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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

#281

Post by pbhjpbhj »

thenomad wrote: post #257
improv32 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trader Joe's is excellent about this. I'm not sure if it's explicit policy but every single time I've asked an employee where something is they dropped what they were doing, walked over to the exact spot and literally handed me the item I was looking for. I guess that's only possible in a small store though.

This is absolutely standard in the UK in all the supermarkets I'm aware of. If a member of staff doesn't know where the item is, they'll go and find someone who does.

I've found that too. TBH I just want them to tell me which aisle it is, and will ask "which aisle are eggs on, please?" or whatever. But they insist on walking you there and done are seemingly instructed to hand you a product too (which usually I replace).

Mind you, if they didn't insist on moving everything to increase customer circulation ...

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

#283

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ilaksh wrote: post #277
IIAOPSW wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's not really human vs mechanical in the teller example despite what they say. They are just keeping their long running habit rather than having to learn how to scan it on their phone which is work and risking that their money will disappear.

I think you could easily be wrong here.

I can self-checkout, or at some supermarkets self-scan (using a handheld scanner), but I chose the human checkout operator. It's partly economic, the supermarket doesn't discount my shop if I do the checkout work myself, so I extract a modicum of their takings towards wages for a local person rather than have it go to shareholder profit. People here need jobs.

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

#284

Post by Shivetya »

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…

in the distribution system I am in, excess inventory is concern. not only identifying over stocked items but rounding up all obsolete inventory taking space in stores and warehouses. then understanding why it is there.

since wal mart doesn't close stores often or deal with private stores I am curious how they account for take backs from such. that alone can upset the inventory of any business.

accurate inventory is so key with both the seller and supplier. I am not surprised they want to focus there. plus another issue is shrink, by having robots fulfill the role the chance of it vanishing on a count is gone

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

#285

Post by pbhjpbhj »

paulddraper wrote: post #79
phyzome wrote: post #66

> The robots are designed to free up store employees' time so they can use it to help customers. ...which is bullshit; Walmart just doesn't want the "robots taking our jobs" angle here. If they consider the current level at which employees help customers in the aisles sufficient, then they'll be cutting jobs to match that level rather than "freeing up" employees to do more of it.

> which is bullshit; Walmart just doesn't want the "robots taking our jobs" angle here Some would say the "robots taking our jobs" angle is also bullshit. Damn tractors/threshers/combines, taking all of our jobs....

In UK the initial industrialisation of farming forced people to migrate to the town's to seek work. Their standard of living declined considerably; great news for the mine & mill owners though as they could grow richer and fatter with no dearth of cheap labour, particularly children.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_in_Great_Britain_during...

Living standards did rise eventually, but there was a considerable lag. Initial income rises were at costs of health and of hard work, at a pace dictated by the master, for all the family.

I fear we'll see very similar patterns again.

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

#286

Post by pbhjpbhj »

markkanof wrote: post #30
comboy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a robot riding around? Couldn't the same thing be done from a camera on the ceiling?

It would probably mean that the camera would either have to hang down pretty low in the isles or the isles would need to be super wide so that the camera could get a good view angle of the entire shelf, including bottom rows. But sure I suppose they probably could have something that rides around on a track on the ceiling and raises and lowers to get into position in each isle.

Like Oto (sp?) from Wall-E?

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

#287

Post by pbhjpbhj »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #247
cgmg wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by 'less capitalism'?

Instead of introducing more friction into the system so that people have jobs (that are essentially pointless), let's make it so that people don't need to have jobs to survive.

But that will make everyone better off and not just me, why bother. /capitalist

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

#289

Post by jpindar »

douglaswlance wrote: post #254
QuadrupleA wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You jest, but I actually wonder sometimes if this type of thing would be better for society. The dream of automation and technology was always to "let the machines do the work so we're free to enjoy life and pursue our dreams" but in a capitalist economy it ends up benefiting the owners of the machines primarily, like Walmart and Amazon, not necessarily society at large (though obviously they enable people to buy thi…

Anyone can own machines. Go buy one. Automate some stuff. Make some money. Stop being a stick in the mud and get with it.

Doesn't have to be automated, even. Lots of people start out by owning one snowplow. Or one power washer or one lawn mower.

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

#290

Post by xigency »

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…

Home Depot's website can actually show you where items are on a map. I discovered this because my local Home Depot used to be a KMart and has the most bizarre layout I've ever seen.
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