of autonomous robots", on the other hand, looks much sexier on the résumé. That executive is on the fast track to the C-suite.
- stevenhubertron 7y ago
  OpEx vs CapEx

rishabhsagar 7y ago

Am I missing the point somehow? Why is this not implemented as a series of super high def camera disguised as surveillance cctvs? They could spot spills just as effectively, no?

Mizza 7y ago

> “It’s really not doing much of anything besides getting in the way,” said Kristen. She complained that the robot pages the store nearly constantly, over the smallest things—like a stem from a bunch of grapes—and it will go around in circles until an employee comes to clean the “hazard” up. “Right now he’s a glorified Roomba and he doesn’t even vacuum.” Market opportunity spotted - are there industrial Roombas for retail spaces? Even better if they can do outdoor sidewalks.

cr0sh 7y ago
> Market opportunity spotted - are there industrial Roombas for retail spaces? Even better if they can do outdoor sidewalks. It would have to work much better than a Roomba. Random cleaning won't cut it, it would have to be done in a methodical fashion. Could such robots be built, and be made safe and effective. Probably. But the price point is going to probably kill it. Think about it - this thing costs $35K USD - now you want to make it sweep things up and do it in practical manner, etc - that price is going to rise significantly. But - if you can do it, and keep the price low - then you might have a chance. It's definitely a space I'd love to explore, but I'm not a businessperson or a real entrepreneur (I definitely probably have all the parts needed to build such a robot in my shop, though - including more than a few old Roombas to boot).

zaroth 7y ago

I can’t for the life of me understand how vision related tasks should be done by roving versus fixed cameras. Even if you need higher resolution than you can get from a wide field of view, a fixed camera that can pan and zoom then? The only thing I can think of is there’s zero upfront installation cost, no need for a crew to wire anything. Ship the robot, plug in the charging station, and it’s off? Maybe the ancillary reduction in shoplifting, even if it’s not actually designed to monitor that, pays for the robot.

StrangeDoctor 7y ago
Here, it’s probably the shelves and isles. Cameras mounted high have trouble down low, front can’t see the back, etc. They probably don’t need down to the second data, and a dorky robot gets people talking about an otherwise forgettable store.
kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
They have the backend hooked into the PA system for announcements when it finds a spill.
tomatotomato37 7y ago
Dense shelving can have a lot of blindspots, that's one of the reason those Amazon stores are absolutely plastered in ceiling cameras; that being said 700 CCTV cameras would probably still end up cheaper than the proprietary robotics system it seems they are using now
sieabahlpark 7y ago
Well for one they're easily replaceable, infinitely configurable, and don't necessarily require someone to watch them

function_seven 7y ago

If you work for a public company, you have the ability to get the Real Deal on their plans. From TFA: > Although Jennifer Brogan, Stop & Shop’s director of external communications, assured New Food Economy that the robot is not meant to replace workers, Ahold Delieze has explicitly told shareholders that the company is investing in automation and artificial intelligence to supplement or even replace human labor. Management lies to employees all the time about future plans, staffing levels, job roles, etc. But they can't lie to their investors. (Or, they usually share the worker-hostile plans more easily) So if you're curious about your company, dial into the earnings calls, read the investor relations press releases, etc. That's where you'll get the better info.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
I don’t think one needs to do all of that to understand that people prefer to spend less money than more money for the same thing. If you’re not expecting your employer to be looking into ways to reduce costs, just like everyone tries to reduce costs in their personal life, then I would say you’re intentionally oblivious to reality.
- simongr3dal 7y ago
  Depends. A business can be focused on creating value for its shareholders and owners, or it can be focused on creating value for its employees and owners. If you don't view the purpose of a business as needing to extract and funnel wealth upwards it doesn't need to come down to spending more vs spending less, spending more might even further the goal of the business if you view its purpose as creating jobs for people. Essentially, it is possible to consider employees as an asset instead of a fungible commodity.
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    > A business can be focused on creating value for its shareholders and owners, What is the difference between shareholder and owner here?
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago

flexer2 7y ago

This seems like a waste of money on the surface. The concerns over privacy seem a little silly given the hundreds of CCTV cameras that monitor the stores already, though.

nvrspyx 7y ago

I was in BevMo a few weeks back and there was a similar robot. It had a screen on the front to look up what you’re searching for and it would bring you to it. I decided to give it a try since I was trying to find watermelon flavored liquor for the SO. I found some pre-mixed watermelon margarita on the screen and then it proceeded to bring me to the right spot....or at least it tried. On the way to the aisle and shelf, it clipped the corner of a chest-height shelf rack knocking over a ton of whiskey on the top shelf shattering on the ground. It was seemingly unphased by hitting the shelf, but right after ran straight into a ceiling height rack of shelves knocking over bottles of tequila. It just stayed there with its face buried in the shelves and simply said, “Can I help you find anything else?”, despite not being where the pre-mixed margaritas were. There was a single employee there working the register. When the whiskey crashed, everyone in the store just watched and then when it crashed into the tequila, the employee looked at the mess from behind the register, sighed, and then just continued ringing people up. This clearly wasn’t the first time she’s witnessed this thing make absolute chaos. I’ve yet to go back to BevMo since then, but I imagine they’ve gotten rid of it.

deleted 7y ago
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cr0sh 7y ago

I'd like to know how the company behind the robot manages to get away with charging the cost of a small car for this glorified Roomba with a stick. I must be in the wrong line of work or something...

squarefoot 7y ago

Shoplifting aside, I am pretty sure those big funny eyes came after a meeting where they discussed how to keep the robot appearance on the right side of the uncanny valley.

smashd 7y ago

I work for a company that's in a partnership with Ahold Delhaize. While we were doing some in-store tests of our software product with them over a year ago, the topic of the robots came up. As they say in the article, the main purpose really is just to scan for spills and obstructions. That being said, I believe the primary driver is insurance-related. The stores are required (or perhaps given a discount as incentive) by liability insurance providers to regularly check the aisles for fall hazards, and the required sweep frequency is pretty high. In a big enough store you'd probably need to dedicate someone to it full-time--I guess in this case they opted for a googly-eyed robot.