Walmart Pilots Robotics for Grocery Pickup

Alphabot, a storage and retrieval robotics system, will increase speed of online grocery order pickup.

August 07, 2018

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Walmart and startup Alert Innovation have developed Alphabot, a grocery order-picking robotics system, to enhance existing online order technologies. The system pilot will be introduced to a 20,000-square-foot extension of a supercenter in Salem, New Hampshire, becoming a dedicated grocery pickup point with drive-thru lanes for customers.

Regular grocery pickup will begin on October 1, and the new technology will be operational by the end of the year. The system will include automated mobile carts that will gather ordered items from the warehouse-style storage space and bring them to associates at the store’s four pickup stations. Personal shoppers will consolidate and assemble the orders. The benefit enables associates to spend less time searching aisles and more time choosing the best produce.

The supercenter will see more than just a new robotics system. According to a Retail Dive article, the remodel also will include: “a Pickup Tower, where consumers can retrieve online orders in less than a minute by scanning a barcode on their smartphones; the Bossa Nova shelf scanner, which uses automation to check inventory levels, correct pricing and missing labels; a FAST Unloader, which is a scanner and conveyor system to automatically sort items unloaded from daily replenishment trucks according to department and priority; and the Check Out with Me program, which provides associates with cellular devices and Bluetooth printers to check out shoppers on the spot.”

“With the aid of Alphabot, our associates will have more time to focus on service and selling, the two things they often tell us are the most enjoyable part of the job, while the technology handles the more mundane, repeatable tasks,” said Mark Ibbotson, executive vice president of central operations for Walmart U.S. “Although this is a small pilot, we expect big things from it.”

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