Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

Post by drewmol » Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 2:55 AM UTC

monkmartinez wrote: post #97

woobar wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search) Just got from Lowes and they do it on the web and in their app. Search for an item, and if it is in stock it will show you its location on the store map. OTOH, every Walmart I've visted is unable to keep their shelves full. [1] How hard it is to keep something non-perishable (like deodorant) in stock? Somehow Target figured that out. [1]…

Anecdote time! I bought a water softener at HomeDepot about three weeks ago. Initially went to my local Lowes where I had checked if one was in stock and at the store. Yes and Yes. Get to Lowes and there is no water softener, as the website indicated. Lowe's employee checked the back as well, wasn't there. There are many problems with humans doing this "inventory business" at $10 an hour or so. The professional count…

Post by dmoy » Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 3:04 AM UTC

DougWebb wrote: post #196

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #164

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That is a generic end-of-work question. Ideally, everyone would have jobs they liked, and all the dull stuff would be automated (Star Trek outcome). Pessimistically, the machines will become better than humans at everything and we will just become obsolete (Terminator outcome). If automation picks up, we will have to deal with these questions sooner rather than later, but it will happen eventually.

Let's be optimistic and hope for the Wall-E outcome instead of the Terminator outcome. The robots will keep us around and take care of us as pets.

Post by Trav5 » Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 3:20 AM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #164

monk_e_boy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does raise the question of what jobs are worth saving? So a robot takes someones job, but it was a crappy job that they hated anyway. But they needed the money. Tough.

That is a generic end-of-work question. Ideally, everyone would have jobs they liked, and all the dull stuff would be automated (Star Trek outcome). Pessimistically, the machines will become better than humans at everything and we will just become obsolete (Terminator outcome). If automation picks up, we will have to deal with these questions sooner rather than later, but it will happen eventually.

Post by red75prime » Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 3:23 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #95

JSONwebtoken wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the foreseable future, robots and chatbots will be poorer UX than speaking to a human. Since it's not adding value to their product it's obviously being done for cost cutting and scale reasons.

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…

Post by gruez » Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 3:29 AM UTC

brianbreslin wrote: post #197

This is letting them reduce theft. Shrinkage as its called in industry parlance is mostly caused by employees. Now you can make sure no inventory is mishandled. Walmart loses BILLIONS every year from just employee theft.