I remember a glowing video about this thing (by Tom Scott maybe?) and being confused how it could ever compete with humans being paid slave wages. Guess I was right.
You were not, this works just fine in the UK
Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
111–120 of 342 posts
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what grocery stores used to be ~90 years ago, when the norm was you would give the clerk a list and they would grab your items from the back? The only stores I'm still aware of that are setup like this are auto parts stores, where 90% of the inventory is in the back.
Only other places I can think of is weed dispensaries and pharmacies. You could also count shoe stores and high-end jewelry and watch stores in that the clerk has to go in the back to fetch the non-display model.
In the UK you have a whole chain of stores called Argos where you have a catalogue of items, you pick the items you want and the clerk brings them to you. Also Screwfix and Toolstation are both hardware stores that operate the same way.
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#113I've always said that in the back of my mind, the most successful grocery store would be the 'walls' of the store -- bakery, deli, produce, meats, floral, cheeses, dairy and having a little selection of store brands in the middle where consumers can pick up (and vendors can pay a premium for endcap space, because they're the only non-branded products out there), with the rest of the SKU's behind the walls of the groc…
So what grocery stores used to be ~90 years ago, when the norm was you would give the clerk a list and they would grab your items from the back? The only stores I'm still aware of that are setup like this are auto parts stores, where 90% of the inventory is in the back.
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Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I've seen, for grocery the model is they'll give you the least desirable or near expired stock that the walk-in customers won't grab. So they're basically saving spoilage. This happens so reliably I'm absolutely convinced this is how they 'pay' for it without raising prices. I've also noticed this with hardware stores like Lowes. If I place a pickup order they more often than not will pawn off on me their b…
Here in the UK it's common for online grocery sites to say "fresh for at least X days" on every item, so bread will usually say 5 days, eggs 7 days etc etc. Doesn't matter if I select collection(so someone is picking those items for me at the store) or delivery(so they come from a larger warehouse). They stick to that promise.
An example of my experiences: you’ll get the apple with the bruise and maybe some damage instead of the nice one you’d pick out if you’re shopping for yourself.
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#115I've always said that in the back of my mind, the most successful grocery store would be the 'walls' of the store -- bakery, deli, produce, meats, floral, cheeses, dairy and having a little selection of store brands in the middle where consumers can pick up (and vendors can pay a premium for endcap space, because they're the only non-branded products out there), with the rest of the SKU's behind the walls of the groc…
So what grocery stores used to be ~90 years ago, when the norm was you would give the clerk a list and they would grab your items from the back? The only stores I'm still aware of that are setup like this are auto parts stores, where 90% of the inventory is in the back.
A store with a good deli/butcher is still like this to some degree
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love it when people invent things to force everyone perform self service and call it 'progress'.
I like it, I order on my phone before I get to the place and just pick it up. Any reason to like the old way is just nostalgia in my head.
There are pros, but ultimately we’re all still apes, we need human interaction and contact. It can’t be completely replaced with technology.
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I usually see people preferring to use the self service in McDonalds or supermarkets when given the option of either, so the consumer must find some benefit to it.
I always choose self service because that's where the volume is. I can wait in one of any Costco lines with 4 carts and 1 person checking them through, or I can wait in the line with 4 carts and 6 self service checkouts. Despite the math working out insanely well for self service checkout, sometimes the gamble still doesn't pay off and the single employee burns through 4 carts faster than 6 self service checkout kios…
I have a mental list of who the fast/slow checkout people are at my store, would be curious to see numbers but I think the fast people are more than 2x as fast as the slower ones.
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#118I've always said that in the back of my mind, the most successful grocery store would be the 'walls' of the store -- bakery, deli, produce, meats, floral, cheeses, dairy and having a little selection of store brands in the middle where consumers can pick up (and vendors can pay a premium for endcap space, because they're the only non-branded products out there), with the rest of the SKU's behind the walls of the groc…
So what grocery stores used to be ~90 years ago, when the norm was you would give the clerk a list and they would grab your items from the back? The only stores I'm still aware of that are setup like this are auto parts stores, where 90% of the inventory is in the back.
Toolstation still has a model like that, and I gotta say I love it. They also seem to hire people who actually know something about the products they sell which is an unfortunate rarity these days.
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends on your business model. If a basket of groceries brought online costs $15 more than the in-store prices, then you can pick in-store profitably, very easy. That's the instacart model. But if a basket of groceries brought online costs about the same as buying in-store? With the retailer bearing the costs of picking, packing and delivery instead of the customer? Well then you need something more efficient tha…
And how about charging more in store than online? On two separate occasions, I stopped by Walmart recently and spent $0.50 extra and $1.50 extra by walking in, going to the aisle, and picking up the item myself. The Walmart app even tells you that the price on the app is only for online orders. But I didn’t want to wait for an unknown amount of time for a Walmart employee to bring it out to my car (been more than 10…
Yep. Wal-Mart has been that way for years now.
I rarely shop at Wal-Mart. There's only a few things that I buy there.
One of those things is motor oil: Their online pricing for 5 quarts of full-synthetic whatever is usually impossible to beat.
The only catch is that you have to go to the store, park outside, and wait for someone to bring it out. Going inside the store to buy it in person often costs several dollars more (and those dollars count towards the next cheeseburger).
It seems completely asinine for it to be this way, and I feel completely silly waiting outside for someone to bring me a single jug of motor oil and hand it to me through my car window, but it's very clear that they don't want me in the store.
And I'm cheap. So I play their game and let them do it for me.
(It's usually very fast for me, so there's that.)
Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far
#120I sometime use Ocado in the UK, and it's 'OK' but it's certainly not at the cheap end of the market. I more often use a traditional supermarkets home delivery service where it's manually picked; those supermarkets have the advantage of having very little infrastructure overhead in the picking - they mostly use their existing stores and pick at quiet times/over night. Ocado has to run entire warehouses just for this t…
> Ocado can only work with packed goods - not weighed vegetables for example
Not quite. Packed yes, but for many vegetables they have both item count and weight-based packages, e.g. "4 potatoes" vs "1kg potatoes".
I think that strikes the right balance.