The new wave of technology and AI is making its way to our grocery stores, making the process of grocery shopping more convenient and efficient. Popular grocery store ShopRite has recently gained national attention by using robots in some of their locations across New Jersey. Tally, the AI robot, is the grocery store’s newest addition to help out the store and employees in some tasks around the store.
More than 21 New Jersey ShopRite stores have already added Tally to their locations. Specifically, ShopRite stores owned by Inserra Supermarkets Inc. are being included in this new change. The ShopRite closest to the Ramapo College of New Jersey, ShopRite of Ramsey, happens to be a part of Inserra Supermarkets. It has been reported by northjersey.com that Tally will be coming to that location sometime in the future.
Tally’s role is to “process between 15,000 to 30,000 products an hour while staying out of the way of shoppers and working alongside store associates.” As the tall robot travels down the store aisles, it makes sure products are fully stocked on the shelves correctly, along with prices being accurate. Tally also sends alerts to employees when an item is in low stock. With Tally, employees of ShopRite will not have to worry about stocking the shelves and focus more on other tasks, producing more efficiency inside of the store.
Simbe, the company that owns Tally, describes the robot as “The Most Advanced Autonomous Inventory Robot on The Market.” Other characteristics of Tally according to Simbe feature being “the only robot that combines autofocus, auto-exposure and HDR camera systems, powered by Intel RealSense 3D cameras, to navigate and analyze the store environment.” With these camera features, Tally is able to easily scan a store up to three times a day.
BJ’s Wholesale Club is another grocery store that has started implementing Tally into their locations. They have been seemingly having a nice time with the robot around their stores. As the senior vice president Krystyna Kostka told Retail Customer Experience, “Tally enables us to do things faster. It enables us to refocus our team members’ time on the member experience and really do those things that only humans can do…” Tally has provided other benefits to BJ’s Wholesale Club such as employees spending more of their time helping customers.
Along with Tally, other ShopRite New Jersey locations are looking into AI powered shopping carts. The screen on the front of the cart can keep track of what you are placing into or taking out of the cart. Shoppers can also check out by using the AI carts. However, once you hit “checkout,” you will be told to approach a cashier. Another interesting feature of the carts is that shoppers can log into their ShopRite Price Plus account to look at savings and discounts. Currently in New Jersey, the ShopRite of Bloomfield has already started using them, with more locations adding them soon.
In addition to New Jersey, Tally has already made its way to other states such as Pennsylvania and New York.
jcaramag@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Simbe Robotics
