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Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

businessinsider.com

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Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#171

Post by jdietrich »

IIAOPSW wrote: post #147
jdietrich wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rarely get useful assistance in large chain stores. Asking "where is the pesto?" usually gets an answer like "I dunno, somewhere in aisle 7 maybe" with an indifferent shrug. I'd happily make three attempts at using a clunky voice interface if I got the answer "Aisle 7, bay 11, shelves 3 and 4. We have 18 different kinds of pesto currently in stock. Would you like me to take you there?" It almost seems too obvious t…

Part of this has to do with demographics. We prefer to deal with robots and order stuff on web interfaces. I was talking with my aunt and uncle the other day. They were telling me that they prefer to bring their paper checks to the bank and interact with the teller rather than scan it in the app from the comfort of their home. That blew my mind. I think there's a huge age gap when it comes to preference for human vs…

Robots aren't going to replace all of the service jobs, but I think they're going to replace more than we might imagine.

Over the last 30 years, more than half of bank branches in the UK have closed. Many older customers have been substantially inconvenienced by these closures, but they're on the wrong side of economics. Beyond a certain point, it's just no longer financially viable to keep a branch open. A lot of older people prefer DVDs to online streaming, but good luck finding a rental store in most towns.

The social effects may well be very ugly, but I think that most businesses will be quite ruthless about their deployment of automation. They clearly have no qualms about the impact on jobs and I don't think that they'll care if some proportion of their customer base is marginalized.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#172

Post by billmalarky »

kin wrote: post #108

They'll probably be more effective to be honest. Anecdotally, I've encountered nothing but incompetence when it comes to getting help from Walmart store employees. When asked where I can find something their response is usually "somewhere in that area" while pointing broadly.

There's an old saying, "pay peanuts, get monkeys."

This isn't an attack on Walmart employees. Humans deserve higher compensation for their complete effort than Walmart is willing to pay. If someone is giving something their all, they deserve at least a living wage.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#174

Post by zeckalpha »

notatoad wrote: post #167

The immediate take away i get from this is that it really isn't about taking over human jobs. humans don't do this job nearly as frequently as the robots would do it, because in a standard retail environment like wal-mart, it doesn't really matter all that much if the reported in-stock quantity is slightly off for an item. that is to say, it matters, but not so much that the big-box retail environments i've worked in…

As other jobs get automated, inventory checking could get more important.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#175

Post by wavefunction »

torgoguys wrote: post #143
jdietrich wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rarely get useful assistance in large chain stores. Asking "where is the pesto?" usually gets an answer like "I dunno, somewhere in aisle 7 maybe" with an indifferent shrug. I'd happily make three attempts at using a clunky voice interface if I got the answer "Aisle 7, bay 11, shelves 3 and 4. We have 18 different kinds of pesto currently in stock. Would you like me to take you there?" It almost seems too obvious t…

I have the opposite experience. Pretty much any store around here, Walmart included, the employees are very willing to help you find stuff, and if they don't know where something is, they will find or call to an employee that does know.

I am very impressed with folks at home improvement stores. I walk up, ask them where X is and they say 'ahhh, it should be over in aisle 17, towards the end past the Ys.'

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#176

Post by racl101 »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #166
racl101 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's worse is that a lot of Walmart employees don't speak English. They can barely understand what you are saying, much less, conjure up a response. Usually they have to go and fetch a much smarter or knowledgeable person to help out. Terribly inefficient. So Walmart Employees, if this is you: I'm sorry but if you want to keep working at Walmart, time to step up your game, learn some English and be more responsive.…

What Walmart do you go to? The one in my town, everyone seems to speak English fluently

Calgary Alberta.

Any Walmart in town.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#177

Post by hourislate »

racl101 wrote: post #165
jdietrich wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rarely get useful assistance in large chain stores. Asking "where is the pesto?" usually gets an answer like "I dunno, somewhere in aisle 7 maybe" with an indifferent shrug. I'd happily make three attempts at using a clunky voice interface if I got the answer "Aisle 7, bay 11, shelves 3 and 4. We have 18 different kinds of pesto currently in stock. Would you like me to take you there?" It almost seems too obvious t…

What's worse is that a lot of Walmart employees don't speak English. They can barely understand what you are saying, much less, conjure up a response. Usually they have to go and fetch a much smarter or knowledgeable person to help out. Terribly inefficient. So Walmart Employees, if this is you: I'm sorry but if you want to keep working at Walmart, time to step up your game, learn some English and be more responsive.…

You're being junked because most of the folks in the US haven't experienced what you're referring to. Here in the US everyone speaks English. I understand it's a little different in Canada because there are many more immigrants working at grocers and stores like Walmart that may not have mastered English yet.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#178

Post by meddlepal »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #27
meddlepal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to feel that way about bank tellers (having been a former bank teller a long time ago...) then I realized I was wasting 20 minutes in line for a simple deposit that the machine could do in under two minutes without a queue.

Don't you feel a tinge of guilt when you walk in one day and now there's only two tellers instead of three? Maybe I'm just weird but I was at target yesterday and there were only three aisles open with lots of people going to self checkout. I said fuck it and waited in line for a person.

No I don't feel any guilt in that situation.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#179

Post by forgotmypw »

notatoad wrote: post #167

The immediate take away i get from this is that it really isn't about taking over human jobs. humans don't do this job nearly as frequently as the robots would do it, because in a standard retail environment like wal-mart, it doesn't really matter all that much if the reported in-stock quantity is slightly off for an item. that is to say, it matters, but not so much that the big-box retail environments i've worked in…

It could also be for the same reasons you stated: it's low-controversy and low-responsibility.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#180

Post by prawn »

Bromskloss wrote: post #73
Isamu wrote: post #2

> the robots are 50% more efficient than a human doing the same task. They can also scan shelves three times more quickly and are a lot more accurate. Human employees can only scan shelves about twice a week. Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search) Walmart is testing a robot from Bossa Nova (Pittsburgh and SF) http://www.bossanova.com/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/boss…

> http://www.bossanova.com/ Oh no, it's _ugly_!

I don't think it's that bad. It's meant to be practical and inoffensive rather than especially stylish.
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