What Happens When Robots Can Deliver Your Groceries? (venturebeat.com)

"What if you could get groceries in less than two minutes without even leaving your apartment?" asks VentureBeat. "Another beer...? Think guacamole would go extremely well with those Doritos you just opened?" Several grocery-delivery startups are already working to make this a reality. Slashdot reader moglito summarizes their vision of autonomous indoor-delivery robots from automated refrigerators servicing high-rise apartment buildings. Coupled with AI algorithms for learning what residents like to consume, and algorithms for automatically restocking those items via a network of suppliers or logistics companies, this "bot-mart" could make grocery shopping a boring and time-consuming thing of the past... Will robots similarly reduce the need for a kitchen next?
Yes, the article also describes cooking robots (which can already prepare burgers, pizza, and sandwiches), as well as new automated delivery vehicles restaurants. "Perhaps the only question remaining is whether there is a business case for this," they point out -- though under some scenarios, it could actually prove cheaper than driving to the grocery store yourself. "Consumers will find it ever easier to get what they want, when they want it, where they want it."

Comments

Re:It sounds great

[Kjella]

When you leave your home, do you really want to spend that time at the grocery store? I'd rather let someone else pick and deliver my groceries so I can do the things I *want* to do.... I don't find grocery shopping to be particularly pleasant.

To be honest, as long as I shop at my regular store where I know roughly where everything is I don't really spent that much longer picking the groceries than I did selecting them and it's on the way home from work so it's not a detour at all. My impression is that their main market for delivery services are elderly who can't drive a car and don't want to carry heavy shopping bags around. The other thing I see that is more mainstream here in Norway is "food boxes", basically you get a box with all the ingredients for meals for a week in correct proportions and a paint-by-numbers guide on how to make it, basically a lazier way than checking recipe sites and finding it all yourself and still get varied food. It's not that expensive either because they create these in bulk, it's quasi-institutionalized cooking except everyone prepares their own meals. Personally I'm a create of habit and can easily rotate over a relatively small number of dishes.

Re:It sounds great

[codeButcher]

I love grocery shopping because I usually strap on a backpack and get on the bicycle to do it, so I combine the chore with exercise, in lieu of the gym etc. It's not the destination, but the getting there.

Even more important, though, is that my shopping basket mostly consists of fresh produce and other perishables like meat and dairy. Hardly any processed foods, tins, sealed bags, boxes, or other long-shelf-life goods. Furthermore I am the single person in the household. For all these reasons, I pay close attention to the quality and freshness of the things I buy, as they need to last a couple of days at least until they are consumed and need restocking. I inspect e.g. apples and tomatoes for damage sustained during stacking (shelf packers in my city all seem to think they are handling bricks or bags full of golf balls, across maybe a dozen stores), make a selection of bananas were some are riper than others for staggered availability. I closely look at the Best Before dates and choose items that have a date furthest in the future. Wrappers are inspected for damage (e.g. cheese, butter). One head of lettuce is not fungible with another like one can of soup is with another. None of this will work too well if some could-care-less minimum wager selects items for me and subjects them to more of the same handling. We in fact do have a supermarket chain locally that offers online shopping and delivery. Last I heard, that program was on its last leg. I'm not too surprised.

Mind that grocery retail practices (and quality) in my locale differs somewhat from what I have experienced in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. So obviously someone else's mileage may differ.