Walmart Ramps Up Robot Effort, Adding Floor Cleaners, Shelf Stockers, Pickup Kiosks
After “well-received” tests last year in select stores, more Walmart locations are going robotic, blogged spokesperson Elizabeth Walker Tuesday, describing floor-cleaning bots and inventory checkers that will give employees more time “to do what they’re uniquely qualified for: serve customers…
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face-to-face.” Walmart plans to add 1,500 autonomous floor cleaners it calls “Auto-C,” which can be programmed to scour open sections of a store, after a staffer preps an area, and “leave behind a clean, polished floor.” It’s adding 300 shelf scanners, called “Auto-S,” that scan items on store shelves to log availability, correct shelf location and price accuracy, she said. The shelf scanner works with “Fast Unloaders,” 1,200 on the way, which scan and sort items unloaded from trucks based on priority and department, said Walker. The retailer is also adding 900 new pickup towers -- “like a giant vending machine” -- that customers can go to after receiving an email saying an item is ready for pickup. Store associates load ordered items into the towers. For consumers, the robots enable “a store that can function seamlessly,” where associates will be there “when customers need them,” and they ensure items are where they are expected to be, Walker wrote. Walmart workers “immediately understood the opportunity for the new technology to free them up from focusing on tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual," said John Crecelius, senior vice president-central operations, Walmart U.S. “By leaning into the future, associates will be able to have more satisfying jobs as retail continues to change.”