Ahold Delhaize has employed 500 robots in the United States: in its Giant, Martin’s and Stop & Shop stores, a robot by the name of Marty will be checking the floors to see if there is a fall hazard. Marty will also be scanning the store shelves for erroneous price tags and sold-out products.
Robots against fall and slide hazards
A robot named Marty will be the newest employee in 500 Giant, Martin’s and Stop & Shop stores. Marty scans the floor in the store, looking for spills, puddles and stains caused by anything from leaking beverage packages to knocked-over powder or bulk products.
Last year, the robots were tested in two stores, where they were used to identify hazards such as fluid leakages. The robots also reports on the issues to enable corrective measures. “They help stores mitigate risks caused by such spills, as well as enable associates to spend more time serving and interfacing with customers,” argues Ahold Delhaize.
Pointing out problems to employees
All 172 Giant stores will soon have a large robot with big eyes. “We are excited to be part of this industry-leading roll-out of fully autonomous robots that collect safety data while traversing retail stores,” says Frederic McCoy of Jabil Retail. “Real-time hazard alerts empower stores to resolve incidents like spills, as well as improve operations.”
If anything out of the ordinary is going on, Marty will call for a human store employee through the supermarket’s intercom. A human being will have to solve the problem because the robot is not (yet) authorised and, being armless, not equipped to do so.
Price checks and empty shelves
Earlier tests showed that Marty can do quite a bit more than just checking floors. In time, the robots will also seek out employees and ask them to refill empty shelves if they find them. The Marty robots will also be scanning price tags in the stores to check whether they are consistent with the prices at the register.
Ahold Delhaize is keeping silent about this for the moment, possibly because the robots aren’t ready for those tasks yet. Another reason might be that they don’t want to alarm the staff. The roll-out of the robots is going on now and will continue throughout the first half of 2019. Other Ahold Delhaize chains in the US are continuing their own robot experiments in the US in a select number of stores.
