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Amazon Robots Poised To Revamp How Whole Foods Runs Warehouses (bloomberg.com)
After Amazon announced it would buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion earlier this month, John Mackey, Whole Foods' chief executive officer, rejoiced and reportedly gushed about Amazon's technological innovation. "We will be joining a company that's visionary," Mackey said. "I think we're gonna get a lot of those innovations in our stores. I think we're gonna see a lot of technology. I think you're gonna see Whole Foods Market evolve in leaps and bounds." Specifically, Mackey is talking about the thousands of delivery robots Amazon uses in its facilities. Bloomberg reports: In negotiations, Amazon spent a lot of time analyzing Whole Foods' distribution technology, pointing to a possible way in which the company sees the most immediate opportunities to reduce costs, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the issue was private. Experts say the most immediate changes would likely be in warehouses that customers never see. That suggests the jobs that could be affected the earliest would be in the warehouses, where products from suppliers await transport to store shelves, said Gary Hawkins, CEO of the Center for Advancing Retail and Technology, a Los Angeles nonprofit that helps retailers and brands innovate. As Amazon looks to automate distribution, cashiers will be safe -- for now. Amazon sees automation as a key strategic advantage in its overall grocery strategy, according to company documents reviewed by Bloomberg before the Whole Foods acquisition was announced. Whole Foods has 11 distribution centers specializing in perishable foods that serve its stores. It also has seafood processing plants, kitchens and bakeries that supply prepared food to each location. Those are the places where Amazon could initially focus, according to experts. While the company said it has no current plans to automate the jobs of cashiers in Whole Foods stores after it finishes acquiring the grocery chain, it's likely only a matter of time before cashier positions become automated. According to Bloomberg's report, Amazon may bring the robots to the stores after automating Whole Foods' warehouses. "The first ones will likely navigate aisles to check inventory and alert employees when items run low, said Austin Bohlig, an advisor at Loup Ventures, which invests in robotics startups," reports Bloomberg.
Clean coal will save America. Plus we are bringing our jobs back from Asia.
MAGA
The robot's simply can't replace people. Part of the retail experience is the people. When you get up to the front counter and you are sweating and struggling just to stand. A cashier notices this, and the cane you use to get around and makes sure to get someone out to help you load your car while keeping the bags light so you can get them into the house. This is the reason for customer service. Though, I think whole foods could use better cashiers and baggers especially at their campbell location in California. The idea of automating the cashiers and baggers is quite a dumb one.
Having robots do inventory in the store shows a lack of experience in retail. For some stores this may work, but Whole Foods is a place where there is a diverse inventory. Customer service knowing where things are makes a big difference in sales and customer experience. The best way to know where things are is to query the people who stock. Having cashiers and floor employees participate in stocking is beneficial.
I don't think the regular whole foods customer will enjoy an automat experience.
This is the 3rd consecutive day that Microcenter's website has been down.
The only message is a maintenance page stating, "we're updating our site".
It is currently not possible to place orders or check status on existing orders.
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Anybody know what happened?
"The first ones will likely navigate aisles to check inventory and alert employees when items run low"
Really? Haven't stores been using point of sale where they keep track of inventory based upon sales, for like decades. Only doing physical inventories periodically to check for loss. Whole foods can't be that far behind.
Also the Whole Foods in our area used to have self checkout but took that system out (like other grocery stores), so maybe cashiers aren't that inefficient? Just wondering.
Danger, Will Robinson! We're low on stock on fresh carrots!
Efficiency is the difference between 2016 and 1600 BCE. Also the difference between wealthy European states and shitholes like North Korea where people live in universal poverty.
We do get a few minor bruises getting there. There's a reason we need universal Social Security--which the United States in particular can implement trivially. Each step of progress reduces costs in the only real way costs come down: reducing wage-labor hours paid. That means people get stuck in transitional unemployment, and underemployment is rampant and a constant blight on our society. For the great and ever-increasing wealth we as a society experience, we all participate in what is effectively an unemployment lottery, with an extreme minority facing the destruction of their lives and livelihoods so the rest of us may benefit.
