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Walmart isn't stocking shelves with robots just yet, but they will scan shelves using robots:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is rolling out shelf-scanning robots in more than 50 U.S. stores to replenish inventory faster and save employees time when products run out.
The approximately 2-foot (0.61-meter) robots come with a tower that is fitted with cameras that scan aisles to check stock and identify missing and misplaced items, incorrect prices and mislabeling. The robots pass that data to store employees, who then stock the shelves and fix errors.
Out-of-stock items are a big problem for retailers since they miss out on sales every time a shopper cannot find a product on store shelves.
Scanbots won't help with finding the 2 cans of baba ganoush hidden behind 50 cans of hummus.
Also at BGR and ArkansasOnline.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:25AM (1 child)
WalMart already doesn't really need employees for anything except stock and customer service. They don't face their shelves (make the items face the same way and rotate old inventory to the front before stocking), they don't have them working registers, they just have them stocking. Once they get a robot that can unload pallets and load stuff onto the shelves, all they need is customer service. Greeters will go once they get a more powerful AI watching the cameras and alerting loss prevention, and then there will just be one employee, taking in returns and feeding them to the robots that reshelf or return them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 31 2017, @12:36AM
Hoping that by then nobody will have money due to being unemployed and Walmart will be out of business!
That should make those shareholders happy!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --