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Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

grocerydive.com

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Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#91

Post by lytfyre »

Scoundreller wrote: post #55
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the old general store model, you didn’t browse yourself, the shop keep would bring out what you wanted, it was always behind the counter. I experienced this in China when I started visiting in 1999/early 2000s, it’s mostly not like that anymore though. You still have department stores where you need to buy things first before touching them, though.

Had a large-format (for its time) chain store in Canada like that until 1996: https://www.tvo.org/article/what-happened-to-consumers-distr... Basically a catalogue store without shipping to your door.

Little bit more specialized, but Lee Valley Tools [https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca] stores seem to still operate this way. Showroom (and a few computer kiosks) and order forms up front, then line up for them to pull the items from the back.

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#92

Post by tverbeure »

mosura wrote: post #3

Sounds like they just put them in the wrong places. > Fenyo added that Kroger’s decision to locate the Ocado centers outside of cities turned out to be a key flaw. > “Ultimately those were hard places to make this model work,” said Fenyo. “You didn’t have enough people ordering, and you had a fair amount of distance to drive to get the orders to them. And so ultimately, these large centers were just not processing en…

They literally went too far…

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#93

Post by themafia »

danpalmer wrote: post #34

This is a failure of business model and logistics, not a failure of the robotics. > Fenyo added that Kroger’s decision to locate the Ocado centers outside of cities turned out to be a key flaw. They over-spent on automating low-volume FCs. You could draw comparisons to Amdahl's law, they optimised the bit that wasn't the issue, the real issue was delivery distances and times. Ocado has had good success with the robot…

> failure of business model and logistics

Just the model. They optimized for tax outcomes. They obviously wanted in on the "Amazon race to the bottom" game.

https://www.leesburg-news.com/2025/11/30/kroger-took-incenti...

> the real issue was delivery distances and times.

Which they could care less about. Where else are you going to go?

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#95

Post by aerostable_slug »

mlrtime wrote: post #72
aerostable_slug wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like not going to the store more. Because tips are important to the income of delivery shoppers, I find that I generally get good produce selections. It might be difficult to transition that particular incentive to robots, but the point is that delivery items don't have to suck. The only thing I really still pick out by hand every time are beef briskets. Pork shoulders tend to be uniform enough that randomly pickin…

>Because tips are important to the income of delivery shoppers, I find that I generally get good produce selections Wait, you tip to get a good selection of produce to be delivered to you? This is very bizarre to me.

Yep. Instacart. I work from home and sometimes I don't want to go to the store (or it would be difficult because I'm on Zoom/Teams a lot), but I need vegetables, meat, milk, etc. for cooking.

With Instacart & Costco memberships and also ordering from the local discount grocers, I can get food delivered for less than it costs to actually go to the mainstream grocery stores like Von's, and I don't get bruised eggplants or cilantro that's already going bad. The drivers/shoppers are generally quite good at picking out items that can lead to higher tips (that or they're just in it for the love of good produce, but either way you can often tell they're not randomly loading the bags).

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#96

Post by aerostable_slug »

recursive wrote: post #52
aerostable_slug wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like not going to the store more. Because tips are important to the income of delivery shoppers, I find that I generally get good produce selections. It might be difficult to transition that particular incentive to robots, but the point is that delivery items don't have to suck. The only thing I really still pick out by hand every time are beef briskets. Pork shoulders tend to be uniform enough that randomly pickin…

Delivery shoppers wouldn't be able to pick out the good stuff if it's delivered by drone or whatever.

They could if there are human pickers.

In any event, delivery doesn't always mean the worst of the produce aisle, and while I noted that the incentive of tips might not transfer to robots, keeping repeat customers might be enough incentive for a way to be found to not make robots and grocery synonymous with only frozen food. That might mean human pickers; better automation on the food selection system; pre-inspected, washed and packaged fruits & veggies; etc.

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#97

Post by fma »

Or their online groceries didnt succeed because people can p4ice shop. I am of the belief Kroger does well because they obfuscate their prices and their tags which make it seems like they are sales truely are not.

Unlike Publix if I see a discount I know it is a discount. Every other item in Kroger has a yellow tag and a red price to make you think you are getting a deal when in fact the red number is higher than regular price at normal stores.

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#98

Post by aerostable_slug »

CPLX wrote: post #59
markus_zhang wrote: post #25

I had a wonderful retro futuristic dream about an automated Costco warehouse a few weeks ago. It was one of the less weird dreams so I still remember it clearly. Basically, each section is like a closed areas with some windows. Customers order at the computers by the windows and flash their membership cards. Robots glide left and right to move 10 samples to the customer, in an arm with rotating clips. Customers can p…

You’ve just described B&H in New York City.

Now I'm picturing Hasidic robots.

Re: Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

#99

Post by bcrosby95 »

rajamaka wrote: post #61
bcrosby95 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it when people invent things to force everyone perform self service and call it 'progress'.

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 kiosks.

Costco does pretty good here though, drug stores go slow as hell.

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