A universal Social Security in the United States would reduce taxes retained in total across the semi-monthly period at all income levels. Such a system, implemented in the crudest, unadjusted manner, would provide at the minimum an increase in take-home pay per year at $90,000, for which an individual filer takes home over $4,000 more, and a married household retains nearly $11,000 additional income. The highest-earner tax bracket falls from 39.6% to 35%. Payroll taxes fall by 0.9% immediately, and the corporate income tax falls from 35% to 32.5%. We gain, in large part, a discretion for the future, a mote of breathing room for the levy of taxes in our times of need to come, by relieving only so little of the pressure on our taxpayers from the very poorest to the very richest.
Such a system, funded by a 15% flat income tax replacing half of the sum of current tax brackets plus the 12.5% OASDI bracket, would pay, as of 2017, $729.25/month to every American adult. Simultaneously, we would continue full OASDI benefits to retirees and the disabled, and increase our focus on childcare benefits for programs like TANF and WIC (since the parents get a flat cash benefit and the children...don't).
Because of the funding structure, this program's benefit increases in buying power over time and, notably, increases as a proportion of Social Security retirement benefits. In 2010, the Universal Social Security would have represented 50.8% of the average OASDI Retirement benefit; in 2016, it would represent 54.4%. By 2090, this program would overtake OASDI benefits entirely, requiring a continuous lowering of the OASDI payroll tax, the eventual extension of the minimum age of recipients to 16 years, and the slow reduction of the tax funding source such that we keep people reasonably-well above the poverty line, but not so much as to make a wage unjustifiable. Because this overlaps with and thus partially-replaces OASDI, it immediately solves all of Social Security's long-term solvency concerns, although Social Security is not currently at risk of becoming insolvent.
All of this is readily accomplished without reducing state benefits, education benefits, medical benefits, retirement benefits, or childcare benefits. The stability of the American worker is assured even in the worst recessions, in which America will be supported by the continuing stimulus effect and thus will suffer less economic harm and hurl toward a more-expedient recovery.
I am confident Amazon will replace their cashiers eventually. So will McDonalds. We'll replace everyone eventually--not with the robot apocalypse, but with other jobs which leverage more automation to produce more with fewer labor-hours. We will see a day soon when we can enjoy an even-greater standard-of-living with as little as 32 or even 28 working-hours per week declared as full-time employment in an amended Fair Labor Standards Act, a trade-off of an even greater capacity to purchase goods and services for instead the simple time to enjoy our ever-amassing wealth. We will see a day soon when the world of the early 21st century looks as the world of the late 20th century appears now. People will lose their jobs, and they wi
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According to Bloomberg's report, Amazon may bring the robots to the stores after automating Whole Foods' warehouses. "The first ones will likely navigate aisles to check inventory and alert employees when items run low,
This makes no sense at all. Seriously? Robots large enough to see the top shelves just wandering up and down aisles, getting in the way of and creeping out customers, just so they can inform employees that items are running low? What the hell happened to things like RFID technology keeping track of store inventory in real time, which would accomplish the same thing without getting in the way? Or just build the smarts into the shelving if you really think this is so damned important! Who on earth thinks this is a good idea?
said Austin Bohlig, an advisor at Loup Ventures, which invests in robotics startups,"
Ah, of course.
work in a rual area and gop healthcare plan will really suck for the people left even more so the for the Amazon part timers still working at the whole foods that will lose Medicaid
That seems ridiculous. It would be diametrically the opposite of the Whole Foods brand.
Mini bars in hotels have been able to check stock levels for many years. RFID tags, sensors in shelves and, perhaps cameras could all check stock status easily without intrusive robots wandering the aisles.
It's not like modern grocery stores don't already have stock information simply by deducting sales and wastage from the existing stock level, so even the above adds little value to the existing marketplace. Warehouse efficiency is one thing, but Amazon isn't going to transform the retail side by knowing someone took a bottle of olive oil from the shelf five minutes before a competitor would learn the same thing at the checkout.
