Are New Jersey Shoppers Ready for This New Grocery Store Technology?
A roving robot could soon be coming to a grocery store near you. Are you ready for it?
Writing this story all that goes flashing through my head is Rosie the Robot from the cartoon The Jetsons.
She cooked, cleaned, did laundry, made beds. It the kind of technology we could only dream of as kids. 'If only', we'd wish. Well, really more our busy parents than us.
But as an adult I have to admit I'm frightened and a little intimidated by AI and robots. It's probably something that's crossed YOUR mind at least once, 'Are they replacing us?'
Enter: Tally. ShopRite's new robot courtesy of Simbe Robotics.
Tally was designed to process inventory and has already been roving around several ShopRite stores in New Jersey, according to NJ.com.
The experiment reportedly went SO well, ShopRite will be adding Tally to more locations.
Tally rolls around the grocery store processing tens of thousands of shelf items per hour, working in concert with store employees of the human variety. But if you expect her to help reach that box of cereal on the top shelf, she (he?) is reportedly not meant to interact with customers. Gosh darn.
What Tally can do is keep track of products exceptionally well (and fast), detecting when shelves need to be restocked and making sure items are correctly priced.
As capricious as I am about robot technology, I'll be interested to see Tally in one of our local ShopRites. I may even take a selfie with it.
Where Tally might show up at a ShopRite store in South Jersey remains a mystery, NJ.com reports, but keep an eye out!
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Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt & The Associated Press