Robots at Grocery Stores

The grocery retailer Giant Foods has started placing robots at its retail locations. For those of you who thought that robotic functionality would only be reserved for manufacturing sites and non-public facing situations, then I guess the future is telling us otherwise. And the future is here.

BTW, the robot’s name is Marty and is specifically tasked with identifying spills and potentially dangerous areas on the floor to improve the shopping experience. There are currently 172 Marty robots across Giant Foods in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia but parent company Ahold plans to roll out 500 robots across its other grocery brands as well.

The future is here. Marty is happening.

What’s your experience? JIM