When I buy from them, I'm seeking random/unknown/different foods, not pseudoscience. Unfortunate that the freakout/paranoia/anti-* crowds are a whee bit entrenched, but one could specifically avoid those brands if they cared as much about it as the folks they complain about.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Why does Bloomberg think that Whole Foods needs robots to roam the isles taking inventory? The UPC code and other methods are used when anyone checks out at the cashier with their purchases. These purchases are subtracted from store inventory, so we know the instant, literally, when inventory is depleted. The inventory management system can automatically and accurately propose the daily/weekly/monthly reorder list. Inventory systems know the vendors, the lead times to order to compensate for shipping times etc. Even with spoilage etc. there are adjustments for those outliers. One cannot just accept the the word of some big name in one field (banking, finances, whatever) and assume that they know anything at all about every subject. Being a fantastic dentist doesn't automatically make you an expert on textile manufacturing. It's pretty scary when you think that a company like Bloomberg makes all these statements/predictions based on ignorance of the the facts, because people listen to that advice. We've all heard the saying "Empty vessels make the most noise" - and here it is - a perfect illustration of how people ignorant of the facts are so eager to expose that ignorance. "Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage" - Publilius Syrus
The warehouse worker is iin serious trouble stemming from robots which never: -
-take overtime,
-call in sick,
-have attitude,
-need a day off to attend kids' practise,
-complain,
-slack off at work,
-engage in affairs with co-workers...and so on...
The biggest advantage is the ability to transfer their "mind" and therefore skills to other robots at ease.
Folks, we're doomed. This is just a start.
In meatspace it's not difficult to just go somewhere else. I wish Amazon luck with this one...
love is just extroverted narcissism
Eliminating cashiers just means have the customer do it. And bag their own groceries.
Whole Foods has built a business around selling pseudoscience to people. There's just soicj pseudoscience out there like homeopathy, anti-GMO propaganda, and global warming. Amazon should revamp Whole Foods altogether and drop the pseudoscience.
Are you serious? You think they should announce "the reasons we previously gave for selling you all this at a premium price is bollocks"? Not the best business model ... remember the customer is always right and sell them what they want to buy.
Why does Bloomberg think that Whole Foods needs robots to roam the isles taking inventory?
Because the person writing the article is an unimaginative putz who wrote the first idiotic thing that came into his/her head.
They where getting what they wanted. Whole foods whole point was to sell food outside of the price range of the average Joe six-pack so Richie Rich can shop in peace. Amazon came along at just the right time because that bubble wasn't going to last forever.
amazon doesn't need robots for that. hell, neither did whole foods before the buyout. your already-computerized inventory and point-of-sale covers stock replenishment; while quarterly visual inventory counts track shrinkage.
If you don't want future 16 to 20 year olds to lose jobs in the warehouse and supermarket sectors,
it's simple. Don't buy from these stores. If you must shop in a store, only use the manned cashiers, never use the self-service.
Stuart http://stuarthalliday.com/
While I have no doubt that Amazon will improve things for the part of Whole Foods that involves selling things that don't need refrigeration and can be wrapped in plastic with a bar code attached, I hope Amazon will take time to learn the techniques Whole Foods uses to keep their customers happy regarding the products that need refrigeration or need to be scooped onto a scale by the customer. Keeping the quality high for those products is not the same as the job Amazon does well now.
I notice that most Whole Foods stores are closed between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM. If there's robots in the stores, I reckon that's when they'll be out and about.
As automation takes over many of the primary jobs of current store employees, I expect that everyone's secondary job, customer liaison, will need to become the primary job for at least a few people in each store. I just hope that it doesn't go like Radio Shack or the big box home hardware stores where they seem to be careful to avoid having customer facing employees who are very knowledgeable about the products.
I wonder what the size comparison is between an Amazon distribution warehouse and a Whole Foods distribution warehouse for dry goods. It might easily make sense not to have any distinction between the two. Also, knowledge of regional or local preferences regarding online purchases from Amazon might inform some of the choices for items to stock on store shelves. If there was a "locally popular on Amazon.com" shelf in stores that made no distinction as to category of product, there would certainly be lots of newspaper articles comparing what's locally popular in different parts of the country, which would be free advertising for the stores.
