Walmart Experimenting With Robotic Shopping Cart For Stores (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Bloomberg: Bloomberg reports Walmart is working with a robotics company to develop a shopping cart that helps customers find items on their lists and saves them from pushing a heavy cart through a sprawling store and parking lot. The carts are a way for brick-and-mortar stores to stay relevant in the convenience factor to match the likes of Amazon and other online retailers, says founder and chief executive officer of Five Elements Robotics Wendy Roberts. She said on Tuesday at the Bloomberg Technology Conference 2016 that her company was working with the "world's largest retailer" on such a shopping cart. In 2014, Five Elements Robotics introduced Budgee, a personal robot that can follow its user around inside and outdoors and carry things. The robot costs $1,400 and is helpful for people with disabilities, says Roberts.

Comments

The World of Wall-E

[ninthbit]

We are almost there... just a little further to go till full Wall-E http://www.peopleofwalmart.com...

Re:The World of Wall-E

[TigerPlish]

Whomever modded you off-topic didn't understand your comment. I found it insightful.

Wall-E was meant as an indictment of consumerism, and according to tvtropes, that is word-of-god.

We are almost there... just a little further to go

I wish it were. I think we're headed to Idiocracy, instead, which is the insulting, in-your-face version of Wall-E

Yes, I know Idiocracy was first. They both share the same message. Idiocracy goes even further, explicitly stating humanity got real dumb real fast.

How do we go about un-doing the economic rape of 1970's to today? That's what this all really boils down to. There's where these big-box behemoths came from, that's where the demand for these bix-box behemoths came from. Cheaper prices because your dollar is worth so much less than before we got robbed.

Opposite

[Errol backfiring]

helps customers find items on their lists

So the robot actually does the opposite of what stores want. Stores themselves like to make the customer take the least efficient way, because that brings the customer in contact with the most products. For the customers themselves, however, this might be useful.

Re:Opposite

[Nidi62]

helps customers find items on their lists

So the robot actually does the opposite of what stores want. Stores themselves like to make the customer take the least efficient way, because that brings the customer in contact with the most products. For the customers themselves, however, this might be useful.

Well, if it helps people find things on their list, it can also be programmed to take the customers on specific routes past target/impulse buy products. So if someone has on their list diapers it might take them past the baby clothes isle, or past the DVD section if someone is buying a new TV. Then of course there's the potential to inject "suggested purchases"(ads) in an attempt to push the customer into making even more purchases.

Re:Opposite

[Opportunist]

Can only be an improvement for them, considering now they're being big mofo whore houses.

Re:Opposite

[MacTO]

That probably depends upon the customer. The main reason why I go to Walmart is because I can be in an out in 10 minutes. At least for the store that I go to: the layout seems to put the most popular departments near the checkout, and the less frequented departments in the fringes. They also have a true express checkout lane (one line feeds six cashiers for people with small purchases).

Sure, they want to snag impulse buys and they probably want to keep customers in the store longer to browser. On the other hand, impulse purchases don't require taking the lest efficient route. Getting customers in and out quickly is also in the store's best interest if it helps them retain customers. Remember, Walmart's business is to make money. Making money doesn't always mean going against the best interest of your customers.

I need the Exercise thank you

[Danathar]

Come on! I NEED to move around more, not LESS! It's hard enough sitting at computer desk all day in a cubicle. That 40lb box of cat litter provides me with free weight training. Plus Walmart stores are so BIG I can get my steps in.

Re:I need the Exercise thank you

[Anonymous Coward]

Because of inconsiderate shoppers who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle as they try to decide what flavor pringles they want?

You know the ones. they give you dirty looks when they see you waiting for them to move. You used to get "Oh, i'm sorry excuse me," now its just a dirty look or them acting completely oblivious to you.

Re:I need the Exercise thank you

[mrchaotica]

Have you never wondered just why those shelves are so far apart that you could easily fit three normal people in between?

It's so that carts being pushed in opposite directions can pass. You knew that, of course, but didn't say so because it ruins your joke.

Just what Walmart shoppers need.....

[clifwlkr]

Because Walmart shoppers already get so much exercise and are in such great shape that any form of exercise is not needed. I am saddened by the fact that we are now to the point where we consider pushing a shopping cart around the store to be too much work.

How about scrapping the electric drive but keeping the locator aspect. That would seem to cut the costs dramatically while giving the greatest benefit. I really think most of the people I see in Walmart could use to push the cart themselves

Re:Just what Walmart shoppers need.....

[bill_mcgonigle]

Y'know, I was just in one last night, and most of the people there were normal. I especially noted two middle-aged women in nice sundresses who wore them well.

But back in the toy section, there were two young women, each over 300 lbs, riding the electric scooters, with nothing in their baskets, pulling noisy toys off the shelves and setting off as many sounds as possible (especially fart machines). They were clearly there for sport, not shopping, and while they weren't hurting me, they sure did seem to be hurting society with their life choices. I made all kinds of assumptions about where they get their money and what they do with it - my guesses could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Walmart doesn't create these people, but it sure does put them on display for the rest of us. Maybe we're better off seeing them than not seeing them.

phhhtttt! there go more jerbs!

[Thud457]

on the up side, the robot carts can be programmed to auto-return from the parking lot when empty, so all the carts aren't left spread all over the parking lot.

Occulus Rift's first useful application

[goombah99]

Why is it that shopping with a shopping cart and real shelves is so much easier and more pleasant than scrolling through most stores list of products on line. I've shopped food stores online, hardware stores online, which have real world analogs for direct comparison. All of these are okay if you know exactly what you are looking for and they have a tolerable search engine. But it terms of going down the isles and selecting new things or being reminded of old things and getting ideas for new creations stores are efficient I think.

I suppose you could let someone walk through a virtual store like a first person shooter. But Somehow that doesn't appeal to me.

I think however an oculous might be able to recreate a true 3D store experience.

Re:Occulus Rift's first useful application

[funwithBSD]

"I suppose you could let someone walk through a virtual store like a first person shooter. "

It better include the 2AM Walmart Zombies...

Re:Occulus Rift's first useful application

[TigerPlish]

I dunno, man... I do most of my shopping online because I truly dislike the decline of retail. The sole exception is high-end goods in small stores.

So. On to the online bit: By carefully using the image zoom (if available), reading between the lines of the reviews (a lot of which are shills, some real, and some just rants), and cross-referencing with Google search results, one can make a reasonable guess at how good that product is.

It is very rare for me to get a sub-par, unexpectedly crappy product online. I usually either get exactly what I expected, or in some cases be blown away by how much better than expected it is.

The one thing I've ran into problems with is shoes: I've had more defects and more "damn it's too small" moments with shoes than with anything else.

Retail is dead. I savor every single stake I drive into it's bleeding heart. Wal-Mart destroyed the small retailer, then let's help Amazon take down Wal-mart.

We'll figure out how to take down Amazon and bring back the Main Street experience later on. This also needs to be done, Amazon is just as abusive as Wal-Mart, the difference is Amazon customers don't put up with the staff and customers.

What, no one remembers that? Life before the Big Boxes? What a shame. It was a nice experience. You had the guy that sold records, the girl who sold books, the old couple who ran the tailor's and dry-clean, the awesome electronics store where the tech in the back had a cigarette *and* a hot soldering iron on a glass ashtray..

We'll never get that back. And that makes my heart ache a bit.