I know it's not a popular opinion on a tech site, and a lot of people might call me a Luddite, but why can't we leave some slack in the system? Why does everything have to be as efficient as we can possibly make it? Why does every business feel they need to run with zero wiggle room in terms of staffing?
There's nothing wrong with increasing efficiency...until you've gone so far that there's no labor left for the average person to sell that employers are willing to buy. Grocery stores are a really good example of this at work -- I concede that they are running on very tiny margins (except for Whole Foods and other specialty retailers.) But, your average supermarket does employ a lot of people; you need people to stock shelves, cut meat, make sure the produce looks appealing and handle transactions. I'm not trying to be mean here, but supermarkets do tend to be long-term employers of people who really don't have a lot of other marketable skills and no capacity to obtain more. Low-skill employment like this is important for both young people getting a first, low-stakes job that teaches them basics of being an employee, and quite honestly for the people who can't do anything else. In traditional supermarkets, this is why you see strong union representation -- in some cases this is as good as it gets in terms of lifetime employment and it becomes even more important to have job security and a way to make something approaching a middle class wage.
Techies tend to assume that everyone is equally smart and capable of doing anything they put their mind to. Most associate only with other smart people and hate dealing with anyone else further down the intelligence curve. Deal with a wider cross-section of the public, and that perception will change. There's no nice way of saying it; some people are smarter than others, and some are _really_ in need of help in the brains department. You're not going to take a front-end manager of a supermarket, who's been doing the same thing for 20 years, and teach him or her to be a full-stack web developer. You can't retrain a factory worker who assembles parts to be a big data scientist. If they were capable of this, they would have moved out of these positions a long time ago.
Consider these ideas - (1) intelligence is roughly normally distributed, (2) society is 100% based around the concept of selling labor for money, and (3) automation is rapidly removing the low end of the labor market from participation, and is coming for almost all the "knowledge workers" very shortly. What do you do with a population where more than half are "mentally handicapped" because they can't be scientists, engineers or business executives? Automation is great, but don't carry it so far that you break society. Leave some slack in the system so that even the people at the top don't feel like they have to work 24/7 like the robots do.
There's no reason to be bleak yet. Amazon and Whole Food working together could create that supermarket of the future we've all dreamed about. The one where you walk in, grab your products, and walk out. All without ever stopping for checkout, except maybe to press accept and use a payment method. Keep the meat, food bar, pizza, sandwich, etc sections well staffed and maybe add a few roaming employees to help people make selections and I would be delighted to shop there.
" the company said it has no current plans to automate the jobs of cashiers"
major mistake.
replace them all. ASAP.
let's automate and reduce the world's overpopulation.
start building camps for when the last generations of unemployed, starving masses revolt.
This is a great opportunity for sniffer bots to be employed in warehouses. These enhanced versions of existing bots would detect ripeness or overripeness of fruits & vegetables as they cruise the aisles. They may be able to identify specific dangerous conditions in various fresh products.
This would save Amazon money, but more importantly the technology they adopt and improve could save lives worldwide starting with food banks here in the US and worldwide. I'm imagining a $10 device that attaches to a common smartphone and analyses gases emitted by fresh foods.
...omphaloskepsis often...
... but there's not one goddam piece of wisdom here, including from me.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
You're a freak show anti-vaccine moron.
There are many specialized tasks at a grocery store that can be made less specialized by changing supplier form factors. Amazon has shown no hesitation in the past in pushing such requirements down on their suppliers. For instance, I once spent 10 hours unloading a 40 foot flatbed full of watermelons by putting the watermelons in pallet-bottomed-corals that could be shelved in the giant refrigerator. Amazon might insist that watermelon suppliers provide their watermelons in a more efficiently handled way, maybe even individually boxed and already on a pallet. Then the same robot that unloads cases of canned goods could unload watermelons.
The old joke is "what value does a grocer add to a banana?" The answer, of course, is "a bruise." What value will Amazon add to bananas?